Naked: Harmless or Positive

“What we learned was that the viewing of the unclothed human body, is far from being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign and totally harmless or to actually provide positive benefits to the individual involved.” —Dennis Craig Smith and Dr. William Sparks, Growing Up Without Shame “While this [children’s experience of social nudity] can be a highly emotional, even controversial issue, it seems prudent to gather and be guided by empirical evidence, rather than mere emotion, and to avoid unhelpful or inaccurate stigmatization. The empirical evidence to date, including this current research, has failed to find negative effects or associations between naturism and outcomes for children. Following that evidence, calls to ban children from naturist events seems premature and unhelpful,” —Keon West, “Think of the Children!: Relationships between Nudity-Related Experiences in Childhood, Body Image, Self-Esteem and Adjustments,” Children & Society 37.4(July 2023): 1187-1202.