We’ve barely scratched the surface of 2010 and already it’s shaping up to be The Year for Very Public Displays of Nudity. There’s Foxtel’s ”top-rating” How to Look Good Naked, the runaway success of all-female nudity in the British stage play Trinity, and animal rights group Peta’s latest nude ad campaign featuring a former porn star.

Of course, what would an Aussie summer of cricket be without a streaker getting halfway to the pitch (this time at the WACA) before being tackled … err, judiciously apprehended?

And yet how is it that the old ”bathers versus birthday suit” argument still manages to end up getting our Speedos in a knot?

In Sydney last week a councillor’s failed effort to remove Lady Bay Beach from the city’s list of nude bathing areas led him to vow to continue his effort to make the beach more ”child friendly”.

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Books:

How to Look Good Naked ~ Gok Wan		#641745 in Books
How to Look Good Naked…Can Change Your Life ~ Charmaine Yabsley		#1080374 in Books
Carson’s Parisian shopping spree: we recently sent the indomitable TV star of How to Look Good Naked on a shopping bender in Paris. His notes from the … (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) ~ Carson Kressley

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In Queensland there’s been a brouhaha about a ”no-holes-barred” Queensland resort, run by self-described ”rudie nudies” Tony and Lenore Fox. Not only did the pair send other, more modest groups of nudists into a tizzy last month, they managed to drive a wedge through one of modern civilisation’s most enduring pastimes.

Nudism (also more benignly known as naturism) traces its origins to 1800s in Germany, when being naked under a summer sun was prescribed as a cure-all for illnesses largely caused by an early industrial age. According to disciples, modern nudist resorts work because there are rules and a basic code of conduct. As there must be when they cater mainly to families and couples who simply want to be able to walk (or skip, frolic or whatever the heck nudists do all day) unencumbered in a supportive environment.

Could it be that our undying fascination with public nudity reveals less about people who take off their clothes as a lifestyle choice and more about those of us who don’t? Certainly, more than we care to admit.

Last month, Age writer Denise Gadd admitted she had mixed feelings about reports of Melbourne’s Sandringham Beach being considered as a clothes-optional beach. Not, she writes, because of fears the beach would be overrun by nudists, but because of ”the people who might be attracted to the area for the wrong reasons”.

Try this on for size next time you’re out. Throw the word nudism into a conversation and see how long it takes before the sniggers and innuendo reach a crescendo – the loudest could well come from those likely to be first in line to strip off in front of the lens of contemporary nude photographer Spencer Tunick when he arrives in Australia next month. (Naked States ~ Spencer Tunick)

This is about more than exposure. It’s about our ambivalence.

We may rally against body scanners at airports, arguing that they cross the lines of decency, but tht didn’t stop almost 70,000 volunteers converging at Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide airports to test the full-body security scanners during recent trials.

It wasn’t for nothing that ”curiosity” was the main reason cited by those who took part. Sure, the ever-present threat of terrorism has made us more security conscious than ever. But we’ve been body conscious – intensely, indefatigably so – since the day dot.

The human body is something to be admired and sometimes abhorred. But it is rarely ignored, a point made patent by the sorry episode involving the hapless Macquarie stockbroker caught viewing near-naked images of lingerie model Miranda Kerr on his work computer.

Commenting on the affair, Sydney academic Cordelia Fine wrote: ”These kinds of sexually provocative images of women are so ubiquitous that it’s completely understandable that many are left thinking, ‘What’s the big deal?’ ”

The big deal is coming clean about our intentions, accepting that the media only feed us what they think we want, and understanding that when we gorge on the headlines, we swallow an underlying social assumption that equates nakedness with a kind of perversion.

The discussion needs to move beyond tut-tutting about other people’s lifestyle choices. Surely we should be analysing our own responses rather than engaging in knee-jerk reactions that equate nudity with titillation.

Jen Vuk is a freelance writer. 

23 comments so far 

The 70,000 volunteers converging at Sydney airport to test the scanners were obviously getting paid, are exhibitionists or are functionally mentally disturbed. (it’s possible) There is a reason people wear clothes. It’s called modesty, decency and respect for other people. Anything else is not socially acceptable, especially when it’s forced upon everyone such as an electronic strip search. Our civilization isn’t worth having if this is what people think is necessary order to be “safe” from terrorist attacks. I cannot believe anyone in their right mind would think these draconian measures are in any way ok, especially when there are viable alternatives. If you want to be nude, by all means do it in private with your fellow nudists, the rest of us aren’t interested, unless we’re paying to see the show at which point we want to see young, beautiful bodies, not wrinkly old ones. 

