Alexandra Giroux

Foreword: My experience as an exchange student in the Netherlands has literally left its mark on my body through naturism. I discovered it by accident at the swimming-pool one Saturday morning. This day, I had a swimsuit in my bag like a “textile” that I used to be. But I ignored that I popped in at the schedule reserved for naturist people. I did not know that in the following weeks, I will start an unexpected intellectual journey, challenging my thoughts. I have been changed by my experiences at Overbosch the naturist pool, Vitalizee the sauna, Fuutlaan the naturist beach and Gravingen the naturist club. The first time, I was a bit shy, hiding my face with my swimming goggles since I believed like a child that if I was not able to see other people, they would not be able to see me. But soon I realized that no one was actually undressing me with their eyes since I was already undressed. In the following week, I felt that deconstructing my prejudices helped me to construct in the nude a new self, mens sana in corpore sano. This paper is the opportunity for me to share the findings of a research that I started thanks to the help of Bart Wijnberg, President Emeritus of the International Naturist Federation (INF). He supported me a lot in my reflection by introducing me to places where I would never have had the opportunity to go alone. Also he lent me more than four kilograms of books to help me to understand more the philosophy of naturism and I would like to thank him for that.

Gymnity has a material, psychological and social value. It promotes liberation of body and spirit, it can be seen as a result for women as a feminist practice. Challenging the corset war, the experience of naturism leads to a sensitive torpor. Without clothes, epidermic sensations stimulate women to rediscover their body, like a corporeal therapy. Regression or refinement, Eve’s outfit is considered as shameful nudity by some the Victorian inspired moralists or as true body freedom by some benevolent humanists. But nudity is not the issue whereas our perception of it is. Social nudity is non-sexual: nude is not lewd. The sexualized conception of nudity and modesty is ingrained and it has inspired Merejkosky who wrote in 1919 that women naturally chosen to hide their genitals in order to discourage men, especially from their families to have sex with them (Bologne, 1997, p.14). The breast and the penis have dominated the Freudian map of the mind and according to the psychoanalyst, breast-feeding is “the starting point of the whole sexual life” (Yalom, 1997, p.148) which shapes our current sexual representation of the body. The issue is more related to the humanization of the body that transcends the state of organic nature (Guindon,1997, p.147). Once this new freedom born of nature has been found, women can experience liberation, enjoyment and serenity. Interaction between people as well as the interaction between the body and the environment are challenged. Nevertheless, a gender gap is often noticed in naturist environments: 90% of the naturists are men (Varet, 1989, p.103). Individuals who practice this activity may define it differently but “naturism” is framed by the INF (International Naturist Federation) as a lifestyle in harmony with nature, expressed through social nudity, and characterized by self-respect of people with different opinions. It can take different forms and is acceptable within a specific context, indoors or outdoors: personal and family naturism, social naturism, naturist beaches, skinny dipping, nude snorkeling, nude diving, canuding, free hiking, free riding, naked yoga, sauna and so on. Women can practice naturism alone, in couple, while being pregnant or with their family as long as the environment is safe and healthy. Naturism might promote equality between genders since the traditional indifference toward female well-being is broken (Shorter, 1984, quoted in Kaufmann, 1998, p.51). Our society has to cope with the heritage of the Victorian regime where a series of prohibitions were brought to bear on the body of individuals, and especially women, surrounded by a culture of the alienated body and burdened by centuries of patriarchy. Breaking the body taboo requires courage, trust and independence of thought and despite the sexual revolution, the complex social conditioning-culturally embedded since childhood and doggedly persistent has to be overcome. Women tend to be more wary than men of clothing optional venues since for some of them it creates psychological tension. The fiendish punishment of the women is that she is an invisible victim. The way our culture deals with women’s body is an interesting reflection of culture itself that should be studied. The female naked body has to be analyzed since it provides essential keys to understand the position of women in society. It is important to wonder how naked women are usually depicted, why so few women practice naturism – vide supra, what can be the benefits of naturism for both genders and why the re-appropriation of women’s body is a crucial issue. Naturism is for women a bloom tool, both from a sociological and psychological perspective. Sociologically, family, age, equality, fraternity and pacifism are reinvested. Psychologically, sobriety, liberation, simplicity, rehabilitation, reconciliation, unification, truth, being, openness, sincerity, frankness, innocence, joy and reinsertion are reconsidered.

