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 Abrahamic beliefs, spreading through Europe in the post-classical period. Traditional clothing in temperate regions worldwide also reflect concerns for maintaining social status and order, as well as by necessity due to the colder climate. However, societies such as Japan and Finland maintain traditions of communal nudity based upon the use of baths and saunas that provided alternatives to sexualization. (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 a painting by Fabián Cháirez depicting a nude, effeminate Emiliano Zapata caused violent protests at the Palacio de Bellas Artes?
... 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 multiple dancers were arrested at the Capitol Theatre in San Francisco for allegedly not wearing bras during striptease numbers?
... that Irina Voronina was once painted blue and orange for a nude photoshoot?
... that there were no sex acts in Thea Ehre's nude performance at the 2021 Porn Film Festival Vienna?
... that a 17th-century painting shows a half-naked ascetic in a cave occupying the position of honour, even ahead of the emperor?
... that former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said that she would swim in Loch Ness naked if the SNP won more than 50 seats at the 2019 United Kingdom general election?
... that Loud LDN co-founder Maisi came joint last in the 2022 Maldon mud race, behind a naked runner who had been forced to start after everyone else?

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General images

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

Image 1Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
Image 2A publicity photo showing a North American naturist couple making tea (from Naturism)
Image 3Five nude people on the rocks around Black Pond, McLean, Virginia in July 1980 (from Nudity)
Image 4The 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 5Nude people at the 2007 Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle, Washington (from Nudity)
Image 6Kayapo women, Pará State, Brazil
Image 7WWI era Ivory Soap ad (from Nudity)
Image 8Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
Image 9Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
Image 10Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 11Naturist family on Lake Senftenberg in 1983 (from Naturism)
Image 12One 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 13In many European countries, women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
Image 14Ariadne 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 15Zoë Mozert was one of Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
Image 16Naked person looking over the stern rail on the QNA nude boat cruise on the Gold Coast Broadwater, Queensland, in December 2025 (from Naturism)
Image 17Crayon-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 18Sunbathers at Müggelsee lake beach in East Berlin, 1989. (from Nudity)
Image 19A group of naturists at a nude beach in Crimea, 2008 (from Naturism)
Image 20Sunrise on the beach, Taitung County, Taiwan (from Naturism)
Image 21Outdoor bathing at Zhiben Hot Spring, Taiwan 2012 (from Nudity)
Image 22Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
Image 23Max Koch's Freilicht (Open-Air), c. 1894/1897 (from Naturism)
Image 24Banya [ru] (1913) by Zinaida Serebriakova (from Nudity)
Image 25Nude men at the Przystanek Woodstock festival, 2014 (from Naturism)
Image 26Odalisque (1857) by Eugène Delacroix, a painting with similar pose (from Nude photography)
Image 27Florida naturists (from Naturism)
Image 28A woman breastfeeding in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2017 (from Nudity)
Image 29David (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 30A 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 31Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
Image 32Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
Image 33People taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2012 (from Nudity)
Image 34The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484–1486 (from Nude (art))
Image 35A Nude Boy on a Beach (1878) by John Singer Sargent (from Nude (art))
Image 36People bathing naked after the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, 2017 (from Naturism)
Image 37Naturist couple at the Nambassa festival, New Zealand, 1981 (from Naturism)
Image 38Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
Image 39A Naga Sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man (from Naturism)
Image 40Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
Image 41Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
Image 42World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2016 (from Naturism)
Image 43Randonue in Les Concluses, Gard, 2008 (from Naturism)
Image 44The Burney Relief, First Babylonian Dynasty (c. 1800 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 45Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
Image 46Marilyn Monroe posing topless for Earl Moran around 1950 (from Nude photography)
Image 47Virginia Biddle, by Alfred Cheney Johnston (from Nude photography)
Image 48A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
Image 49Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, c. 1855 (from Nude photography)
Image 50The Venus of Willendorf (made between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE) (from Nude (art))
Image 51Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
Image 52The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
Image 53Nude study (c. 1935) by William Mortensen (from Nude (art))
Image 54Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
Image 55This year Venuses again... always Venuses!... (1864) by Daumier (from Nude (art))
Image 56Bathing in the center of East Berlin, East Germany (1958) (from Nudity)

In the news

3 June 2026 –: German filmmaker Wim Wenders withdraws his 1975 film The Wrong Move from distribution after actress Nastassja Kinski objected to a nude scene filmed when she was 13 years old, calling for the film to be re-edited. (AP)