National Geographic Nudity

When I was an adolescent, the only reliable source of breast visuals was National Geographic, a magazine then devoted, as far as I can tell, to doing feature articles on every primitive tribe in the world in which the women went around topless. When I was in junior high school, my friends and I were extremely interested in these articles, specifically the photographs that had captions like "A young woman of the Mbonga tribe prepares supper using primitive implements." We would spend long periods of time staring at the young woman's implements, and we'd wonder how come we'd had the incredibly bad luck of being born in the one society in the entire world (judging from National Geographic) wherein women wore a lot of clothes.

— Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys

So here's this highly acclaimed motion picture about a pre-industrial tribe and its customs. Perhaps the film details this tribe's interactions with European explorers, or takes place entirely before they arrive. It just so happens that in the culture displayed, the women wear very little clothing or walk around topless.

But there's a part of you that can't help thinking the entire film is nothing but an excuse to have lots of people running around with few or no clothes on.

The Trope Namer is National Geographic Magazine, which sometimes shows topless women when running an article on tribal cultures where the women don't customarily cover their breasts. Almost all PG-13- or R-rated movies owe their ability to show any skin to old nudist films in this vein, such as Holiday in the Sun or Garden of Eden. The trope originally concerned innocent and rather tame nudist documentaries; when the nudists of the time successfully fought for the right to show nudity on the silver screen for nudist films under the justification that it wasn't sexual, filmmakers used the new loophole to make hundreds of B Movies using the setting to allow them to show flesh.

Films such as The House on Bare Mountain or The Beast that Killed Women nominally took place at a nudist colony or whatnot, but dropped this outside random shots of naked (or usually just topless) women — and never, ever, naked men.

This trope is dominant on the Australian TV network SBS.

Sometimes this is like Innocent Fanservice Girl on a culture-wide scale. For when it's a race of extraterrestrial beings, see Exposed Extraterrestrials. See also Poor Man's Porn for when National Geographic Nudity is used for more titillating purposes. Related to It's Not Porn, It's Art, Our Nudity Is Different.

Needless to say, this is Truth in Television for many cultures, with norms about nudity varying wildly across the world and throughout human history. It can also have somewhat Unfortunate Implications because it turns people, especially women, who are just living their daily lives into someone else's sexual fantasy. During the European Slave Trade, African women were stereotyped as being extremely lustful because the Europeans mistook their relative nudity as sexual, and that concept has in some cases sadly lasted into the present.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Several female demons in Inuyasha don't bother with covering up and nobody makes a big deal of it. In an earlier chapter Kagome is bathing nude, though that scene might to some degree have been fanservice.

Arts

• Lampshaded, along with a hearty helping of Deliberate Values Dissonance, in a humorous postcard from the 1950s showing, first, a white couple in the Victorian era (a suit and hat for the man and a hoop-skirted dress for the woman) staring disapprovingly at a Native American couple wearing nothing but loincloths. Then it shows, a century later, the natives in all-covering Victorian garb, and now they're the ones staring disapprovingly at the great-grandchildren of the white Victorian couple, who are parading around in swimsuits that bare their arms, legs, and midriffs.
• Many figure-drawing books that contain photographs of nude models will have about twice as many female models than male ones, whose breasts, buttocks, and pubic regions will be photographed in full view in extreme poses, sometimes to the point of cropping out arms, faces, and anything below the knees, but the models' bodies are all young, fit, and slim, while the male models are of varying ages and body types and posed modestly. Older books are even more extreme, with the female figure being extensively featured completely nude in a variety of dramatic poses, photographed from every angle with close-ups of breasts and buttocks, and the male figure being modeled by one or two gentlemen in inert standing poses, wearing some form of underwear and with their faces censored out.
• Venus of Willendorf: The statue is one of the most famous archeological sculptures in human history and both her bulbous breasts and vagina are very prominent. Whenever she appears in museums, documentaries, or other fictional works, no one makes a big deal out of it.

Comic Books

• Richard Corben's Den. In Neverwhere, there are no nudity taboos, although clothing can vary wildly. For instance, Den and Kath, who are buck naked, meet Kang, a warrior who is largely fully clothed with armor and a hooded cape and he never gives any comments about that.
• Sur les Terres d'Horus: Les Disciples de Maât by Isabelle Dethan is an adventure/detective series set in Ancient Egypt at the time of Ramses II, when it was customary for female servants to be dressed topless.
• Les Passagers du Vent by Francois Bourgeon, a historical adventure series set in the late 18th century and involving the West African slave trade. Also a bit of white nudity, but in both cases usually female only.
• In the Chilean comic Mampato in Rapa Nui, when they travel to Easter Island in the 16th century, women appear all topless, although they appear quite little and usually in the background.

