![RAAF 1943 swimming nude](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/RAAF_1943_swimming_nude.jpeg)
Nude swimming is the practice of
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
s. A colloquial term for nude swimming is ''
skinny-dipping
Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is '' skinny-dipping''.
In both British and American English, to swim means "to move throu ...
''.
In both British and American English, to swim means "to move through water by moving the body or parts of the body". In British English, bathing also means swimming; but in American English, bathing refers to washing, or any immersion in liquid for hygienic, therapeutic, or ritual purposes. Many terms reflect British usage, such as
sea bathing
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...
and bathing suit, although
swimsuit
A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or List of water sports, water sports, such as swimming, Diving (sport), diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Di ...
is now more often used.
In prehistory and for much of ancient history, both swimming and bathing were done without clothes, although cultures have differed as to whether bathing ought to be segregated by sex. Christian societies have generally opposed mixed nude bathing, although not all early Christians immediately abandoned Roman traditions of mixed communal bathing. In Western societies into the 20th century, nude swimming was common for men and boys, particularly in male-only contexts and to a lesser extent in the presence of clothed women. Some non-Western societies have continued to practice mixed nude bathing into the present, while some Western cultures became more tolerant of the practice over the course of the 20th century.
The contemporary practices of
naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising 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 ar ...
include nude swimming. The widespread acceptance of naturism in many European countries has led to legal recognition of clothing-optional swimming in locations open to the public. After a brief period of popularity in the 1960s-1970s of public "nude beaches" in the United States, acceptance is declining, confining American nude swimming generally to private locations.
History
Based upon rock painting found in caves, the human activity of swimming existed for many thousands of years prior to the first civilizations, during which humans were generally naked.
Ancient to early modern
In Ancient Egypt, clothing was symbolic of social status, making adult nudity an indicator of low status or poverty. However, children, even of the upper classes, would be naked until puberty. Manual laborers of either sex would wear a loincloth or skirt unless their tasks included swimming; fishermen and boatmen often being nude.
In ancient Rome, clothing also represented social status, but public bathhouses were an exception. Bathhouses might include swimming pools that were located in open courtyards.
Swimming became increasingly unpopular after the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
, being viewed by the Christian church as both sinful and unhealthy. In spite of church teaching, swimming and bathing returned in the 12th century, sometimes without segregation of the sexes.
Defying the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
,
Everard Digby
Sir Everard Digby (c. 1578 – 30 January 1606) was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Protestant household, and married a Protestant, Digby and his ...
's book ''The Art of Swimming (De Arte Natandi)'' was published in 1587.
Melchisédech Thévenot Melchisédech (or Melchisédec) Thévenot (c. 1620 – 29 October 1692) was a French author, scientist, traveler, cartographer, orientalist, inventor, and diplomat. He was the inventor of the spirit level and is also famous for his popular posthumo ...
's 1696 instruction book, also called ''The Art of Swimming'', was illustrated by 40
copperplate etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
s that showed swimming was normally nude.
Indigenous peoples swimming naked were depicted by colonists in the Americas beginning in the 16th century.
Modern era
Australia
In the Victorian era, public baths and swimming pools were built in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
to address problems of health and safety, but also to reduce the persistence of nude swimming in open waters. Swimming costumes being issued to pool patrons.
England
The Bath Corporation official bathing dress code of 1737, prohibited men and women from swimming nude either in the day or in the night.
In the early 1730s, fashionable
sea bathing
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...
initially followed the inland health seeking tradition.
Sea bathing resorts modelled themselves on Bath, and provided
promenade
An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...
s,
circulating libraries A circulating library (also known as lending libraries and rental libraries) lent books to subscribers, and was first and foremost a business venture. The intention was to profit from lending books to the public for a fee.
Overview
Circulating li ...
, and
assembly room
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were ...
s.
While sea bathing or dipping, men and boys were naked. Women and girls were encouraged to dip wearing loose clothing. Scarborough was the first resort to provide
bathing machine
The bathing machine was a device, popular from the 18th century until the early 20th century, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, change into swimwear, and wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled woo ...
s for changing. Some men extended this to swimming in the sea and by 1736 it was seen at Brighton and
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...
