Kay Xander Mellish explores Denmark's relaxed approach to nudity, from mandatory showers at swimming halls to legal public nudity in parks. Older Danes embrace it; younger ones prefer modesty. The tradition persists in vinterbølging, winter swimming where people plunge nude into icy water.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. When they move to Denmark, many foreigners are surprised by the Danes' relaxed approach It's something they're often first confronted with at the local swimming hall, where a very large and strong attendant insists that they take off their entire swimsuit and shower thoroughly before going into the pool. Stripping off in front of strangers is new for a lot of internationals, and some try to place it in the larger context of Danish morality. It hasn't been entirely forgotten that Denmark was the first country in the world to legalize pornography in 1967. Some people still think of Denmark as a place where there's easy sex available and a generous display of naked boobs and butts. My own grandmother, upon hearing that I was now living in Copenhagen, said to me, you didn't tell me you were moving to a sex town. No doubt one of her cohorts at the nursing home had shared titillating memories of a 1970s trip through the red light district on Istedgade. Anyway, it isn't surprising that some newcomers seem to think that if it weren't for the chilly weather, everyone in Denmark would be nude at all times. Seeing online video of a naked run at Aarhus University or at the Roskilde Festival only reinforces this belief. And it is true, being butt naked is totally legal in Denmark. There are no laws prohibiting nudity in Danish parks and open spaces, and anyone bothering a naked sunbather can be charged with disturbing the peace. But there's somewhat of a generational divide when it comes to nudity in Denmark. Old people are much more excited about being nude than young people. Even the Danish National Association of Nudists, on their website, they feature a cheerful selection of over-60s who would fit quite nicely on the right-wing Danske Folkeparti website if they had clothes on. Young Danes tend to be less enthusiastic about nudity. You can even see this in the women's changing room of my swimming hall, where the girls wiggle and struggle to get dressed beneath towels while the ruddy, robust older women stroll around in their birthday suits without a care in the world. These beautiful young women have grown up in a world of camera phones and revenge porn. They never know who's going to take a picture and what they might do with it. But I think it's more than that. Modesty is trendy, maybe an inevitable swing of the pendulum. Modest fashion was a big hit at Copenhagen Fashion Week this summer. Modest clothes sell well to everyone from businesswomen to hijabis to pop stars like Billie Eilish. And some intellectuals have started to see nudity as offensive from a feminist viewpoint. The New Yorker recently ran a bad review of a show of nudes by the French painter Renoir, calling him a sexist male artist. I think about this a lot when I walk around my very mixed neighborhood in Copenhagen Northwest, which has a surprisingly large number of nude statues and wall friezes. Many of them were put up in the 1930s as part of the Body Beautiful movement. The idea was that classical artistic nudes were a way to elevate the tastes of the working class. So you'll still see bare-breasted women carved into stone above the doorways of some of the apartment buildings. These probably wouldn't make it past the Facebook content filter today. Copenhagen parks also feature a fair number of classical nude sculptures. It's always a bit jarring to see fully covered Muslim women from the neighborhood picnicking next to Greek warriors with their bronzed family jewels dangling on display. So does nudity have no future in Denmark? I think it does, and it all links back to the water. Vinterbølging, or winter swimming, is more popular than ever. People of all ages still seem eager to get entirely nude, or mostly nude, on the coldest days of the year and take a dip into the icy Danish harbors. Before jumping in, you take a quick shot of gammeldansk, a strong and fiery liquor. This is a morning shot. Winter swimming takes place as soon as the sun comes up. You hardly need the alcohol, because the shock of the cold water against your skin makes your body release adrenaline, serotonin, cortisol, and dopamine. It's an old Viking tradition, and it will probably outlive all of our present-day opinions about nudity, whatever they are. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. Come visit us at howtoliveindenmark.com. Or join us on Instagram or Twitter at How2LiveInDK. The 2 is a number. We're also on Facebook. And you can buy our books, How to Live in Denmark, How to Work in Denmark, on our website. Or even get a How to Live in Denmark t-shirt. See you next time! See you next time!
