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In Western societies into the 20th century, nude swimming was common for men and boys, particularly in male-only contexts and to a lesser extent in the presence of clothed women and girls. Some non-Western societies have continued to practice mixed nude bathing into the present, while some Western cultures became more tolerant of the practice ...
Sects with beliefs similar to the Adamites, who worshiped naked, reemerged in the early 15th century. [90] Although there is a common misconception that Europeans did not bathe in the Middle Ages, public bath houses were popular until the 16th century, when concern for the spread of disease closed many of them. [91]
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were a colonial practice of publicly displaying people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. [3] They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. [ 3 ]
Most Roman homes, except for those of the most elite, did not have any sort of bathing area, so people from various classes of Roman society would convene at the public baths. [17] Roman baths became "something like a cross between an aqua centre and a theme park", with pools, exercise spaces, game rooms, gardens, even libraries, and theatres.
The Romans, whom the Victorians often sought to emulate, had built many public baths open to everyone, but these had long disappeared. For centuries Bath, Somerset , had retained its popularity as a health resort , while during the Georgian era and particularly after the development of the railway, entrepreneurs developed spa towns around the ...
Artists continued to paint Biblical characters bathing, and also sometimes depicted contemporary women bathing in the river, an example being Rembrandt's Woman Bathing. In the 19th century, the use of the bathing scene reached its high point in classicism, realism and impressionism. Oriental themes and harem and turkish baths scenes became popular.
Since the early 20th century, swimming came to be regarded as a legitimate leisure activity or pastime and clothing made specifically for swimming has become the norm. Since then, swimwear for women has become increasingly more scanty and form-fitting, and the use of high-tech materials has become more common.
Women posing near a bathing machine in 1902 Horse-drawn bathing machines in Wyk auf Föhr, Germany, 1895. The bathing machine was a device, popular from the 18th century until the early 20th century, to allow people at beaches to change out of their usual clothes, change into swimwear, and wade in the ocean. Bathing machines were roofed and ...