Spanish Tolerance of Nudity. Why?

[isleswing]

I've long been intrigued as to why Spain, as a country, so favours the right to nakedness, while her people are so conservative.

SoCal wrote
In Spain, nudity is a personal right - sort of a revolt against the bad old Franco days. While some principalities have issued local ordinances banning nudity, the most well known is Barcelona, a few of these ordinances have been struck down by the Spanish courts. Pro nudist groups in Spain claim that the right is part of the constitution, but I don't read Spanish well enough to confirm this.

I admit that I had thought the opposite - that Franco, pre war, liked some of the fuhrer's ideas, nakedness being amongst them, and copied some of them, in the same way that he aligned the clocks with Germany's, leaving them in the wrong time zone even until today.

It seems odd that Spanish people seem very supportive of the right to bare, while not often indulging in it themselves; I blame the religious teachings for the repression and coyness.

In a way, Spain seems to be one of the less likely countries to enshrine the right to nakedness in the law. It's obviously a political choice rather than a populist one.

So, was it a backlash against Franco, or was it his idea in the first place?

I've just tried a bit of research, but everything seems to have very strong but opposing points of view, and I can't see when the law might have come about.

[jg]

I think it was one of many things that suddenly happened as a reaction as soon as Franco went.

[SoCal]

I like this question.  But I don't believe the typical Spaniard does tolerate nudity.

From my internet based research with limited Spanish translations, I have a hypothesis: the constitution does not say anything specifically about nudity, but rather something along the lines of, "a citizen has the right to free public expression both verbally and in presentation" or something like that.  The objective was probably to keep the state from dictating behavior and appearances like a boarding school which was experienced under Franco's rule. The pro-nudist organizations have liberally interpreted this right as to say, a citizen has the right to not wear clothes in public.  And from the few cases that have appeared in Spanish courts that I can find, it appears the courts have agreed that this right is so inclusive that nudity must be accepted.

I agree that for actual behavior, the general public is quite conservative. Like with Italians, I find very few full nudists though there are pro-nudist groups in Italy and I have visited one of the most amazing nudist beach in Sardinia.  On the other hand, Spaniards tend to accept topless women which is not accepted in the United States even though it is completely legal in many states, New York being the most famous.

So I don't know about Franco's view of nudity is, but I do know the liberal Spaniards I have spoken to are staunch defenders of civil liberties. And unintentionally, public nudity falls within that set.

In trying to figure out what is legal, I stumbled upon a militant nudist on one of the other Canary Islands.  You might be able to find a video interview of him. It includes scenes of him walking naked through a very busy town to the local beach.  Eventually, he is stopped by the police who ask for his identification and tell him to cover up, which he does while talking to them. But in the end, to the horror of many parents (notice it is frequently the parents), he is allowed to continue naked.  He and his friend stay on the beach  which I believe is in one of the larger towns of Gran Canaries. He occasionally receives shouts of "pervert" and other hostile expressions from people on the boardwalk, But most beach participants tell the interviewer that they don't care.  He has been charged, but never found guilty of the only charge they can file which is "exhibitionism" which is lewd behavior in front of a minor. In fact, in interpreting one account, he has been so successful, the courts essentially issued him a "get out of jail free" card he can use at any time.

If you want more information from a Spanish pro-nudist group, download this pdf file:
http://www.naturismo.org/docs/legal_fen_english.pdf

This is only a hypothesis and I don't have enough data to form a solid theory.