, and later at
Deal
A deal, or deals may refer to:
Places United States
* Deal, New Jersey, a borough
* Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* Deal Lake, New Jersey
Elsewhere
* Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia
* Deal, Kent, a town in England
* Deal, ...
,
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
and
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
.
In England, bathing in the sea by the lower classes was noted in
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
by
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classics, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his ''Elegy Written in a Country ...
in 1764, and in
Exmouth
Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe and southeast of Exeter.
In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of town ...
in 1779. In
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, working women and men bathed naked in the sea together in 1795: "Lower classes of people of both sexes made an annual pilgrimage to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
where they dabbled in the salt water for hours at each tide in promiscuous numbers and not much embarrassing themselves about appearance."
![MermaidsAtBrighton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/MermaidsAtBrighton.jpg)
At the beginning of the Victorian period in England, men and boys typically swam naked in the sea near bathing machines that were used by women. There were some efforts to designate separate beach sections for males and females. On the
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell ( or ) is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Hellidon, Northamptonshire and flows southwards for to meet the Thames at Oxford in Oxfordshire.
The river gives its name to the Cherwell local g ...
near the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, an area for male nude bathing was known as
Parson's Pleasure
Parson's Pleasure in the University Parks at Oxford, England, was a secluded area for male-only nude bathing on the River Cherwell. It was located next to the path on the way to Mesopotamia at the south-east corner of the Parks. The facility ...
; a nearby area for female nude bathing which closed in 1970 was known as
Dame's Delight
Dame's Delight was a place for women to bathe on the bank of the River Cherwell in the meadows near the Oxford University Parks opposite Mesopotamia Walk in Oxford, England.
The site existed from 1934 to 1970, when it closed because of mainten ...
.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the rise of the influence of Christian
Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
s caused arrangements for
mixed bathing
Mixed bathing is the sharing of a pool, beach or other place by swimmers of both sexes. Mixed bathing usually refers to swimming or other water-based recreational activities in public or semi-public facilities, such as hotel or holiday resort pool ...
to be reassessed. Moral pressures led some town councils to establish zones for the women and men to bathe separately. These areas were not policed; mixed bathing was a popular activity. Resorts attempted to placate the Evangelicals without upsetting traditional bathers. There are very few records of magistrates enforcing the bylaws. In 1895 ''Cosmopolitan'' reported: "At most English resorts, buff bathing is available before eight o'clock in the morning" while
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...
,
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
,
Bexhill,
Bognor
Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...
and
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
still tolerated nude bathing at any time of the day, in areas away from the central bathing areas.
Drawers, or
caleçon
Boxer shorts (also known as loose boxers or as simply boxers) are a type of undergarment typically worn by men.
The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by Boxing, boxers, for whom ...
s as they were called (''fr:caleçon de bain''), came into use in the 1860s. Even then there were many who protested against them and wanted to remain in the nude. Rev.
Francis Kilvert
Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death.
Life
Kilvert was born on 3 ...
, an English clergyman and nude swimmer, described men's bathing suits coming into use in the 1870s as "a pair of very short red and white striped drawers". Excerpts from Kilvert's diary show the transition in the England of the 1870s from an acceptance of nude bathing to the acceptance of bathing suits. Kilvert describes "a delicious feeling of freedom in stripping in the open air and running down naked to the sea."
In 1895, ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'',
''Standard'', ''
Daily Graphic
''The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper'' was the first American newspaper with daily illustrations. It was founded in New York City in 1873 by Canadian engravers George-Édouard Desbarats and William Leggo, and began publication ...
'' and ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' newspapers ran a campaign to reintroduce mixed bathing in all resorts, pointing out that its prohibition split up families and encouraged them to take their holidays abroad. Commercial pressure defeated the moral pressures. Sea bathing had ceased to be done for health reasons, and was done overwhelmingly for pleasure. As the segregated beaches in town disappeared, bathing costumes for men became part of the commercial package, and nude bathing ceased.
