Shunga (春画) is a Japanese term for erotic art. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. While rare, there are extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring; "spring" is a common euphemism for sex.
The ukiyo-e movement as a whole sought to express an idealisation of contemporary urban life and appeal to the new chōnin class. Following the aesthetics of everyday life, Edo-period
shunga varied widely in its depictions of sexuality. As a subset of
ukiyo-e it was enjoyed by all social groups in the Edo period, despite
being out of favour with the shogunate. Almost all ukiyo-e artists made
shunga at some point in their careers.
Shunga was heavily influenced by illustrations in Chinese medicine manuals beginning in the Muromachi era (1336 to 1573). Zhou Fang, a notable Tang-dynasty
Chinese painter, is also thought to have been influential. He, like
many artists of his time, tended to draw genital organs in an oversized
manner, similar to a common shunga topos. While the literal meaning of the word "shunga" is significant, it is in fact a contraction of shunkyū-higi-ga (春宮秘戯画), the Japanese pronunciation for Chinese sets of twelve scrolls depicting the twelve sexual acts that the crown prince had to carry out as an expression of yin yang.
The Japanese influences of shunga date back to the Heian period (794 to 1185). At this point, it was found among the courtier class. Through the medium of narrative handscrolls, sexual scandals from the imperial court or the monasteries were depicted, and the characters tended to be limited to courtiers and monks.
The style reached its height in the Edo period (1603 to 1867). Thanks to woodblock printing techniques, the quantity and quality increased dramatically. There were repeated governmental attempts to suppress shunga, the first of which was an edict issued by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1661 banning, among other things, erotic books known as kōshokubon (好色本) (literally "lewdness books"). While other genres covered by the edict, such as works criticising daimyōs or samurai, were driven underground by this edict, shunga continued to be produced with little difficulty.
The Kyōhō Reforms,
a 1722 edict, was much more strict, banning the production of all new
books unless the city commissioner gave permission. After this edict,
shunga went underground. However, since for several decades following
this edict, publishing guilds saw fit to send their members repeated reminders not to sell erotica, it seems probable that production and sales continued to flourish. Further attempts to prevent the production of shunga were made with the Kansei Reforms under Emperor Kōkaku in the 1790s.
According to Monta Hayakawa and C. Andrew Gerstle, westerners
during the nineteenth century were less appreciative of shunga because
of its erotic nature. In the journal of Francis Hall,
an American businessperson who arrived in Yokohama in 1859, he
described shunga as "vile pictures executed in the best style Japanese
art."
Hayakawa stated that Hall was shocked and disgusted when on two
separate occasions his Japanese acquaintances and their wives showed him
shunga at their homes.
Shunga also faced problems in Western museums in the twentieth century;
Peter Webb reported that while engaged in research for a 1975
publication, he was initially informed that no relevant material existed
in the British Museum,
and when finally allowed access to it, he was told that it "could not
possibly be exhibited to the public" and had not been catalogued. In
2014 he revisited the museum, which had an exhibition entirely of shunga
"proudly displayed".
The introduction of Western culture and technologies at the beginning of the Meiji
era (1868–1912), particularly the importation of photo-reproduction
techniques, had serious consequences for shunga. For a time, woodblock printing continued to be used, but figures began to appear in prints wearing Western clothing and hairstyles. Eventually, shunga could no longer compete with erotic photography, leading to its decline.
The art of shunga provided an inspiration for the Shōwa (1926–1989) and Heisei (1989–2019) art in Japanese video games, anime and manga known in the Western world as hentai and known formally in Japan as jū hachi kin (adult-only, literally "18-restricted"). Like shunga, hentai is sexually explicit in its imagery.
Shunga was probably enjoyed by both men and women of all classes.
Superstitions and customs surrounding shunga suggest as much; in the
same way that it was considered a lucky charm against death for a
samurai to carry shunga, it was considered a protection against fire in merchant
warehouses and the home. From this we can deduce that samurai, chonin,
and housewives all owned shunga. All three of these groups would
suffer separation from the opposite sex; the samurai lived in barracks
for months at a time, and conjugal separation resulted from the sankin-kōtai
system and the merchants' need to travel to obtain and sell goods. It
is therefore argued that this ownership of shunga was not superstitious,
but libidinous.
Records of women obtaining shunga themselves from booklenders show that they were consumers of it. Though not shunga, it was traditional to present a bride with ukiyo-e depicting scenes from the Tale of Genji.
Shunga may have served as sexual guidance for the sons and daughters of
wealthy families. The instructional purpose has been questioned since
the instructional value of shunga is limited by the impossible positions
and lack of description of technique, and there were sexual manuals in
circulation that offered clearer guidance, including advice on hygiene.
Shunga varied greatly in quality and price. Some were highly elaborate, commissioned by wealthy merchants and daimyōs, while some were limited in colour, widely available, and cheap. Empon were available through the lending libraries, or kashi-honya, that travelled in rural areas. This tells us that shunga reached all classes of society—peasant, chōnin, samurai and daimyōs.
Production
A man with a Western-style haircut makes love to a woman in traditional Japanese dress in this Meiji-period shunga print
Shunga were produced between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth
century by ukiyo-e artists, since they sold more easily and at a higher
price than their ordinary work. Shunga prints were produced and sold
either as single sheets or—more frequently—in book form, called enpon. These customarily contained twelve images, a tradition with its roots in Chinese shunkyu higa. Shunga was also produced in hand scroll format, called kakemono-e (掛け物絵). This format was also popular, though more expensive as the scrolls had to be individually painted.
The quality of shunga art varies, and few ukiyo-e
painters remained aloof from the genre. Experienced artists found it to
their advantage to concentrate on their production. This led to the
appearance of shunga by renowned artists, such as the ukiyo-e painter perhaps best known in the Western world, Hokusai (see The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife). Ukiyo-e artists owed a stable livelihood to such customs, and producing a piece of shunga
for a high-ranking client could bring them sufficient funds to live on
for about six months. Among others, the world-famous Japanese artist
Hajime Sorayama uses his special hand brush painting technique and hanko
stamp signature method in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to
create modern day shunga art in the same tradition of the past artists
like Hokusai.
Full-colour printing, or nishiki-e, developed around 1765, but many shunga prints predate this. Prior to this, colour was added to monochrome prints by hand, and from 1744 benizuri-e
allowed the production of prints of limited colours. Even after 1765
many shunga prints were produced using older methods. In some cases this
was to keep the cost low, but in many cases this was a matter of taste.
Shunga produced in Edo tended to be more richly coloured than those produced in Kyoto and Osaka, mainly owing to a difference in aesthetic taste between these regions—Edo has a taste for novelty and luxury, while the kamigata region preferred a more muted, understated style. This also translates into a greater amount of background detail in Edo Shunga.
After 1722 most artists refrained from signing shunga works.
However, between 1761 and 1786 the implementation of printing
regulations became more relaxed, and many artists took to concealing
their name as a feature of the picture (such as calligraphy on a fan
held by a courtesan) or allusions in the work itself (such as Utamaro's empon entitled Utamakura).
Content
In the Edo period in Japan, people were used to seeing the opposite sex naked in communal baths, such as the male sansuke in the upper left corner of this woodcut. Torii Kiyonaga.
Edo period shunga sought to express a varied world of contemporary
sexual possibilities. Some writers on the subject refer to this as the
creation of a world parallel to contemporary urban life, but idealised,
eroticised and fantastical.
Characters
By far the majority of shunga depict the sexual relations of the ordinary people, the chōnin, the townsmen, women, merchant class, artisans and farmers. Occasionally there also appear Dutch or Portuguese foreigners.
Courtesans also form the subject of many shunga. Utamaro
was particularly revered for his depictions of courtesans, which
offered an unmatched level of sensitivity and psychological nuance.