Modernity is characterized by the development of prudishness and negation of the body although history puts evidence that it has not always been the case. The Greek Olympic games used to be male and nude events and it is interested interesting to point out that the word “gymnastics” comes from “gymnos” (naked). The Digambar, belonging to an indian religion close to gymnosophy, remain naked though generally it is practiced by males. Nudity has a lot of positive virtues: according to Koch (1924), it can help to free the people from authority fixated conditioning which held proletarians in deference of their masters that are parental authority, paternalism of the church, the mass media and organs of law and order. Against body guilt, body objectification and body commodification, naturism that he saw as a means to eliminate them and encourage openness and end the repression of the human spirit. Women who are confronted to an imagery of a so-call perfect female body live sometimes with a feeling of deficiency or shame through social alienation and obscurantism when they think that it does not match this ideal. Modesty is a fear caused by a precise threat of anxiety that is the result of the fear to see the body judged. Phallocentric culture alienates women from their body. Women are determined by the manner in which their body and her cosmic links are modified through the action of others than themselves. A lot would not dare to practice naturism because they would be afraid to suffer from the pangs of social stigma. A significant number of women feel inferior because they think themselves as such and they envisage their body from the standpoint of a tradition of slavery and shame leading sometimes to narcissistic preoccupations. Normative femininity can be challenged by subversion and resistance. Descamps, (1987, p.180) reports the works of Maslow (1965) and Jourard (1964) developing the idea that naturism can provide a psychotherapy. From a psychoanalytic standpoint it could even promote a better ad-equation between body image and body schema (Descamps,1987, p.181). Kaufmann (1996) has studied the body of women linked to glance of men and also women since it is supposed to be less coercive and more acceptable, designing a sociology of bare breast. According to him, tanning topless on the seaside might be ruled by a secret language of segregation even if it seems to be a picture of liberty and tolerance (Kaufmann,  1998, p.103). Women who do not have a nice bosom do not have this practice or lie on their stomach to hide it, which is a shame, succumbing to the culture of the glance and the heritage of the Judeo-Christian moral tradition. Embodying the social order, the genderization of perception leads to a practice of localization that reproduces the structural principles of society: men versus women. Stout (2009) explains that “the mutual vulnerability of having nothing to hide somehow balances the power equation between sexes, and universal body acceptance facilitates a comfortable self acceptance”. Clothes differentiate within the body the areas offered to the other and since some parts are forbidden it creates an attitude of mistrust (Descamps, 1987, p.65). Without anything to hide, one can rebuild trust, genuineness and sincerity. Personal reconciliation has some repercussions on people around (Descamps, 1987, p.63). It promotes communication across gender, generational and genetic differences. A lot of women explain that they feel safer naked in a naturist environment rather than dressed in the street (Descamps, 1987, p.68). The experienced comfort can be reinvested elsewhere (Kaufmann, 1998, p.53). Despite of differences in age, body shape, fitness, and health, a lot of women who practice naturism feel more accepted for their entire being. “Body acceptance is the idea, nude recreation is the way” (TNS, 2005). Unity with humanity becomes more obvious with less regard to a person’s wealth, position, nationality, race, and sex. But obviously, posture, color of skin or language cannot disappear only by the simple action of undressing (Guillain, 1998, p.99). Nudity can still be seen as a political statement: in the Netherlands, the Naastenliefde, vrijheid en diversiteit party supports the idea to pass legislation to make public non-sexual nudity legal everywhere.

