Drama on the Body and

1
Lecture 12

• Drama on the Body and
• on the Nude Beach

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THINGS

• Paper topic ideas in PowerPoint Slides on my
  Personal Webpage
• Write to me over the break about your papers if
  you wish I can also come into the city to meet
  with you
• Weeks 7-10 Foucault Read A and S on
  Foucault on my Personal Webpage

• TODAY
• Finish last few slides from last class
• Presentations
• Nude Beach Lecture
• Goffman group work

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Finishing up last lecture

• See lecture 11
• (slides 29-33)

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PRESENTATIONS
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Todays Readings

• (1) SMUO Bell, D. and Holliday, R. (2000). Naked
  as nature intended. Body and Society, 6 (3/4),
  127-140.
• (2) SMUO Holmes, J.S. (2006). Bare bodies,
  beaches, and boundaries Abjected outsiders and
  rearticulation at the nude beach. Sexuality and
  Culture, 10 (4), 29-53.
• (3) NET David H. Net Nude Crystal Crescent
  Beach, Halifax, Nova Scotia. http//www.netnude.co
  m/main/info/canada/cyrst981.html

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Connections between readings

• Is it possible for the body to escape social
  interpretations of gender, sex, and sexuality?
• Just as we do gender in interaction, we do
  nuditywe are body watchers and body
  interpreters! Holmes, in Bare Bodies, looks at
  the types of discourses within those
  interactions.
• Hence, the reading on Naked as Nature
  Intendeddemonstrates the scrutiny of the body in
  a different setting, such as how society
  perceives
• the body on Crystal Crescent Beach in a local
  example.

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The main topic of today is to consider the naked
body in/as part of nature, and presentations of
masculinity and femininity in that interaction.
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Consider how we constantly interpret nude bodies
in society -

• The Arts
• Myth
• Beauty
• Strength
• Eroticism
• Sexuality
• Taboo underground
• Religion
• Academic texts and popular press covers
• Health and medicine
• There is a Federation of Canadian Nudists (FCN)
• Famous Photo of ???? (photographer Annie
  Leibovitz)

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A word on terminology

• What is a naturalist?
• (estb.msn.com)
• What is a naturist?
• (www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire )
• What is a nudist?
• (clothing is not optional during at least some
  part of the naturist performance)
• (images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com)
• Much overlap exists, and we take them for
  granted, but they differ.

10
Official definitions- What makes a definition
official?

• Naturism / Nudism are defined by the INF
  (International Naturist Federation)Naturism
  is a lifestyle in harmony with nature, expressed
  through social nudity, and characterized by
  self-respect of people with different opinions
  and of the environment. Social nudity constitutes
  an essential characteristic of naturism, fully
  exploiting the beneficial effects of the sun, the
  air and water. Naturism restores the balance
  between physical and psychic dimensions, with
  leisure spent in a natural environment, through
  exercising the body, within the fundamental
  principles of hygiene and dietetics. Furthermore,
  Naturism fosters many activities by nurturing
  creativity. Complete nakedness is the
  "best-possible suit" to realise the return of
  humans to nature, and it surely is the most
  visible mark of naturism, even though it is not
  the only one. Nudity has a balancing effect on
  humans by reducing the tensions caused by the
  taboos and provocations of modern society,
  showing the way to a more simple, healthy, and
  humane way of living.
  (http//www.inf-fni.org/index_e.htm)

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Sounds good, but there are countless competing
ideologies

• how about Halifax?
• But, how can this be?
• But?
• But, what can be done?

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LOCAL EXAMPLE OF NUDE BEACHCrystal Crescent
Beach, NS

• http//www.mscs.dal.ca/selinger/crystal/CrystalCr
  escent.pdf
• Short Video clip of beach
• Open Secret of Sociology Where there is culture,
  counterculture is never far beneath the sand.

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Invention of the bathing suit

• Began in Ancient Greece as a sign of wealth and
  status at the bathhouses. Many resembled bikinis
  of today. Little study has been done academically
  on the evolution of mens bathing suits.
• Victorian Era they were long cotton gowns which
  covered the legs of women, to keep them white
  (think racism?) and pure. Later, they were made
  from wool.
• Over the years, bathing suits are aimed to both
  to hide the body and to excite and for fashion
• Freud the progressive concealment of the body
  which goes along with civilization keeps sexual
  curiosity awake (Three Essays on Sexuality,
  1905, p. 156)
• The Bathing Suit - Excellent paper topic

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A word on naturismAdapted from Naked as Nature
Intended by Bell and Holiday (2000)

• Geography cultural norms affect how well we can
  negotiate our nudity in society and nature. For
  example, despite morality resistance, the nudist
  movement aligned with the liberating effects of
  the hippie movement in 1960s North America.
• In the early 1900s United Kingdom, as in North
  America, mass urbanization unfolded. This gave
  rise to a nostalgia toward the natural landscape
  many had left behind a leisure ideal.
• Many of those who had stayed behind considered
  themselves naturists involved in the
  back-to-the-land movement (vegetarianism, folk
  songs, handicrafts, communal living). But, their
  paradise collapsed as they suffered from the
  leisure ideal in that the city folk wanted to
  return to the countryside now and then.

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In Germany,

• Hitler outlawed social nudity
• This affected more than 3,000,000 German people
• Prior to that, it had been practiced and/or
  tolerated by the German populous for the most
  part
• This new (out)law marked the first significant
  division in where it was acceptable to be nude
  and where it was not out in nature, it was a
  natural thing, but in the city or suburbs, it was
  viewed as lewd and sexual.

