Why has nudity been a strong taboo in most societies for so long?

Naturists need to understand the prevalent taboos around nudity and explain why they shouldn't apply to naturism

Historians, ethnologists, sociologists, and psychologists should do collaborative studies to understand the many and varied ways most societies in history have developed strong taboos against exposure of certain parts of human bodies. In extreme cases, such as in some Muslim cultures, women must be almost entirely covered in public. While most "modern" societies are not quite so extreme, public exposure of human genital areas and female breasts is usually not tolerated.

That taboo almost always extends to depictions of those body parts in printed media, photographs, movies, online images, etc. Curiously, however, that taboo is somewhat relaxed in the case of "art" (drawings, paintings, sculpture, etc.) Such depictions of partial or full nudity are common in art books and most public museums open to people of all ages.

The taboo generally applies to depictions of nudity - in whatever form - that can be seen by children (if they’re younger than some arbitrarily specified age). Yet the restriction generally doesn't apply in most public museums and art galleries in modern societies. The taboo supposedly "protects" children from seeing anything that isn’t "age-appropriate". (I.e., anything a child's parents or guardians might be uncomfortable discussing.)

Of course, even when artistic nudity is OK in museums and art galleries, for both children and adults, visitors themselves can’t be naked except on very rare occasions. And anything close to nudity is generally unwelcome in most public places other than beaches and some parks - shirtless men, women wearing anything that shows “too much” skin, bare feet, etc. And in some places - like churches, legislative chambers, formal (and expensive) restaurants, business offices, etc. - the standards of what’s “appropriate” are much higher. Disrespect for their norms is quite taboo.

Full nudity or anything very close to it - in places like public parks, public swimming pools, beaches, hiking and camping areas, and even in parts of private property visible from the outside is usually not tolerated in most contemporary societies. That’s also true even in gymnasiums - although “gymnos” is a Greek cognate meaning “naked” or “bare”. (In ancient Greece, male athletes often trained and competed naked. A gymnasium was literally a “place to be naked”.)

(Nudity is normal and expected in places where it’s done for an audience, for couples’ consensual sexual activities, in purposely sexual gatherings, for sex workers and their customers, and in other sexual contexts even when there's no exchange of money. However, sexual nudity is irrelevant to this discussion.)

Exposing certain body parts is necessary in childbirth and often in other medical situations, but that's a special case. Despite the taboos, many people are comfortable exposing "sensitive" parts of their bodies in a suitable context. People who identify as naturists or nudists are, naturally, in this category. But many others who don't self-identify that way have no problem - depending on the context - exposing partially or fully the taboo body parts.

In many modern societies, nudity is "normal" for many people in various cases, such as nude art modeling. Until relatively recently, nudity was normal in gender-specific locker and shower rooms of U.S. schools, gymnasiums, and elsewhere. Lots of people enjoy simple nudity occasionally where they live - indoors and in outdoor areas not easily visible to neighbors or the general public.

In some Western European countries and other modern societies, nudity may be expected, not merely accepted - for example in many spas and saunas hosting men and women together. But that’s atypical elsewhere. In the U.S. - except in naturist venues - men and women have separate changing and shower rooms. Users often wrap themselves in a towel, and single-person enclosed showers are now common. So nudity tends to be avoided as much as possible. In Japanese “onsen” (usually hot springs) mixed-gender nudity was normal until recent decades, but the trend has been towards separate bathing areas for men and women. There were many public bathing facilities in Rome 20 centuries ago. Initially, men and women could bathe together, but gradually the custom became for gender separation, usually men in the morning, and women in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, for many centuries nonsexual nudity between unrelated people has become increasingly taboo and uncommon. We have to wonder exactly why that is. Yet how is it that nudists/naturists - some for more than a century - have happily enjoyed freedom from that taboo whenever possible?

What, exactly, is a taboo anyhow?

For present purposes, let’s define taboos as strong social conventions that are prevalent in most societies and can take many different forms. Taboos generally prescribe limitations on certain types of both private and social behavior and may proscribe them entirely.

Taboos arise and persist for a variety of reasons. For example:

• There may be cultural traditions dating back many centuries that have persisted simply because “it’s always been that way”, reinforced by tribal elders, and which continue to exist even though the original reasons may have been mostly forgotten or transformed.

