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An intimate part, personal part or private part is a place on the human body which is customarily kept covered by clothing in public venues and conventional settings, as a matter of fashion and cultural norms. In several cultures, revealing these parts is seen as a religious offense.
Definitions vary, but usually they are primarily the parts involved in sexual arousal, procreation, and elimination of excreta and related matter, including: [1]
The term intimate parts may be construed to mean only the external body parts that are visible when naked, rather than the body parts more commonly referred to. For example, when naked, a woman's pudendal cleft is predominantly visible rather than the vagina, and a man's scrotum is visible rather than the testes which are contained within. [2]
Female breasts are considered as parts that would be covered in most contexts but with a degree of tolerance for toplessness varying in different regions and cultures. For example, Dayna Fischtein, Edward Herold and Serge Desmarais (2005) found that acceptance of toplessness in a sample of Canadians varied depending on both personal factors (such as the respondent's gender, age, and religion) and contextual factors (i.e., toplessness in streets, parks, or beaches). [3]
In some periods of European history, female shoulders and legs may have been considered intimate parts.[ citation needed ] More conservative viewpoints in the West in some contexts still find it appropriate that females should cover their shoulders, particularly when entering a church or other sacred space.
In Islamic traditions, the definition of awrah is similar to the definition of intimate parts in Western culture. The extent of cover for the female body depends upon the situation, but may include the hair, shoulders, and neck in addition to the aforementioned "intimate parts". A majority of scholars agree that the entire body except the face and hands should be covered in public or in front of unrelated non-Muslim women and in front of unrelated men. The exceptions are the scholars from the Hanafi school of thought, which has the largest number of followers, which agree that the feet are not part of the awrah and therefore may be revealed. [4] For males, most scholars regard all parts of the body from the navel to the knees as awrah.
The intentional exposure of one's intimate parts is a form of exhibitionism. Such exposure may be subject to strict social rules, social control and even criminal justice, if it is considered to be a form of indecent exposure. The unintentional exposure of intimate parts (as in the case of a "wardrobe malfunction") may be connected with feelings of shame. For example, when actress Goldie Hawn accidentally revealed a whale tail in 2015, the American gossip website Radar Online called her the "victim of a bad wardrobe malfunction" and stated that she had "committed a major style crime." [5]
Intentionally touching the intimate parts of another person, even through clothing, is often associated with sexual intent. If this is done without the consent of the person being touched, it is considered groping or in some cases sexual harassment or sexual assault.
Naturism is a lifestyle choice that is characterized by the practice of nudity, both alone and in groups. Some naturists hold that nakedness is not automatically a sexual state and that covering areas of the body is merely a social construct: they believe that the norms of society can be upheld even when all are nude. [6] [7]
Naturism is a lifestyle of practicing non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms are broadly interchangeable, nudism emphasizes the practice of nudity, whilst naturism highlights an attitude favoring harmony with nature and respect for the environment, into which that practice is integrated. That said, naturists come from a range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds; there is no single naturist ideology.
Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body in a manner contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. Laws and social attitudes regarding indecent exposure vary significantly in different countries. It ranges from outright prohibition of the exposure of any body parts other than the hands or face to prohibition of exposure of certain body parts, such as the genital area, buttocks or breasts.
Exhibitionism is the act of exposing in a public or semi-public context one's intimate parts – for example, the breasts, genitals or buttocks. As used in psychology and psychiatry, it is substantially different. It refers to an uncontrollable urge to exhibit one’s genitals to an unsuspecting stranger, and is called an "Exhibitionistic Disorder" rather than simply exhibitionism. It is an obsessive compulsive paraphilic disorder, which typically involves men exposing themselves to women. It is considered a psychiatric disorder. Such patients need psychological/psychiatric treatment.
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is known as barechestedness.
The intimate parts of the human body must, according to Islam, be covered by clothing. Most of modern Islamic scholars agree that the 'awrah of a man is the area between the navel and the knees, and the 'awrah of a woman is the entire body except the face, hand; exposing the 'awrah of the body is against Islamic law.
Buttock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the intergluteal cleft between them, often because of low-rise pants. The crena is a formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, had to be justified as part of the story.
Clothing laws vary considerably around the world. In most countries, there are no laws which prescribe what clothing is required to be worn. However, the community standards of clothing are set indirectly by way of prosecution of those who wear something that is not socially approved. Those people who wear insufficient clothing can be prosecuted in many countries under various offences termed indecent exposure, public indecency, nudity or other descriptions. Generally, these offences do not themselves define what is and what is not acceptable clothing to constitute the offence, and leave it to a judge to determine in each case.
