My latest book Love Life of a Naked Girl got its first ever reader review on Amazon this week, and one comment I found particularly nice was that the reviewer said that, for them, the titular naked girl Becky had become "erotica's quintessential nudist character".
It got me thinking, what other fictional characters are synonymous with being naked?
There are a host of writers out there writing erotica in which characters are nude a lot or otherwise liberated about their bodies, as well as authors writing 'naturist fiction' in which nudity is presented non-sexually.
But away from those two genres, are there any characters in fiction who can be said to be nudists? I'm certain there are, and I'd love to know of any that my readers can think of.
I think there are certain criteria to be observed before you can call a character in fiction a "nudist", so I will use those criteria to judge any I can think of:
They must be naked at least some of the time in front of other characters, or express vocally an enjoyment of nudity or a preference for being naked over being clothed (whether they self-identify as a nudist or not).
They must exist in a society where it is "normal" to be clothed; that is, nudity is not part of their shared culture. Even if their preference for nudity is not treated as shocking or inappropriate, it should not be something that everyone does.
They must be human, or human-looking. Plenty of cartoon animals run around naked but that isn't quite what I had in mind for fictional nudies.
They should be naked, or express that they are comfortable with the idea of being naked, in places outside of bed or the swimming pool (just skinny-dipping or sleeping nude does not mean a character is a nudie).
Their nudity should not be connected in the story to sex. Even if there is some sex in the story, the nude character should be shown enjoying non-sexual nudity also.
I'll also include a couple of extra criteria, just for the sake of narrowing things down:
They shouldn't appear in a work of purely erotic fiction (that might actually mean I couldn't count Becky in this exercise but I accept that!)
They shouldn't appear in a story that is specifically about nudism/naturism. Nudism/naturism can be a part of the plot or the character can be naked for entirely other reason, but I am more interested in talking about characters who are nudist in a wider world than those whose stories take place in a naturist resort or community.
For me, probably my favourite nude character who meets the criteria set out in that list is Angora from Der-shing Helmer's long-running online graphic novel The Meek. The Meek is a beautifully-drawn, sweeping fantasy adventure epic about a world on the brink of war and disaster, and tells the story of several different viewpoint characters throughout the book's world - but there is also no ignoring the fact that one of those characters, a young girl with green hair and some sort of incredible power over nature, seems, at least when we first meet her, to not really feel any need to wear clothes.
Going by my own criteria, Angora fits the bill for the type of character I am thinking of.
She is naked, or topless, in nearly every scene she appears in (she starts out naked and then finds pants) and seems perfectly comfortable with her nudity, even to prefer it (although we don't really know why she has stopped wearing clothes, supplementary material suggests she finds it cumbersome and overstimulating to be dressed, which may be linked to her strange powers). While she never self-identifies as a nudist, that is to be expected; this is a fantasy world with a fantasy culture, the concept of "nudism" probably doesn't exist.
Angora's definitely not a member of a society where being naked is normal - other characters she encounters express confusion or disapproval over her nudity. In flashbacks we see that in her own community Angora wore the same clothes as everyone else, so it isn't as though her nudity is culturally required - it really is her personal quirk and something she has begun doing at some recent point.
Angora is human, or human in appearance - much of her identity is still mysterious at this juncture, including why her hair is green and where her powers come from, and when and why she stopped wearing clothes. But she's physically the same species as the other characters who all wear clothes.
Angora is naked in the jungle, and in the loggers' camp where she meets the other protagonist of her part of the story, Pinter deJersi; she certainly isn't confining her nudity to just swimming or sleeping. She doesn't even seem to own any clothes, let alone wear them, until she picks up a pair of pants from Pinter.
Lastly, Angora's nudity is never presented as sexy or titillating. While her age is vague, she seems to be quite immature and so you can reasonably assume she is not yet an adult woman by the standards of the society of the world in which she lives - and even if she were, the fact that she has no clothes on is never linked to any expression of sexuality. Rather, it gives her an alien and otherworldly quality, emblematic perhaps of her innocence or vulnerability, instead of being presented as sexually appealing.
And of course, it should go without saying that The Meek is not an erotic work. It is definitely adult-themed in terms of the nudity and occasional violence, but it is PG-13 at most, and definitely not written for or marketed to people who want erotic comics. Nor is it a work in which nudism/naturism has a role in the narrative; Angora is the only naked character and her nudity is treated as unusual by everyone she meets. As far as anyone knows, the author has no particular interest in naturism and has chosen to give Angora this quirk for reasons that are important to the narrative, not because she wants her to represent a philosophy or lifestyle in our world.
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So that's Angora, one of the more interesting naked characters in fiction that I'm familiar with. But I'm interested in identifying more naked characters in other works, so if you can think of any that might fit with the criteria I set out in this blog, I would love to hear about them.
Morgan Mackenzie from Skyclad