Monday, June 16, 2008

Full nudity







Full nudity is used to describe a state of total nudity, with nothing covering genitals[clarify]. In English, phrases such as "nude", "bare" or "in the buff" (a reference to leather, i.e. skin notably hairless, unlike a pelt; compare "buck-naked"; Spanish also has the euphemism "en cueros", meaning "in leathers") carry a similar meaning.

A special case is "stark naked", or "starkers", as these terms were erroneously changed from "start naked" (start is an Old High German word for "tail") to the "stark", an old Germanic word meaning "strong" but used as "utter(ly)".[original research?]

Euphemisms may be used, such as "birthday suit" and "au naturel" (French for "in the natural state"). In the Dutch language a naked person may be described as "spiernaakt" ("muscle-naked", since the musculature is visible under bare skin) or "poedelnaakt" ("poodle-naked", which refers to the often-ridiculed shaving of poodle dog breeds), or as wearing "Adamskostuum" ("Adam's suit", i.e. the original unclothed state of Adam and Eve in Eden). A similar expression exists in Italian ("costume adamitico"). The French "à poil" — "to the (body) hair (or fur)" — and its Spanish equivalent "en pelotas" ("in the balls", i.e. showing your testicles, though it applies to both males and females), emphasize that human hair growth is generally too sparse for one to be considered covered without artificial clothing (while the pubic hair is often thicker, this area of the body is also most critical in the Christian tradition; in a few[clarify] Germanic languages, the very word for pubic literally means (and is cognate with the English word) "shame": skam in Danish, schaam in Dutch, Scham in German). Likewise in French, "nu comme un ver" ("naked as a worm") refers to absence of visually shielding hair, via a dysphemistic metaphor. While negatives such as "undressed" may also refer to partial nudity (cf. "topless", below) unless explicitly qualified, in artistic modelling the term "undraped" means completely nude, as opposed to such common practices as draping something over the sexual body parts (or over the face so as to make the model anonymous).

Full frontal nudity refers to wearing no clothing and facing the observer showing the pubic area, as opposed to only showing toplessness/barechestedness or bare buttocks. It is usually considered the most far-reaching form of nudity, with exception of a close-up of the genitals. In many cases, full frontal nudity is avoided in motion pictures by purposely placing objects to obscure an actor's or actress's genitals, or the shot is diffused by hazy lighting or focus. In one scene from A Shot in the Dark, actor Peter Sellers infiltrates a nudist colony but avoids full nudity by holding a guitar in front of his genitals. Unlike the nudists, he is intensely embarrassed. Such techniques not only make some actors more comfortable but usually aim to pass censorship or prevent the film from receiving an unfavorable rating, which may impede the film's commercial success. Thus, revealing shots may be cut during the editing; sometimes a more liberal version is released separately: e.g., as director's cut. Few non-pornographic, mainstream American films show full frontal nudity in their theatrical versions, while more complete versions may be distributed in other countries, and/or on video tape or DVD (media which generally are more ready to distribute productions offending various taboos). When full-frontal nudity is shown it is more likely to be female since the female genitalia can be easily obscured by pubic hair or closed legs.

No comments: