PUBLIC NUDITY

'Public nudity' is nudity in public spaces, environments, or events. Another common reference is 'nude in public (NIP)'. It can also refer to 'clothing-optional activities on public lands'. It is less commonly referred to as 'public naturism' or 'public nudism', 'free-range nakedness', or 'free-range nudity'.
This is in contrast to nudity in areas that are not generally accessible to the general public without prior permission, including nudity at home, in privately held offices or studios, in fitness facilities (such as swimming pools, saunas, or gymnasia) and nudity in privately held areas such as nudist or naturist clubs or resorts. Cultural and legal acceptance of public nudity varies regionally.
For nudity in public areas, there are in many countries areas such as nude beaches, officially designated or tolerated. People who unexpectedly encounter nudity in a public place outside these areas tend to be taken by surprise. Some opponents, including law enforcement, claim that it is indecent exposure when nudity occurrs in lewd (or otherwise sexualized) contexts. In particular, opponents sometimes protest that it is inappropriate for children to encounter public nudity.
In recent times, however, it appears that public nudity is on the increase with outdoor sporting activities such as Naked Hiking, the World Naked Bike Ride, Bay to Breakers, Solstice Cyclists, and modern art movements as seen in the work of Spencer Tunick and others.

Contents

Disambiguation

Establishing expectations

Association with movements or organizations

Non-sexualized

Artistic expression

Recreation and Sport

Public Nudity in History

Activism and Protests

Formal nudity

Clothes free people

Legend

Further reading

Timeline

Variable sexualized environments

Semi-sexualized or sexualized context

See also

External links

References

Disambiguation

The term "public nudity" or "naked in public" (NIP) has two general vernacular associations. Internet searches yield a majority of references with sexualized contexts, often focusing on young women. However, much of the nudity that occurs on public lands is in non-sexual contexts. In those contexts, social norms dictate that people behave in a certain way to conform to social mores to avoid conflict between different people and organizations. A common example of this is clothing-optional beach etiquette, which takes different forms in different locales, usually spelling out bans on all forms of sexual harassment, overtly sexual behavior (such as masturbation or sexual intercourse), predatory behavior, and aggressive voyeuristic photography.

Establishing expectations

Activities are generally thus classified by whether or not the activities are done in sexualized or non-sexualized contexts. In high visibility events, this disambiguation often helps determine whether participants can be cited for indecent exposure or whether the activities may be legally deemed obscene, lewd, or lascivious. This also helps potential participants who are concerned about sexual activities avoid events that they deem inappropriate. By definition, organized naturists or nudists generally operate in contexts of non-sexualized nudity when in public or social (non-intimate) situations. Generally, an activity or event has a reputation or is widely known to be of one type or the other or is known to include both. In cases of the latter, areas of concern can be segregated with restricted access or by proper signage to warn people of the nature of the activities. In cases where organizers want participants to be clear about what to expect, they will either explicitly advertise and label the event as being done in a family-friendly, non-sexual, naturist, or nudist context to avoid unwanted behavior and to garnish community support and/or enforce good manners and appropriate behavior as problems occur.

Association with movements or organizations

Not all people who engage in public nudity see themselves as nudists or naturists or belong to traditional naturist or nudist organizations. Several activists, such as Vincent Bethell, claim that associations with naturism or nudism are unnecessary. Others will point out that many people who participate in events such as clothing-optional bike rides or visit clothing-optional beaches do so casually and without association or formal affiliation to groups or movements. Activist Daniel Johnson believes that labels and affiliations overly complicate a relatively simple phenomenon, alienate others from a fear of over-commitment or undesirable stereotypes, and thus get in the way of integrating nudity into everyday life.

Non-sexualized

Terms such as "family-friendly" are often invoked when people wish to establish that open sexuality is unwelcome. "Adult" often implies the opposite -- that sexual expression is tolerated or may be the focus of a particular occasion.

Artistic expression

Main articles: Nudity in art


★ body painting

★
★ Clothing-optional bike rides

★ While nude modeling is usually done in closed artistic company, the photography of Spencer Tunick is generally shot publicly, outdoors

★ The photography of Jack Gescheidt, The Tree Spirit Project

★ The photography of Paul Harvey whose book ''The Spirit of Lady Godiva'' depicts nude models in urban environments

★ The films of Charles MacFarland

★ The work of Tyler Freeman Smith

Recreation and Sport

:Main articles: Nudity in sport

Certain activities in public areas are more readily accepted to be done while naked, such as bathing and swimming. Hiking, bicycling, and other sports may also not be viewed as unusual to be done while nude, especially in rural areas in northern Europe. Everyday activities such as riding a train or bus, shopping, or attending school or work are almost never considered by the public to be appropriate without clothing.

★ List of social nudity places Beaches, resorts, public parks, and communities.

★ Hot springs

★ Yoga

★ Skinny-dipping

★ Running and walking

★ Naked hiking

★ Streaking

★
★ Primal Scream (Harvard)

★
★ Naked Pumpkin Run

★ Skating

★
★ Sandy Snakenberg has organized nude skating and rollerblading events in San Francisco, the largest of their kind in the world.

★ sauna culture Nudity is the norm in public saunas common in many northern European nations, where the practice has spread from Finland. Because the practice is mainly common in Nordic countries and neighbouring regions such as East Germany and Finland, but less popular in west and south Europe or North America, sauna information is difficult to find in English.

★ Nude beaches are found in many Western countries.