Tokugawa courtesans could be described as the celebrities of their day,
and Edo's pleasure district, Yoshiwara, is often compared to Hollywood.
Men saw them as highly eroticised due to their profession, but at the
same time unattainable, since only the wealthiest, most cultured men
would have any chance of sexual relations with one. Women saw them as
distant, glamorous idols, and the fashions for the whole of Japan were
inspired by the fashions of the courtesan. For these reasons the fetish
of the courtesan appealed to many.
Works depicting courtesans have since been criticised for
painting an idealised picture of life in the pleasure quarters. It has
been argued that they masked the situation of virtual slavery that sex
workers lived under.
However, Utamaro is just one example of an artist who was sensitive to
the inner life of the courtesan, for example, showing them wistfully
dreaming of escape from Yoshiwara through marriage.
Similarly, kabuki
actors are often depicted, many of whom worked as gigolos. These
carried the same fetish of the sex worker, with the added quality of
them often being quite young. They are often shown with samurai.
Stories
Lesbian shunga by Hokusai
Spring Pastimes A tryst between a young man and a boy. See Nanshoku. Miyagawa Isshō, ca. 1750; Shunga hand scroll (kakemono-e); sumi, color and gofun on silk. Private collection.
Both painted handscrolls and illustrated erotic books (empon) often
presented an unrelated sequence of sexual tableaux, rather than a
structured narrative. A whole variety of possibilities are shown—men
seduce women, women seduce men; men and women cheat on each other; all
ages from virginal teenagers to old married couples; even octopuses were
occasionally featured.
While most shunga were heterosexual, many depicted male-on-male trysts. Woman-on-woman images were less common but there are extant works depicting this.[citation needed]Masturbation was also depicted. The perception of sexuality differed in Tokugawa Japan from that in the modern Western world,
and people were less likely to associate with one particular sexual
preference. For this reason the many sexual pairings depicted were a
matter of providing as much variety as possible.
The backstory to shunga prints can be found in accompanying text
or dialogue in the picture itself, and in props in the background. Symbolism also featured widely, such as the use of plumblossoms to represent virginity or tissues to symbolise impending ejaculation.
Clothing
In
many of the shunga the characters are fully clothed. This is primarily
because nudity was not inherently erotic in Tokugawa Japan – people were
used to seeing the opposite sex naked in communal baths. It also
served an artistic purpose; it helped the reader identify courtesans and
foreigners, the prints often contained symbolic meaning, and it drew
attention to the parts of the body that were revealed, i.e., the
genitalia.
Non-realism
Shunga
couples are often shown in nonrealistic positions with exaggerated
genitalia. Explanations for this include increased visibility of the
sexually explicit content, artistic interest and psychological impact:
that is, the genitalia is interpreted as a "second face", expressing the
primal passions that the everyday face is obligated by giri to conceal, and is therefore the same size as the head and placed unnaturally close to it by the awkward position.
Women
entertainers perform at a celebration in Ancient Egypt; the dancers are
naked and the musician wears a typical pleated garment as well as the
cone of perfumed fat on top of her wig that melts slowly to emit its
precious odors; both groups wear extensive jewelry, wigs, and cosmetics;
neither wear shoes - Thebes tomb c. 1400 B.C.
Basalt statue of Cleopatra VII Ptolemaic times
The history of nudity involves social attitudes to nudity
in different cultures in history. It is not known when humans began
wearing clothes, although there is some archaeological evidence to
indicate that clothing may have become commonplace in human society
around 72,000 years ago.[1]
Nudity (or near-complete nudity) has traditionally been the social norm
for both men and women in some hunter-gatherer cultures in warm
climates and it is still common among many indigenous peoples. Anthropologists
believe that animal skins and vegetation were adapted into coverings as
protection from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to
new climates; alternatively, covering may have been invented first for
other purposes, such as magic, decoration, cult, or prestige, and later
found to be practical as well.
The ancient Egyptians
wore the minimum of clothing, and in a number of ancient Mediterranean
cultures, the athletic and/or cultist nudity of men and boys was a
natural concept. In ancient Rome,
nudity could be a public disgrace and might be offensive or distasteful
even in traditional settings, though it could be seen at the public
baths or in erotic art. In Japan, public nudity was quite normal and
commonplace until the Meiji Restoration. In Europe, taboos against nudity began to grow during the Age of Enlightenment and by the Victorian era, public nakedness was considered obscene. In the early years of the 20th century, the modern naturist movement began to develop.
Paleolithic history
Because
animal skins and vegetable materials decompose readily there is no
archeological evidence of when and how clothing developed. However,
recent studies of human lice suggest that clothing may have become commonplace in human society around 72,000 years ago.
If that is correct, it would mean that for around 128,000 years and the
majority of anatomically modern human history, humans may not have worn
clothes. Some anthropologists believe that Homo habilis and even Homo erectus may have used animal skins for protection placing the origins of clothing at perhaps a million years or more.
Ancient Egypt
Fashions in ancient Egypt
did not change much over the millennia. The ancient Egyptians wore the
minimum of clothing. Both men and women of the lower classes were
commonly bare chested and barefoot, wearing a simple loincloth around their waist. Slaves typically wore nothing. Richer women commonly wore a kalasiris, a dress of loose draped or translucent linen which came to just above or below the breasts. Women entertainers performed naked. Children went without clothing until puberty, at about age 12.
Though the minimum amount of clothing was the norm in ancient
Egypt, the custom was viewed as humiliating by some other ancient
cultures. For example, the Hebrew Bible records: "So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt". Similar images occur on many bas-reliefs, also from other empires.
In some ancient Mediterranean cultures, even well past the
hunter-gatherer stage, athletic and/or cultist nudity of men and boys –
and rarely, of women and girls – was a natural concept. The Minoan civilization prized athleticism, with bull-leaping
being a favourite event. Both men and women participated wearing only a
loincloth, as toplessness for both sexes was the cultural norm; men
wore loincloths, whilst women wore an open-fronted dress.
Ancient Greece had a particular fascination for aesthetics, which was also reflected in clothing or its absence. Sparta had rigorous codes of training (agoge)
and physical exercise was conducted in the nude. Athletes competed
naked in public sporting events. Spartan women, as well as men, would
sometimes be naked in public processions and festivals. This practice
was designed to encourage virtue in men while they were away at war and
an appreciation of health in the women. Women and goddesses were normally portrayed clothed in sculpture of the Classical period, with the exception of the nude Aphrodite.
A kouros, an Archaic depiction of the ideal male nude
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. Polybius asserts that Celts
typically fought naked, "The appearance of these naked warriors was a
terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in
the prime of life."
In antiquity even before the Classical era, e.g., on MinoanCrete, athletic exercise was an important part of daily life. The Greeks credited several mythological figures with athletic accomplishments, and male gods (especially Apollo and Heracles,
patrons of sport) were commonly depicted as athletes. While Greek
sculpture often showed males completely nude, a new concept for females,
Venus Pudica (or partially nude) appeared, for example, the Greek "Nike of Samothrace".
Nudity in sport was very common, with almost all sports performed naked. As a tradition it was probably first introduced in the city-state of Sparta, during the late archaic period.
The civilization of ancient Greece
(Hellas), during the Archaic period, had an athletic and cultic
aesthetic of nudity which typically included adult and teenage males,
but at times also boys, women and girls. The love for beauty had also
included the human body, beyond the love for nature, philosophy, and the
arts. The Greek word "gymnasium"
means 'a place to train naked'. Male athletes competed naked, but most
city-states of the time allowed no female participants or even
spectators at those events, Sparta being a notable exception.
