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Nudity in film is the appearance of people without clothing in motion pictures. Nude scenes can be controversial because they go beyond culturally specific boundaries defining modesty.

In many cultures, nudity in cinematic film is governed by a tiered system of censorship. Such systems are predominately aimed at limiting children's access to content that is deemed harmful by the masses, the government, and/or the movie industry.

Nudity is a volatile topic. Some movies include full nudity — a view of someone's entire nude body. Others show partial nudity. Either might offend some people in some cultures, depending on who is exposed, which body parts, for how long, how close a view, the pose, in what context, etc. Often, only modest versions of nudityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesty#Modest_versions_of_nudity are shown.

Contents 1 United States 1.1 History 2 See also 3 Footnotes 4 Further reading 5 External links

Few mainstream American films show male or female genitalia (in what is called by many full frontal nudity scene). While there are more women who appear in full frontal nude scenes, the female genitalia is less often shown than male genitalia as the pubic hair on women tends to obscure the vulva. The cases where a penis appear fully or semi-erected in mainstream films are very limited.

Instead, buttocks and female breasts are displayed in order to titillate, surprise, disgust, or otherwise amuse the viewer. In many cases, separate objects are used by the filmmaker to obscure an actor's primary erogenous zones, this may prevent a film from receiving an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which typically leads to commercial failure for films which target the mainstream theatre market of the United States. Some forms of human nudity are found in PG and PG-13 films as well, particularly when the nudity in question is not presented in an obviously sexualized context (e.g. a scene of the PG-rated Footloose, in which a minor character is seen from behind whilst taking a shower after having attended a physical education class). Beside some examples, most nude scenes lead to an R rating from the MPAA^{[citation needed]}.

In animated films nudity is also limited. The Simpsons Movie has a brief scene of full-frontal nudity of Bart Simpson, and carries a PG-13 rating. Another famous exception is South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, which carries an R rating and shows a scene where Big Gay Al gets fully naked, and also a scene depicting bare-breasted angels.

Superbad shows many drawings of penises. This may indicate that nudity in drawings in a live-action film is more acceptable than nudity of the characters in an animated film.

Eastern Promises has a fight scene where a naked man in a sauna is attacked with knives and fights back. Genitals are briefly seen, the action may make nudity in film more acceptable. Beowulf shows a fight of a naked man in 3-D, but the depiction is more modest, the seemingly-by-chance obscuring of genitals is carried to the extreme.

The tastefulness of nude scenes are hotly debated in the United States. Adding nudity to films may increase both audience interest and publicity. However, some movie critics view gratuitous nudity (that which is not necessary for the plot) negatively. Various actors refuse to appear on film in the nude citing either their personal moral value-system or the risk to their reputation and/or career. Elisha Cuthbert, Lindsay Lohan and Eliza Dushku are amongst those American actresses which have publicly stated that they will never do a nude scene.^[1][2][3]

Audrey Munson appeared in the first American film to feature nudity by a leading actor, Inspiration.^{[citation needed]}

Several early films of the silent era and early sound era featured nudity; one standard justification for a nude scene was to include it in a historical or religious context. Cecil B. DeMille, whose later reputation was that of a family entertainment specialist, included several nude scenes in his early epics. Other filmmakers followed suit. The film Dante's Inferno featured many naked women suffering in the bowels of hell. The early Tarzan films with Johnny Weismuller featured at least partial nudity justified by the natural surroundings in which the characters lived. Nudity of natives was also portrayed in jungle epics.

In response to objections voiced by several groups – and at least partly due to the notorious 1933 Czech film Ecstasy, which featured a nude scene by Hedy Lamarr – scenes of nudity were forbidden in films from the major American studios from 1934 until the late 1960s under the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code. During this time, the only acceptable cinematic displays of nudity in the U.S. were in naturist quasi-documentary films and in foreign films. Other portrayals were in early pornographic films which, due to limited means of distribution, were not widely seen.

Nudist films are a genre of films associated with the 1950s and 1960s, although the genre has roots dating back to the 1930s. Nudist films claim to depict the lifestyles of members of the nudism or naturist movement — known commonly as nudists — but were largely a vehicle for the exhibition and commercial exploitation of female nudity within the context of public theatrical screenings.

Famous examples of nudist films are Garden of Eden (1954) directed by Max Nosseck. Other producers and directors active in the genre included David F. Friedman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and Barry Mahon. Filmmaker Doris Wishman was probably the most active producer/director in the genre, with eight nudist films to her credit during the early 1960s.

The 1959 film The Immoral Mr. Teas by Russ Meyer, in which the main character was overcome with fantasies of nude women, was the first non-naturist feature film to openly exhibit nudity and is, because of that, considered by many as the first pornographic feature. The 1964 film The Pawnbroker became the first movie under the Hays Code to show a woman with bare breasts (specifically, an African-American woman). In 1966, the British-Italian film Blowup became the first mainstream English-language film to show a woman's pubic hair, although the particular shot was only a few seconds long. (Some sources, such as Playboy Magazine in their History of Sex in Cinema series, have stated that the pubic hair exposure was unintended).

In autumn 1966 the Motion Picture Association of America unveiled a new Production Code. The new Code replaced specific rules, including those on nudity, with more general principles advising caution in matters like nudity and sexual intimacy. It also gave the MPAA the power to label certain films as "Suggested for Mature Audiences". In November 1968, the MPAA abandoned the Production Code altogether and replaced it with the voluntary rating system. Nudity could then be legitimately included in a commercially distributed film.

At present, genital nudity is still rare in U.S. cinema. Further, the MPAA finds it more acceptable for a male's genitals to be depicted in a flaccid state. The film Angels and Insects (1996) was the first to be given an NC-17 rating specifically because an actor had an erection. Anything more than a very small amount of genital nudity, especially in a sexual context, often leads to an NC-17 (or X, in the past) rating. One notable exception is Porky's (1982), a broad sex comedy with an R rating that featured several full-frontal nude scenes with multiple men and women (though never both together). Many movie theaters still refuse to show films with these ratings. Nevertheless, many X-rated films became culturally significant, including A Clockwork Orange, Last Tango in Paris, and Midnight Cowboy, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1969. In the 2000s, most nude scenes lead only to an R rating from the MPAA, instead of NC-17. Many films that were once rated X have been "re-rated" R.

• Depictions of nudity
• Nudity in American television
• Sex in film
• List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex
• No-nudity clause
• Non-pornographic films with considerable nudity:
  • Ten Canoes

1. ^ http://www.ketv.com/entertainment/2992785/detail.html
2. ^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8320680/
3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0244630/bio

• Jones, Marvin. (1996). Movie Buff Checklist: Male Nudity in the Movies. (5th ed.) Panorama City, Cal.: Campfire Productions. ISBN 1-888211-04-0.
• Hosoda, Craig. (2001). The Bare Facts Video Guide. Bare Facts. ISBN 0-9625474-9-2.
• Mr. Skin (2004). Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia: The A-to-Z Guide to Finding Your Favorite Actresses Naked. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33144-4.
• Storey, Mark. (2003). Cinema Au Naturel: A History of Nudist Film. Naturist Education Foundation. ISBN 0-9740844-0-9.

• A extensive look at sex and nudity in cinema
• http://www.screenit.com - Screen it!, see section "Sex/Nudity" of each film description
• Celebrity Nudity database
• Nudography(18+)
• Naturist Guide to the Movies