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History of social nudity

Prehistory

Genetic studies of the human body louse Pediculus humanus, which feeds on the body but lives in and requires clothing, suggests that humans started wearing garments 72,000 years ago +/- 42,000 years. This estimate matches that of the first appearance of physical evidence of clothing-making tools. The species Homo sapiens itself has existed for 200,000 or more years, so the 'natural' condition of humans is nude.

Historical era

Informal nudism has always been practiced. Ancient cultures (the Greeks and the Romans for example) sometimes had quite different attitudes toward the unclothed human body than is common today. In fact, the word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek word "gymnos," meaning "nude," because athletics in Greece was routinely practiced naked by its participants.

Nudity taboos are often a holdover from a practical need for body covering, as with temperate or desert cultures, where people initially wear clothing in public by habit because of practical reasons, until it becomes ingrained in the culture itself that this is a requirement.

Objections against being nude are often religiously motivated, even when they start out as a cultural taboo as in the previous paragraph. Some peoples have started wearing clothes only after missionaries argued that it is more civilized. However, there are many devout nudists who attend services regularly and argue that they do not need to shed their morals with their clothes. Also, there is a Christian sect that practiced religious nudism, the Adamites. Although there is no well-defined date in Western society when it became unacceptable to be seen nude in public, the era of Queen Victoria certainly ended whatever remained of it, with nothing emerging until after her death in 1901.

Rise of formalized clothes communities and philosophy

In the early 1900's, a series of philosophical papers was published in Germany that examined the negative psychological impact of self hate of the body based upon both religious and overly negative community views. The basic position that the human body in and of itself was neither sinful nor obscene was combined with a new philosophy to create the nudist movement. The proposition was advanced 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. The wide publication of these papers contributed to an explosive worldwide growth of nudism, whereas nudists participated in various social, recreational, and physical fitness activities in the nude.

The first known organized club for nudists, Freilichtpark (Free-Light Park), was opened near Hamburg in 1903 by Paul Zimmerman. At about the same time, another German, Dr. Heinrich Pudor, wrote a book titled Nacktcultur, which discussed the benefits of nudity in co-education and advocated participating in sports while being free of cumbersome clothing. The nudist movement gained prominence in Germany in the 1920s, but was suppressed during the early Nazi Gleichschaltung after Adolf Hitler came to power. However, it was later discovered that Luftwaffe (Air Force) head Hermann Göring had single-handedly written his own strict anti-nudity views into the Gleichschaltung. He has been one of its main authors and, in effect, this imposed Göring's views on everyone. Many in the Nazi party though he had gone too far, so the rules were eventually softened a bit. Nevertheless, all naturism clubs had to exclude Jews and Communists and keep all activities well out in the countryside. After the war, East Germans enjoyed nudism as one the few freedoms they had under the communist government. It quickly rebounded in the West also, and today, united Germany has many clubs, parks and beaches for nudism. Vacationing in Mediterranean France at the Cap d'Agde resort also became popular for Germans when it opened in the late 1960s.

In the United States, German immigrant Kurt Barthel organized the first nudist event in 1929, just outside of New York City (NYC), and founded the American League for Physical Culture (ALPC). Social nudism in the form of private clubs and campgrounds began appearing in the 1930s. In 1931, according to a history , a Baptist minister named Ilsley Boone was elected as vice president of the ALPC and gained a nickname as "The Dictator." He also began the American Sunbathing Association (ASA), which according to a decision in Roberts v. Clement, posted on the Naturist Education Foundation site , was organized in 1939 as a successor to the ALPC. Boone led a family atmosphere by prohibiting alcohol at all member clubs. According to the Federation of Canadian Naturists history and the Lupin Naturist Club history , Boone was toppled in 1951 by members dissatisfied with his autocratic style. This, together with Boone's desire to open a new club closer to NYC than others had wanted, led him to form the National Nudist Council.

Elsewhere in the USA, a 1935 advertisement claims Sea Island Sanctuary, South Carolina, was the "largest and oldest" year round resort where nudism could be practiced. Rock Lodge Club, located in Stockholm, New Jersey, about 40 miles (65 km) from New York City started in 1932 and is still in operation today. Nudism first began appearing on the US and Canadian west coast about 1939. Kaniksu Ranch, about 45 miles (70 km) north of Spokane, Washington, opened the same year and is still in operation. In 1995, the ASA renamed itself, becoming the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR).

In Canada, individuals around the country became interested in nudism, skinny dipping, or physical culture in the early part of the 20th century. After 1940 they had their own Canadian magazine, Sunbathing & Health, which occasionally carried local news. Canadians had scattered groups in several cities during the 1930s and 1940s, and some of these groups attracted enough interest to form clubs on private land; the most significant clubs were the Van Tans in Vancouver and the Sun Air Club in Ontario. Canadians who served in the military during the war met like-minded souls from across the country, and often visited clubs while in Europe. They formed a ready pool of recruits for postwar organizers. A few years later the wave of postwar immigration brought many Europeans with their own extensive experience, and they not only swelled the ranks of membership, but often formed their own clubs, helping to expand nudism from coast to coast. Most of these clubs were united under the Canadian Sunbathing Association, which affiliated with the American Sunbathing Association in 1954. Several disagreements between eastern and western members of CSA resulted in the breakup of CSA into the Western Canadian Sunbathing Association (WCSA) and Eastern Canadian Sunbathing Association (ECSA) in 1960. The ECSA endured much in fighting over the next decade and a half leading to its official demise in 1978. The WCSA continues to exist today as the Western Canadian Association for Nude Recreation (WCANR), a region of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) which itself was formerly known as the ASA.

In 1977 the Fédération québécoise de naturisme (FQN) was founded in Québec. In 1986 the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN) was formed with the support of the FQN. The FQN and FCN joined together to be the official Canadian representatives in the International Naturist Federation (INF).