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Public nudity is nudity in public spaces, environments, events. Another common reference is nude in public (NIP). It can also refer to clothing-optional activities on public lands. It is less commonly referred to as public naturism or public nudism, free-range nakedness or free-range nudity.
This is in contrast to nudity in areas that are not generally accessible to the general public without prior permission including nudity at home, privately held offices or studios, fitness facilities (such as swimming pools, sauna, gymnasium) and nudity in privately held areas such as nudist or naturist clubs or resorts. Cultural and legal acceptance of public nudity varies regionally.
Nudity in public areas is generally not an accepted practice in most modern societies. A naked person is viewed by others rather differently from a person wearing clothing; public reactions usually include a great amount of surprise and curiosity.
It can however be seen in recent times that public nudity is on the increase with outdoor sporting activities such as Naked Hiking, the World Naked Bike Ride and modern art movements as seen in the work of Spencer Tunick and others.
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Disambiguation
in the Bay to Breakers event in San Francisco. The clothing-free contingent is known as http://baretobreakers.com Bare to Breakers.
The term public nudity or naked in public (NIP) has two general vernacular associations. Internet searches yield a majority of references with sexualized contexts, often focusing on young women. However, much of the nudity that occurs on public lands is in non-sexual contexts. In those contexts social norms dictate that people behave in a certain way to conform to social mores to avoid conflict between different people and organizations. A common example of this is clothing-optional beach etiquette, which takes different forms in different locales, usually spelling out bans on all forms of sexual harassment, overtly sexual behavior (such as masturbation or sexual intercourse), predatory behavior and aggressive voyeuristic photography.
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Establishing expectations
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Activities are generally thus classified by whether or not the activities are done in non-sexualized or sexualized contexts. In high visibility events, this often helps determine whether participants can be cited for indecent exposure or whether the activities may be legally deemed obscene, lewd or lascivious. This also helps potential participants who are concerned about sexual activities avoid events that they deem inappropriate. By definition organized naturist or nudists generally operate in contexts of non-sexualized nudity when in public or social (non-intimate) situations. Generally an activity or event has a reputation or is widely known to be of one type or the other, or known to include both. In cases of the latter areas of concern can be segregated with restricted access or by proper signage to warn people of the nature of the activities. In cases where organizers want participants to be clear about what to expect they will either explicitly advertise and label the event as being done in a family-friendly, non-sexual, naturist or nudist context to avoid unwanted behavior and to garnish community support and/or enforce good manners and appropriate behavior as problems occur.
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Association with movements or organizations
Not all people who engage in public nudity see themselves as nudists or naturists or belong to traditional naturist or nudist organizations. Several activists, such as Vincent Bethell, claim that associations with naturism or nudism are unnecessary. Others will point out that many people participate in events such as clothing-optional bike rides or visit clothing-optional beaches do so casually and without association or formal affiliation to groups or movements. Activist Daniel Johnson believes that labels and affiliations overly complicate a relatively simple phenomenon, alienate others from a fear of over-commitment or undesirable stereotypes, and thus get in the way of integrating nudity into everyday life.
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Non-sexualized
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Most widely accepted as being family-friendly nudity
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Artistic Expression
While nude modeling is usually done in closed artistic company, the photography of Spencer Tunick is generally shot publicly, outdoors
The photography of Jack Gescheidt, The Tree Spirit Project
The photography of Paul Harvey whose book The Spirit of Lady Godiva depicts nude models in urban environments
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Recreation and Sport
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Certain activities in public areas are more readily accepted to be done while naked, such as bathing and swimming. Hiking, bicycling and other sports may also not be viewed as unusual to be done while nude, especially in rural areas in northern Europe. Everyday activities such as riding a train or bus, shopping, or attending school or work are almost never considered by the public to be appropriate without clothing.
