From Naked Juice (R) to nude yoga, contemporary society is steeped
in language that draws a connection from nudity to nature,
wellness, and liberation. This branding promotes a "free and
natural" lifestyle to mostly white and middle-class Americans
intent on protecting their own bodies-and those of society at
large-from overwork, environmental toxins, illness, conformity to
body standards, and the hyper-sexualization of the consumer
economy. How did the naked body come to be associated with
"naturalness," and how has this notion influenced American culture?
Free and Natural explores the cultural history of nudity and its
impact on ideas about the body and the environment from the early
twentieth century to the present. Sarah Schrank traces the history
of nudity, especially public nudity, across the unusual eras and
locations where it thrived-including the California desert,
Depression-era collectives, and 1950s suburban nudist
communities-as well as the more predictable beaches and resorts.
She also highlights the many tensions it produced. For example, the
blurry line between wholesome nudity and sexuality became
impossible to sustain when confronted by the cultural challenges of
the sexual revolution. Many longtime free and natural lifestyle
enthusiasts, fatigued by decades of legal battles, retreated to
private homes and resorts while the politics of gay rights, sexual
liberation, environmentalism, and racial equality of the 1970s
inspired a new generation of radical advocates of public nudity. By
the dawn of the twenty-first century, Schrank demonstrates, a free
and natural lifestyle that started with antimaterialist,
back-to-the-land rural retreats had evolved into a billion-dollar
wellness marketplace where "Naked (TM)" sells endless products
promising natural health, sexual fulfilment, organic food, and hip
authenticity. Free and Natural provides an in-depth account of how
our bodies have become tethered so closely to modern ideas about
nature and identity and yet have been consistently subjected to the
excesses of capitalism.
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