Nudism rise in Sweden

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  Stone Andy

  Oct 14, 2024

  Interesting perspective. The article speaks about a rise in nudism in Sweden since Covid, but only references sauna culture, which is already deeply ingrained in the Swedish traditions. He refers to it as an antidote to social media where people can be and look exactly how they are. The Swedish sauna is also described as a caring place with greater openness than other parts of society given a tradition of saunas in Scandinavia are to cleanse the body, not sexualize it. Perhaps this is what is meant by the sauna reflecting old Sweden, vaguely described as having greater associational life than today.
  I'm personally more familiar with "old Sweden" than its contemporary counterpart and see a distinction between naked bathing culture including saunas and nudism. As private bathrooms only became common after WW2, traditional communal naked bathing remains rooted in Swedish culture and is perhaps making a come-back in relevance. However, I don't consider it nudism which has a greater focus on lifestyle and social interaction. At the end of the day, Swedes want to avoid talking with people they don't know even with clothes, but have much less qualms about being seen naked by them.

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