• Young members of the tribe or society are taught by their parents and elders what sorts of behavior are or aren’t socially acceptable - just as the parents and elders have themselves been taught.

• There may be valid reasons why certain behaviors are harmful or dangerous to individuals, their families, or society itself. For example: eating certain things, failing to avoid dangerous animals, or interacting with members of quite different tribes having very dissimilar customs.

• Religious systems may evolve beliefs in non-human entities that demand behaviors or rituals that are either mandatory or proscribed, even if the reasons are based on nothing more than cultural traditions.

• Taboos may proscribe behavior that is disruptive or harmful to others or society as a whole.

• There may be psychological or emotional reasons why certain topics or behaviors are emotionally fraught - such as sex, death, or bodily functions.

When and where has the nudity taboo been weak or nonexistent?

Open nudity has been accepted or even common in many places at many different times, but this can be only a very incomplete listing.y. Examples from ancient Greece and Rome, Japan, and Western European countries have already been mentioned. And there’s been the example of nudism and naturism in modern societies around the world since the first three decades of the past century.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, nudity has a long tradition in the U.S. - but mainly just for males. “Skinny-dipping” - in secluded lakes, rivers, and streams - has been quite common in rural areas for most of the country’s existence. Certainly far longer for indigenous people too. And how do you suppose people who migrated west in covered wagons during the 19th Century managed to bathe themselves?

Most people these days probably are unaware that YMCAs around the country allowed - or required - boys and men to use their swimming pools naked until around 1980. That ceased when the nudity taboo strengthened - for various reasons, such as changing public attitudes, mixed-gender use of the pools, and legal/liability issues.

Little is known about the history of nudity and nudity taboos before about 4500 years ago. That’s simply because writing systems that enable recording history only appeared about 3400 BCE, a few centuries after the first Middle Eastern civilization arose in Mesopotamia. Cuneiform was the first example, followed around 3200 BCE in Egypt (hieroglyphics). Writing appeared even later in India (ca. 2600 BCE) and China (ca. 1200 BCE). Cave paintings (which have survived due to protection from weathering) have been around much longer. But they reveal very little about what was important to their makers - except, mainly, for the animals they lived with.

There still are indigenous peoples in various parts of the world who deliberately avoid contact with modern societies and have few, if any, written records. So knowing much about their attitudes towards nudity is difficult. For such people living in relatively warm regions, supposing they may have few taboos related to nudity isn’t unreasonable.

But surprisingly, there’s photographic evidence that nudity wasn’t uncommon in some indigenous tribes of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. It’s located between Southern latitudes 52° and 56°, so the region wasn’t very warm - like the southernmost parts of Alaska in the North. The photos were taken by an Austrian priest and ethnologist, Martin Gusinde. He did anthropological work (off and on) among the tribes between 1918 and 1924 and made at least 1200 photographs of tribal people. Most of the nudity recorded is male, although there’s a little partial female nudity. (Whether the scarcity is due to the sensibilities of the subjects or the photographer is unclear.) However, there was little if any nudity taboo among tribal men - and that was at least accepted among the women. (Reference: The Lost Tribes of Tierra del Fuego)

An additional example is especially interesting for its connection with religion - the Jainism of India. Wikipedia: “The Jain community is divided into two major denominations, Digambara and Śvētāmbara. Monks of the Digambara (sky-clad) tradition do not wear clothes.” The nudity is based on the principle that monks of the religion should renounce possessions - including clothes. Naked statuary of Jain saints is common in Jain temples. However, monastic Digambara women are very rarely sky-clad, although they consequently may not attain “liberation”. In contemporary India, the nudity taboo is quite strong, even among the Digambara.

Religion aside, the popularity of naturism in contemporary India is similar to that of many Western countries. Some examples: here, here, here, and here. Yet, except for naturists, the nudity taboo remains strong in India. Indian Digambara nudity is now very controversial, even for men, as this account illustrates: Himanta vows to protect nude Jain monks' procession amid protest. There were significant protests directed at Jain monks “who were nude as per their religious practice, eliciting sharp reactions from a section of residents”.

[Original story (with video) here. The white-clad figures are Jain nuns.]

