Body Acceptance Through Nudity

“Body acceptance is radical and risky. It runs against the cultural current by blowing three whistles on how we see and treat the body. First, it denounces Western society’s propagation of the “perfect” body—an illusory standard of ideal beauty popularized by media and marketing. Second, it debunks slanderous fallacies and conventional fantasies about our naked anatomy by refusing to see he body as a sexual indecency and by esteeming all body parts as elements of personal identity. Third, it turns up the volume for listening to the visual “body language “ of human physiology.” —David L. Hatton, Who Said You were Naked? Reflections of on Body Acceptance “Nudity, therefore, may be welcomed as a contribution to morality with no need for worry lest it makes us too good for our own happiness. The abandonment of our traditional prudery regarding the naked body would bring the natural instincts of man into better harmony with the requirements of civilized society. He would be healthier mentally, his behavior could improve, and his joy of life would be increased immeasurably.” —Frances and Mason Merrill