Nudity in religious ceremonies was also practiced in Greece. The statue of the Moscophoros (the 'calf-bearer'), a remnant of the archaic Acropolis of Athens, depicts a young man carrying a calf on his shoulders, presumably taking the animal to the altar for sacrifice. The Moschophoros is not
completely nude: a piece of very fine, almost transparent cloth is
carefully draped over his shoulders, upper arms and front thighs, which
nevertheless left his genitals purposely exposed. In this case the
garment apparently fulfilled a purely ceremonial, priestly function in
which modesty was not an issue.
In Greek culture, depictions of erotic nudity were considered
normal. The Greeks were conscious of the exceptional nature of their
nudity, noting that "generally in countries which are subject to the
barbarians, the custom is held to be dishonourable; lovers of youths
share the evil repute in which philosophy and naked sports are held,
because they are inimical to tyranny;" In both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, public nakedness was also accepted in the context of public bathing.
It was also common for a person to be punished by being partially or
completely stripped and lashed in public; in some legal systems judicial
corporal punishments
on the bare buttocks persisted up to or even beyond the feudal age,
either only for minors or also for adults, even until today but rarely
still in public. In Biblical accounts of the Roman Imperial era, prisoners were often stripped naked, as a form of humiliation.
The origins of nudity in ancient Greek sport are the subject of a legend about the athlete, Orsippus of Megara.
There are various myths regarding these origins; in one Orsippus loses
his loin cloth during the stadion-race of the 15th Olympic Games in 720
BC which gives him an advantage and he wins. Other athletes then emulate
him and the fashion is born.
Nudity in sport spread to the whole of Greece, Greater Greece and
even its furthest colonies, and the athletes from all its parts, coming
together for the Olympic Games and the other Panhellenic Games, competed naked in almost all disciplines, such as boxing, wrestling, pankration
(a free-style mix of boxing and wrestling, serious physical harm was
allowed) – in such martial arts equal chances in terms of grip and body
protection require a non-restrictive uniform (as presently common) or
none. Stadion and various other foot races including relay race, and the pentathlon (made up of wrestling, stadion, long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw). However, even though chariot racers typically wore some clothing while competing, there are depictions of naked chariot racers as well.
It is believed to be rooted in the religious notion that athletic
excellence was an "esthetical" offering to the gods (nearly all games
fitted in religious festivals), and indeed at many games it was the
privilege of the winner to be represented naked as a votive statue
offered in a temple, or even to be immortalized as model for a god's
statue. Performing naked certainly was also welcome as a measure to
prevent foul play, which was punished publicly on the spot by the judges
(often religious dignitaries) with a sound lashing. The offender was
naked when he was whipped.
Evidence of Greek nudity in sport comes from the numerous
surviving depictions of athletes (sculpture, mosaics and vase
paintings). Famous athletes were honored by statues erected for their
commemoration (see Milo of Croton). A few writers have insisted that the athletic nudity in Greek art
is just an artistic convention, finding it unbelievable that anybody
would have run naked. This view could be ascribed to late-Victorian
prudishness applied anachronistically to ancient times. Other cultures
in antiquity did not practice athletic nudity and condemned the Greek
practice.[citation needed] Their rejection of naked sports was in turn condemned by the Greeks as a token of tyranny and political repression.
Greek athletes, even though naked, seem to have made a point of avoiding exposure of their glans, for example by infibulation, or wearing of a kynodesme.
While statues of males often showed complete nudity, female statues often were shown with the concept of Venus Pudica (partially clothed or modest). A prime example is the Nike of Samothrace female statue.
Ancient Rome
Roman Neo-Attic stele depicting a warrior in a muscle cuirass, idealizing the male form without nudity
Ancient Roman attitudes toward male nudity
differed from those of the Greeks, whose ideal of masculine excellence
was expressed by the nude male body in art and in such real-life venues
as athletic contests. The toga, by contrast, distinguished the body of the adult male citizen at Rome. The poet Ennius (c. 239–169 BC) declared that "exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace (flagitium)," a sentiment echoed by Cicero.
Public nudity might be offensive or distasteful even in traditional settings; Cicero derides Mark Antony as undignified for appearing near-naked as a participant in the Lupercalia festival, even though it was ritually required.
Negative connotations of nudity included defeat in war, since captives
were stripped and sold into slavery. Slaves for sale were often
displayed naked to allow buyers to inspect them for defects, and to
symbolize that they lacked the right to control their own bodies.
The disapproval of nudity was less a matter of trying to suppress
inappropriate sexual desire than of dignifying and marking the citizen's
body. Thus the retiarius, a type of gladiator who fought with face and flesh exposed, was thought to be unmanly. The influence of Greek art, however, led to "heroic" nude portrayals of Roman men and gods, a practice that began in the 2nd century BC. When statues of Roman generals nude in the manner of Hellenistic kings
first began to be displayed, they were shocking—not simply because they
exposed the male figure, but because they evoked concepts of royalty
and divinity that were contrary to Republican ideals of citizenship as embodied by the toga. In art produced under Augustus Caesar, the adoption of Hellenistic and Neo-Attic style led to more complex signification of the male body shown nude, partially nude, or costumed in a muscle cuirass. Romans who competed in the Olympic Games
presumably followed the Greek custom of nudity, but athletic nudity at
Rome has been dated variously, possibly as early as the introduction of
Greek-style games in the 2nd century BC but perhaps not regularly until
the time of Nero around 60 AD.
At the same time, the phallus was depicted ubiquitously. The phallic amulet known as the fascinum (from which the English word "fascinate" ultimately derives) was supposed to have powers to ward off the evil eye and other malevolent supernatural forces. It appears frequently in the archaeological remains of Pompeii in the form of tintinnabula (wind chimes) and other objects such as lamps. The phallus is also the defining characteristic of the imported Greek god Priapus,
whose statue was used as a "scarecrow" in gardens. A penis depicted as
erect and very large was laughter-provoking, grotesque, or apotropaic.
Roman art regularly features nudity in mythological scenes, and
sexually explicit art appeared on ordinary objects such as serving
vessels, lamps, and mirrors, as well as among the art collections of
wealthy homes.
Respectable Roman women were portrayed clothed. Partial nudity of goddesses in Roman Imperial art, however, can highlight the breasts as dignified but pleasurable images of nurturing, abundance, and peacefulness. The completely nude female body as portrayed in sculpture was thought to embody a universal concept of Venus, whose counterpart Aphrodite is the goddess most often depicted as a nude in Greek art. By the 1st century AD, Roman art showed a broad interest in the female nude engaged in varied activities, including sex.
The erotic art found in Pompeii and Herculaneum may depict women, performing sex acts either naked or often wearing a strophium (strapless bra) that covers the breasts even when otherwise nude. Latin literature
describes prostitutes displaying themselves naked at the entrance to
their brothel cubicles, or wearing see-through silk garments.
The display of the female body made it vulnerable; Varro thought the Latin word for "sight, gaze", visus, was etymologically related to vis, "force, power". The connection between visus and vis, he said, also implied the potential for violation, just as Actaeon gazing on the naked Diana violated the goddess.
One exception to public nudity was the baths, though attitudes toward nude bathing also changed over time. In the 2nd century BC, Cato preferred not to bathe in the presence of his son, and Plutarch
implies that for Romans of these earlier times it was considered
shameful for mature men to expose their bodies to younger males. Later, however, men and women might even bathe together. Some Hellenized or Romanized Jews resorted to epispasm, a surgical procedure to restore the foreskin "for the sake of decorum".