Public Nudity in History

Throughout history, poverty has forced some warriors and sailors to be without clothing,^[2] but these instances are unlikely examples of public nudity. The closest western historical example of free public nudity was ancient Sparta, a society with rigorous codes of training and physical exercise, yet also having art and music. Spartan women wore briefer clothing than other Greek women, yet they sometimes dispensed with these garments and went nude in the town if they wished.^[3] (Customarily, they and other Greek men and women were nude at festivals of the Classical period). In Spartan society naked women or men in the city would probably have been treated with the same respect as clothed people.^[4] In general, however, concepts of either shame or offense, or the social comfort of the individual, seem to have been deterrents of public nudity in the rest of Greece and the ancient world in the east and west, with exceptions in what is now South America, and in Africa and Australia.

Activism and Protests

Public nudity has sometimes been used to attract more attention to a public protest, a tactic used by the Doukhobors in the early 20th century, and later (particularly from the 1960s onwards) used more widely. Modern slogans include "Disrobe for disarmament", "Nudes, not nukes!", "Naked For Peace", and "I'd rather go naked than wear fur!".

At a Lollapalooza appearance in 1993 in Philadelphia, rather than perform their music, members of the band Rage Against the Machine stood onstage naked with duct-tape on their mouths and the letters "PMRC" painted on their chests for 15 minutes in protest against censorship by the Parents Music Resource Center.

★ Clothing-optional bike rides

★
★ World Naked Bike Ride

★ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

★ Running of the Nudes

★ Anti-war

★
★ Breasts Not Bombs

★ The Freedom to be Yourself

★ The Naturist Society (TNS)

★ Topfreedom

★
★ Topfree Equal Rights Association

★ [1] Save Sandon Point Nude Installation Protest

Formal nudity

:''see clothes free organizations''
Although ceremony and traditions usually involve dressing up, often with some preferential attire, certain cultural or religious traditions actually prescribe(d) nudity, e.g., in the gymnopaidia or the sect of the Adamites.
This may be symbolic, especially for 'rebirth' to a new life phase, as in the case of baptism (originally taken by an adult, later often as a child -- to wash away the original sin -- and/or at least partially covered up) or certain coming of age rites, such as cow jumping by young men of the East African Hammer people before they are eligible for marriage. Another example is the neo-pagan tradition in some Wiccan covens of going skyclad for certain rituals.
In other cases, the physical exposure is a functional part testing endurance, e.g., to undergo scarification, as among various Australian Aboriginal and Sepik River tribes in New Guinea.

Clothes free people

:''see Clothes free people''

Legend

★ Lady Godiva

Further reading

★ ''The Offense of Public Nudity'' by Mark Storey

★ ''Naturism and Civil Disobedience'' by Mark Storey

★ Nude & Natural 20.4 Summer 2001. Article by Jim Meyer on TFTBY titled ''Vincent's Vision: Is Vincent Bethell a menace to decent society? Or the best thing to happen to naturism in years?''. Includes an interview with Vincent Bethell. Seven pages with ten pictures.

★ Nude & Natural 21.2 Winter 2002. ''The Bethell Approach: A Protest Colloquy/The Bethell Approach: Is the Time for Mass Nude Protests Upon Us?'' Includes statements by Vincent Bethell, Mark Nisbet, Cec Cinder, Paul Rapoport, Les Rootsey, Morley Shloss, T.A. Wyner, and Mark Storey. Eight Pages, four pictures. Briefly Noted ''Vincent Victorious''.

★ Nude & Natural Vol 21.3: 24-28, Spring 2002.''Terri Sue Webb: An American Bethell/Beyond Safe Havens: Oregon's Terri Sue Webb'' (written by Daniel Johnson).

★ Nude & Natural Vol 23.4: 73, Summer 2004.''Takin' It to the Streets: The Cutting Edge of Naturism'' by Mark Storey. Mark claims "The future of naturism is on public lands. To gain naturist freedoms on public lands will require getting naked in public".

★ Nude & Natural magazine issues 12.2, 12.3, 13.1 for coverage of Andrew Martinez

Timeline

★ Timeline of significant non-sexualized public nudity activities

Variable sexualized environments

Includes phenomena that ranges from being non-sexualized to sexualized in nature.

★ Burning Man - Overtly sexually-themed camps are generally labeled and segregated as such within the event.

★ San Francisco Folsom Street Fair - A leather and BDSM themed fair held on the last Sunday of September in San Francisco.

Semi-sexualized or sexualized context

Flashing and mooning can be offensive to some, but in many contexts, these are not considered offensive or, to those who are offended, generally not nearly as offensive as overt sexual behavior. Forms of indecent exposure include ''flashing'' (as suddenly removing one's coat, under which one is completely naked or at least displays uncovered genitalia and/or breasts), streaking (running completely naked through a non-nudist public place, usually for fun or as a practical joke), and mooning (exposing the buttocks).
Activities such as dogging, exhibitionism, indecent exposure, and voyeurism are generally considered to be offensive to many and are also widely considered to be outside of naturist and nudist practices. Engaging in these activities can put people at risk for prosecution.

See also

★ Bohemianism and Counterculture

★ Culture jamming and Direct action and Flash mob and Smart mob

★ Nudity in combat

External links

★ Interview With the Naked Guy

★ Naked Activities in Europe

★ Law of nature prevails in Vermont by Brian McQuarrie, ''The Boston Globe'', August 23, 2006

References

1. Imitation of Christ Runway Review, Laird Borelli, Style.com, September 17, 2002.
2. Chris Fitter, ELH 72 (2005) Emergent Shakespeare and the Politics of Protest: 2 Henry VI in Historical Contexts, p. 136
3. Plutarch's lives, the Life of Lycurgus.
4. Though they lacked freedom in choosing a partner for marriage, the women were free to practice polyandry.