A Brief History of Nakedness

"Naturists is what practitioners like to call themselves in Britain, as distinct from naturalists, which might be confused with more scientific pursuits like being a botanist or conservationist. Naturism was a term that was bought in slowly, at least in Britain, but it was adopted wholeheartedly in the mid-1960s. Then it became the formal name to designate the movement, although it was used interchangeably with nudism up to that point. Nudism, obviously, because of these category issues we’ve discussed, could be used to suggest associations that naturists found negative, such as nude dancing or performance on stage or sexually charged imagery more generally. Naturists wanted to separate themselves off from that. Many ideas about a kind of perfect state of nature that we mentioned earlier run through naturism. Much of the discourse of naturism involves references to Eden, a lot of talk about Paradise and returning to something that’s been lost. Partly, this reflects a sort of disenchantment with the modern world. It is a movement that suggests you might be able to return to an original state of grace, one that was once pure and original, but which had been sullied by new cultural messages and meaning. That’s one of the underpinning principles of naturism. “Censorial policies like these created an idea of forbidden fruit, which is exactly what the nudist movement was trying to avoid” Now, Carr-Gomm is an interesting person, and his is quite an idiosyncratic book. I chose it because 300 pages of dense academic scholarship on nudity and culture is not everyone’s cup of tea. Many of these books I discuss take commitment to read and they address academics. A Brief History of Nakedness takes some of the same principles as its starting point, but aiming at a more general readership, and bringing some of those ideas right up to the present day including, for example, naked bungee jumping and other cultural phenomena that may seem rather flippant and silly. It’s a worthwhile read a few reasons. The author is a Druid . For a time he was the leader of an order of Druids in Britain , and he’s quite well-known in the pagan community for his publications about practical magic. The fact that he would write this book is really interesting to me. As you might expect, he does have a particular angle where considers the spiritual meanings of nudity, but actually, that’s not the bit that I find most interesting. The parts I find most interesting are particularly the examples he gives of how nudity always attracts public attention. It has been utilised for advertising in a range of different ways, and this is well documented in the book, but also for public spectacle and for protests. Many nudists, and lots of nude practices of different types, have been challenging the law. Take nude hiking , for example, as a famous case in Britain where protesters would set off in hiking boots, a rucksack and nothing else to argue for ramblers’ rights of way, as well as the illogicality of not being able to appear naked in public. It’s really interesting, but also fraught with complications. It goes back to Lynda Nead’s feminist study where she argues there is a fundamental challenge in feminist artists using the nude body as their medium – you can end up producing works that have a feminist intention where the outcome nonetheless involves the naked body, again, that could be read by audiences in multiple different ways. And yet, feminist groups which use the naked body in protest against objectification and sexualization are obviously creating the conditions of consent themselves. They are choosing to appear in a very self-determined way. The outcome is still naked female bodies in public, however, so it’s full of challenges. Interestingly, Carr-Gomm lives just down the road from me! I don’t know why there’s such a density of scholars on this subject in one particular area. We both live near Brighton on the south coast of England, a place where the first ever nudist beach was instituted in this country by a local council in the 1970s. We also host the famous Naked Bike Ride , and there is also a massive annual Brighton Gay Pride parade. In this neighbourhood there is a culture of the body being used in a range of different and sometimes quite challenging ways."