Japan
Fishermen of Misaki, 1904
Sumo
wrestling, practiced by men in ceremonial dress of loincloth size that
exposes the buttocks like a jock strap, in general is considered sacred
under Shintō. Public, communal bathing of mixed sexes also has a long history in Japan. Public toplessness was generally considered acceptable as well until the post-WWII US occupation when General Douglas MacArthur passed edicts requiring women to cover their breasts and banning pornography that contained close-up shots of genitalia.
Public nudity was quite normal and commonplace in Japan until the Meiji Restoration. Commodore Matthew Perry's
interpreter Rev. S. Well Williams wrote "Modesty, judging from what we
see, might be said to be unknown, for the women make no attempt to hide
the bosom, and every step shows the leg above the knee; while men
generally go with the merest bit of rag, and that not always carefully
put on. Naked men and women have both been seen in the streets, and
uniformly resort to the same bath house, regardless of all decency. Lewd
motions, pictures and talk seem to be the common expression of the
viler acts and thoughts of the people, and this to such a degree as to
disgust everybody."
After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government began a
campaign to institute a uniform national culture and suppress practices
such as public nudity and urination that were unsightly, unhygienic, and
disturbing to foreign visitors. Mixed gender bathing was banned.
Enforcement of these rules was not consistent and most often occurred in
Tokyo and other major cities with a high number of foreign visitors.
Despite the lack of taboos on public nudity, traditional Japanese
art seldom depicted nude individuals except for paintings of
bathhouses. When the first embassies opened in Western countries in the
late 19th century, Japanese dignitaries were shocked and offended at the
European predilection for nude statues and busts. However, Japanese
students traveling to Europe to study became exposed to Western art and
its frequent nudity. In 1894, Kuroda Seikia was the first Japanese
artist to publicly exhibit a painting of a nude woman grooming herself.
The work caused a public uproar, but gradually nudity became more
accepted in Japanese art and by the 1910s, it was commonplace and
acceptable as long as pubic hair was not shown. By the 1930s, pubes were
accepted as long as they were not overly detailed or the main focus of
the picture. However, pornographic art that featured graphic depictions
of nudity and sexual acts already existed in Japan for centuries, called
Shunga.
In traditional Japanese culture, nudity was typically associated
with the lower class of society, i.e. those who performed manual labor
and frequently wore little when the weather permitted. The upper class,
for comparison, were expected to be modest and fully clothed, with fine
clothing in particular considered more erotic than nudity itself. After
the Meiji Restoration, upper-class Japanese began adopting Western
clothing, which included underwear, something not part of the
traditional Japanese wardrobe except for loincloths worn by men.
Underwear was, however, not commonly worn in Japan until after
WWII despite the government's attempts to impose Western standards. The
disastrous 1923 earthquake
in Tokyo was widely used as a pretext to enforce them, as government
propaganda claimed that many women perished because they were afraid to
jump or climb out of ruined or burning buildings due to their kimonos
flying open and exposing their privates. In reality, it had more to do
with lack of proper building standards and traditional Japanese homes
being constructed with flammable paper and wood; moreover, there was no
evidence that women were concerned about accidentally exposing
themselves, especially since the majority of Japanese at this time still
wore traditional outfits with no undergarments.
After WWII, when Japan was occupied by the Allied military,
public nudity was more extensively suppressed and Western clothing,
which included boxer shorts, briefs, brassieres, and panties, became
normal.
In some hunter-gatherer cultures in warm climates, nudity (or near-complete nudity) has been, until the introduction of Western culture or Islam, or still is, the social norm for both men and women.
Complete nudity among men and complete or near-complete nudity among women is still common for Mursi, Surma, Nuba, Karimojong, Kirdi, Dinka and sometimes Maasai people in Africa, as well as Matses, Yanomami, Suruwaha, Xingu, Matis and Galdu people in South America. Many indigenous peoples in Africa and South America train and perform sport competitions naked
Nuba people in South Sudan and xingu tribe in the Amazon region in
Brazil, for example, wrestle naked, whereas Dinka, Surma and Mursi in
South Sudan and Ethiopia, arrange stick fights. From around 300 BC Indian mystics have utilized naked ascetism to reject worldly attachments. Indian male monks Digambara practice yoga naked (or sky-clad, as they prefer to call it). With the ever-increasing influences of Western and Muslim cultures, these traditions may soon vanish though.
In some African and Melanesian
cultures, men going completely naked except for a string tied about the
waist are considered properly dressed for hunting and other traditional
group activities. In a number of tribes in the South Pacific island of New Guinea, men use hard gourdlike pods as penis sheaths. Yet a man without this "covering" could be considered to be in an embarrassing state of nakedness. Among the Chumash people of southern California, men were usually naked, and women were often topless. Native Americans of the Amazon Basin usually went nude or nearly nude; in many native tribes, the only clothing worn was some device worn by men to clamp the foreskin
shut. However, other similar cultures have had different standards. For
example, other native North Americans avoided total nudity, and the
Native Americans of the mountains and west of South America, such as the Quechuas,
kept quite covered. These taboos normally only applied to adults;
Native American children often went naked until puberty if the weather
permitted (a 10-year-old Pocahontas scandalized the Jamestown settlers by appearing at their camp in the nude).
Ibn Battuta (1304–1369) judges the character of the people of Mali:
Among their bad qualities are the
following. The women servants, slave-girls, and young girls go about in
front of everyone naked, without a stitch of clothing on them. Women go
into the sultan's presence naked and without coverings, and his
daughters also go about naked.
In 1498, at Trinity Island, Trinidad, Christopher Columbus found the women entirely naked, whereas the men wore a light girdle called guayaco. At the same epoch, on the Para Coast of Brazil,
the girls were distinguished from the married women by their absolute
nudity. The same absence of costume was observed among the Chaymas of Cumaná, Venezuela, and Du Chaillu noticed the same among the Achiras in Gabon.
Recent history
Nude adult human female (at a Nude Ban Protest in San Francisco)
In Europe up until the 18th century, non-segregated bathing in rivers and bathhouses
was the norm. In addition, toplessness was accepted among all social
classes and women from queens to prostitutes commonly wore outfits
designed to bare the breasts. During the Enlightenment, taboos against nudity began to grow and by the Victorian era, public nakedness was considered obscene. In addition to beaches being segregated by gender, bathing machines were also used to allow people who had changed into bathing suits
to enter directly into the water. During the 1860s, nude swimming
became a public offense in Great Britain. In the early 20th century,
even exposed male chests were considered unacceptable. During this
period, women's bathing suits had to cover at least the thighs and
exposure of more than that could lead to arrests for public lewdness.
Swimwear began to move away from this extreme degree of modesty in the
1930s after Hollywood star Johnny Weissmuller
began going to beaches in just shorts, after which people quickly began
copying him. After WWII, the bikini was first invented in France and
despite the initial scandal surrounding it, was widespread and normal by
the 1960s.
Sport in the modern sense of the word became popular only in the
19th century. Nudity in this context was most common in Germany and the
Nordic countries.
In 1924, in the Soviet Union,
an informal organization called the "Down with Shame" movement held
mass nude marches in an effort to dispel earlier, "bourgeois" morality.
During the following decade, Stalin rose to power and quickly
suppressed the radical ideas which had circulated in the early years of
the Soviet Union. Nudism and pornography were prohibited, and Soviet
society would remain rigidly conservative for the rest of the USSR's
existence. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a much more liberated social climate prevailed in Russia and naturist clubs and beaches reappeared.
The geographically isolated Scandinavian countries were less affected by Victorian social taboos and continued with their sauna culture. Nude swimming in rivers or lakes was a very popular tradition. In the summer, there would be wooden bathhouses,
often of considerable size accommodating numerous swimmers, built
partly over the water; hoardings prevented the bathers from being seen
from outside. Originally the bathhouses were for men only; today there
are usually separate sections for men and women.