Comic Strips

• Parodied in Calvin and Hobbes: in one strip, Hobbes (a talking tiger) claims that he only reads National Geographic for the hot tigress babes.
• Referenced in FoxTrot as Roger believes Jason to be looking at these kinds of pictures after locking himself in his bedroom having come home with an armload of National Geographic magazines (and is pleased, since Jason is still in the "girls are icky" phase). As it turned out, Jason bought the magazines because they documented the old Apollo missions.
• Lampshaded to Hell and back by National Geographic themselves in their centennial anniversary issue. They printed a multipage essay and many cartoons in a special section discussing the trope. They ranged from one of 1980s anti-porn crusader Edwin Meese threatening to send a SWAT team to retrieve back issues from a suburban family, to the woman of a remote tribe hurriedly discarding their Western clothing and makeup for their own traditional garb on seeing a NatGeo team driving towards the village with a photography crew.

Fan Works

• In Rocketship Voyager, one of the tri-videos in the ship's library is an 'educational' movie about the shocking sybaritic rites of the Amazons of Venus! that "everyone watched and pretended not to". The trope is lampshaded when Venusian Half-Human Hybrid B'Elanna Torres shows Chakotay a page from National Geographic of an Amazon of Venus "bedecked in jewels, a sword harness, and not much else" that's being used as a pin-up.
• Vow of Nudity: Fiora grew up in a primitive clan of werecats in the barrens, and everyone in her origin story plays this trope completely straight.

Films — Animation

• The French animated movies Kirikou and the Sorceress, Kirikou and the Wild Beasts and Kirikou and the Men and Women by Michel Ocelot. African women are all topless, and the children, boys and girls, are fully nude, including the eponymous hero. Award-winning children's movies in Europe; can't be shown in the States without an R-rating.

Films — Live-Action

• 1950s-1960s nudist "documentaries" such as Blaze Starr Goes Nudist or Garden of Eden take the subculture version of this. The flood of random nudity these films brought was influential in loosening the rules until these movies were all but forgotten afterward — although there are the occasional throwbacks, such as Nudist Colony of the Dead (1991) or Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre (2010).
• Although the movie obviously takes place in a fictional setting, a sci-fi variant applies to Avatar, where the Na'vi only wear a loincloth most of the time. Although some strategically placed necklaces/scabbards often hide the females' breasts, there are several scenes where they are clearly displayed.
• The action-adventure film Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend features topless natives towards the beginning of the film, and several in the tribe that the protagonists befriend (in spite of its PG rating).
• Baraka: The children of Caiapó Village in the Amazon are wearing nothing but brightly colored sashes made of strings. One close panning shot showing them holding hands incidentally highlights that their genitals are uncovered.
• The 1984 film The Bounty, about the famous mutiny, features Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins and a fair number of topless Tahitian women. This film was, after all, much more dedicated to historical accuracy than the earlier movies.
• Cannibal Holocaust: The nudity here is rampant, and part of the film's statement on the struggle between civilized and uncivilized societies (which the director intended as a slur against the Italian media).
• The Clan of the Cave Bear, set in prehistoric times, does this in the Clan Meeting scene, with several female members of other clans casually bare-breasted.
• EuroTrip had a nude beach populated entirely by old men, much to the disgust of some of the main characters.
• Averted in Farewell To The King (1989). Although it was filmed on location using Borneo tribesmen, the women wore tops because the producers didn't want their movie to be Best Known for the Fanservice.
• Parodied in Peter Jackson's Mockumentary, Forgotten Silver, where the first color film ever made was supposedly banned and forgotten because of its extensive National Geographic Nudity.
• The Gods Must Be Crazy is another example, although it is a comedy. The protagonist (a Bushman from the Kalahari Desert in Africa) wears only a loincloth that covers his genitals but bares his buttocks. He sets out on a quest across the continent for reasons too complicated to mention here, precipitating a (for him) fascinating voyage of discovery and nonstop Values Dissonance. Along the way he sees many non-Bushman Africans, both black and white, and is puzzled by their "multicolored skins," and the fact they often have different colored "skins" on different parts of their body (i.e., clothes). He also spies a woman in her underwear (a lacy white bra and slip) and wonders why she has covered herself with cobwebs.
• Referenced in Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), when the executives to whom Denham is speaking ask if his picture will have "boobies" in it. He is less than amused.
• The 1937 adaptation of King Solomon's Mines provides a surprising example from The '30s of topless African tribeswomen.
• Legong Dance Of The Virgins (1935) had an all-Balinese cast going about daily activities. Many of the women were topless. This was a "goona goona" film, half-documentary, half-drama, one of many made in that period. ^note The legong, a sacred classical dance, really is performed only by girls who have not reached puberty.
• Medicine Man has several scenes with almost or completely naked men, women and children, including a pair of shots of a line of women buttocks when said women are helping the heroine in her scientific research. But since all naked people are Native American, the movie got a PG-13 rating.
• Nowhere in Africa: A plot point. Walter and Jettel, are German Jewish refugees from Hitler, who fled to Kenya but were interned as "enemy aliens" by British colonial authorities when war broke out. Recently released from internment, they see some Kenyan women walking by topless, carrying their burdens atop their heads. Walter dares Jettel to take her top off and walk like the native women do, and she does. Then out of nowhere he turns nasty and asks if she made any "friends" while interned. It turns out that he knows about the British officer she had sex with.
• Papillon, after the titular character is adopted by some South American tribespeople.
• Quest for Fire, set in the Stone Age. Ika is naked throughout the movie. In particular, Rae Dawn Chong was cast as Ika because she was the most comfortable with nudity. She remained nude and covered in body paint between takes to stay in character.
• For most of Tabu (1931), the Tahitian girls are dressed modestly enough in sarongs. But in the ceremonial dance scene, the female dancers wear nothing but grass skirts.
• Trader Horn (1931) shows quite a bit of this as Horn and his protege Peru travel up an African river. Somewhat atypical for the era in that Peru, the young man of the pair, is shown quite obviously titillated by some of the comelier half-naked African women.

