Nudist Pageant 2000 «Browser»

The “Nudist Pageant 2000” was not an oxymoron. It was a real event, hosted by the American Sunbathing Association (now the American Association for Nude Recreation) at a resort in Florida. But to understand it, we have to erase the mental image of Miss America and instead think of a 4-H fair run by philosophy majors who really hate laundry.

Contestants in the pageant were judged on “personality, physical fitness, and philosophy of naturism.” Notice the order. Physical fitness was in the middle. The winner was not necessarily the person with the "best" body, but the one who best embodied the community’s fragile ethos: that a body is just a body, a vessel for conversation and volleyball. nudist pageant 2000

The 1990s were a strange decade for nudism. The rise of the internet brought niche communities together, but it also brought a tidal wave of sexualized content that conflated nudity with pornography. The ASA fought a lonely battle to decouple the two. Their slogan, “Nudity is not lewdity,” was a legalistic mantra repeated until it lost all meaning. The “Nudist Pageant 2000” was not an oxymoron