Naturists reject current standards of modesty. These standards discourage people from being nude with others, they say. They want to create a social environment where people feel comfortable in the company of nude people. They want a society in which people do not fear being seen nude, even by the general public.
The singer Janet Jackson was the cause of a scandal during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004. While she was performing, her robe moved. Her left breast could be seen for a few seconds. Today, this is known as the "Wardrobe Malfunction" or "Nipplegate" by the media, the latter being a comparison to the Watergate scandal.
The Royal Academy of Arts runs some museums in London, and elsewhere. In 2008, they did an advertisement so that more people would visit their museums. In this advertisement, they showed a picture of a naked woman. This painting was done by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the 15th century. It is called "Venus" (shown above). The picture was printed on ads in the London Underground. It caused protests in London. Because of the protests, Transport for London refused to allow the ads to be used in the Underground. On December 7, 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation put the Wikipedia article on Virgin Killer, on their blacklist. This meant that most Internet users in Great Britain could no longer access the article. The foundation did this because they believed the original album cover could be child pornography. The cover is pictured on the Wikipedia article. It shows a naked ten-year-old girl in a sexual pose, with her breasts shown.
There are different traditions about nudity in Africa. Some of Africa south of the Sahara (called "sub-Saharan Africa") is similar to how they were after colonialism. In certain Togolese tribal areas, it is common for big families to not wear any clothes at all for certain festivities. Others do not wear any clothes below the waist. This makes it possible for young men to see women and girls whom they may marry. Stick-fighting tournaments are very popular places to do this.
Other people, like the Bantu do not like public nudity at all. A newspaper in Botswana once printed a photograph showing how a thief was punished. He was flogged on his bare buttocks. Many people did not like this. The problem was not the flogging, but the newspaper showing the picture.
The Ugandan Kavirondo tribes are a mix of Bantu and Nilotic immigrants. Traditionally, they went mostly naked. Over time, the men began wearing clothing similar to men in western culture.
Among many Muslim people, a woman is thought to be not properly dressed unless her legs, arms and hair are completely covered. In some Arabic countries, women wear a garment called a burqa. The burqa fully covers the woman and has only a slit for her eyes to see. If a woman does not wear this garment when she goes out but shows her face, hair and arms, she is thought to be naked. Not wearing the burqa brings shame on herself and family.
There are different levels of nudity. Societies have different moral values for these levels. One such level in English is called "full frontal nudity". This usually is a pose where the nude person faces the viewer. In this pose, there are no things covering parts of the body. Many societies see this as very bad. The image below called "Truth" shows this pose.
Most movies try not to show this type of nudity. This is often done by putting an object somewhere. This object will hide the pubic area of the naked actor or actress. This kind of nudity can also be seen in the picture "Woman Bathing".
Since the very early ages, nudity has been a subject of the arts. One of the earliest works of art known is the Venus of Willendorf. It is a statuette (a small statue) of a nude woman. The face of the woman is not visible. The belly of the woman as well as her breasts are exaggerated. It is not known what the statuette meant to the people who made it, or what importance it had. From the Renaissance onward, nude figures were shown in works of art more often. Michelangelo is one of the Renaissance artists known for doing this.
Since the beginning of photography, people have taken photographs of nude people. Some people simply photographed nude people. Some of the photographs were made to sexually arouse people. These are generally called pornography. Some people also photographed nude people because they thought the human body was something beautiful to show. These photos are usually not sexual in nature, and are known as nude photography. The kind of photography that is in between is called erotic photography.
Fashion was relatively constant in Ancient Egypt, and did not change much. In general, Egyptians did not wear much clothing. Men were often topless and bare-footed. They usually wore a tunic around the waist. Women wore loose clothes. People who were showing spectacles, usually did not wear any clothes. This applied to both men and women. In general, children did not wear any clothes, until they reached puberty, that is, until they were about twelve years old. Later cultures did not like these clothing rules.
Europeans also did not like these clothing rules. When Meyers Konversationslexikon (an encyclopedia) was published in the 1880s, the depiction of murals in the Tomb of Ti was changed to the image that can be seen on the right. Other publications were also changed in the same way.
The creation story in the Old Testament of the Bible mentions nudity as a sign of innocence. Only after Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of knowledge do they become aware of their nudity, and start to feel ashamed. Theologians see this feeling of shame as a consequence of the fall from grace. Because of this, they are later chased away from the Garden of Eden. The Bible does not make a distinction between shame as a consequence of not obeying a rule, and the shame resulting from nudity.
The Old Testament often sees nudity as a consequence of being poor or of being a social outcast. It is not seen as a result of breaking rules, and accepted. Later Orthodox Judaism sees nakedness as a bad thing.
In Ancient Greece, especially Ancient Athens, people did not see a problem with nude men. Nude women were seen as bad, though, and women were forbidden from being nude in public. The Cynics taught that it was bad to have worldly goods. Feelings like shame were also seen as bad. There was nothing wrong with being naked.
The Gymnasion shows by its name alone that public nudity was not common in Ancient Greece. The name comes form "gynós", which means "naked". The gymnasion was used for sports. In Ancient Greece most sports were done totally naked. In most places in Ancient Greece, women were forbidden from doing sports, or from attending sports events.
The only place were women were allowed to do sports was Sparta. There, they also did sports, like the men, but separated from these. They were also naked while doing sports.
Another place where nakedness was tolerated was in the arts.
In Ancient Rome, nudity was nothing special or unusual. It was seen more as a sign of not needing much. People did not attach sexual feelings to it. When the Romans had conquered Ancient Greece, they did not think it was necessary to discuss or forbid that the Olympic Games were done in the nude. Cato the Elder mentions that usually the virtuous Roman worked nude during the summer months.
The Celtic and Germanic tribes bathed nude in rivers and lakes together and sometimes children grew up nude. Romans also tell us that some of them fought the Romans in the nude.
Both Jainism and Hinduism have special monks. In Jainism these are called Digambars (or Digambarras), in Hinduism they are called Sadhus. Both lead an ascetic lifestyle, and are well-respected in their community. Part of this lifestyle is that they wear little or no clothes.