![Waterrats by Francis Sutcliffe 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Waterrats_by_Francis_Sutcliffe_1.jpg)
The introduction of mixed bathing throughout Europe and elsewhere certainly created pressure towards bathing costumes being worn by both genders. However, well into the latter days of the Victorian Era, whereas all females were routinely wearing modest bathing attire, many boys well into their teens in Victorian England, even when in a mixed gender setting, were still swimming and playing at the beach resorts completely naked. An article published on August 23, 1891, in the ''Syracuse Sunday Herald'' suggests naked boys of up to 15 years in age were problematic for American parents with daughters, and read:
South Africa
From 1873, the
East London, Eastern Cape
East London ( xh, eMonti; af, Oos-Londen) is a city on the southeast coast of South Africa in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality of the Eastern Cape province. The city lies on the Indian Ocean coast, largely between the Buffalo River ...
town council promulgated measures to control swimming hours, apparel and especially separate swimming areas for men and women. These regulations were too conservative and constraining for the taste of the residents of this coastal town and for several decades they were the subject of legal battles, or were simply ignored. The dispute was finally settled in 1906 when mixed bathing was permitted with the proviso that both men and women should wear suitable swimming costumes.
United States
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
and
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
were known to skinny dip.
20th century
Since the early 20th century, the
naturist
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising 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 ar ...
movement has developed in western countries, seeking a return to non-sexual nudity when swimming and during other appropriate activities.
Canada
In the late 19th to early 20th century, using tax revenue to provide public bathing facilities for working-class men was not politically popular in
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
, while private establishments served the middle and upper classes. These included swimming at the YMCA, which required membership or payment of fees. However, the problem of men being publicly naked while swimming and bathing in open water was recognized. Efforts to regulate nude swimming with laws against doing so during daylight hours did not prevent increases in incidents in the 1860s through the 1880s by laborers and boys.
In the 19th century, boys and working class men in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
swimming nude in the Humber and Don Rivers was allowed in secluded swimming holes, while officially prohibited elsewhere. Skinny-dipping was seen by many as an innocent activity for young males, as long it did not intrude upon the sensibilities of females. In the 20th century, urban growth had encroached upon this isolation, and also created the problem of water pollution. The development of beaches in the
Sunnyside district on the Lake Ontario waterfront marked the end of nude outdoor swimming.
As in the United States, men swam nude at the YMCAs until they became coed.
China
In 2004 after some local university students went skinny-dipping there, signs were placed at a riverside beach in a public park in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
province declaring a section to be a nudist beach. Following complaints from other park visitors, the signs were removed, although officially China has no law forbidding swimming nude. In a July 2005 a heat wave, a number of incidents of men skinny-dipping were noted.
England
In English boys' schools (
Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...
, for example), students recall nude swimming being required at least from the 1930s until the 1970s. No official reason for the practice was given, but some mention the problem in the early years of fibres from wool swimsuits clogged pool filters. However, nude swimming continued when modern swimsuit materials were available.
United States
In the United States, skinny-dipping by young people, mostly boys, was common in rural areas across the country. As towns such as
Logan, Utah
Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Cache County and Franklin ...
,
Humboldt, Iowa
Humboldt is a city in Humboldt County, Iowa, United States. The population was 4,792 at the time of the 2020 census, gaining 340 people over the 2000 total.
History
Frank A. Gotch Park (just south of present-day Humboldt and Dakota City) was a ...
and
Dixon, Illinois
Dixon is a city and the county seat of Lee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,733 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,941 in 2000. The city is named after founder John Dixon, who operated a rope ferry service across the R ...
grew in the 1890s, the traditional locations became more visible to the public, and local ordinances were implemented prohibiting nude swimming, but were difficult to enforce, or involved very young children who were not punished. Among the features of rural Vermont being overtaken by development in the 1970s, an editorial mentions the removal of forests that sheltered ponds where boys had been swimming naked for 200 years. Older residents of
Duncanville, Texas
Duncanville is a city in southwest Dallas County, Texas, in the United States. Duncanville's population was 40,706 at the 2020 census. The city is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes Duncanville, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Lancaster ...
remembered the "Blue Hole" on Ten Mile Creek a few hundred feet west of Main Street as the place to skinny-dip for decades. In 1967, misbehavior including drinking, fighting, and accidents led to complaints and calls to make the place off-limits.
