I, too, can count myself among the "victims" of the ideal Western image of womanhood. As a tourist guide I have to look representative, but sometimes I feel like a hypocrite. But when I pondered upon the comments on Sociological Images, most of which had to do with (not) shaving and wearing a bathing suit, I also pondered on the fact, that when dressed in a bathing suit, I am very aware of myself, and the times when I really enjoyed myself swimming or on the beach as an adult have all been times when I went to an FKK (Freikörperkultur, German for naturalist, or "Free Body Culture") place.
On an naturalist beach, no-one tries to show off the latest fashion. In fact, surprisingly enough to most people who haven't tried it on: naturalism is much more "modest" in a sense than being in bathing suit. Most regular bathing suits are not mere tools for enjoying a day of swimming and basking in the sun: they are a matter of sexualising the wearer (stressing certain features in their body, namely the ones they are supposed to cover); and of course, they represent fashion choices, fashion awareness, class, and so on. Naturalism shed you off (literally) of all of that. Suddenly you don't worry any more about varicose veins or stray hairs: you find out that 99% of us don't look like porn stars. That is, if you look - but the whole idea, at least in the places I've been to, is that no-one looks. Your body is for you to enjoy, not for others to stare at...
Under my hat as a tourist guide I am sometimes encountered with questions about FKK in Berlin. Some people seem to have the idea that they're in for a free nude show, others are quite embarrassed by "those Europeans" that also go to the Sauna or to thermal baths naked. In fact, FKK has an interesting socio-political history in Germany, well beyond my anti-consumerist notions of having fun.
The first political association of naturaists in Germany was their involvement in the Reformbewegung of the 19th Century. While the Lebensreform movement was not a political movement per se, it represented a German counter-response to industrialisation and modernity: return to nature, and sometimes also to nationalist/"Völkisch" ideas.
Early beginnings: Nudity in the Lebensreformbewegung
Some members of the Reformbewegung's have later found themselves siding with the Nazis. One of the most prominent of which was the naturalist Hans Surén, who was arrested by the Nazis in 1941 for what the Nazis claimed was public masturbation. However, the Nazis were in fact divided in the reaction to FKK. On the one hand, the nudity of the healthy, athletic, Aryan body was part of Nazi propaganda celebrating the nation. However, the authorities have in fact attempted to oppress naturalism and to ban it, although in 1942 they mellowed (as a response to popular demand?) and set a rule, that clubs may have naturalist areas, away from the view of non-naturalists. So while the FKK could have match the racial theories like a glove, with their obsession of the body, this was not the case.
After the War, FKK became, surprising as it may seem, a political issue. In the communist East, it has become increasingly popular, partially because of the population's general retreat to "small revolts" in the personal sphere. In the West, it was much less popular, not only because conservative organisations like the churches had much more say on the matter, but also because it was not the "forbidden permitted" - those small things that enabled the East Germans to express their personality under the strict communist regime. The regime itself was not very happy about FKK at the beginning - being communists didn't make them less prude or conservative - but later learned, that it would be better to co-opt FKK then to ban it.
For the West Germans, it became one more strange thing in East German culture, and after the Fall of the Wall, many FKK resorts in former East Germany had to close, after holidaymakers were harassed by the newcomers from the West. However, this Wessi reaction brought about a new socio-political meaning to FKK: naturalism became now one other way to assert your "Ossi" identity. In one FKK beach I was in Berlin during election time, the PDS - the fortmer communist party at the time - was handing out stickers.
Naked East-Berliners making no fuss about themselves, but being very political at the same time, in the summer before the Wall fell (July 1989)
Naturally, besides the East-West connotations, FKK is also political by its very assertion that we can rid of our clothing and become "equal", that we can de-sexualise public areas, that we can use public spaces in the same way that most use only their very private sphere, and so on. According to this article in Die Welt, over 800,000 Germans FKK regularly. This is only 1% of the population.
One small side note to this post: all of the pictures here have been taken from Wikipedia. There are major differences between the pictures about naturalism in the German and in the English language Wikipedia. While the first has many pictures featuring front body nudity, the latter has managed somehow to find pictures in which one cannot see sex organs or ones which are of "artistic merits" of a kind. I am pretty sure someone has already done it, but if not - it is interesting to compare the reactions to nudity and similar issues in different Wikipedias.
