I'm watching a European arthouse film from the '80s. I understand that it's a fantasy, that may or may not reflect the real world to any degree. And I know its approach to nudity is deliberately constructed - it's essentially the main draw of the film. But the casual attitude toward nudity in this fantasy world this film is positing intrigues me.
On one end of the spectrum, you have the sort of gymnophobic culture in which I was raised (and continue to live). In such a culture, exposure to nudity is considered a scandal that must be avoided at all costs - except within the narrow confines of a sexually intimate encounter.
Nudism lies at the opposite end of the spectrum - where the taboo on nudity is demolished, and people freely expose themselves without fanfare (or the assumption of a sexual context) before God and man, in the full light of day, among family and friends, strangers and acquaintances, children and the elderly alike.
In the middle, you have what is depicted in this arthouse film - a permissive but unobsessed culture. People do not go out of their way to embrace nudity, but nor do they rush to cover it up when it occurs naturally - as it will, when you don't have a complex about staying hidden.
Imagine, if you will, various scenarios. You undress for swimming. You roll out of bed in the morning. You've just finished bathing. You're changing your clothes. In a gymnophobic culture, you will swim in a suit, sleep in pajamas, wrap yourself up tightly in a towel, and shut the door before undressing.
Nudists posit an alternate world where everybody is naked pretty much all the time (to the extent that environmental conditions and safety precautions permit). Why so much nudity? It makes sense as a deliberate rejection of gymnophobic conditioning. The substitution of an unhealthy extreme for an equal obsession with its opposite.
What if we lived in the middle, between these two worlds? If seeing people naked was not necessarily a ubiquitous phenomenon, but not an uncommon one either? Where such an experience may still carry the thrill of delight, without being burdened by the weight of taboo?
Imagine a world where people swim, sleep, and bathe naked, and move seamlessly from those activities to others (and between different stages of dress), not overly concerned with the exposure of their bodies to others, but also without eschewing the social function of clothes entirely.
I think this is really what I lament the absence of in the culture I live in. I've no doubt I'd still choose nudity more often than usual for its comfort, as well as its aesthetic appeal. But I don't need to live in a "permanude" society in order to be happy.
It's being a nudist, and yet still having to cover up like a textile whenever there are other people around (in essence, preventing me from ever completely forgetting the neurotic conditioning that was drilled into me) that is so frustrating.
I don't mind being considered an eccentric. But it's the fear of being labeled a pariah - or worse yet, charged as a criminal. Of losing connection with people who appreciate your individuality - until it runs afoul of the nudity taboo.
I want to see other people naked, too. Not in a creepy, voyeuristic way. But because the human body is beautiful, and seeing one dressed minimally in public never fails to make my day. Seeing more of it would only bring that much more sunshine into my life.
And, in this world, the artistic appreciation of nudity - even in a slightly erotic, but not overtly or intimidatingly sexual way - would be so much easier to understand, when it's not being confused for something that is considered decidedly more sinister.
I imagine that's the culture in which arthouse films like this one arose. Unless that's a fabricated part of the fantasy, too. But be it reality or illusion, I long to live in that world, and envy those who have had the fortune to experience it.
