Nudism
Description
Establishing communities of people who do not wear clothes in public, to improve health, to encourage a healthier attitude between the sexes and to develop relations among people free of the status symbols which dress provide.
Context
From the early 20th century onwards, groups of nudists have advocated a more democratic way of life by establishing both full-time communities (especially as an aspect of recovering a more simple, rural lifestyle) and summertime vacation resorts.
Implementation
Nudist groups have been most popular in northern Europe, especially Germany.
Claim
Nudism rebels against the artificial barriers to human solidarity which clothing creates, allowing men, women and children to relate to one another in honesty, while improving health by affording the body full access to air and sunlight.
Nudists demonstrate that the so-called modesty promoted by social standards of dress is an artificial response, evoking false shame and guilt.
Counter-claim
Nudism can arouse sexual emotions in public, eroding the intimacy of these personal relationships.
Clothing is both important for bodily protection and it also provides ornamentation.
Dressing conceals abnormalities, diseases, disfigurements and other personal conditions, particularly in the sensitive anal and genital areas and strengthens relations between people, not based on, or influenced by the body and its conditions.