History of Social Nudity
Nudity in social contexts has been practised in various forms by many cultures at all time periods. In Western society nowadays, social nudity is most frequently encountered in the contexts of bathing, swimming and in saunas, whether in single-sex groups, within the family or with mixed-sex friends, but throughout history and in many tropical cultures till now, nudity is a norm at many sports events and competitions.
It is difficult to nominate exactly when naturism started as a movement. In 1903 Paul Zimmermann opened the first club, Freilichtpark, near Hamburg. By 1951, the national federations united to form the International Naturist Federation or INF. Some naturists preferred not to join clubs, and after 1945, pressure was put to designate beaches for naturist use. The two groups did not cooperate until 2000.
From the middle of the 20th century, with changing leisure patterns, commercial organisations began opening holiday resorts to attract naturists who expected the same - or better - standards of comfort and amenity offered to non-naturists. More recently, naturist holiday options have expanded to include cruises.
Read more about this topic: Naturism
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