Naturism on television

Nudity has been present on the television screen for many years in Europe and sporadically on American television over the years. However depictions of actual naturism and naturist life and it just on screen nudity is not that common. Non sexual nudity is still rarely shown in most TV series. Shows like Game of Thrones have changed the perception of nudity, with an abundance of female and some male nudity. However, much the nudity is a precursor to explicit sometimes violent (rape)  sex scenes.  Sometimes scenes of a person bathing or other forms of non-sexual nudity are included.

There are some shows like Natural Attraction and Naked and Afraid which have implied censored nudity which is  a subject of great debates.

Several television programs in the 50s and 60s featured nudists/naturists as guests but not expressing naturist life. TV series like The Glades, Lucifer and Murdoch Mysteries aired episodes which depicted fictionalized life in naturist communities. A 2007 episode of Girlfriends and an episode of the animated cartoon series Bob’s Burgers had the main characters visiting a nude beach.

In the 2000s a series of naturist tv shows started airing on cable television. Both US. And British television aired documentary programs on naturism. US cable stations aired series focused on naturists or naturist life.

Shows like the reality show Buying Naked, documentary Diary of a Teenage nudist have attempted to give an inside view of the everyday happenings of naturist/nudist life. The French television comedy/drama series Nu (Nude) is based entirely on the premise of a world where social public nudity is the norm.

https://vimeo.com/279539319

 

The wildly popular British science fiction drama Dr. Who had several episodes where the Dr. in one of his/her incarnations engaged in social nudity. At the beginning of Time of the Doctor, (the December 2013 Dr. Who Christmas special) the Dr. (then played by Matt Smith) was naked because he was going to a futuristic church where you had to be nude.

In season 29 episode 3 “Gridlock” The Dr. (played by David Tennant) encounters a nudist couple while searching for Martha (the companion at the time) The female nudist was a passenger in one of the cars drive by a male nudist was driving on the New Earth Motorway. She is seen reading a strategically placed magazine called Hanging Out. Other references and encounters with nudism Show up in Dr. Who spinoffs and related materials. ¹ The Doctor Who Wiki

The reality survival show Naked and Afraid expresses aspects of naturism like being in touch with nature but undermines the acceptable social nudity of naturism with its pixilation of the naked participants to match the sensibilities of U.S. t.v. audiences. For some naturists these efforts to normalize naturism through depictions of social nudity on television fall short.  ²Bill Schroer: Nudist television adds sensationalism to reality TV

References

• 1
  The Doctor Who Wiki
• 2
  Bill Schroer: Nudist television adds sensationalism to reality TV