This is the final installment of a three-part series here at DQN In Northern Virginia on skinny-dipping. For reference, see "Skinny-Dipping I: In The Beginning, The Action" on August 28, 2012, and "Skinny-Dipping II: The Adventure, The Tradition" on September 4, 2012.
Skinny-dipping is a popular summer custom not only here in the United States, but all over the world. For hundreds of millions of people, there's no better way to "beat-the-heat" than to strip off all their clothes, get nude and dive into a choice body of water. With just a few days of the summer season remaining in the Northern Hemisphere, time is running out. If you haven't already done so, take advantage of the opportunity to engage in this activity one more time before those winter chills and winds arrive!
The Culture
Contributing to the lasting popularity of the skinny-dipping tradition is its simplicity and economy. No elaborate planning is required and the only prerequisites are an item of clothing (to be stripped off) and a body of water. Clearly, this is one hell of an equal-opportunity activity! If a national nude pastime were ever to be officially adopted, this one is sure to be at the top of the list.
There is little doubt that skinny-dipping is deeply steeped in the American culture. Even before the arrival of European settlers and widespread colonization, the indigenous peoples, the Native Americans, enjoyed swimming nude. All one has to do is read accounts of some of the earliest colonists to see their amazement at the ease the native inhabitants shed their loincloths and breeches to frolic into the water nude and unsegregated by gender. This freedom was quickly imitated by the initial immigrants although they experienced it separately by gender.
 |
| "The Swimming Hole" by Thomas Eakins (1885) |
Folklore and literature, combined with art, provide ample evidence that swimming naked has been a staple part of American life, similar to a "rite of passage" for many youth. The renown author and beloved humorist, Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), immortalized and romanticized it through his two primary characters of note: Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Their antics have been a beloved tale for young readers for almost 100 years. Twain/Clemens himself often expressed his own aversion to obsessive modesty: "So it is not nakedness that gives the sense of immodesty, the modifying the nakedness is what does it." A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals, Volume 2. In contemporary literature, many writers use the skinny-dipping scenario as a prelude to intimate romance.
 |
| "Ruby, gold and malachite" by Henry Scott Tuke (1902) |
Evidence of the widespread acceptance of skinny-dipping in and by American culture is also provided through the covers and illustrations found in family-oriented publications. One of the leading magazines of the twentieth century, The Saturday Evening Post, brought the activity into the homes of most American families on at least two of it's editions. Both covers, by major artists, have become classic pieces of art simply based on their own artistic value and popular appeal.
The above picture, "Skinny-Dipping," graced the August 19, 1911, cover of The Saturday Evening Post was created by American artist Joseph Christian Leyendecker. The one below, "No Swimming" by popular Norman Rockwell, appeared almost two decades later on June 4, 1921. The fact that these works of art drew no ire from religious or secular leaders and organizations proves the general acceptance of nude swimming throughout the USA.
Throughout the United States, despite divergent moral and religious values, the ageless practice of skinny-dipping is tolerated. True, it is almost illegal everywhere to be publicly nude, but the participation in swimming without clothes rarely results in actual arrests or citations. At worst, it sometimes warrants a severe warning. Among the so-called sacred and secular leaders, it may result in a raised eyebrow or a shared smirk. However, it virtually never gets the ferocious condemnation other actions involving nudity invoke. Probably, this is because so many Americans have indulged in this behavior at least once in their lives.
The above benign attitude towards skinny-dipping is true as long as it doesn't violate illegal entry or trespass laws, illegal substance laws or underage consumption of alcoholic beverages. Those infractions, along with abusive behaviors, usually result in prosecution. The act of swimming nude is, by itself, merely a cause of embarrassment, when caught, if the dippers aren't practicing naturists/nudists.
The term, skinny-dipping, is relatively new to the popular vocabulary. Although it has been in use in several regions in the USA for more than a century, it didn't enter the national vernacular until the mid-1940s. This is probably the result of the massive military effort during World War II. The war brought millions of sailors and troops together, all from various areas of the country. This mixing of men introduced many to the phrase for the first time.
Despite the fact that it is essentially an American English colloquialism, skinny-dipping is understood by most people worldwide as the same as nude swimming or swimming naked. However, the activity of aquatics without the burden of clothes isn't just an American occurrence. In virtually every culture that makes use of clothes, there is some form of playing in the water without them. It's as though it is an innate part of human nature. Perhaps, it is!
Peace! Get naked. Enjoy!
