Society was once more open to nudity
I know this is yet another perennial discussion among us in the nude community, but I've had a recent moment to lament this some more...
Yesterday, long story short, our local mail man managed to see me nude. No, I did not answer the door nude; I was deep into report writing in my study when he came to the front window. I put my dressing gown on to go to the door and receive the item. He rode away smiling, after an acknowledging look to me that he had seen me naked.
So in another forum I wrote a blog about the encounter, but as part of that I wanted a pic of a nude either on a postage stamp or a post card. So I google searched...
I expected to see very few stamps and post cards with nudes (or even topless for that fact). But what I found were postcards dating back over nearly a century and up until the 1980's. I also found many stamps from European countries with nudes, mostly as wonderful art works. But again you get to about the 1980's and they disappear.
I recall being a teenager in the late 1970's and early 1980's travelling with my parents to the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and stopping at petrol stations (gas stations) that had racks with post cards. One whole quarter of the rack would have nude but mostly topless women postcards. Some would be cartoon types too. This same public display of topless and nude postcards also took place in every licenced post office, news agency and souvenir shop. My mother even paid for some I asked for when I was about 12!
I also had a stamp collection when I was a kid. I inherited my grand parents albums. To my surprise my grand mother had collated all the nudes in one (large) section. She had been given these stamps from my grand father who'd worked in a post office.
So what actually happened? Why did this change? Was it that we'd hit the 'zenith' of the sexual revolution and men were abusing the openness of women's sexuality? and the pendulum had to swing back the other, or was it something else, keeping in mind this was long before the internet?
To me there's two things feeding into that that come to my mind. The first first is the awareness of exploitation that has grown in recent years, whether it was adults involving kids in their deviancies or 'pin-up'-style situations like those old postcards or calendars in workshops. The latter I guess were generally killed by feminist movements on that exploitation vibe or just the potential comfort of females who entered areas that were male domains. The items themselves were largely replaced by less-public options such as magazines and then the internet so it transformed. As for the exploitation of minors, the number of high-profile cases in the area and growing awareness of how things were swept under the carpet in the past has probably contributed to, for example, not seeing young kids frolicing nude at the local beach in the way that you used to.
In some ways we are more permissive now with neck-to-knee swimming costumes, night-only bathing and bikini inspectors being replaced by every second girl wearing a thong bikini just because it's the fashion rather than an inherent desire to show as much skin as possible. And me wearing a skimpy tanga at a reasonably-popular textile suburban beach is still an anomoly. :-)
We had a time before 1990 were we had a progressive modernity. People were nude, also in school, for example showering was possible. Then came 1990 and everything went backwards. The regressive modernity started. Since then people are much more conservative. People want to go back to something, maybe back to the 19th century?
We had a time before 1990 were we had a progressive modernity. People were nude, also in school, for example showering was possible. Then came 1990 and everything went backwards. The regressive modernity started. Since then people are much more conservative. People want to go back to something, maybe back to the 19th century?
In the 1800's there were times when people bathed nude at their local beaches as no real swim wear options existed. Australian convicts would work naked after having sold their clothes for alcohol.
In the 1800's there were times when people bathed nude at their local beaches as no real swim wear options existed. Australian convicts would work naked after having sold their clothes for alcohol.
Whats the source for these two claims?
In the 1800's there were times when people bathed nude at their local beaches as no real swim wear options existed. Australian convicts would work naked after having sold their clothes for alcohol.Whats the source for these two claims?
Many accounts captured in many books on the early days of the colony (re convicts) cover how clothes became a trade able commodity for 'rum'. In fact it's believed where the expression 'shirt off their back' comes from.
Family histories of Australians in many towns on rivers and also on the coast capture the history of swimming without clothing. There are also many pics in local historical societies.
I've heard similar stories about convicts selling the shirt off their back for booze but have never had it proven, I took at as factual because of the context. Not sure about them selling their pants too but if they were desperate enough, who knows.
When I first started going to CO beaches in the early 1980's, they were lots of people, couples, families, groups and friends. I went with mates at times and a girlfriend or two. The mates thought it was all about perving on women but some realised that swimming nude and drying in the sun was great. The gf's tended to think it was about sex, it wasn't and we didn't, but they also enjoyed perving at men too, it went both ways. But lots of people went to these beaches in the 1980's and early 1990's, now there are very few by comparison.
I was just in Queensland for a swim event and nearly every woman under about 40, and some over, wore a thong type bottom, a couple were topless but nudity is not legal there. It seems that the thong bikini style is about the tanned butt look and small areas for tan-lines seem preferred. At least more men are wearing swim briefs and not long shorts I guess.
I too recall the topless and nude postcards from the 1980's and I recall sending a few. Times have changed.
I don't have any early experience, coming from Presbyterian/CoE stock and not having any outlet to consider at that time. All I can recall is that at secondary school (early...mid eighties Melbourne eastern suburbs) we all faked showering after sport by splashing our hair rather than strip for a proper rinse while my knowledge of nudists was limited to a couple of 'news' reports in the light-hearted final segment on a weekend bulletin, covering a nudist beach and nudist skydiving.
My most salacious events were encountering my grade-three teacher in her bikini few years later at the beach where she nonchalantly chatted with my mother while I could not think beyond the fact I could see way more of her skin than I ever had a few years earlie
Also, encountering girls sunbathing topless while poking around the Shipwreck Coast near Warrnambool. I was more embarrassed than my Mum...
Apart from that, I cannot think of anything, except the thought at a young age that allowing a girl to aee me nude might not be so bad if it was reciprocated. At that age I never encountered such an opportunity and if I had am unsure I would have accepted such a proposal and certainly wouldn't have initiated it.
Many accounts captured in many books on the early days of the colony (re convicts) cover how clothes became a trade able commodity for 'rum'. In fact it's believed where the expression 'shirt off their back' comes from.Family histories of Australians in many towns on rivers and also on the coast capture the history of swimming without clothing. There are also many pics in local historical societies.
Could you name those books please.
Google knows nothing about convicts trading their clothes for rum.
But, lets examine your claim more closely.
Convicts clothes would be made of very cheap material, rarely cleaned if ever. Selling such would not buy enough rum to make a squirrel tipsy.
Secondly, who would buy clothes that only convicts wear?
Many accounts captured in many books on the early days of the colony (re convicts) cover how clothes became a trade able commodity for 'rum'. In fact it's believed where the expression 'shirt off their back' comes from.Family histories of Australians in many towns on rivers and also on the coast capture the history of swimming without clothing. There are also many pics in local historical societies.Could you name those books please.Google knows nothing about convicts trading their clothes for rum.But, lets examine your claim more closely.Convicts clothes would be made of very cheap material, rarely cleaned if ever. Selling such would not buy enough rum to make a squirrel tipsy.Secondly, who would buy clothes that only convicts wear?
Elizabeth MacArthur was the first to record in her diaries that convicts traded their clothes for rum. That rum btw was actually horrible red wine that was cut and shut from sources all around the world. She said the Irish were particularly prone to this as they preferred rum over food even. She observed many of them working nude as a result.
Accounts of this disappear by about 1830 due to laws being brought about for public decency.
Most books published in the 1960's about convict life have similar references. It's not a subject for entire chapters but simply a line or so.
By the 1970's when we start romanticising convict life it starts to disappear
Actions
Back to TopicsReply to TopicShare this topic
Get paid just by sending us users/traffic.
Signup takes seconds, start now!
Signup as an affiliate!