For the Olympic Games in Stockholm
in 1912, the official poster was created by a distinguished artist. It
depicted several naked male athletes (their genitals obscured) and was
for that reason considered too daring for distribution in certain
countries. Posters for the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki also featured nude male figures, evoking the classical origins of the games. The poster for the 1948 London Olympics featured the Discobolus, a nude sculpture of a discus thrower.
In the early years of the 20th century, a nudist movement began
to develop in Germany which was connected to a renewed interest in
classical Greek ideas of the human body. So-called Freikörperkultur
(FKK) clubs sprung up during this period and started moving the German
public away from much of the Victorian modesty codes they had inherited.
During the 1930s, the Nazi leadership either banned naturist
organizations or placed them under the control of the party, and opinion
on them seems to have been divided. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels considered nudity decadent while Heinrich Himmler and the SS endorsed it.
Male nudity in the US and other Western countries was not a taboo
for much of the 20th century. Social attitudes maintained that it was
healthy and normal for men and boys to be nude around each other and
schools, gymnasia, and other such organizations typically required nude
male swimming in part for sanitary reasons due to the use of wool
swimsuits. Movies, advertisements, and other media frequently showed
nude male bathing or swimming. There was less tolerance for female
nudity and the same schools and gyms that insisted on wool swimwear
being unsanitary for males did not make an exception when women were
concerned. Nonetheless, some schools did allow girls to swim nude if
they wished. To cite one example, Detroit
public schools began allowing nude female swimming in 1947, but ended
it after a few weeks following protests from parents. Other schools
continued allowing it, but it was never a universally accepted practice
like nude male swimming.
During the 1960s, there was a growing body of opinion that boys
should not be required to swim nude if they didn't want to, partially
from higher postwar living standards that created more expectations of
privacy and also from complaints that the supposed unsanitary nature of
wool swimwear did not seem to pose a problem with girls. By the 1970s,
most schools and gyms in the US had become gender-integrated which put
an end to nude swimming.
After WWII, communist East Germany
became famous for its nude beaches and widespread FKK culture, a rare
freedom allowed in a regimented society. By comparison, naturism was not
as popular in West Germany, one reason being that the churches had more
influence than the secularized DDR. Following the reunification of Germany
in 1990, FKK declined in popularity due to an influx of more prudish
West Germans to the East as well as increased immigration of Turks and
other socially conservative Muslims.
In 1957, Arkansas
passed a law to make it illegal to "advocate, demonstrate, or promote
nudism." The law applies to both public spaces and private property.
During the 1960s-70s, feminist groups in France and Italy lobbied
for and obtained the legalization of topless beaches despite opposition
from the Roman Catholic Church. Spain would eventually permit
toplessness on its beaches, but only after the death of
ultra-conservative Catholic dictator Francisco Franco
in 1975. While public nudity is not a major taboo in continental
Europe, Britain and the United States tend to view it less favorably,
and naturist clubs are not as family-oriented as in Germany and
elsewhere, with nude beaches being often seen as meetup locations for
homosexual men cruising for sex.
Nowadays, most European countries permit toplessless on normal beaches
with full nudity allowed only on designated nude beaches. Despite this,
it is quite normal in many parts of Europe to change clothing publicly
even if the person becomes fully naked in the process, as this is taken
to not count as public nudity.
An occasional—often illegal—naked sideshow is when a member of the public uses a sports venue to perform as a streaker.
Streaking became more popular in the 1970s. It was not until the 1990s
(and after) that nudity became expected at major public events, such as Bay to Breakers and the World Naked Bike Ride.
Due to the desexualized and sex-negative approach by some contemporary
nudist groups, some observers have suggested that 21st-century nudism
has experienced a tinge of prudification.
Children
In many
cultures in history, there were few taboos on children being publicly
naked although the point at where it becomes unacceptable has varied
between the toddler stage and up until puberty is attained around the
ages of 11-12 (see the above example of Pocahontas). In some Western
countries since the late 20th century, public attitudes have come to
consider any child nudity past the infant stage unacceptable. This has
even extended to the idea of covering prepubescent girls' chests at all
times in spite of the absence of breasts. As a consequence, in the US
and Britain, nude babies and children have largely disappeared from
advertisements and other forms of media even though they were
commonplace prior to the 1970s. In one of the more notable advertising
examples, the famous Coppertone Logo,
which depicted a small girl having her swimsuit pulled down by a dog to
expose her tan lines, was changed during the 1990s–2000s to reveal far
less skin.
Nudity, or nakedness, is a state of being in which a human person is not wearing clothing, or more specifically not covering their genitals.
Modern humans are the only primates that are essentially hairless and
the only animals that wear clothing. For humans, nudity and clothing are
connected to many cultural categories such as identity, privacy, and
moral behavior.
In Western societies, there are two contradictory cultural traditions relating to nudity. The first comes from the ancient Greeks, who saw the naked body as the natural state and as essentially positive. The second is based upon the Abrahamic religions,
which have viewed being naked as shameful and essentially negative. The
interaction between these traditions has resulted in Western
ambivalence, with nudity representing both positive and negative
meanings in individual psychology, in social life, and in depictions
such as art.
In Africa, there is a sharp contrast between the attitude toward
nudity in Islamic countries and the attitude toward nudity in certain sub-Saharan countries
that never abandoned precolonial norms. In China and India the norms
regarding public nudity are in keeping with the cultural value of social
propriety and human dignity. Japan had a tradition of mixed gender
public baths before Western contact began in the 19th century.
Societies use clothing (or the lack thereof) as a marker of
social status and may define different standards regarding nudity for
men and women. At the extreme, individuals may intentionally violate
norms regarding 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.
Meaning and usage
Although the general term "nudity" may be defined in English as the
complete absence of clothing, the meaning of nakedness is culturally
complex due to different meanings of states of undress in differing
social situations.
Synonyms and euphemisms for nudity abound, including "birthday suit", "in the altogether" and "in the buff". "In a state of nature" is also used by philosophers to refer to the state of humans before the existence of organized societies.
In the United States the legal definition of "full nudity" is exposure of the genitals. "Partial nudity" includes exposure of the buttocks by either sex, or exposure of the female breasts. Legal definitions are further complicated by laws regarding indecent exposure, which generally requires more than exposure, but the intention to offend common decency.
Few broad academic studies of nudity have been made, perhaps
because each discipline has its own theoretical orientation and
definition of terms. There is little that can be said about nudity in
general because each instance takes its meaning from a particular
context. Few studies are made of everyday bodily experience. Art
historians speak of the metaphorical meaning of nude representations. Sociology and criminology until the middle of the 20th century often studied nakedness, including nudism, in the context of deviance or criminality. However, more recent studies find that naturism has positive effects on body image, self esteem and life satisfaction.
Nudity and morality
Positive associations
Positive associations with nudity include:
Simplicity, being without artifice or worldliness - Those that reject the world as it is, such as holy men, or those that use nakedness as a protest against and unjust world.
Honesty, openness - Literally having "nothing to hide",
nudity has been used in some forms of group psychotherapy, promoting
open interaction and communication.
Innocence, humility, and childhood - Naturists often speak of their nakedness in terms of a return to childhood.
Freedom - The liberation of the body is associated with sexual liberation, although naturists tend to downplay this connection.
Nature and Naturalness - All humans are alike in their nakedness, while clothing represents their differences.
Authenticity and Truth - Metaphorically, the naked truth, the bare facts.
Negative associations
Negative associations with nudity include:
Nakedness as Exposure
Nakedness as a sign of sin and criminality
Nudity and sex - Whatever claims are made to the contrary, Western culture associates sex and nudity with immorality.
