Portal:Nudity

Introduction

P:NUDEP:NUDE

Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not having developed the crafts needed to make clothing. As humans became behaviorally modern, body adornments such as jewelry, tattoos, body paint and scarification became part of non-verbal communications, indicating a person's social and individual characteristics. Indigenous peoples in warm climates used clothing for decorative, symbolic or ceremonial purposes but were often nude, having neither the need to protect the body from the elements nor any conception of nakedness being shameful. In many ancient as well as modern societies, children might be naked until the beginning of puberty, and women often do not cover their breasts, which are locally associated more with nursing than with sexuality.

In the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire, proper attire was required to maintain social standing. The majority might possess a single piece of cloth that was wrapped or tied to cover the lower body; slaves might be naked. However, through much of Western history until the modern era, people of any status were also unclothed by necessity or convenience when engaged in labor and athletics; or when bathing or swimming. Such functional nudity occurred in groups that were usually, but not always, segregated by sex. Although improper dress might be socially embarrassing, the association of nudity with sin regarding sexuality began with Abrahamic beliefs, spreading through Europe in the post-classical period. Traditional clothing in temperate regions worldwide also reflect concerns for maintaining social status and order, as well as by necessity due to the colder climate. However, societies such as Japan and Finland maintain traditions of communal nudity based upon the use of baths and saunas that provided alternatives to sexualization.

The spread of Western concepts of modest dress was part of colonialism, and continues today with globalization. Contemporary social norms regarding nudity reflect cultural ambiguity towards the body and sexuality, and differing conceptions of what constitutes public versus private spaces. Norms relating to nudity are different for men than they are for women. Individuals may intentionally violate norms relating to nudity; those without power may use nudity as a form of protest, and those with power may impose nakedness on others as a form of punishment. (Full article...)

Selected general article

Nudity in film has been a topic of discussion and debate since the beginning of film as a medium. It may be obvious or merely suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. It is a distinct topic from sex in film, as many films contain nudity in a non-sexual context, although nudity is almost always present in pornographic films, and are commonly seen in erotic films.

Nude scenes are considered controversial in many cultures because they often challenge a community's standards of modesty. These standards vary by culture and depend on the type of nudity, who is exposed, which parts of the body are exposed, the duration of the exposure, the posing, the context, or other aspects.

Nudity in film may be subject to censorship or rating regimes that control the content of films. Many directors and producers apply self-censorship, limiting nudity (and other content) in their films to avoid censorship or a strict rating. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that Susanna Hoffs sang on the studio recording of "Eternal Flame" naked after producer Davitt Sigerson pranked her by saying that Olivia Newton-John had done the same thing?
... that the designer of the Baranof totem pole did not mean to depict a naked Russian man?
... that Licia Fertz posed nude for Rolling Stone at the age of 89?
... that Mark Williams did his press conference naked after winning the 2018 World Snooker Championship?
... that there were no sex acts in Thea Ehre's nude performance at the 2021 Porn Film Festival Vienna?
... that Ettore Sottsass's design of the Olivetti Valentine typewriter was inspired by the pop-art nudes of Tom Wesselmann?
... that the Indian politician Diwan Chaman Lall failed to get rid of the painting Nude of Indira?
... that an early Chinese women's magazine ran afoul of a government ministry due to its sexual content and nudity?