American president
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
described nude swims in the
Potomac with his "tennis cabinet" in his ''Autobiography'': "If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes".
Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...
describes skinny dipping as one of the first activities of his
Woodcraft Indians
Woodcraft League of America, originally called the Woodcraft Indians and League of Woodcraft Indians, is a youth program, established by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1901. Despite the name, the program was created for non- Indian children. At first t ...
, a forerunner of the
Scout movement
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
, in 1902. A 1937 article on swimming at boy scout summer camps in Washington state makes no mention of the boys being naked in almost all the photographs. Descriptions of special "carnival" days that were coed did not mention whether swimsuits were available for boys.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1983-0815-302, FKK-Strände des Senftenberger Erholungsgebietes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1983-0815-302%2C_FKK-Str%C3%A4nde_des_Senftenberger_Erholungsgebietes.jpg)
Swimming in indoor pools
Initially, men and boys swam in the nude in indoor swimming pools, as had previously been customary in lakes and rivers. YMCAs everywhere had nude swimming beginning in the 1890s until they became coed in the 1960s.
In 1900, there were only 67 public pools in the United States, by 1929 there were more than 5,000. Given the limits of chlorination at that time, behavioral measures were used to maintain water quality. In 1933, in addition to recommending nudity, all bathers were required to empty their bladder and shower before entering the pool. Those suffering from skin or repiratory disease were prohibited from using the pool. In 1940 health experts continued to favor boys wearing bathing suits only in pools visible to both sexes. Girls were issued cotton suits that could be boiled to disinfect them between uses; the wool suits used by boys could not because they would shrink. It was also noted that wool suits that had previously been used in salt water could not be washed effectively because salt prevents soap from lathering. In 1926, the
American Public Health Association (APHA) standards handbook recommended that indoor swimming pools used by men adopt nude bathing policies and that indoor swimming pools used by women require swimsuits "of the simplest type". Students bringing their own suits was discouraged, the institutions not having control of decontamination. The October 16, 1950 ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine had a photograph of boys swimming together in the indoor pool of
New Trier High School
New Trier High School (, also known as New Trier Township High School or NTHS) is a public four-year high school, with its main campus for sophomores through seniors located in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, and a campus in Northfield, Illinoi ...
in
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located north of downtown Chicago. The population was 12,316 as of 2019. The village is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of household income. It was the second- ...
; the caption did not mention they were naked.
New developments in pool chlorination, filtration, and nylon swimsuits led the APHA to abandon its recommendation of nude swimming for males in 1962.
However, the custom did not immediately cease. During the 1970s, the adoption of mixed-gender swimming led to the gradual abandonment of nude male swimming in schools. Federal
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
rules mandating equality in physical education led most schools to switch to co-educational gym classes by 1980, ending nude swimming in public schools. In the 21st century, the practice has been forgotten, denied having existed, or viewed as an example of questionable behaviors in the past that are no longer acceptable.
However, Jungian psychoanalyst Barry Miller views the sexualization of nudity in male only situations such as locker rooms and swimming pools as a loss.
Contemporary practices
![Nudists at Formentera beach 0240](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Nudists_at_Formentera_beach_0240.jpg)
In many countries in the 21st century, nude swimming mostly takes place at nude beaches, naturist facilities, private swimming pools, or secluded or segregated public swimming areas. Some Western countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, have no laws prohibiting nude swimming in public areas, but some countries around the world strictly enforce various laws against
public nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...
, including nude swimming. Some jurisdictions which maintain laws against public nudity may turn a blind eye to incidents of skinny dipping depending on the circumstances, as police officers on the spot decline to make arrests.
A 2006
Roper poll showed that 25% of all American adults had been skinny dipping at least once, and that 74% believed nude swimming should be tolerated at accepted locations. Nude swimming is fairly common in rural areas of the United States, where unexpected visitors are less likely. However, in some places, even that type of swimming is prohibited by law. There is no federal law against
nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
. Nude beaches such as
Baker Beach in San Francisco operate within federal park lands in California. However, under a provision called ''
concurrent jurisdiction
Concurrent jurisdiction exists where two or more courts from different systems simultaneously have jurisdiction over a specific case. This situation leads to forum shopping, as parties will try to have their civil or criminal case heard in the c ...
