Public modesty in most societies dictates that a naked body is to be ashamed of, but challenges to this status quo persist - should nudity be glorified, or vilified?
A paradoxical case in point is that of German hiker Siegfried Grawert, who in August 2008 was sentenced to jail for walking around public spots naked. Once imprisoned, he was allowed to go nude as he claimed “prison clothes depress him”. So ironically, as part of his punishment he commits the very deed he was punished for.
Nudity can also provoke mass hysteria within self-proclaimed civilised societies, for example Janet Jackson’s infamous breast-baring ‘wardrobe malfunction’ at 2004’s Super Bowl, which threatened to destroy her reputation and resulted in a five-second delay for ‘live’ telecasts on broadcast station ABC.
Original Sin, Immorality and Savagery
Public condemnation of nudity may be because of its many negative connotations, including that of sex and immorality, which is deeply rooted in the biblical tale of Adam and Eve’s Fall from Grace. After partaking the forbidden apple, the pair realised that their naked bodies were shameful and should be covered up, and in doing so lost their innocence, never to be regained.
Perspectives towards nudity in ancient times were hardly as harsh, with the Greeks believing the naked body to be “a symbol of order between human and divine”. As Clark put it, after Christianity became more widely accepted, “the body...ceased to be a mirror of divine perfection and became an object of humiliation.”
Miles also theorised, “The mark of powerlessness and passivity, nakedness was associated with captives, slaves and prostitutes”. Even in modern times when slavery has been abolished, the humiliating power of nakedness is still utilised on prisoners of war, such as the shocking cases of Iraqi prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib.
If clothing is seen as a symbol reflecting culture, conversely nudity would be associated with savagery. Indeed 19th century Western explorers were of such opinion, with Darwin proposing that the savage was the transitional state in human’s evolution from animals; hence nakedness was seen as “primitive, barbaric and irrational”.
Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, Nudism and Liberation
In his study Interpretation of Dreams, Freud linked nakedness with symbolic, rather than literal, exposure. Reading the Fall as a myth about the loss of a utopian Paradise, he suggested that dreaming of public nakedness is a subconscious fulfilment of repressed wishes to “regain this Paradise in dreams”.
Barcan argued that nudists are able to experience this Paradise not only in a somnambulant state – shedding clothes is liberation from self-consciousness, the ultimate psychological freedom. Nudists do not view being without clothes as being exposed; to them, it is a return to their original state, connoting a child-like innocence as all humans are born naked. In the words of Berger, “To be naked is to be oneself...without disguise."
Clark also opined, “It implies the conquest of an inhibition which oppresses all but the most backward people, it is like a denial of original sin.” Nudists reject the notion that nudity and sex are intrinsically linked – they do not feel sexually aroused seeing each other in the altogether; in fact, it is therapeutic to them, promoting self-acceptance and relaxation.
The Mind of the Beholder
“Adam and Eve became aware of being naked because, as a result of eating the apple, each saw the other differently. Nakedness was created in the mind of the beholder.”
Berger’s statement is probably the best way out of this dialectic – nakedness is, after all, a state of being without clothing; yet being without clothes only equates to being naked for those who choose to see it such. Whatever one’s perspective on nudity, it can be agreed that it yields many interesting schools of thought, both culturally and psychologically.
Barcan, R 2004, Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy, New York: Berg
Berger, J 1972, Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin Books Limited
Clark, K 1956, The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art, Middlesex: Penguin Books Limited
The copyright of the article Nudity: Nature or Sin? in Cognitive Psychology is owned by Cheryn Tan. Permission to republish Nudity: Nature or Sin? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
There is no clear view point on the topic of nudity outside of private
spaces. There are however some well known facts about the state of nudity
where conditions make it more comfortable to be free of clothing. We need
to consider the attitudes of society which make it unacceptable to wander
around in public naked and ask ourselves why it is felt to be so wrong.
Why shouldn't we be free to wear nothing when and where we want to.
We know that in cultures where the climate allows until recent
times people just did see not the need for clothes and even today in
isolated parts there are a few groups whose normal attire is no attire. In
more developed societies there is in many people a latent desire to shed
clothes which is generally suppressed. It is probable that at sometime in
their lives most people have gone naked however briefly in an open space
somewhere. May be a bit of sunbathing or daring skinny dip.
For
years I wondered what it would feel like to be completely naked on a beach
or walking in the countryside and for years I never dared to try. I
enjoyed the sensation of being naked in the home, noticed how much nicer it
was no to be restrained but that was either on my own or with my partner;
not real freedom. Then one really sunny day on holiday we chanced on a
"nudist" beach. Well a beach with a badly painted sign that was
totally deserted so we thought "why not". There we were naked
and feeling nervous but unbelievably liberated. A few other people came
along and at first we placed towels across ourselves as they walked by.
Then a few others came to the beach some wore costumes and some like us
nothing at all. Soon we essentially forgot that we were naked and just
enjoyed relaxing, swimming and in even walking around the area all clothes
free. Each new naked experience was so much nicer that doing the same with
clothes, since whenever the opportunity permits I go naked and I now really
question why we shouldn't have the freedom to wear nothing more often.
My body is not special, I'm not good looking but I look no worse
naked that I do in a swimsuit. The same is true for most of us. It is
only convention that really stops us from being as nature decreed. As to
the argument of nudity being sinful that is only because nudity is
assoicated with sex and sex is regarded as sinful. Sex in the proper
context though truly enjoyable is not sinful; nudity does not have to be
associated with sex to add enjoyment to many activities.
Oct 12, 2008 6:53 PM
Guest :
not true i look better in a bathing suite than naked.
Apr 24, 2009 10:01 PM
Guest :
A fictional evangelist Demetrius Theophilus Philetus (DTP) lived in a
fictional desert. Everyone around him was as poor as he -- could afford
neither clothes nor hut-building materials. No wonder nudism was in their
culture; they had no way around it! Furthermore, DTP was a Christian, as
were most of those around him. Weren't DTP a Christian, would he
premaritally have still been the virgin that he was? And had the
culture any prudish hang-ups about the human body, poor as the folks are,
who could live one day w/o breaking the Matthew commandment "Do not
worry what you shall wear..."? Moreover: the fewest impure
arousals, fewest STD's, & fewest teen pregs known to man! Because all
their lives it was never once a stumbling block; what's the big deal? Not
to mention, the fewest lies told known to man! Because they feel they have
nothing to hide.
The following conclusions if nudism is a
sin:
1) Dude, I hope DTP and his folks somehow get richer than
they are. Otherwise, they can't repent of their nudism! 2) The body is
inherently shameful; the pure, Godly ends don't justify the means.
Conclusion #2 can't be true unless #1 is also true. To the prudes that
read this:
What now? Do y'all think still that nudists are
morally loose perverts?
For those who support nudism:
Do y'all think I've hit home to prove that genuine nudism is pure?
Aug 15, 2009 4:12 PM
Guest :
In reply to the Guest comment from Oct 12, 2008...you say you look better
in a bathing suit than naked. Remember that next time you go to a beach,
pool, lake, etc. when guys start looking at certain parts of you rather
than your face. That's the problem with people these days. They'd rather
wear clothes, even in summer, than be naked and natural. And then, they
complain when the opposite gender is looking at them and being
"creepy". If people would see nudity in non-sexual settings and
get used to it, it would eventually no longer be a taboo that turns people
on, as revealing clothes often do. Think about that.
