NUΔI

       In order to understand why everyone isn't a nudist, we need to look into the social norm throughout history. In the paper "Social Nudism and the Body Taboo" sheds a very nice perspective on nudism. In the opening sentences of the paper Howard C. Warren from Princeton University proposed a question about why we feel the need to wear clothes. He states "Clothing is worn, not merely for protection or for adornment, but to conceal various parts of the body from view. Clothes are not needed for protection in swimming, gymnastics, tennis and certain other sports, nor in rhythmic dancing. In most of these diversions there can be no question of adornment; in some cases garments interfere with the purpose of the activity; in some they may even be detrimental to health" (Warren).

        Society see's clothes to be an essintial part of life, even some barbaric tribes still cover their bodies in area's with an article of clothing. The easy answer to the question of why we feel the need to wear clothes is protection. This protection can be from the elements, or protection from people judging their bodies. The taboo has been prevelant throughout time and is even thought to be apart of human nature for people to want to cover up through insecurities they may have. This hasn't always been the way it was though, the first Olympics held in ancient Greece were done completely in the nude. This wasn't considered weird by society or anything like that, the robes that they would've worn would have just gotten in the way. Most of the art of that time period was done nude, they liked to emphasize the body in its natural state.

          Early Christianity started to make people believe that the body should be clothed at all times, and showing the body that was unclothed was a sin. This conflicted with the art at the time; "In general a compromise was effected, whereby the display of the human form was sanctioned in art, but forbidden in nature"(Warren). As time progressed so did the strictness on wearing clothes. In Puritan North America undressing in any sort of way was known as decent exposure and had very hard legal penalities. 

          The hieght of the conservative era with clothing was the mid 1800's in England and the Americas. Talking about female body parts was very improper and very rarely done in mixed public areas. Clothes have become a social norm since it has highly been looked up throught history. Even though this has been the case throughout history, people have practiced in nudist ideals.