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A Brief History of Nakedness

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 14 ratings · 3 reviews

As one common story goes, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, had no idea that there was any shame in their lack of clothes; they were perfectly confident in their birthday suits among the animals of the Garden of Eden. All was well until that day when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and went scrambling for fig leaves to cover their bodies. Since th...more

Hardcover, 286 pages

Published May 15th 2010 by Reaktion Books (first published 2010)

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Feb 11, 2012 Cheyenne Blue rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wanted this enough to order it in hardback.

I love nakedness. A large proportion of our European summers were spent at naturist campsites. Here in Oz, in our secluded house, when it's warm enough (which is most of the time) we walk around naked, we swim naked, we certainly sleep naked. Naked, to me, is a natural state, and something that feels good. It's not sexual, not in an everyday context. But being naked, especially outdoors, feels so much better than being clothed. The sun on your skin. O...more I wanted this enough to order it in hardback.

I love nakedness. A large proportion of our European summers were spent at naturist campsites. Here in Oz, in our secluded house, when it's warm enough (which is most of the time) we walk around naked, we swim naked, we certainly sleep naked. Naked, to me, is a natural state, and something that feels good. It's not sexual, not in an everyday context. But being naked, especially outdoors, feels so much better than being clothed. The sun on your skin. Or the rain. It's how we were meant to be.

So, given my love of nudity (public or private), it's no wonder I was attracted to this book.

The book talks about nudity on three fronts: in religion, social nudity, and nudity as a public statement or protest. All were interesting, but I found the chapters on religion to be the least interesting. Yeah, so the Jains, Wiccans, and other (mainly eastern) religions embrace nudity, and most of the Christian-type religions consider it sinful and damning. Basically, I know all of that on a macro level, so this was rather a reprise.

The political section was better. Nudity as a form of protest. Showing you care enough about a cause to expose yourself completely in its support. Showing you have 'nothing to hide'.

The best section was the social nudity one. There was a lot about the roots of naturism -- in the UK, in Germany, about the health benefits associated with nudity. There was the obligatory section on how there is absolutely nothing sexual about naturism. There was mention of Spencer Tunick, who is very successful at persuading hundreds of people to disrobe for his photographs - take a look at his site -- I LOVE the second Irish one, with the ferry coming in behind the pier and also the Swiss ones on the Aletsch Glacier. There were some joyful tributes to streakers, Puppetry of the Penis, and Annie Sprinkles and to various people who have taken to the courts for their right to go naked. Mainly, though, the book shows quite deftly how stupid humans are that they have made something so natural into something shameful and to be hidden. That those little folds or pouches of skin that are our genitals are somehow different and offensive.

The photos throughout the book are wonderful. The text was always interesting, although I would have liked a little more depth to the analysis of why nakedness is still a social taboo.
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Oct 23, 2010 Tim Pendry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: art, british, cultural-studies, history, north-american, modern-european, popular-culture, psychology, public-policy, religion-spiritual, sexuality-erotica, twentieth-century

Philip Carr-Gomm is co-author of the excellent 'The Book of English Magic' which has been reviewed elsewhere by us on GoodReads. This is in the same vein - a measured and sympathetic account of what might be regarded as a human eccentricity that, on closer examination, suggests that it is the clothing convention and not nakedness that may be odder still. It is, as the title suggests, a history of nudity and nakedness but not in high art or in commerce (adult entertainment) or as sexual pehenomen...more Philip Carr-Gomm is co-author of the excellent 'The Book of English Magic' which has been reviewed elsewhere by us on GoodReads. This is in the same vein - a measured and sympathetic account of what might be regarded as a human eccentricity that, on closer examination, suggests that it is the clothing convention and not nakedness that may be odder still. It is, as the title suggests, a history of nudity and nakedness but not in high art or in commerce (adult entertainment) or as sexual pehenomenon but as a spiritual, political and self-expressive tool, including comment on its use in the arts outside the academic tradition.

Like his book on magic (which is a masterpiece of its type), it is descriptive rather than analytical or theoretical but with a considerable number of good quality photographs. It avoids the prurient and each picture is directly relevant to the text. While not afraid to show the naked body beautiful where relevant, the book is heartening in showing the essential ordinariness of most expressions of the naked. Though not perhaps common in life except in the fantasy world of publishing, cinema and erotica, nakedness is multifaceted and filled with meaning for many people in their private lives, and in their occasional calculated 'outrages' in public life, as a form of liberation and defiance.

Carr-Gomm is a kind man with an open nature - or so this book and 'English Magic' would suggest - so the motives of the naked are mostly taken at face value as courageous and honourable. At one point, perhaps without realising precisely the import of what he is saying, he produces a devastating argument against the theoretical approach towards 'objectification' of the grumbling and humourless ideologues of post-68 feminism and Marxism. The fascinating short description of the the sense of empowerment given to life models and others who choose to make themselves apparently vulnerable by their nakedness suggests that, under certain conditions, objectification is positively liberating - and, of course, it is for free persons to decide what those conditions are. He confirms this as his own experience with all the diffidence of the true eccentric Englishman finding that transgression is a path to freedom. The general picture of the popular nude and of the naked is one of fun and wit rather than deadly purpose.