Freikörperkultur (FKK) is a social and health culture that originated in the German Empire; its beginnings were historically part of the Lebensreform social movement in the late 19th century. Freikörperkultur, which translated as 'free body culture', includes both the health aspects of being naked in light, air and sun and an intention to reform life and society. It is partly identified with the culture of nudity, naturism and nudism in the sense of communal nudity of people and families in leisure time, sport and everyday life.
Nudity in American television is a controversial topic. Aside from a few exceptions, nudity in the United States has traditionally not been shown on terrestrial television. On the other hand, cable television has been much less constrained as far as nudity is concerned.
Social nudity is the practice of nudity in relatively public settings not restricted by gender. This occurs both in public spaces and on commercial property, such as at a naturist resort.
The relationship between nudity and sexuality can be complicated. When people are nude, this often leads to sexual arousal, which is why indecent exposure is often considered a crime. There are also social movements to promote a greater degree of nudity, such as the topfreedom movement to promote female toplessness, as well as the movement to promote breastfeeding in public. Furthermore, some psychiatric disorders that can lead to greater nudity include exhibitionistic disorder, voyeuristic disorder, and gymnophobia.
Nudity is sometimes used as a tactic during a protest to attract media and public attention to a cause, and sometimes promotion of public nudity is itself the objective of a nude protest. The practice was first documented in the 1650s with Quakers "naked as a sign" practice. Later the tactic was used by svobodniki in Canada in 1903, and photographs of their nude protests have been published. The tactic has been used by other groups later in the century, especially after the 1960s. Like public nudity in general, the cultural and legal acceptance of nudity as a tactic in protest also varies around the world. Some opponents of any public nudity claim that it is indecent, especially when it can be viewed by children; while others argue that it is a legitimate form of expression covered by the right to free speech.
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair and living in hospitable climates. As humans became behaviorally modern, body adornments such as jewelry, tattoos, body paint and scarification became part of non-verbal communications, indicating a person's social and individual characteristics. Indigenous peoples in warm climates used clothing for decorative, symbolic or ceremonial purposes but were often nude, having neither the need to protect the body from the elements nor any conception of nakedness being shameful. In many societies, both ancient and contemporary, children might be naked until the beginning of puberty. Women may not cover their breasts, being associated with nursing babies more than with sexuality.
This timeline of social nudity shows the varying degrees of acceptance given to the naked human body by diverse cultures throughout history. The events listed here demonstrate how various societies have shifted between strict and lax clothing standards, how nudity has played a part in social movements and protest, and how the nude human body is accepted in the public sphere.
The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society was a group of several dozen women and a few men that had, since August 17, 2011, organized regular gatherings around New York City, meeting to read and discuss books in public while topless. The primary objective of the group, besides enjoying the sun and book reading, was to create awareness that New York law allows toplessness in public and to change social attitudes to the exposure of women's breasts. The group's blog had reported that there had been no harassment of the participants by the police and very rarely by the public.
In Canada, topfreedom has primarily been an attempt to combat the interpretation of indecency laws that considered a woman's breasts to be indecent, and therefore their exhibition in public an offence. In British Columbia, it is a historical issue dating back to the 1930s and the public protests against the materialistic lifestyle held by the radical religious sect of the Freedomites, whose pacifist beliefs led to their exodus from Russia to Canada at the end of the 19th century. The Svobodniki became famous for their public nudity: primarily for their nude marches in public and the acts of arson committed also in the nude.
Free the Nipple is a topfreedom campaign created in 2012 during pre-production of a 2014 film of the same name. The campaign highlights the general convention of allowing men to appear topless in public while considering it sexual or indecent for women to do the same and asserts that this difference is discriminatory, contravening women's rights. The campaign argues that it should be legally and culturally acceptable for women to bare their nipples in public.
Naturism refers to a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public, and to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both are also known as "nudism". Naturist organisations have existed in New Zealand since the 1930s. Although not a daily feature of public life, social nudity is practised in a variety of other contexts in New Zealand culture.
In the United States, individual states have primary jurisdiction in matters of public morality. The topfreedom movement has claimed success in a few instances in persuading some state and federal courts to overturn some state laws on the basis of sex discrimination or equal protection, arguing that a woman should be free to expose her chest in any context in which a man can expose his. Other successful cases have been on the basis of freedom of expression in protest, or simply that exposure of breasts is not indecent.