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General images

The following are images from various nudity-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
Image 2The Barricade (1918), oil on canvas, by George Bellows. A painting inspired by an incident in August 1914 in which German soldiers used Belgian townspeople as human shields. (from Nude (art))
Image 3Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
Image 4Crayon-style print by Gilles Demarteau with a nude man after original drawing by Edmé Bouchardon was acquired by Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as a teaching material (from Nude (art))
Image 5A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
Image 6People bathing naked after the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, 2017 (from Naturism)
Image 7One of the photographs of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal: a naked prisoner being forced to crawl and bark like a dog on a leash. (from Nudity)
Image 8Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
Image 9A publicity photo showing a North American naturist couple making tea (from Naturism)
Image 10Odalisque (1857) by Eugène Delacroix, a painting with similar pose (from Nude photography)
Image 11Naturist family on Lake Senftenberg in 1983 (from Naturism)
Image 12People taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2012 (from Nudity)
Image 13Banya [ru] (1913) by Zinaida Serebriakova (from Nudity)
Image 14The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
Image 15Naturist couple at the Nambassa festival, New Zealand, 1981 (from Naturism)
Image 16Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
Image 17Zoë Mozert was one of Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
Image 18Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
Image 19Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 20A Nude Boy on a Beach (1878) by John Singer Sargent (from Nude (art))
Image 21Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, c. 1855 (from Nude photography)
Image 22Sunbathers at Müggelsee lake beach in East Berlin, 1989. (from Nudity)
Image 23Naked person looking over the stern rail on the QNA nude boat cruise on the Gold Coast Broadwater, Queensland, in December 2025 (from Naturism)
Image 24Sunrise on the beach, Taitung County, Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 25Marilyn Monroe posing topless for Earl Moran around 1950 (from Nude photography)
Image 26This year Venuses again... always Venuses!... (1864) by Daumier (from Nude (art))
Image 27WWI era Ivory Soap ad (from Nudity)
Image 28Florida naturists (from Naturism)
Image 29World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2016 (from Naturism)
Image 30The Venus of Willendorf (made between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 31Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
Image 32Nude people at the 2007 Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle, Washington (from Nudity)
Image 33Nude study (c. 1935) by William Mortensen (from Nude (art))
Image 34The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484–1486 (from Nude (art))
Image 35Kayapo women, Pará State, Brazil
Image 36Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos (1808–1812) by John Vanderlyn. The painting was initially considered too sexual for display in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "Although nudity in art was publicly protested by Americans, Vanderlyn observed that they would pay to see pictures of which they disapproved." (from Nude (art))
Image 37Nude men at the Przystanek Woodstock festival, 2014 (from Naturism)
Image 38Max Koch's Freilicht (Open-Air), c. 1894/1897 (from Naturism)
Image 39Bathing in the center of East Berlin, East Germany (1958) (from Nudity)
Image 40Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
Image 41Five nude people on the rocks around Black Pond, McLean, Virginia in July 1980 (from Nudity)
Image 42Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
Image 43Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
Image 44In many European countries, women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
Image 45A Naga Sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man (from Naturism)
Image 46Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
Image 47A necklace reconstructed from perforated sea snail shells from Upper Palaeolithic Europe, dated between 39,000 and 25,000 BCE. The practice of body adornment is associated with the emergence of behavioral modernity. (from Nudity)
Image 48The Burney Relief, First Babylonian Dynasty (c. 1800 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 49Randonue in Les Concluses, Gard, 2008 (from Naturism)
Image 50Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)

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v t e Nudity
Nakedness and clothing	History Prehistory of nakedness and clothing Nakedness and colonialism Childhood nudity Sex segregation Modesty Nudity in religion Awrah Breastfeeding in public Public bathing Sauna Finnish sauna Massage Toplessness Topfreedom Canada United States Nudity and protest Dress code Clothing laws by country
Nudity and sexuality	Intimate part Exhibitionism Mooning Streaking Striptease Stripper Feminist stripper Voyeurism Anasyrma Candaulism
Issues in social nudity	Sexualization Sexual objectification Pornification Indecent exposure Obscenity Wardrobe malfunction Strip search
Naturism	Naturist resort Christian naturism Freikörperkultur Gay naturism Gymnosophy Naturist magazines Social nudity organizations Anarchist naturism Timeline of social nudity
Nude recreation	Nude beach Nude swimming Nude swimming classes Naked yoga Naked party Nude wedding Nude beaches Clothing-optional events
By location	Africa Asia Europe North America San Francisco Seattle Oceania South America
Social nudity advocates	Kurt Barthel Lee Baxandall Paul Bindrim Ilsley Boone Henry S. Huntington Heinrich Pudor Elton Raymond Shaw Richard Ungewitter
Depictions of nudity	Nude (art) Heroic nudity History Nude modeling (art) Nude photography (art) Nudity in live performance Body painting Nudity in film Nudity in American television Nudity in print media French postcard Nude calendar Nudity in advertising Nude photography Glamour photography Erotic photography
Related	Imagery of nude celebrities Naked News Nudity in combat Nudity clause Nude psychotherapy Softcore pornography
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