'',
federal park ranger
A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks.
Description
"Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...
s may enforce state and local laws against nudity or invite local authorities to do so. Skinny-dippers generally deal with this by keeping an eye out for local patrols, who generally do not go out of their way to find violators. Many swimmers in the United States confine nude swimming to private locations due to concerns about attitudes to public nudity.
In Germany, nude bathing is more widespread than in many other countries. A 2014 study revealed Germans (28%) were the most likely of all nations surveyed to have been nude at a beach.
The world record for the largest skinny dip—2,505 persons—was set on 9 June 2018 at Meaghermore beach in
County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...
, Ireland. The record was set at an annual all-women's event known as Strip and Dip, which was created by cancer survivor Deirdre Featherstone. The 2018 event raised money for a national children's cancer charity.
Artistic depictions
Nude swimming was a common subject of
– painters from before the 19th century – and
Romantic oil paintings, usually
bucolic
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that depic ...
or in a mythological or historical settings. For example, Swedish painters
Georg Pauli
Georg Vilhelm Pauli (2 July 1855, Jönköping - 28 November 1935, Stockholm) was a Swedish painter, known primarily for portraits and figures. He was also the author of numerous art-related books.
Biography
His father, August Ferdinand Pauli (18 ...
and
Anders Zorn
Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish painter. He attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. Among Zorn's portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American ...
painted a number of nude swimming scenes.
Late in the 19th century, painters started to render nude boys and men in realistic settings.
Daumier's ''Bathers'' shows youths clumsily hauling off their clothes (a symbol of repression) and a naked short stocky youth stepping cautiously into the water that represents freedom.
Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
's ''Bathers Asnières'' uses similar symbolism to show the bathers removing their everyday identities to step into the momentary sunlight.
The bathers in
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists.
For the length ...
' ''
The Swimming Hole
''The Swimming Hole'' (also known as ''Swimming'' and ''The Old Swimming Hole'') is an 1884–85 painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), Goodrich catalog #190, in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art i ...
'' each represent different stages in the artist's life. He prepared for this canvas by taking multiple photographs of his students frolicking at this location. The painting portrays a happy physical un-selfconsciousness seen through the perspective of age; a nostalgia for youth. By the 1880s, this nostalgia for youth was a veneer carefully disguising a latent homosexuality. In contrast, there were poets and painters who would contrast the free young beauty of bodies in the water with the approaching grind of maturity and responsibility.
Henry Scott Tuke
Henry Scott Tuke (12 June 1858 – 13 March 1929), was an English visual artist; primarily a painter, but also a photographer. His most notable work was in the Impressionist style, and he is best known for his paintings of nude boys and young ...
painted naked bathers in a soft, idealized style, deliberately avoiding overt sexuality.
[
Cezanne's monumental male bathers derive from memories of a happy childhood rather than direct observation. This was described by his friend ]Emile Zola
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
as a time when "they were possessed with the joys of plunging (naked) into the deeper pools where the waters flowed, or spending the days stark naked in the sun, drying them selves on the burning sand, diving in once more to live in the river..."[
In later periods, depictions of nude swimming scenes became rarer, but more likely to depict straightforward contemporary scenes. The cover of the August 19, 1911 edition of the '']Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' had a Leyendecker painting of three boys;[Meyer, Susan E. "J.C. Leyendecker." In America's Great Illustrators, 136–159. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1978.] the cover of the June 4, 1921 edition had Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
's painting ''No Swimming'', depicting boys in various states of undress escaping from the local authorities.
In Movies
A number of films have become notable in whole or in part due to reaction to their nude swimming scenes.
* 1918 – '' Tad's Swimming Hole'', was a 1918 silent comedy film by King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...
, it had frontal shots of nude boys that were censored in some places e.g. Chicago.
* 1933 – The film '' Ecstasy'' was banned in many places and censored in others. The film included a nude swimming scene with Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...
in her film debut.
* 1934 – ''Tarzan and His Mate
''Tarzan and His Mate'' is a 1934 American pre-Code action adventure film based on the Tarzan character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Directed by Cedric Gibbons, it w ...
