Nude swimming is an ancient and honourable tradition, and for most of human history it was the only way to do it. The sensual benefits are obvious: the free flow of water over your skin brings it all to life, tingling and pleasured and joyous. Contrast that with the chaffing and binding of bathing suits, and you'll never want to wear one again!
Some of us were lucky enough to grow up with this tradition. YMCAs all over North America had nude bathing until well into this century, and Hart House at the University of Toronto only started requiring swim suits in 1972, when it finally opened its door to women.
The idea that you have to dress up in order to bathe is an obviously ridiculous one, and is also a relatively modern one. While it was often segregated by gender, nude bathing was the norm around the globe. For most of the last 2,000 years, Christians baptised adults in the nude. Even the Puritans, so often the butt of jokes for their extreme anti-sexuality, did not get dressed for swimming.
Dressing up in order to swim was the invention of the European "middle class" that resulted from the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century. Along with the middle class came "middle class morality", characterised by a pathological and negative obsession with sex. Prudery, modesty, and chastity displaced kindness, honesty, and charity as the values of the day. The human body was no longer a sacred temple; instead, it was regarded as a shameful, evil thing, the root of sin.
We laugh now at Victorians who covered the shapely legs of pianos, fearing temptation. Only people with an unhealthy preoccupation with sex could find piano legs arousing! We also laugh at the heavy woolen suits and dresses they wore at the beach. Only the very strongest people could actually swim in those outfits; the weight of them dragged many people to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.
We feel smug looking back on the ridiculous behaviour of our predecessors, but our own behaviour is equally laughable. For example, the most common argument against nude swimming you will hear today is that it will lead to constant orgies of sexual abandon. As if!
The second most common argument is that most people should never be seen naked because they aren't attractive enough. "You really don't want to see me naked!" people exclaim. In this way they acknowledge that the main reason we wear swim suits is to be more sexy. In fact, that's one of the main attractions of clothing: by only partly revealing the body, it adds mystery and fires the imagination.
Simple nudity isn't nearly as sexy as a tight-fitting bum-hugging pair of jeans with a few carefully-placed tears. Sexiness is about image, suggestion, mystery, and promise. Social nudity is about honesty and candour, openness and acceptance.
So on the one hand people say you can't swim naked because people won't be able to control themselves, and on the other they say that it isn't sexy enough! This kind of twisted contradiction is typical of our modern attitudes. So break free of the cycle of shame and swim naked with us!
Our nude swim is on the fourth Tuesday each month at the Harrison Baths, from 8:30 to 10 pm. Please join us.