The development and eventual dominance of Christianity in late antiquity profoundly changed the needs of patrons and the output of artists. Unlike paganism, Christianity required no images of naked divinities, and new attitudes cast doubt and opprobrium on nude athletics , public bathing, and the very value of the human body. The early Christian emphasis on chastity and celibacy further discounted depictions of nakedness. In this climate, there was little motive to study the nude, and unclothed figures are thus rare in medieval art. Among the notable exceptions are Adam and Eve, whose story casts undress in an ominous light. In late antique works like the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus ca.

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Six women have stripped off their clothes to shed negative feelings towards their own bodies. The Gold Coast women are part of a trial of life-modelling therapy, an extreme exposure technique to boost self-confidence in people suffering body dysmorphia. Nicki Shepherd decided to join the program after a bad relationship led her down a path of self-hate. Each first-time model struck two, two-minute poses and then a longer minute position, their bodies studied and scrutinised by the artists. Alison Brinsley took part in the program because she decided it was time to kick her bad body image and set a good example for her year-old daughter. Ms Brinsley and Ms Shepherd are two of the first six women to undertake the pilot program. For both it was an emotional experience, but when asked to describe it in one word Ms Shepherd chose "liberating" and Ms Brinsley described it as "empowering".
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Nudity is a state of being in which a human is not wearing clothing or specifically is not covering the genitals. Nakedness , or the loss of body fur, was one of the physical characteristics that marked the evolution of anatomically modern humans from their hominini ancestors. For many thousands of years, humans wore no clothing, which continues to be the norm in some isolated indigenous societies in tropical climates. It is generally accepted that the widespread adoption of clothing occurred as people migrated to other climates which required protection from the elements. In addition, as societies developed from being hunter-gatherers to being agrarian, clothing became part of cultural evolution as individuals and groups became differentiated by status and class. In early civilizations such as Egypt, slaves, children, and others with lower status often continued to be naked.
The history of nudity involves social attitudes to nakedness of the human body in different cultures in history. The use of clothing to cover the body is one of the changes that mark the end of the Neolithic, and the beginning of civilizations. Nudity or near-complete nudity has traditionally been the social norm for both men and women in some hunter-gatherer cultures in warm climates and it is still common among many indigenous peoples.