Wylie Coyote – February 15, 2010, 8:38AM

Leaving aside the first sentence of Wylie Coyote’s comment, I heartily concur with the rest of it. I’d also add that the security experts themselves have said that the new “naked”scanners would not have picked up the “underpants bomber”‘s device. As to the proposed extra security measures at regional and rural airports, the academics and bureaucrats need to take a firm grip of themselves. If we live our lives in fear especially of distant possibilities, than the bastards have won! Remember the old adage – “a coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man ( or woman ) dies but one”. 

BillR – February 15, 2010, 9:00AM

I’m fairly sure that Wiley’s preferred viewable naked bodies would all be young females. Correct? 

Just take a look at any mainstream magazine or billboard and you’ll see how ambivalent people are about public nudity. Males, older people and disfigured people need not apply eh Wiley? 

sydney – February 15, 2010, 9:36AM

I will be one of the ones stripping off for Spencer Tunick, and not because I’m mad, or overly sexual, but because I believe it makes a statement and brings society together. I believe we need to get more comfortable with the idea of non-sexual nudism. I grew up near a nudist commune and believe me, it does NOT make children sexualised or sick to routinely see ‘platonic’ nude adults and other children. It simply makes one more aware of our difference and yet similarities, more comfortable in our own bodies, more aware that sex can and should be a choice, and a behaviour, not a knee-jerk animalistic reaction. The more we cover up, the more fascination the body exudes. Look at the attention many men in the Middle East pay to a foreign woman who is not dressed as conservatively as the local women. In fact, I believe that bikinis are far more sexualised than the nude female body. The more we get paranoid and uptight about any nudity-sex link, the more we think about sex when we see a nude person. I think we can and should change this attitude.
And to Wylie Coyote: ‘Modesty, decency’ etc are all cultural constructs and they can be changed. We did not evolve to wear clothes out of ‘modesty’, merely for warmth. The point of naturism is not for ‘the rest of you’ to be INTERESTED in watching; that is pornography and it is very different. Naturists dont’ give a damn if you’re old and wrinkled or young and beautiful. The point is to be enjoying the freedom and self-esteem that non-sexual nudity can bring. 

frau_stechpalme | Sydney – February 15, 2010, 9:55AM

What I’ve never understood about nudism is this: some of the nastiest versions of bodily fluids and odours emanate from the nether regions in both sexes, despite regular bathing and being unencumbered by clothing. Are there not hygiene factors that come into play? Ok, maybe not so much on a beach, but in shared quarters, surely? 

Prudist – February 15, 2010, 9:55AM

Untill one has lived in a society where total absence of clothing is normal, and the people take no more notice of the human body than they would of any other body, then you are not fit to comment. Only the anti-human religeons have difficulty with nature as is associated with sex, and sex must be demonised by the churches, eg. christian, islam and in a minor way, judaism so that they can apply a measure of control. The inabilty to come to grips with nudity indicates a very low self esteem and immaturity. It does not seem to bother small children and their parents, it only seem to bother the sickes. My advice would be to keep an eye on the people who MUST complain the most, for they are the perverts insisting upon applying their own sick and twisted views of reality upon the populace. 

The Stump | Australia – February 15, 2010, 10:40AM

Being of Northern European origin (NO, NOT ENGLISH. LOL) I was already amused 40 years ago that people in Australia wear bathers in their saunas, presumably for reasons of modesty, as I have now learned. Saunas, like nude exposure to the air, are to do with health reasons and well being, and modest bathers defy the purpose. 

Any excuse will do to cover up, huh? 

I’d rather be scanned looking naked than the minute chance of being blown up mid-air. 

Old and Wrinkly | Melbourne – February 15, 2010, 11:14AM

Personally, I think most people look pretty unattractive when completely naked- men and women, of all ages. Total nudity is something to laugh at, not get turned on by, maybe if more nude beaches were allowed, those uptight anti-nudists would realise that. Also, it’s educational for children to see naked adult bodies, that’s why they have that exhibit of nude statues at the museum. 

nuddy – February 15, 2010, 11:17AM

Nuddy, if you think total nudity is something to be laughed at, then you have not gotten over a certain religious or socially inspired hangup. Laughter, it is often said, results from a relief from fear. Until you can accept it without feeling guilty, or needing to scoff, or laugh, or get angry, or be afraid, you don’t understand what the naturist philosophy really is about.
That said, I agree with you that it is educational for children to see naked adult bodies. 

frau_stechpalme | Sydney – February 15, 2010, 12:25PM

I’d sooner see nudists – ie. people just doing ordinary stuff, but undressed – than have the constant barrage of advertising that equates nudity with sexual arousal – female, of course. I’m sick to death of seeing women’s bodies (airbrushed beyond all resemblance to reality, too) used to sell things. In fact I’m sick of seeing them, full stop. Ordinary, everyday bodies, male and female, attractive or not, just not making a fuss or treating nudity as a prelude to sex and nothing else – now that sounds a lot healthier than what we see at present. 

LL – February 15, 2010, 12:26PM

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beware – this book could be habit-forming!, March 24, 2000

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