Death
Shame
Anxiety
Punishment, humiliation and degradation
Poverty, wretchedness
Naked savagery
Nudity and sexuality
The connection between nudity and human sexuality is complex and ambiguous, since it also involves issues of gender identity, body image, and moral judgements concerning what is normal, deviant or even criminal behavior.
Naturists (persons who practice and advocate personal and social nudity) distinguish between sexual and non-sexual
nudity. Studies of naturism find that its practitioners adopt behaviors
and norms that suppress the sexual responses while practicing social
nudity. Such norms include refraining from staring, touching, or otherwise calling attention to the body while naked.
Psychological issues
Psychological issues involving nudity include the following:
Exhibitionism: A condition marked by the urge, fantasy, or act of exposing one’s genitals to non-consenting people, particularly strangers;
Gymnophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of nudity; and
Voyeurism: A sexual interest in, or practice of, spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors like undressing or sexual activity.
For some individuals, these feelings and behaviors interfere with
normal functioning or well-being and are considered mental disorders.
Prehistory
Evolution of hairlessness
The relative hairlessness of homo sapiens requires a biological explanation, given that fur evolved to protect other primates from UV radiation, injury, sores and insect bites. Many explanations include advantages to cooling when early humans moved from shady forest to open savanna, accompanied by a change in diet from primarily vegetarian to hunting game, which meant running long distances after prey.
However, the explanation that may stand up to modern scientific
scrutiny is that fur harbors ecroparasites such as ticks, which would
have become more of a problem as humans became hunters living in larger
groups with a "home base".
Jablonski and Chaplin assert that early hominids, like modern chimpanzees,
had light skin covered with dark fur. With the loss of fur, high
melanin skin soon evolved as protection from damage from UV radiation.
As hominids migrated outside of the tropics, varying degrees of
depigmentation evolved in order to permit UVB-induced synthesis of
previtamin D3.
The loss of body hair was a factor in several aspects of human evolution. The ability to dissipate excess body heat through eccrine sweating
helped to make possible the dramatic enlargement of the brain, the most
temperature-sensitive organ. Nakedness and intelligence also made it
necessary to evolve non-verbal signaling mechanisms, such as blushing
and facial expressions. Signalling was supplemented by the invention of
body decorations, which also served the social function of identifying
group membership.
Origin of clothing
The wearing of clothing is assumed to be a behavioral adaptation,
arising from the need for protection from the elements; including the
sun (for depigmented human populations) and cold temperatures as humans
migrated to colder regions. It is estimated that anatomically modern
humans evolved 260,000 to 350,000 years ago.
A genetic analysis estimates that clothing lice diverged from head
louse ancestors at least by 83,000 and possibly as early as 170,000
years ago, suggesting that the use of clothing likely originated with
anatomically modern humans in Africa prior to their migration to colder
climates. What is now called clothing may have originated along with other types of adornment, including jewelry, body paint, tattoos, and other body modifications, "dressing" the naked body without concealing it.
History
Nudity in ancient Mediterranean cultures
In ancient Egypt, attire was simple. For men, skirts called schenti—which evolved from loincloths and resembled modern kilts—were customary apparel. For women, sheaths called kalasiris were customary apparel; kalasiris
were ankle-length sheaths held up by straps. Slaves and laborers were
nude or wore loincloths, and children were nude. Nudity was considered a
natural state.
Male nudity was celebrated in ancient Greece as in no culture
before or since. They considered embarrassment at having to disrobe for
sports a sign of barbarism.
Ancient Roman attitudes toward male nudity
differed from those of the Greeks, whose ideal of masculine excellence
was expressed by the nude male body in art and in such real-life venues
as athletic contests. The toga, by contrast, distinguished the body of the adult male citizen at Rome. The poet Ennius (c. 239–169 BC) declared that Flagiti principium est nudare inter civis corpora (exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace). Cicero endorsed Ennius' words.
Nudity in early China
In stories written in China as early as the 4th Century BCE, nudity is presented as an affront to human dignity,
reflecting the belief that "humanness" in Chinese society is not
innate, but earned by correct behavior. However, nakedness could also be
used by an individual to express contempt for others in their presence.
In other stories, the nudity of women, emanating the power of yin, could nullify the yang of aggressive forces.
Nudity in Japan
Nudity in mixed-gender public baths was common in the Japan before the effects of Western influence, which began in the 19th century and became extensive during the American occupation after World War II. The practice continues at a dwindling number of hot springs (konyoku) outside of urban areas.
Nudity in tropical cultures
In warm climates such Africa and Brazil, complete or near nudity was common for both men and women before contact with Western cultures, leading in the colonial era to the Western stereotype of the "naked savage".
The association of nakedness with shame and anxiety became ambivalent in the Renaissance. The rediscovered art and writings of ancient Greece
offered an alternative tradition of nudity as symbolic of innocence and
purity which could be understood in terms of the state of man "before the fall".
Subsequently, norms and behaviors surrounding nudity in life and in
works of art diverged during the history of individual societies.
Europe
Although there is a common misconception that Europeans did not bathe in the Middle Ages,
public bath houses--segregated by sex--were popular until the 16th
century, when concern for the spread of disease closed many of them.
In Christian Europe, the parts of the body that were required to
be covered in public did not always include the female breasts. In 1350,
breasts were associated with nourishment and loving care, but by 1750,
artistic representations of the breast were either erotic or medical.
The Victorian Era is often considered to be entirely restrictive of nudity. However, throughout the United Kingdom in the 19th century, workers in coalmines
were naked due to the heat and the narrow tunnels that would catch on
clothing. Men and boys worked fully naked, while women and girls
(usually employed as "hurriers")
would generally only strip to the waist (in some locations, they were
fully naked as well). Testimony before a Parliamentary labour commission
revealed that working naked in confined spaces made "sexual vices" a
"common occurrence".
United States
Public pools
Public swimming pools in the U.S. were the product of municipal
reform movements beginning in the mid-19th century. Civic leaders had
not intended pools to be used for recreation, but for health and
sporting activities. Initially, the working class boys swam in the nude,
as they had previously done in lakes and rivers, which also had been
segregated by gender. The era of nude swimming in municipal pools ended
when mixed-gender bathing was allowed.
Communal male nudity in the United States and other Western countries was not a taboo for much of the 20th century.
Historically, males have been more likely than females to be expected
to swim nude in swimming pools or to share communal showers in school
locker rooms with other members of the same sex. These expectations were based on cultural beliefs that females need more privacy than males do.
Social attitudes maintained that it was healthy and normal for men and
boys to be nude in the presence of other men and boys. A 1963 article on
a swim program in Troy, New York
stated that boys swam nude, but that girls were expected to wear
bathing suits; the writer of the article found nothing remarkable about
these requirements.
General attitudes
In 1974, an article in The New York Times
noted an increase in American tolerance for nudity, both at home and in
public, approaching that of Europe. However, some traditional nudists
at the time decried the trend as encouraging sexual exhibitionism and
voyeurism and threatening the viability of private nudist clubs.
Modern societies
Norms related to nudity are associated with norms regarding personal freedom, human sexuality, and gender roles,
which vary widely among modern societies. Situations where nudity is
accepted vary. Some people practice nudism within the confines of "nudist camps" or clothing-optional resorts, while naturists seek more open acceptance of nudity in everyday life and in public spaces.
Cultural differences
High and low context cultures
High and low context cultures were defined by Edward T. Hall.
The behaviors and norms of a high context culture depend upon shared
implicit intuitions that operate within a social situation, while in a
low context culture behavior is more dependent upon explicit
communications.
An example of this distinction was found in research on the behavior of
French and German naturists on a nude beach. Germans are extremely low
in cultural context. They are characterized by individualism,
alienation, estrangement from other people, little body contact, low
sensitivity to nonverbal cues, and segmentation of time and space. By
contrast, the French, in their personal lives as relatively high
context: they interact within closely knit groups, are sensitive to
nonverbal cues, and engage in relatively high amounts of body contact.
