Nudism in a cold climate: the visual culture of naturists in mid-20th century Britain

Abstract

"This richly illustrated volume examines the idiosyncratic phenomenon of social nudism in mid-20th-century Britain, an island nation fabled for its lack of sunshine and its reserved social attitudes.00Structured across three interrelated phases, readers first encounter the movement at its genesis in the 1920s, when nudism was synonymous with vegetarianism, intellectualism and utopianism. That nascent culture proliferated in the postwar era, with a widening landscape of amateur clubs and governing organizations alongside high-circulation publications and censorship-challenging photographers. Finally, Annebella Pollen examines the movement's redefinition as naturism, its cultural battles and its struggle to survive amid shifts in sexual liberation in the permissive 1960s.00Unadorned bodies were the central campaigning tool of British naturism's photographic propaganda. They drew attention to the cause and drove publication sales but they also attracted regular public opprobrium. Naturism?s shifting visual culture thus provides a microcosmic view of British moral, legal and aesthetic transformations in a period of rapid social change, revealing evolving perspectives on health and sex, gender and ethnicity, pleasure and power."--

Contents

ch. 1 Establishing an ideal -- Our friends in Germany -- The nudist's library -- Home-grown nudism -- What should nudists wear? -- No pictures! -- Model sun bathers -- The naturist nude -- Enlightened families -- Wake up England! -- A golden age -- Perfect salesmanship -- Exquisite poses -- ch. 2 Building a culture -- Bodies in conflict -- Forces' sweethearts -- Tearing down pin-ups -- For connoisseurs -- An ideal art -- Housewives and beauty queens -- Subjects and objects -- Flimsy boundaries -- The great levelling -- Class and taste -- Guides for the perplexed -- ch. 3 Testing the boundaries -- Not obscene -- Dirt for dirt's sake -- Entertainments of doubtful character -- A type we cannot afford to admit -- The "less-clothed races" -- Timeless "types" -- Pink-and-white sun-lovers -- New pleasures of looking -- The N-press -- Naturist youth -- The Queen versus Ethelred Jean Straker -- Permissives and puritans -- The pink wars -- New ways of seeing -- Conclusion: Taking in the view.