Bay to Breakers the clothing-optional contingent participate as part of the Bare to Breakers (Note as of 2006 Bay to Breakers now has an explicit statement against nudity and alcohol, two activities that were always considered to be, if not acceptable, at least looked past (by law enforcement)
Sandy Snakenberg has organized nude skating and rollerblading events in San Francisco *, the largest of their kind in the world.
sauna culture Nudity is the norm in public saunas common in many northern European nations, where the practice has spread from Finland. Because the practice is mainly common in Nordic countries and neighbouring regions such as east Germany and Finland, but less popular in west and south Europe or North America, sauna information is difficult to find in English.
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Activism and Protests
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Public nudity has sometimes been used to attract more attention to a public protest, a tactic used by the Doukhobors in the early 20th century, and later (particularly from the 1960s onwards) used more widely. Modern slogans include "Disrobe for disarmament", "Nudes, not nukes!", "Naked For Peace", and "I'd rather go naked than wear fur!".
At a Lollapalooza appearance in 1993 in Philadelphia, rather than perform their music, members of the band Rage Against the Machine stood onstage naked with duct-tape on their mouths and the letters "PMRC" painted on their chests for 15 minutes in protest against censorship by the Parents Music Resource Center.
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Formal nudity
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see clothes free organizations
Although ceremony and traditions usually rather involve dressing up, often with some preferential attire, certain cultural or religious traditions actually prescribe(d) nudity, e.g. in the gymnopaidia or the sect of the Adamites.
This may be symbolical, especially for 'rebirth' to a new life phase, as in the case of baptism (originally taken by an adult, later often as a child -to wash away the original sin- and/or at least partially covered up) or certain coming of age rites such as cow jumping by young men of the east African Hammer people before they are eligible for marriage. Another example is the neo-pagan tradition in some Wiccan covens of going skyclad for certain rituals.
In other cases the physical exposure is a functional part of the testing endurance, e.g. to undergo scarification as among various Australian Aboriginal - and Sepik River tribes in New Guinea.
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Clothes free people
see Clothes free people
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Legend
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Legal Resources
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Further reading
Nude & Natural 20.4 Summer 2001. Article by Jim Meyer on TFTBY titled Vincent's Vision: Is Vincent Bethell a menace to decent society? Or the best thing to happen to naturism in years?. Includes an interview with Vincent Bethell. Seven pages with ten pictures.
Nude & Natural 21.2 Winter 2002. The Bethell Approach: A Protest Colloquy/The Bethell Approach: Is the Time for Mass Nude Protests Upon Us? Includes statements by Vincent Bethell, Mark Nisbet, Cec Cinder, Paul Rapoport, Les Rootsey, Morley Shloss, T.A. Wyner, and Mark Storey. Eight Pages, four pictures. Briefly Noted Vincent Victorious.
Nude & Natural Vol 23.4: 73, Summer 2004.Takin' It to the Streets: The Cutting Edge of Naturism by Mark Storey. Mark claims "The future of naturism is on public lands. To gain naturist freedoms on public lands will require getting naked in public".
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Timeline
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Variable sexualized environments
Includes phenomena that ranges from being non-sexualized to sexualized in nature.
Burning Man- Overtly sexually-themed camps are generally labeled and segregated as such within the event
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Semi-sexualized or sexualized context
Flashing and mooning can be offensive to some, but in many contexts, these are not considered offensive, or to those who are offended, generally not nearly as offensive as overt sexual behavior. A flasher practices a form of indecent exposure, such as suddenly removing one's coat under which one is completely naked or at least displays uncovered genitalia and/or (for a female) breasts; streaking, i.e. running completely naked through a non-nudist public place, usually for fun or as a practical joke; mooning, i.e. exposing only the buttocks.
Activities such as dogging, exhibitionism, indecent exposure, voyeurism are not generally considered family friendly, and are also widely considered to be outside of naturist and nudist practices. Engaging in these activities can put people at risk for prosecution.
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Further reading
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See also
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