To maintain public propriety on a nude beach, German naturists avoided
touching themselves and others and avoid any adornments or behaviors
that would call attention to the body. French naturists, on the other
hand, were more likely than Germans to wear make-up and jewelry and to
touch others as they would while dressed.
Nudity and privacy
Societies in continental Europe
conceive of privacy as protecting a right to respect and personal
dignity. In America, the right to privacy is oriented toward values of
liberty, especially in one's home. While Europeans maintain their
dignity, even while naked where others may see them, Americans see
public nakedness as a surrender of "any reasonable expectation of privacy". Such cultural differences may make some laws and behaviors of the other society seem incomprehensible.
Private nudity
A 1999 survey by the Federation of Canadian Naturists found that 39% of Canadians "have walked or would walk around their houses nude". According to a 2004 U.S. survey, 31% of men and 14% of women report sleeping in the nude, while a 1996 BBC survey reported that 47% of U.K. men and 17% of U.K. women have done so. In a 2019 survey of American sleep habits, only 17% of respondents stated that they slept entirely naked.
Social and public nudity
Attitudes toward public nudity vary depending on culture, time,
location, and context. There are particular contexts in which nudity is
tolerated, accepted, or even encouraged in public spaces. In Europe, such contexts include nude beaches, within some intentional communities (such as naturist resorts or clubs) and at special events.
Nude woman and man in Malaysia
While some European countries (such as Germany, for example) are rather tolerant of public nudity, other nations disfavor or punish public nudity. In the United States in 2012, the city council of San Francisco,
California banned public nudity in the inner-city area. This move was
met by harsh resistance because the city was known for its liberal
culture and had previously tolerated public nudity. Similarly, park rangers began filing tickets against nudists at San Onofre State Beach--also a place with long tradition of public nudity--in 2010.
Nudity in semi-public facilities
Historically, certain facilities associated with activities that
require partial or complete nakedness (such as bathing or changing
clothes, for example) have limited access to certain members of the
public. These normal activities are guided by generally accepted norms,
the first of which is that the facilities are most often segregated by
gender; however, this may not be the case in all cultures.
Changing rooms
A changing room
may be provided in stores, workplaces, or sports facilities, some of
which have individual cubicles or stalls affording varying degrees of
privacy. Locker rooms associated with sports generally lack any
individual space and include showers, thus providing minimal physical
privacy.
Behavior in women's locker rooms and showers varies, but tends toward modesty.
The men’s locker room--which historically in Western cultures had
been a setting for open male social nudity--is, in the 21st century
United States, becoming a space of modesty and distancing between men.
For much of the 20th century, the norm in locker rooms had been for men
to undress completely without embarrassment. That norm has changed to
involve men wearing towels or other garments most of the time and
avoiding any interaction with others while naked. This shift is the
result of changes in social norms regarding masculinity and how maleness
is publicly expressed; also, open male nudity became associated with
homosexuality.
By the 1990s, open showers in American schools had become
"uncomfortable", not only because students were accustomed to more
privacy at home, but because young people became more self-conscious
based upon the comparison to mass media images of perfect bodies. In the 21st century, some high-end New York City gyms were redesigned to cater to millennials who want to shower without ever being seen naked.
Baths and spas
Nude men in sauna
The sauna, originating from Finland, is attended nude in its source country as well as in most Scandinavian countries and in the German-speaking countries of Europe. This is true even when a swimsuit must be worn in the swimming pool area of the same complex. The trend in some European countries (Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, for instance) is to allow both genders to bathe together naked. For example, the Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden
has designated times when mixed nude bathing is permitted. Most German
(not to mention French, Spanish and Greek) beaches and swimming pools
offer FKK (clothing-optional) areas. The German sauna culture also became popular in neighbouring countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In contrast to Scandinavia, public sauna facilities in these countries--while nude--do not usually segregate genders.
In Japan, public baths (Sentō) were once common, but became less so with the addition of bathtubs in homes. Sentō were mixed gender (konyoku) until the arrival of Western influences, but became segregated by gender in cities. Nudity is required at Japanese hot spring resorts (Onsen).
Some such resorts continue to be mixed gender, but the number of such
resorts is declining as they cease to be supported by local communities.
In Korea, bathhouses are known as Jjimjilbang.
Such facilities may include mixed-sex sauna areas where clothing is
worn, but bathing areas are gender segregated; nudity is required in
those areas.
In Russia, public banyas are clothing-optional and are usually gender-segregated.
Nude beaches
In a survey by The Daily Telegraph,
Germans and Austrians were most likely to have visited a nude beach
(28%), followed by Norwegians (18%), Spaniards (17%), Australians (17%),
and New Zealanders (16%). Of the nationalities surveyed, the Japanese
(2%) were the least likely to have visited a nude beach.
This result may indicate the lack of nude beaches in Japan; however,
the Japanese are open with regard to family bathing nude at home and at onsen (hot springs).
Scandinavia
is cited as the most open-minded region in the world regarding nudity
and regarding sexual attitudes and behaviors. However, this openness
does not extend to child pornography or sexual misconduct. There are many clothing-optional beaches in Denmark and Norway, but only Sweden allows nudity on all beaches.
Non-Western traditions
In India, priests of the Digambara ("skyclad") sect of Jainism and some HinduSadhus refrain from wearing clothing to symbolize their rejection of the material world.
HRH Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini of Eswatini (centre), dancing at Umhlanga, 2006. She wears a red feather crown, distinguishing her as a royal female.
In sub-Saharan Africa,
full nudity or nudity below the waist is the norm among some ethnic and
family groups--including some Burkinabese and Nilo-Saharan (e.g. Nuba and Surma people)--in daily life or on particular occasions. For example, at highly attended stick-fighting tournaments, well-exposed young men use the occasion to catch the eye of prospective brides. The assertion of post-colonial culture has resulted in the adoption of traditional dress for certain events, such as the Umkhosi Womhlanga (Reed Dance) by the Zulu and Swazi.
In Brazil, the Yawalapiti--an indigenous Xingu tribe in the Amazon Basin--practice a funeral ritual known as Quarup
to celebrate life, death and rebirth. The ritual involves the
presentation of all young girls who have begun menstruating since the
last Quarup and whose time has come to choose a partner.
Gender differences
In Western cultures, shame is the result of not living up to the
ideals of society with regard to physical appearance. Historically, such
shame has affected women more than men. With regard to their naked
bodies, the result is a tendency towards self-criticism by women, while
men are less concerned by the evaluation of others.
In many European counties women may sunbathe without covering their breasts.
In much of the world, the modesty of women is a matter not only of social custom but of the legal definition of indecent exposure. In the United States, the exposure of female nipples is a criminal offense in many states and is not usually allowed in public. In the United Kingdom, nudity may not be used to "harass, alarm or distress" according to the Public Order Act of 1986.
The "topfreedom"
movement promotes equal rights for women to go topfree in public on the
same basis that would apply to men in the same circumstances. The term topfree rather than topless is advocated to avoid the latter term's perceived sexual connotations.
Breastfeeding in public is forbidden in some jurisdictions,
not regulated in others, and protected as a legal right in public and
the workplace in still others. Where public breastfeeding is a legal
right, some mothers may be reluctant to breastfeed, and some people may object to the practice.
Children
A nude woman, child, and man (the nude family) at Lake Senftenberg in the 1980s
In their study on the effects of social nudity on children, Smith
and Sparks conclude that "the viewing of the unclothed body, far from
being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign or to
actually provide positive benefits to the individuals involved.