'' featured the female lead (played by a double) swimming nude. However, religious groups lobbied to have the scene removed. Three versions of this movie now exist.[Vieira, Mark A. (1999), ''Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, p. 180, ]
* 1943 – ''Child Bride
''Child Bride'', also known as ''Child Brides'', ''Child Bride of the Ozarks'' and ''Dust to Dust'' (USA reissue titles), is a 1938 '' featured the female lead, 12-year-old Shirley Mills
Shirley Olivia Mills (April 8, 1926 – March 31, 2010) was an American actress. She played the roles of the youngest daughter in ''The Grapes of Wrath'' and the title character in '' Child Bride''. In the latter, she is shown nude in a nude sw ...
, swimming nude. It is considered the most notable scene on the film.
* 1960 - The opening scene of the Disney film, Pollyanna
''Pollyanna'' is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' (1915). Eleven more ''Pollyanna'' sequels, know ...
starts with a close-up of a nude 7 year old blond boy, William Betz, on a rope swing dropping into White Sulfur Springs, Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...
; his mother was an extra on the film. This motif showed that Harrington was a normal 'small American town' where the 'folk' enjoyed normal activities. Disney has a reputation for being morally conservative; thus boys swimming nude was an everyday event.
* 1969 - In director Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...
's film ''Age of Consent
The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...
'', an extended scene shows Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
, playing a teenage girl, swimming underwater in an Australian reef.
* 1971 – ''Walkabout
Walkabout is a rite of passage in Australian Aboriginal society, during which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditiona ...
'', an Australian/British film directed by Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing '' Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973), ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976 ...
, shows actress Jenny Agutter
Jennifer Ann Agutter (born 20 December 1952) is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in ''East of Sudan'', '' Star!'', and two adaptations of ''The Railway Children''—the BBC's 1968 television serial ...
and actors David Gulpilil
David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 November 2021), known professionally as David Gulpilil and posthumously (at his family's request, to avoid naming the dead) as David Dalaithngu for three days, was an Indigenous Australian actor ...
and Luc Roeg swimming nude. The nude swimming scenes are set in several water holes in the Australian outback, during an extended time disconnected from civilization.[Hanson, Stuart "Walkabout" in Mills, Jean and Mills, Richard (2002) ''Childhood Studies: A Reader in Perspectives of Childhood'', Routledge]
p. 149-50
. Quote: "Underlying the film, though, is a view that all children are essentially innocent and pure. This is represented with the white children becoming more comfortable with their bodies, as they strip away their school uniforms, and find their places in nature. The tension here is the developing sensuality that the girl exudes and which is picked up by the Aboriginal boy, especially in the scene where they both swim nude in the rock pool."
* 1984 - '' Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes'', an American/British film directed by Hugh Hudson
Hugh Hudson (born 25 August 1936) is an English film director. He was among a generation of British directors who would begin their career making documentaries and television commercials before going on to have success in films. He directed the ...
, shows actor Danny Potts swimming nude. The nude swimming scene is set is when after a gorilla is being attacked by a black panther
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
that a five-year-old Tarzan learns how to swim.
See also
* Naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising 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 ar ...
* Nude beach
A nude beach, sometimes called a clothing-optional or free beach, is a beach where users are at liberty to be nudity, nude. Nude beaches usually have mixed bathing. Such beaches are usually on public lands, and any member of the public is allow ...
* Nightswimming
"Nightswimming" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released in 1993 as the fifth single from the group's eighth album, ''Automatic for the People'' (1992). "Nightswimming" is a ballad featuring singer Michael Stipe accompa ...
- Song by R.E.M. that refers to skinny-dipping.
* Nude recreation
Nude recreation refers to recreational activities which some people engage in while nude. Historically, the ancient Olympics were nude events. There remain some societies in Africa, Oceania, and South America that continue to engage in everyday p ...
* Public bathing
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
The Naturist Society
(us)
South Florida Free Beaches
(Haulover Beach Park)
Naturist Education Foundation
(us)
Crown Prosecution Service – Nudity in Public – Guidance on handling cases of Naturism
(UK specific)
{{nudity, state=collapsed
History of swimming
Nude recreation