Literature

• John Carter of Mars: Barsoom (namely, Mars) is depicted as a perpetually fair-weather, Eden-like setting where clothing is practically nonexistent.
• Most of the characters in Things Fall Apart don't wear much clothing. It is explicitly pointed out at one point that Ekwefi must hold her breasts in place to keep them from flapping against her body.
• T.E. Lawrence's autobiography The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (which was adapted into Lawrence of Arabia) describes Arab tribesmen sleeping naked with each other and thinking nothing of it, not because they are homosexual (which is expressly forbidden by their faith), but because they've gone so long without even seeing a woman that they are severely touch-starved.
• An aversion is described in Just War; one character in the 1940s has a children's encyclopedia from the 1930s, which has a picture of a South African woman in "tribal dress", and a note saying that at home she doesn't usually have a blanket wrapped around her. He tells Roz Forrester that for years he wondered what she wore instead of the blanket.
• Nellie Bly mentions this multiple times in her 1890 travel memoir Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, like when she observes the naked black men pulling rickshaws in Colombo, or the naked men on the beach at Port Said that caught an alligator.
• Mutiny on the Bounty: "No women in the world are more modest than the ladies of Tahiti, but they bare their breasts as innocently as an Englishwoman shows her face."
• Lampshaded in Take A Girl Like You by Kingsley Amis, even explicitly mentioning National Geographic:
  Jenny sat down in a folding chair by the window and pretended to read a copy of the National Geographic for July 1946 that someone had left about. It had native girls with bare busts. (Why did native busts not count?)
• In The Little Golden Calf Lokhankin only saves from the house fire "a book so dear". It is a Russian translation of Mann und Weib, a very serious work best known back then for its quality illustrations.

Live-Action TV

• Tribe was a series on The BBC focusing on a white man attempting to live with a variety of tribal cultures. He is forced to be naked on several occasions, and the camera generally avoids showing his genitals. The tribespeople, on the other hand, don't get this.
• The first episode of I, Claudius had a group of African dancers, including topless women, entertaining Augustus and his guests at a dinner party.
• BBC Three's Last Man Standing and Last Woman Standing feature westerners visiting various tribes in order to compete in different forms of combat. Some of the tribes are naked or nearly naked, but the contestants aren't usually required to imitate them.
• In an episode of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye uses the threat of withholding from "Radar" the National Geographic issues with tribal nudity in them in order to get Radar to take care of something for him.
• The first episodes of Roots (1977) has many shots of barebreasted African women before they get caught by slavers.
• The Grand Tour features uncensored shots of a group of local ladies in Namibia. They dance for Hammond as he tries to fix his car; he tries to be polite and acknowledge the dancing while also being gentlemanly and trying not to stare.
• See takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the surviving humans have gone blind. While people still wear clothing to protect themselves from the elements, being naked is no longer considered indecent since nobody can see your exposed body.
• Brilliantly deconstructed on Sheena (2000). One episode starts with Sheena getting dressed in western-style clothes. When she puts on the bra, she doesn't know how to latch it shut, so she ties it up in back instead. This makes sense since she would have grown up around NGN being played straight, meaning she would have had no fully-dressed female role models to teach her how to correctly put on a bra.