One psychiatrist recommends that parents allow nudity as a natural part
of family life when children are very young, but to respect the modesty
that is likely to emerge with puberty.
Gordon and Schroeder report that parental nudity varies
considerably from family to family. They contend that "there is nothing
inherently wrong with bathing with children or otherwise appearing naked
in front of them", noting that doing so may provide an opportunity for
parents to provide important information. They note that by ages five to
six, children begin to develop a sense of modesty, and recommend to
parents who wish to be sensitive to their children's wishes that they
limit such activities from that age onwards.
Psychologist Barbara Bonner recommends against nudity in the home
if children exhibit sexual play of a type that is considered
problematic.
In a 1995 review of the literature, Paul Okami concluded that there was
no reliable evidence linking exposure to parental nudity to any
negative effect.
Three years later, his team finished an 18-year longitudinal study that
showed that, if anything, such exposure was associated with slight
beneficial effects, particularly for boys.
Depictions of nudity
Images of a man and woman attached to Pioneer 10 as part of a message to any extra-terrestrial intelligence the space probe might encounter.
In a picture-making civilization, pictorial conventions continually
reaffirm what is natural in human appearance, which is part of socialization.
In Western societies, the contexts for depictions of nudity include information, art and pornography. Any ambiguous image not easily fitting into one of these categories may be misinterpreted, leading to disputes.
Nudity and the law
Limits of the depiction of nudity are based upon the legal definitions of indecency and obscenity.
Although obscenity is defined as the portrayal of violence or sexuality in a manner that is offensive to community standards,
the lack of any one community standard reduces the legal definition of
obscenity in the United States to the application of a test known as the
Miller test. In 1973, the Supreme Court in Miller v. California
established the three-tiered Miller test to determine what was obscene
(and thus not protected) versus what was merely erotic and thus
protected by the First Amendment.
Depictions of child nudity (or of children with nude adults) appear in works of art in various cultures and historical periods. These attitudes have changed over time and have become increasingly frowned upon,
especially in the case of photography. In recent years, snapshots taken
by parents of their nude infant or toddler children were challenged as child pornography.
The nude human figure has been one of subjects of art from its Paleolithic beginnings, and a major preoccupation of Western art since the ancient Greeks.
One often cited book on the nude in Western art history is "The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form" by Lord Kenneth Clark,
first published in 1956. The introductory chapter makes (though does
not originate) the often-quoted distinction between the naked body and
"The Nude". Clark states that to be naked is to be deprived of clothes,
and implies embarrassment and shame, while a nude, as a work of art, has
no such connotations.
This separation of the artistic form from the related social and
cultural issues was largely unexamined by classical art historians, but
became a focus of social and feminist critiques in the 1970s, when
classical nudes of women were seen as symbolic of male objectification
of female bodies. The debate over objectification has continued, recently energized by the #MeToo movement.
Lucien Freud was one of a small group of painters who continued to create nude works in the 1970s when it was unfashionable. However, by the end of his life Freud's works had become icons of the Post Modern era, depicting the human body without a trace of idealization, as in his series working with an obese model.
Rather than showing nakedness as a normal part of everyday life, nudity in films has generally exploited the mainstream public's interest in sexuality, with increasingly explicit portrayals. Films with nude scenes made during the Pre-Code era were generally erotic, including those using the pretext of being ethnographic
documentaries to show unclothed natives in jungle settings. This led to
a backlash between 1934 and 1960 when the enforcement of the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA) production code severely censored
not only nudity, but all topics related to sexuality. Social change in
the 1960s lead to the adoption of the current rating system.
Nudity is one of the factors in the system, with even the briefest
nudity earning a film a PG-13, and male nudity being rated R (adults
only).
Nudist films
Many films have used the nudist camp setting as pretext for showing
nudity without addressing the reality of naturism. Films made by
naturists to promote their lifestyle are not widely distributed.
Television
Broadcast television in the United States has restrictions on profanity, indecency, and obscenity that generally prohibit all nudity, although the limits were pressed with some productions such as NYPD Blue, which featured partial nudity. The legal test for community standards becomes "I know it when I see it"; therefore, rulings may be case by case in response to viewer complaints. Cable television, as a paid subscription rather than a public service, may broadcast content deemed indecent or profane, but not obscene.
Rules in Europe are less restrictive, with the first nude
appearing on TV in Holland in 1967 and the UK broadcasting a documentary
about naturism in 1979. Music videos that include nudity appear on TV in Europe, but are edited or otherwise censored on American TV.
Television and radio regulations in many countries require
broadcasters to avoid transmitting images or language considered
inappropriate for children from 5:30 am to 9 pm (the so-called "watershed"). In the United Kingdom, the Broadcasting Code states, "Nudity before the watershed must be justified by the context." In the U.S., the safe harbor
rule forbids depictions of nudity between the hours of 6 am and 10 pm.
Violators may be subject to civil legal action and sanctions if the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) determines the broadcaster did not meet its standards of
"decency". "Material is indecent if, in context, it depicts or describes
sexual or excretory organs or activities in terms patently offensive as
measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium."
Performance
Nudity may be used as a part of live performances, such as dance, theater, performance art and nude body painting.
Partial or complete nudity is a feature of ceremonial dances in
some tropical countries. However, some claim that modern practices may
be used to promote "ethnic tourism" rather than to revive authentic
traditions.
In Western traditions, dance costumes have evolved towards
providing more freedom of movement and revealing more of the body;
complete nakedness is the culmination of this process.
Some modern choreographers consider nudity one of the possible
"costumes" available for dance. Others see nudity that expresses deeper
human qualities through dance as working against the sexual objectification of the body in commercial culture.
While nudity in social dance is not common, events such as "Naked Tango" have been held in Germany.
Theater
A well-known performance that included nudity was the Broadway musical Hair in 1968.
Erotic performances
Models posing on stage nude was a feature of tableaux vivants at London's Windmill Theatre and New York's Ziegfeld Follies in the early 20th century. English law did not allow nude actresses to move on stage, but allowed them stand motionless to imitate works of art.
Nudity is used to draw public and attention to a cause, sometimes including the promotion of public nudity itself.
Curse of nakedness
In Africa, women have used stripping naked on purpose as a curse,
both historically, and in modern times. The idea is that women give life
and they can take it away. The curse initiates an extreme form of ostracism,
which anthropologist Terisa Turner has likened to "social execution".
The curse extends to foreign men as well, and is believed to cause
impotence, madness or other similar harm. The threat has been used successfully in mass protests against the petroleum industry in Nigeria, by Leymah Gbowee during the Second Liberian Civil War, and against President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast.
Imposed nudity
Historical treatment of the poor and insane
In England during the 17th to 19th centuries, the clothing of the
poor by Christian charity did not extend to those confined to
"madhouses" such as Bethlem Royal Hospital, where the inmates were often kept naked and treated harshly.
Nudity as punishment
In some situations, nudity is forced on a person. For example, imposed nudity (full or partial) can be part of a corporal punishment or as humiliation, especially when administered in public.
For example, in 2017, students at a girls' school in the north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh were forced to undress as a form of punishment, police say. Although not as common as corporal punishment, it is not unusual for stripping to be used as a form of punishment in Indian schools.
In 2003, Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad (Iraq) gained international notoriety for accounts of torture and abuses by members of the United States Army Reserve during the post-invasion period.
Photographic images were circulated that exposed the posing of
prisoners naked, sometimes bound, and being intimidated and otherwise
humiliated, resulting in widespread condemnation of the abuse.
Strip search
A strip search is the removal of some or all of a person's clothing
to insure that they do not have weapons or contraband. Such searches are
generally done when an individual is imprisoned after an arrest, and is
justified by the need to maintain order in the facility, not as
punishment for a crime.
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