It is important to correct common misconceptions about social nudity and to promote the virtues and unexpected insights that it can provide. Naturism is not naturalism, exhibitionism, nudism or sexual tourism. Naturism is not nudity per se (Varet, 1989, p.79). It is a liberating practice that promotes both for women and men positive values such as hygiene, health, sport and even sometimes vegetarianism. “I did not feel violated; rather, I felt liberated from the repressive thinking that the body is an object that must continually be kept hidden from anybody other than one’s spouse or lover” confesses a convert girl who found in other female naturists some role models (Siruno and Toledano, 2006, p.27). It leads to relaxation, stress relief, positive body image, body acceptance and self esteem. Women are more self conscious of their body. This channel is a way to feed spiritual life, to fulfill the need for self-realization. In their every-day-life, women are encouraged to evade human growth in the name of femininity, to wear corset, rags of shame. It is about ethic as well as aesthetic, it promotes an existential euphony established on the model of a piece of art (Kaufmann,1998, p.148). Against gymnophobia and the puritan conception of body expressed with some artifacts such as tattoos or piercing, naturism proposes to get closer to a natural body. It redefines the notions of beauty and celebrates the naked body, as it is presented in several paintings and statues. Emancipated women have more chance to achieve a satisfying life. Naturism helps to understand social mutations. The fear of corruption of the individual body reflects more globally the fear of corruption of the social body. It redefines women’s perception about their body and the body of others. Nudity is not seen as negative but on the contrary as positive since it helps women to get close to their flesh that they usually hide. Being naked helps women to reconsider how to consider and to deal with issues such as shaving, menstruations, shape and so on. To shave or not to shave is one of the elements of a complex corporeal rhetoric (Urbain, 1994, p.316). Hairs can be seen as a cloth sub specie naturae apt to hide the body (Guindon, 1997, p.142). But the male gaze and especially porn movies tend to recreate a hairless aesthetic. Naturist women can escape the social constraint in the name of a legitimate bloom, far from the distortion of the dirty and sinful body. Women have to defend themselves, to emerge into the light of transcendence and the battle of sexes is not directly implied in anatomy of people. The liberation struggle and the struggle to defend the female body are closely linked and what is sometimes considered as women’s weakness is actually their strength. Identity is reconstructed in the light of a new personal insight and a benevolent vision of others. The body is a gift to be loved, appreciated and respected. The attitude women have towards the body somehow defines women themselves.

From a pragmatic point of view, all over the world, there is a large network of people practicing naturism such as the INF or the TNS (The Naturist Society). Also, many organizations, landed site directories and societies can provide more information about the topic. In art, the naked women imagery is quite rich. Hans Baldung is probably one of the best examples of a painter who depicted women linked to the notions of vice, seductive sexuality and even death (Guindon,1997, p.169). On the opposite Cézanne’s bathers or Manet’s Lunch on the grass provide a far more positive image of the naked woman. Bonnard and Sluijters depicted some women after the bath, Botero and Picasso some naked women reading. Judy Chicago with her “Dinner Party” allowed vulvic imagery to stand for common, with a disturbing essentialism toward Freudian misogynistic assumptions. Many feminist artists give interesting clues: Carolee Schneeman and her “Interior Scroll”, Cindy Sherman with “#228” who expresses men’s castration anxiety or Barbara Kruger with an untitled poster who writes “your gaze hits the side of my face”. Art is an interesting medium to gather more information about the naked woman. More theoretically, sociology of the body that studies the representations and social uses of the human body in modern societies. Naturism has as well its own thinkers: the Pudor’s Nacktkultur (1907), Doctor Carton’s healthy way of life philosophy (1922) or Koch’s Körperschülen (1932). Post-modern feminism provides as well keys to understand the female masquerade, the feminine stereotype and the gendered viewer to challenge the male’s gaze. Foucault (1976) locates the body in a political field and sees it as a central component in the operation of power relations. He created the concept of bio-power that is the practice of modern states and their regulation of their subjects through an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations. The control of women’s body is achieved by putting force to keep them dissatisfied with themselves. Simone de Beauvoir (1952, p.756) admits that “the males find in woman more complicity than the oppressor usually finds in the oppressed”. But where there is power, there is resistance. Naturism is a cultural practice that transcends the female body. Unfortunately, only a few have experimented this lifestyle since laws, institutions, public opinion, customs and the whole social context are not equal yet for men and women. Taylor Allen (2008) states that “despite all the progress that they have made, the women of the twentieth century did not advance into a utopia of equality and justice, and the struggle for gender equality must continue”. The naked truth is that women’s liberation brings with it men’s liberation. A human equality brought by naturism might be utopian idea but it is still an occasion and a symbol. But a happening such as Woodstock is an inspiring example of nudity serving solidarity, fraternity and harmonious behavior toward the body, the environment and the so-called other. Descamps (1987, p.69) summarized with brio that through naturism, a triple reinsertion occurs: from physic to psychic, from psychosomatic to social and from social to natural.

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