He also briefly explores the self-objectification by which people use a mirror to understand themselves better, referring back to Uwe Ommer's photography. What is apparently narcissistic is nothing of the kind if the observation is contemplative and meditative, sweeping away both negative body images and, ironically, the obsession with one's own looks in society. Mirror observation of the naked self has even, it would seem, been used in spiritual meditation. This book is thus another quiet blow for free individual choice against theory. Ordinary people have highly personal approaches to their own bodies. While many or most would prefer to stay clothed, those who do not clearly gain great psychological benefits from their freedom from restriction and display and are neither necessarily exhibitionist nor libidinous in doing so.

However, culture is everything and enforcing nakedness as humiliation is not forgotten either. Many examples from the Axis forces in the Second World War might have been chosen but to demonstrate the point, Carr-Gomm does not choose these or just the criminal thuggishness at Abu Ghraib but a grim photo of the victors of 1945 (that's us, folks) humiliating a Japanese prisoner of war by forcing him to scrub the deck of a battleship in front of the entire crew with photographers coldly relishing the moment for the 'folks back home'. A third photograph shows Corsican 'patriots' stripping and cutting the hair of a prostitute who made the mistake of earning her living from the occupiers - though we doubt if those who sold eggs and milk or conducted services in the local church were similarly treated. The lesson is that, while we expect totalitarians to act viciously, there is a callousness in humanity that knows no ideological boundaries.

Carr-Gomm is also effective in showing how innovative acts of nakedness by ordinary citizens and artists become manipulated by the PR industry into 'stunts', political as well as commercial, that diminish the meaning of individual choice and challenge. He does not dwell on this - perhaps wishing not to give them the oxygen of publicity himself (although Tesco's stunt in Hastings shows the inauthentic cowardice and shallowness of the marketing communications industry at its worst). The message is, however, clear that economic interests effectively steal creativity from the general public and create a sort of bored fatique with what should be something that is culturally more important than this. Commercial interests jade our palates with manipulative novelties that liberate no one ... and, indeed, the parade of naked bodies in this part of the book does raise a bit of yawn when compared to the preceding and fascinating section on spiritual or lifestyle nudism.

However, beyond the manipulation and exhibitionist self indulgence lies a more genuine struggle for the right of an individual to stand up to convention and choose not to cover their bodies. Carr-Gomm is on sound philosophical libertarian ground in implicitly defending these rights throughout the book. Indeed, one starts to wonder after a while why precisely even an erection should be regarded as intrinsically obscene if it just stands full and hard without harming anyone.

Authority throughout the world seems determined on doing more damage to the naked than the naked do to the world - unless an image in itself is counted as an assault which raises all sorts of questions in turn about what is public and what is private. If I arrest your body, I have to act with force in some way and clearly do harm so the harm that is done by me must be greater than mine to justify the force. But what is the harm in nakedness in itself except to 'feelings', sentiments, customs, habits and tradition? If I only strike your mind, simply by standing passively naked before you, then surely you striking my body to end the striking of your mind is a worse assault. It might be bad manners to stand naked before you but then might it not be bad manners to stand clothed before me. Bad manners, however, are a matter for social negotiation and not the law.

Similarly, Carr-Gomm raises the issue of what is exhibitionism, leading to the question of what precisely is wrong with it in its milder forms or, indeed, with voyeurism, if they are both 'worn lightly' and are not obsessive or pathological. Of course, in law, exhibitionism and the 'peeping tom' are disturbing to the 'victims' and perhaps we are in territory where the law does have something to say and with some force. People do have rights to privacy and perhaps to being not shocked inappropriately and out of context. But a lot of 'shock' is in the eye of the beholder and some shock shocks a person in a positive way, changing their world view in ways that open their eyes to their own manipulation and received ideas. A culture that avoids shock is like the dead hand of excessive health and safety legislation - a defensive anxious communitarian culture fearful of risk and distrustful of others.

There is a line to be drawn but perhaps we need to think about whether we draw it too tightly on the passive nudist and not tight enough on the crass commercial or special interest exploitation of shock to sell goods and services or manipulate the political process (although even here, commercial and political shenanigans can have creative and positive cultural effects). The book is recommended.
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Jan 09, 2010 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

My blurb for this book says: Body as temple, body as prison; source of pride, source of shame; object of beauty, object of disgust - in this lucid and wide-ranging book Phillip Carr-Gomm examines that most hidden-in-plain-view of subjects: the naked human form. In doing so, he strips bare the paradoxes of humanity’s attitude toward their own naked figures. Using a snappy blend of history and imagery, Carr-Gomm invites readers to join him in making thrilling, confusing, funny, and beautiful reali...more

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About Philip Carr-Gomm

Philip Carr-Gomm was born in London, raised in Notting Hill Gate, and educated at Westminster School and University College London.

He met his first spiritual teacher, Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, when he was 11. He began studying with him when a teenager, and joined the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids at 18. He studied meditation with Olivia Robertson in Ir...more

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