There is a fairly recent quasi-religious movement, known as Wicca, whose participants - both male and female - generally disregard nudity taboos and engage in ceremonies fully naked. Although Gerald Gardner founded modern Wicca in the early 1900s, it harkens back to Druidism, whose practitioners were known as Druids, with the earliest references dating to the 4th century BCE (according to Wikipedia). (Incidentally, there actually is a Wiccapedia.)

While we’re considering the role of nudity in religion, during the 2nd through 4th centuries CE there was an early Christian sect in North Africa - referred to as Adamites, who wore nothing in their religious services. Small groups having similar practices existed in central Europe during the 13th to 15th centuries. In both cases, such people were persecuted as heretics to the predominant religion. As usual, nudity was thought to have only a sexual purpose - as too many think about nudists/naturists currently. But a more sympathetic assessment would be that Adamites simply aimed to overcome carnal desires and live ascetically with minimal encumbrances - rather like Digambara Jains.

Cambridge University economist and feminist, Victoria Bateman, has become well-known in recent years for fully naked protests in England, especially concerning “Brexit”. Her 2023 book “Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty” declares there should be no connection between respect for women and their state of dress. (And implicitly for men as well.) It’s worth noting that the UK has a strong naturist organization (British Naturism), non-sexual public nudity is generally legal in Britain, and the country has many popular naturist beaches - despite a less than ideal climate.

The book’s first chapter (after the Introduction) covers what can be known about nudity in human societies from the earliest clues in Pleistocene times, which ended about 12,000 years ago. The earliest known human image - the Venus of Hohle Fels - is dated to over 40,000 years ago. It’s female and naked, with huge breasts. Many similar figurines have been found dating up to the Pleistocene’s end, when Earth’s climate generally became colder. Bateman concludes that both men and women were generally naked, at least in temperate areas, before the climate cooled, although the connection of shame with nudity probably developed much later.

Evidence of when “modesty” - for women much more than men - became expected is scant. That probably happened centuries before around 350 BCE when a Greek courtesan named Phryne was tried (but acquitted) of “impiety” for exposing too much skin. However, for long after that male nudity was emblematic of strength and virility for men: “gymnos”, as noted above. Bateman provides many more examples, up to the present, of how “modesty” in clothing has been much more of a requirement for women than men - in beachwear and many other contexts.

Much, much more can be said about the history of nudity - there’s even a Wikipedia article on the subject. A major development occurred when the earliest civilizations appeared around 10,000 BCE. In those and later civilizations, wearing some sort of clothing or other adornment (like jewelry or body painting) signified high status in a community. And inversely, people of low status - both women and men - were usually naked. (The earliest civilizations were mostly in places with warm climates, so clothing usually wasn’t essential for warmth.) Consequently, nudity became looked down upon once wearing some sort of clothes became the norm. That’s only a step away from regarding nudity as taboo.

What can we conclude from all this about why the nudity taboo exists - and how to deal with it?

Referring back to the general reasons listed above for the existence of taboos, it’s apparent that most are relevant to nudity.

• Cultural traditions for thousands of years have usually discouraged or punished nudity in public and often even in private.

• Exposure of female breasts and genital areas of both men and women may arouse sexual interest and lead to unwanted attention, sexual harassment, or sexual assault.

• When nudity arouses sexual interest, even consensual sexual activities may lead to disruption of marital relationships and age-inappropriate behavior in children.

• Disagreements within extended families about when nudity is acceptable can weaken family relationships.

• Participation in even non-sexual naturist activities can disrupt friendships and general social relationships with others who disapprove of nudity.

What should naturists and anyone who enjoys occasional nonsexual nudity do about such problems? I’d suggest two things should be done.

1. Naturists should discuss among themselves in social media and other communication channels the best ways to address each of these concerns.

2. After developing persuasive ways to handle the concerns, naturists should formulate strategies to inform the general public why there should be no taboo on naturist nudity and that it should instead be recognized as a healthy and enjoyable activity or lifestyle for those who choose it.

It’s necessary to be realistic. Changing society’s attitudes towards nudity taboos won’t be easy - which has been obvious since modern naturism developed over 100 years ago. Realistically, most people won’t take up naturism themselves. But overcoming the taboos will make naturism much easier for those who desire it. There are many ways it can be done, so individuals have many alternatives for contributing. What certainly won’t work is doing nothing.