Naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practicing non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms are broadly interchangeable, nudism emphasizes the practice of nudity, whilst naturism highlights an attitude favoring harmony with nature and respect for the environment, into which that practice is integrated. That said, naturists come from a range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds; there is no single naturist ideology.
Ethical or philosophical nudism has a long history, with many advocates of the benefits of enjoying nature without clothing. At the turn of the 20th century, organizations emerged to promote social nudity and to establish private campgrounds and resorts for that purpose. Since the 1960s, with the acceptance of public places for clothing-optional recreation, individuals who do not identify themselves as naturists or nudists have been able to casually participate in nude activities. Nude recreation opportunities vary widely around the world, from isolated places known mainly to locals through officially designated nude beaches and parks, and on to public spaces and buildings in some jurisdictions.
Definition and lexicology
The XIV Congress of the International Naturist Federation held at Agde, France in 1974 defined naturism as:Many contemporary naturists and naturist organisations advocate that the practice of social nudity should not be linked with sexual activity. Some recent studies show that naturism can help grow self-esteem, and thus have a positive impact on having a well-balanced sexuality, too. For various sociocultural and historical reasons, the lay public, the media, and many contemporary naturists and their organisations have, or present, a simplified view of the relationship between naturism and sexuality., research has begun to explore this complex relationship.
The International Naturist Federation explains:
The usage and definition of these terms varies geographically and historically. Naturism and nudism have the same meaning in the United States, but there is a clear distinction between the two terms in Great Britain.
In naturist parlance, the terms "textile" or "textilist" refer to non-naturist persons, behaviours or facilities. "Textile" is the predominant term used in the UK, but some naturists avoid using this term due to perceived negative or derogatory connotations. "Textilist" is said to be used interchangeably with "textile", but no dictionary definition to this effect exists, nor are there any equivalent examples of use in mainstream literature such as those for "textile".
Naturist places and events
Naturist facilities
At naturist-organised events or venues, clothing is usually optional. At naturist swimming pools or sunbathing places, however, complete nudity is expected. This rule is sometimes a source of controversy among naturists. Staff at a naturist facility are usually required to be clothed due to health and safety regulations.Facilities for naturists are classified in various ways. A landed or members' naturist club is one that owns its own facilities. Non-landed clubs meet at various locations, such as private residences, swimming pools, hot springs, landed clubs and resorts, or rented facilities. Landed clubs can be run by members on democratic lines or by one or more owners who make the rules. In either case, they can determine membership criteria and the obligations of members. This usually involves sharing work necessary to maintain or develop the site.
The international naturist organizations were mainly composed of representatives of landed clubs. "Nudist colony" is no longer a favored term, but can be used by naturists to address landed clubs that have rigid non-inclusive membership criteria.
A holiday centre is a facility that specializes in providing apartments, chalets and camping pitches for visiting holidaymakers. A center is run commercially, and visitors are not members and have no say in the management. Most holiday centers expect visitors to hold an INF card, but some have relaxed this requirement, relying on the carrying of a trade card. Holiday centers vary in size. Larger holiday centres may have swimming pools, sports pitches, an entertainment program, kids' clubs, restaurants and supermarkets. Some holiday centres allow regular visitors to purchase their own chalets, and generations of the same families may visit each year. Holiday centres are more tolerant of clothing than members-only clubs; total nudity is usually compulsory in the swimming pools and may be expected on the beaches, while on the football pitches, or in the restaurants in the evening, it is rare.
A naturist resort is, to a European, a private property with accommodation and facilities where naturism is the norm. Centre Helio-Marin in Vendays Montalivet, France ; the naturist village of Charco del Palo on Lanzarote, Canary Islands; Vera Playa in Spain; and Vritomartis Resort in Greece are examples.
In US usage, a naturist resort can mean a holiday centre. Freikörperkultur —literally translated as 'free body culture'—is the name for the general movement in Germany. The abbreviation is recognised outside of Germany and can be found on informal signs indicating the direction to a remote naturist beach.
Nude beaches
In some European countries, such as Denmark, all beaches are clothing optional, and in others like Germany there are naturist sunbathing areas in public parks. Beaches in some holiday destinations, such as Crete, are clothing optional except some central urban beaches. There are two centrally located clothes-optional beaches in Barcelona. Sweden allows nudity on all beaches.In a survey by The Daily Telegraph, Germans and Austrians were most likely to have visited a nude beach, followed by Norwegians, Spaniards, Australians, and New Zealanders. Of the nationalities surveyed, the Japanese were the least likely to have visited a nude beach. This result may indicate the lack of nude beaches in Japan; however, the Japanese are open with regard to family bathing nude at home and at onsens.