Religion

• In the Book of Genesis, this was Adam and Eve before they ate the Forbidden Fruit. They were nude, but they had no concept of "naked" or "nudity" or "feeling naked." There was no shame or indecency surrounding their nudity. It was only after the fruit was eaten that they developed a concept of "naked" and felt self-conscious and ashamed of their nudity. When God questioned Adam as to why he and Eve were hiding (and wearing Improvised Clothes made of fig leaves), and Adam replied that it was because they were naked, it becomes an I Never Said It Was Poison moment.

Video Games

• Female Iskai in Albion leave two out of their four breasts exposed. This is never commented on, nor did it prevent the game's sale; although it may have something to do with it being a German game translated to English.
• In Master of Magic, the African priestess Sharee is topless.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Zoras (including Princess Ruto) are completely naked, although the King wears some regal garments. The Zoras in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are similar in this regard, although their overall design is different (and far more human-like) compared to the Zoras in the Nintendo 64 games. This is averted for Princess Ruto in the 3DS re-release of Ocarina of Time, where Ruto was redesigned to have strategically-placed "fins" on her chest. Along with the other fins that she always had, this gave her the appearance of wearing a dress, in a way similar to Queen Rutela of Twilight Princess. This same design is used for Ruto in the spin-off game, Hyrule Warriors. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has more female Zoras than other games, but they ditch the chest fins; some of the race wear garments, but those barely cover much and don't bother with where they would anatomically have private areas.
• Far Cry Primal:
  • Batari and most of the Izila women have both breasts exposed, but they cover them with blue paint, making it harder to notice.
  • Most of the Wenja women cover both breasts, but you do get a few of them who wear tunics baring one breast. The majority of Udam women also fit this pattern.
• In Farnham Fables, the Lizard Folk natives of Glekutsu Village have no issue with female toplessness (despite having Non-Mammalian Mammaries). However, going around fully nude, like Dr. Keith does, is still considered unusual even by their standards.
• Leisure Suit Larry 2: Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places): The women of Nontoonyt Island are all topless (including his future love Kalalau), something that excited Larry. Further accentuated after he returned to normal the native women Dr. Nonookee brainwashed as they respond by tearing off their tops. (By the third game, however, after "joining" the civilized world, all the Nontoonyt women wore practical clothing.)
• In Crusader Kings III, on default nudity settings, characters following certain religions which make nudity sacred will appear nude save for a fig leaf. This is applied equally across all adult characters, who run the gamut of ages, body types, and physical appearances, and is not commented upon.
• The Lands of Aniethia, the kingdom where the game Swords and Claws takes place has no nudity taboo. All in-game characters, both allies and enemies are always nude, wearing only equipment belts, but there is no sexual content in the game.
• In Stone Idol, a spin-off of Swords and Claws, main and single one character, a rogue archer antrophomorphic fox is nude throughout the game, wearing only an utility belt. There is no reaction or comment on nudity in game and there is no in-game sexual content.
• Trailers for the upcoming MMORPG adaptation of Wagadu Chronicles seem to feature toplessness for all genders presented as something banal.

Webcomics

• In Swords And Claws Scars, a spin-off of Swords and Claws, all characters, except a single one, are always nude as in the original game.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons:
  • When Homer travels as a missionary to a remote Pacific Island to teach the tribe living there about the Bible, he is disappointed with the lack of nudity, leading the tribal chief to explain that Christian missionaries have already taught them "the gift of shame". Another tribesman then points across the bay and notes: "The naked women are all on that island." Homer looks forlornly toward the other island, from which he can hear female giggling.
  • In the first episode, Lisa is in a play on Christmas in different countries, and does a tribal dance wearing nothing but a tribal mask, a coconut bra and a grass skirt.
• Family Guy:
  • In an episode when Chris runs away and joins the Peace Corps, he ends up with a tribe that wears only loincloths. When he dons one, the chief points at his crotch and exclaims "Oh my God, Chris! I can see your genitals!" When Chris reacts with embarrassment, the men laugh and the chief continues "It's OK. You can see everybody's junk!"
  • In another episode, after Meg is believed to have wrecked the city's cable access, her teacher blames her for the class not getting to see a video about a tribe with topless, large-breasted women.
• In the Chilean animated film Ogu And Mampato In Rapa Nui:
  • Marama, a young Rapa Nui girl, spends the entire film walking around in only a small loincloth and a seashell pendant.
  • Adult women wear coconut bras, although in the original comic, as in real life, they went topless.
• In the first episode of Il Était Une Fois... L'Homme, all of the early humans are shown completely naked, and with Barbie Doll Anatomy.
• In the Beavis And Butthead episode "At the Movies," the duo watch "topless tribeswomen" on the National Geographic channel. Beavis also considers National Geographic a "dirty magazine" in the episode "Hard Sell" for this reason.
• A Thousand and One... Americas: Many characters from the pre-Columbian civilizations are shown partially nude; this includes women being shown topless. This is a necessity due to the show's accuracy in its educational premise.

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