| wearing special clothes to swim in is scarcely a century old.
160. Skinnydipping, in the local river or farm pond, is well-documented as an important historical part of
our national heritage.
Skinnydipping and outside nudity appear in the writings of Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, William Allen
White, Lincoln Steffens, William Styron, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Herman Melville, James Michener, and Henry
Miller, among many others, and in the depictions of Norman Rockwell, Rockwell Kent, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas
161. Many YMCA, college, and high school man-only pools or swimming courses were historically
"swimsuit-optional" or nude-only until federally-mandated "equivalent access" fit programs (for the sake of women)
162. Nowadays, there are still public places where nudity is, by local convention or custom, the recognized
practice.
Nudity is the standard, for example, in natural crude hot springs as well as on nude beaches; and, virtually
universally, for models in art classes.
163. The few officially approved nude beaches in the U.S. (for example, Rooster Rock State Park,
Oregon) and Canada (Wreck Beach, British Columbia)--and many of the unofficial seashores as well--have existed for
decades without critical problems.232
164. Many highly respected individuals, historical and modern, have espoused and/or participated in
Naturism to some degree.
Benjamin Franklin took daily nude "atmosphere baths." 233 So did Henry David Thoreau, who was also a regular
skinnydipper.234 Alexander Graham Bell was a skinnydipper and nude sunbather.235 George Bernard Shaw, Walt
Whitman, Eugene O'Neill, and painter Thomas Eakins asserted in favor of societal nudity.236
President John Quincy Adams was a routine skinnydipper. According to reports, "each morning he got up
Then he returned to the White House to possess breakfast, read the Bible and run the nation." 237 President Theodore
Roosevelt often swam nude in Rock Creek Park in Washington, once skinny-dipping with the French diplomat,
Jules Jusserand.238 President Lyndon Johnson sometimes swam bare with guests in the white house pool,
239 Senator Edward Kennedy has been photographed skinnydipping at people
beaches in Florida.
House pool.240 Many U.S. congressmen enjoy nude recreation, albeit segregated: U.S. Senate members may use the
Russell Senate Office Building Pool in the nude (the few female Senators make appointments to ensure there won't
be males on hand), and Representatives may use a clothes-optional steam room, where President Bush was said by
Newsweek to hang out sans towel with his pals. Representatives also sunbathed nude on the Speaker's Veranda until
one day in 1973 when Rep. Patricia Schroeder drifted into the assembly accidentally.241
Billionaire insurance guy John D. MacArthur often went skinnydipping, and left a seashore to the state
of Florida, intending that a part be designated clothing-optional (a wish that's been spurned); word has it that
former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and American Civil Liberties Union founder Roger Baldwin,
both have been regular skinnydippers.243 Charles F. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ff-naturist/beach-babes.html , the co-inventor of the earthquake measuring system,
was a life -long nudist and Naturist.244 Celebrity Lynn Redgrave and her family practice social nudism.245 Celebrities
Bridget Fonda and Brigitte Bardot appreciate societal nudity.246 The late actor Gary Merrill recommended nudism.247
foreign shores while on tour abroad.249 Even the late Dr. Seuss published approval of a nudist philosophy, in
one of his first books.250
165. Historically, a great many writers and artists have seen Naturism, or something close to it, to be
Element of the utopian ideal.
R. Martin writes: "Anthropologically, nakedness would appear to be the greatest and worst of conditions.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ff-naturist/young-nudist.html stripping to nakedness is defeat or poverty, but willed nakedness can be a perfect kind." 251 Nudity is
Additionally consistent with the Christian utopian concept of heaven, in which, according to biblical accounts, garments isn't
Needed.
166. Nudity has frequently been used, historically, as a sign of protest or rebellion against oppression.
For view , the early Quakers, in mid-17th century England, often used nudity as an element of protest.
Historian Elbert Russell notes that "A number of men and girls were arrested and punished for public indecency
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