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 societies, both ancient and contemporary, children might be naked until the beginning of puberty and women often do not cover their breasts due to the association with nursing babies more 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 Judeo-Christian societies, 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. (Full article...)

Selected general article

Freikörperkultur (FKK), meaning 'free body culture', is a social and health culture that originated in the German Empire, with its beginnings historically rooted in the Lebensreform social movement of the late 19th century. It promotes the health benefits of nudity—such as exposure to light, air, and sun—alongside a broader aim to reform life and society. Freikörperkultur shares cultural and philosophical ties with naturism and nudism, which involve communal nudity among individuals and families during leisure time, sports, and everyday life.

By the 20th century, recognised for its public health benefits, the practice of communal open-air nudity became increasingly visible in the German cultural sphere, shaped by growing interest in nature, hygiene, and overall wellbeing. This cultural emergence was partly a response to the lifestyle pressures of industrialised urban society, with advocates viewing nudity in natural environments as a restorative contrast to the alienation of modern city life. Public health reformers and Lebensreform adherents championed regular exposure to light, air, and sun—not merely as medical advice, but as a philosophical gesture toward vitality, simplicity, mental relaxation, and social renewal. Today, there are only a few legal restrictions on public nudity in Germany. Under the terms 'naturism' and 'nudism', it is now internationally widespread, with associations and designated public spaces in numerous countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. The greatest concentration remains in Central Europe and Scandinavia. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that the runway show for Scanners by Alexander McQueen concluded with a mostly nude model struggling through an artificial snowstorm in a wind tunnel?
... that Will Wood performed nude for the music video of a song on SELF-iSH?
... that a nude painting of a Mexican revolutionary is housed at the Museum of Forbidden Art in Spain?
... that film critic and censor D. I. Suchianu wanted Romanian moviegoers to cease "falling asleep whenever they're not shown a naked breast [or] a hip that's getting some action"?
... that after women's suffrage in Switzerland was approved in a referendum in 1971, the tabloid Blick sported a cover with a naked blonde and the headline "Thank you for the Roses"?
... 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 vampire amoebae are naked?
... that the Indian politician Diwan Chaman Lall failed to get rid of the painting Nude of Indira?

Need help?

Do you have a question about Nudity that you can't find the answer to?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

Get involved

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Nudity-related articles, see WikiProject Nudity.

General images

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

Image 1Marilyn Monroe posing topless for Earl Moran around 1950 (from Nude photography)
Image 2A Nude Boy on a Beach (1878) by John Singer Sargent (from Nude (art))
Image 3Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
Image 4Sunrise on the beach, Taitung County, Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 5A 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 6The 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 7A Naga Sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man (from Naturism)
Image 8This year Venuses again... always Venuses!... (1864) by Daumier (from Nude (art))
Image 9Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
Image 10Sunbathers at Müggelsee lake beach in East Berlin, 1989. (from Nudity)
Image 11Florida naturists (from Naturism)
Image 12Nude men at the Przystanek Woodstock festival, 2014 (from Naturism)
Image 13People taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2012 (from Nudity)
Image 14Naturist family on Lake Senftenberg in 1983 (from Naturism)
Image 15WWI era Ivory Soap ad (from Nudity)
Image 16The Venus of Willendorf (made between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 17Odalisque (1857) by Eugène Delacroix, a painting with similar pose (from Nude photography)
Image 18A publicity photo showing a North American naturist couple making tea (from Naturism)
Image 19A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
Image 20Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
Image 21David (1504)
"And what barbarous judge is there that cannot understand that the foot of a man is more noble than his shoe? His skin than that of the sheep from which his clothes are made?"
— Michelangelo (from Nude (art))
Image 22Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
Image 23Virginia Biddle, by Alfred Cheney Johnston (from Nude photography)
Image 24A woman breastfeeding in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2017 (from Nudity)
Image 25Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
Image 26Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
Image 27Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
Image 28Max Koch's Freilicht (Open-Air), c. 1894/1897 (from Naturism)
Image 29Crayon-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 30One 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 31The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
Image 32Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
Image 33Naturist couple at the Nambassa festival, New Zealand, 1981 (from Naturism)
Image 34Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
Image 35The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484–1486 (from Nude (art))
Image 36In many European countries, women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
Image 37Ariadne 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 38Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, c. 1855 (from Nude photography)
Image 39World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2016 (from Naturism)
Image 40Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 41People bathing naked after the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, 2017 (from Naturism)
Image 42Zoë Mozert was one of Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
Image 43Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
Image 44Nude study (c. 1935) by William Mortensen (from Nude (art))
Image 45Bathing in the center of East Berlin, East Germany (1958) (from Nudity)
Image 46Outdoor bathing at Zhiben Hot Spring, Taiwan 2012 (from Nudity)
Image 47Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
Image 48The Burney Relief, First Babylonian Dynasty (c. 1800 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 49Nude people at the 2007 Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle, Washington (from Nudity)
Image 50Randonue in Les Concluses, Gard, 2008 (from Naturism)
Image 51Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
Image 52A group of naturists at a nude beach in Crimea, 2008 (from Naturism)

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Related portals

Subtopics

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Commons
Free media repository
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache

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) History Nude modeling (art) Nude photography (art) Nudity in live performance Body painting Nudity in film Nudity in American television Nudity in music videos Nudity in print media Nudity in advertising Nude photography Glamour photography Erotic photography
See also	Imagery of nude celebrities Nude calendar Naked News Nudity in combat Nudity clause Nude psychotherapy Softcore pornography
Category Portal