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In England,

• Around the same time Hitler outlawed social
  nudity, Englands eccentric writers and artists,
  who took part in nudity performances as a social
  fact, found themselves scorned by the morality
  squads of the day they were treated as vulgar,
  and were driven even further underground, such as
  the Sun Club which is going strong today.

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Ties between naturism/nudity and sexuality

• Remember, in England at the beginning to
  mid-1900s, the countryside was becoming
  re-Romanticized this included not only the
  landscape and beaches, but also the ideal of the
  humans who lived there --- rugged, naked,
  natural, animalistic which lent to an erotic
  ideal of the countryside.
• Sex in the outdoors had been going on forever,
  including groups who were social outcasts ---
  especially gay men, adding an air of eroticism
  within that leisure ideal of the countryside.
• Men now had an arena to be men, as part of a gay
  ideal and in direct response to the feminization
  of society and a growing sense of feminism in the
  air.
• In North America, men headed to the wilderness
  and wrote about it, such as Henry David Thoreaus
  Walden. They believed they were
  discovering/re-discovering their deep
  masculinity whereby becoming a man meant
  connecting intensely with nature through
  interaction rituals with the natural world around
  them. (Women stayed home with the kids!)

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All of this heated up the minds of the English
status quo

• Causing a moral panic of sorts Spurring off
  intensified surveillance of queer society
  PART OF HOW WE ARE ON CONSTANT GUARD FOR
  NUDITY-AS-DEVIANCE IN OUR SOCIETY IS HOW WE ARE
  SIMULTANEOUSLY ON CONSTANT GUARD FOR
  SEXUALITY-AS-DEVIANCE.
• What are some other examples of moral panics
  around sex and nature?
• End of Bell and Holiday article on to Holmes
  article

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• Jennifer Holmes
• Bare Bodies, Beaches, and Boundaries Abjected
  Outsiders and Rearticululation at the Nude Beach
• (abjected can mean hopeless, or rejected)

• Pretty radical participant observation, would you
  agree? Would you conduct such research? Can you
  imagine the stringent SMU Research Boards
  conditions for such research?
• Holmes resisted the commonsense norm that public
  nudity is NOT sexual, though the two are related.

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Holmes

• Her methodology She conducted more than 15
  in-depth interviews over 2 months of intense
  ethnography going native in anthropological
  terms. She asked the nudists about/ observed
  their identity and motivations to be nudists.

• Her research question
• WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUDITY AND
  SEXUALITY?
• Her sample nudists
• Her setting Quebec nude beach
• Her justification for study huge research gaps
  in academic literature on nudity, especially in
  Canada

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Some of Holmes Findings at this particular nude
beachdo any surprise you?

• More men than women visit the beach
• Swingers and gay men are generally not
  considered official naturists because of an
  assumed taboo around their sexuality practices
• Sexual talk between the naturists was generally
  discreet
• Women naturists were generally more passive than
  the men
• WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF STUDY in wider North
  American society, public nudity is used to
  explore others values around sexuality.

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• End of Holmes articlea final look at Goffman

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• Goffman Recap
• Goffman believed we are products of SOCIAL
  INTERACTION
• Can one be a naturist without social interaction?
• Universal human nature is not a very human
  thing. By acquiring it, the person becomes a kind
  of construct, built up not from inner psychic
  propensities but from the moral rules that are
  impressed on him sic from without (The
  Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1967, p.
  45).
• Goffman believed that we could understand the
  social world (macro) by assessing face-to-face
  interaction (micro).

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Elements of Dramaturgy

• Persona a mask worn to project a particular
  image to an audience.
• Performance the activity "given off" by an actor
  for their audience
• Stage the makeup of the situation the location
  where a performance unfolds
• Setting the physical layout or background where
  interaction occurs, including "props
• Scene the action taking place within a specific
  setting (just like for a drama or play)
• Actor/Character/Performer a person in a given
  role, performing the duties that are consistent
  with that role
• Audience the people for whom we perform our
  roles-- note the audience members are also
  actors to each other
• Scripts our internalized categories and "labels"
  that we project when interacting can be very
  explicit, like when people who have certain jobs
  are expected to literally say specific lines...
  or like when you are in a relationship and one
  person says "i love you," you're expected to
  reply, "i love you, too.
• Backstage the "behind the scenes" (ex. in a
  restaurant, the kitchen is the "backstage")
• Impression Management how a person manages their
  peers impressions of how we act in interactions
• Dramatic Realization an attempt to make ones
  better qualities noticed when they might
  otherwise go unnoticed (ex. on a date, making
  sure to point out and talk about your
  achievements at school, sports, work, etc. to
  make a good impression.)
• Idealization portraying yourself to others in
  order to closely resemble the values of society
  (emphasizing your positive qualities to make
  yourself look better)
• Negotiation the process by which roles are
  established makes interaction possible
• Mystification the air of superiority that occurs
  when you conceal parts of yourself to create
  distance
• Accounts an explanation for ones actions or
  behaviors (aka excuses)

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Applying Goffman

• If time allows, each group of about 4-6 will
  apply specific elements of Goffmans
  dramaturgical analysis in the following way and
  make a 5-minute presentation (or well do it
  together). Sketch out a research proposal to
  study Crystal Crescent Beach, NS, including
• Central research questions
• Justification of study/Purpose of study
• Sample (where, when, how many?)
• Research Method/s
• Data you will collect (which type?)
• How you will be applying your specific elements
  of Goffman in your analysis?
• Ethical considerations
• Potential implications of your study.
• Something like this would make an excellent exam
  question

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ONE Reading for next class

• CP Colapinto, J. (2000). As nature made him The
  boy who was raised as a girl (pp. 3-23). Toronto,
  ON Harper Collins Publishers.
• Safe and happy (study) break?