===========================================
| U.S researcher strips away myths about nudism | |
 |
|
|
GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct 18 (Reuters) - Left your clothes and
inhibitions behind to let it all hang out at a nudist resort?
The naked truth is that you might strip off but you can't
strip away social customs, a Florida researcher has found.
People at nudist resorts tend to behave similarly to the
way they do in the outside world: with the usual sexual
hang-ups, social distinctions and gossip about weight, breast
enlargements and the size of personal endowments, said Ellen
Woodall of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
"It is rather like life with clothes on," Woodall, who
studied the nudist movement in the United States for her
master's thesis in anthropology, told Reuters on Thursday.
While nudists often think of themselves as progressive, the
practice of nudism fails to live up to its ideal that everyone
will be treated the same, regardless of social standing or body
shape, Woodall said.
Woodall, who herself has practiced nudism for 15 years,
spent two summers as a housekeeper at a nudist resort as part
of her two-year study of nudist resorts, which have evolved
into a sizable business from idealistic and counter-cultural
beginnings about 70 years ago.
"I observed the formation of cliques, men commenting on or
joking about the obesity of certain women, women giggling about
the size of a man's genitals, sexual comments and harassment --
all activities one might commonly witness of larger society,"
she said.
Woodall also said that while women are told looks don't
count at nudist resorts, and seek a refuge from idealized
Hollywood images that women often find depressing, they are
then exposed at such camps to nudist art depicting only
so-called perfect figures.
Woodall also said that while nudism evolved from the 1920s
in the United States as an alternative movement where everyone
pitched in with money and labor to build resorts, it was hardly
counter-cultural any more, with annual revenues at resorts
estimated at around $400 million.
Whatever its aspirations to social openness, the nudist
movement also tends to involve white, middle class, educated
people. "Participants are by no means a cross-section of
American society," she said.
"People participate in nudism because they find it
liberating, but it's very firmly located in the mainstream."
((Frances Kerry, Miami newsroom 1 305 374 5013 or
miami.newsroom@reuters.com))
18 OCT 2001 22:15:31
http://www.reuters.co.il/news2000/N2SJ0JUM.HTM