Festival naturism
From Woodstock to Edinburgh, and Nambassa in the southern hemisphere, communal nudity can be seen at music and counterculture festivals.The Nambassa hippie festivals held in New Zealand in the late 1970s were examples of non-sexual naturism. Of the 75,000 patrons who attended the 1979 Nambassa three-day festival, an estimated 35% of attendees spontaneously chose to remove their clothing, preferring complete or partial nudity.
Some nudist festivals are held to celebrate particular days of the year, and activities may include nude bodypainting. One example is the Neptune Day Festival held in Koktebel, Crimea to depict mythological events. Another is the Festival Nudista Zipolite organized by the Federación Nudista de México held annually since 2016 on the first weekend of February.
A few camps organize activities in the nude, such as oil wrestling by camp Gymnasium.
File:Posing nude at Burning Man.jpg|thumb|right|Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man
Summer naturism
Naturism tends to be more common during the warmer summer months.Some regions host first-time naturists and people who have recently started to practice the naturist lifestyle.
One study noted that some of these people are seasonal naturists who wear clothes during other times of the year.
History
Nudity in social contexts has been practised in various forms by many cultures and in all time periods. In modern Western society, social nudity is most frequently encountered in the contexts of bathing, swimming and using saunas, but throughout history and in many contemporary tropical cultures, nudity is a norm at many sports events and competitions.The first known use of the word naturisme occurred in 1778. A French-speaking Belgian, Jean Baptiste Luc Planchon, used the term to advocate nudism as a means of improving the hygiène de vie or healthy living.
The earliest known naturist club in the western sense of the word was established in British India in 1891. The Fellowship of the Naked Trust was founded by Charles Edward Gordon Crawford, a widower who was a District and Sessions Judge for the Bombay Civil Service. The commune was based in Matheran and had just three members at the beginning: Crawford and two sons of an Anglican missionary, Andrew and Kellogg Calderwood. The commune fell apart when Crawford was transferred to Ratnagiri; he died soon after in 1894.
In 1902, a series of philosophical papers was published in Germany by Dr. Heinrich Pudor under the pseudonym Heinrich Scham, who coined the term Naturism in Germany. In 1906, he wrote a three-volume treatise with this term as its title, which discussed the benefits of nudity in co-education and advocated participating in sports while being free of cumbersome clothing. Richard Ungewitter proposed that combining physical fitness, sunlight, and fresh-air bathing with the nudist philosophy contributed to mental and psychological fitness, good health, and an improved moral-life view. Major promoters of these ideas included Adolf Koch and, who was an instructor and manager at the German Army School of Military Physical Education in Wünsdorf. Germany published the first journal of nudism from 1902 to 1932, during which time it evolved and became known as Freikörperkultur, the free body culture movement.
The wide publication of those papers, and others, contributed to an explosive worldwide growth of nudism in which nudists participated in various social, recreational, and physical fitness activities in the nude. The first organized club for nudists on a large scale, Freilichtpark, was opened near Hamburg in 1903 by Paul Zimmerman.
In 1919, German doctor Kurt Huldschinsky discovered that exposure to sunlight helped to cure rickets in many children, causing sunlight to be associated with improved health.
In France in the early 20th century, the brothers Gaston and André Durville, both physicians, studied the effects of psychology, nutrition, and environment on health and healing. They became convinced of the importance of natural foods and the natural environment on human well-being and health. They named this concept naturisme. The profound effect of clean air and sunlight on human bodies became evident to them and so nudity became a part of their naturism.
Naturism became a more widespread phenomenon in the 1920s in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and other European countries and spread to the United States, where it became established in the 1930s. In Brazil, nudist magazines were already published in the 1930. In mid 50s, there were several of such publications and some editors were persecuted by police and sued by authorities under the charge of "indecent exposure".
By 1951, the various national federations united to form the International Naturist Federation. Some naturists preferred not to join clubs, and after 1945, pressure arose to designate beaches for naturist use. From the middle of the 20th century, with changing leisure patterns, commercial organisations began opening holiday resorts to attract naturists who expected the same – or better – standards of comfort and amenity offered to non-naturists. More recently, naturist holiday options have expanded to include cruises.
In the early 21st century, many organised clubs saw a decline in attendance by young people, which worried many naturists about the future of the movement. The clubs' aging memberships may have put younger people off. A rise in social conservatism, re-asserting a nudity taboo, also may have contributed to the decline. However, since tolerance for nudity in general is increasing over time, and is higher among younger generations, an alternative hypothesis is that younger naturists no longer feel they need to join a club or visit a resort in order to practise naturism. Active recruitment of younger members is being pursued by some organisations. The phenomenon varies by country, with, for example, naturism in France experiencing steady growth in a younger demographic during the 2010s. A similar trend is seen in Germany, with young people eager to depart from social norms and beauty standards.