,
Few people understand that swimsuits, as we know them today, are a comparatively recent concept. The notion of wearing special clothing to swim in is just a century old. 160. Skinnydipping, in the local river or farm pond, is well-documented as an important historical part of our national heritage. Skinnydipping and outside nudity appear in the writings of Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, William Allen White, Lincoln Steffens, William Styron, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Herman Melville, James Michener, and Henry Miller, among many others, and in the depictions of Norman Rockwell, Rockwell Kent, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Eakins, John Sloane, and Grant Wood. 161. Many YMCA, college, and high school man-only pools or swimming classes were historically "swimsuit-optional" or nude-only until federally-mandated "equal access" fit programs (for the interest of girls) were instituted in the mid 1970s.231 162. Today, there are still public locations where nudity is, by local convention or custom, the approved practice. Nudity is the standard, for example, in natural primitive hot springs and on nude beaches; and, nearly universally, for models in art classes. 163. The few officially approved nude beaches in the U.S. (for example, Rooster Rock State Park, Oregon) and Canada (Wreck Beach, British Columbia)--and most of the unofficial beaches as well--have existed for decades without essential issues.232 164. Many highly respected individuals, historical and contemporary, have espoused and/or participated in Naturism to some degree. Benjamin Franklin took daily naked "air baths." 233 So did Henry David Thoreau, who was also a frequent skinnydipper.234 Alexander Graham Bell was a skinnydipper and bare sunbather.235 George Bernard Shaw, Walt Whitman, Eugene O'Neill, and painter Thomas Eakins claimed in favor of societal nudity.236 President John Quincy Adams was a routine skinnydipper. According to reports, "each morning he got up before morning, walked across the White House lawn to the Potomac River, took off his clothes and swam in the nude. He then returned to the White House to have breakfast, read the Bible and run the country." 237 President Theodore Roosevelt frequently swam nude in Rock Creek Park in Washington, once skinny-dipping with the French diplomat, Jules Jusserand.238 President Lyndon Johnson occasionally swam nude with guests in the white house pool, including evangelist Billy Graham. 239 Senator Edward Kennedy has been photographed skinnydipping at people Shores in Florida. At the White House of his brother, John F. Kennedy, nudity had been common around the White House pool.240 Many U.S. representatives appreciate nude recreation, albeit segregated: U.S. Senate members may use the Russell Senate Office Building Pool in the nude (the few female Senators make appointments to assure there won't be males on hand), and Representatives may use a clothing-optional steam room, where President Bush was said by Newsweek to hang out sans towel with his pals. Congressmen additionally sunbathed naked on http://www.alphadb.de/index.php?title=Jewish-Naturists--Every-Wonder-What-Judaism-Thinks-Of-Nudism-q until one day in 1973 when Rep. Patricia Schroeder drifted into the party inadvertently.241 Billionaire insurance man John D. MacArthur often went skinnydipping, and left a beach to the state of Florida, meaning that a piece be designated clothing-optional (a wish that's been spurned); word has it that MacArthur went skinnydipping with Walt Disney at this shore in the late 1960s.242 World Bank president and former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and American Civil Liberties Union founder Roger Baldwin, both have been routine skinnydippers.243 Charles F. Richter, the co-inventor of the quake measuring system, was a life -long nudist and Naturist.244 Celebrity Lynn Redgrave and her family practice social nudism.245 Actresses Bridget Fonda and Brigitte Bardot love societal nudity.246 The late actor Gary Merrill recommended nudism.247 Christy Brinkley openly admits to frequenting nude beaches,248 and Christian singer Amy Grant goes topfree on foreign beaches while on tour abroad.249 Even the late Dr. Seuss published approval of a nudist philosophy, in one of his first books.250 165. Historically, a great many writers and artists have regarded Naturism, or something close to it, to be Portion of the utopian ideal. R. Martin writes: "Anthropologically, nakedness would seem to be the best and worst of conditions. Involuntary stripping to nakedness is defeat or poverty, but willed nakedness may be an ideal form." 251 Nudity is Additionally consistent with the Christian utopian concept of heaven, in which, according to biblical accounts, garments isn't Needed. 166. Nudity has frequently been used, historically, as a sign of protest or rebellion against oppression. For example, the early Quakers, in mid-17th century England, often used nudity as an element of http://www.tvfc.de/index.php?title=About-Goodland-Country-Club--Nudist-Resort-and-Campground-in-New-Jersey-v . Historian Elbert Russell notes that "A variety of men and women were detained and punished for public indecency