Nonnudewomen photography refers to photography featuring women who do not appear naked. Proponents argue that its subjects offer more realistic imagery compared to glamour or erotica images, although its subjects remain highly alluring and appealing.
When this image appeared in mass-market women’s magazines, it did more than simply represent the body as it existed – it created new forms of sex expertise and knowledge. Some magazines depicted women as active sexual agents co-opting feminist discourses of liberation while others took an uncloaked women in private spaces voyeuristic approach; regardless, all helped objectify the female body and help form an audience beyond passive spectators.
Modern and contemporary art gave artists the freedom to experiment with nudity as an artistic statement. Francisco de Goya painted La maja desnuda, depicting a woman covered with pubic hair to shock viewers of its time. Realist painters also depicted women from lower social classes such as prostitutes or actresses as subjects for their paintings.
The Tassili n’Ajjer mountain range in Algeria contains numerous petroglyphs depicting naked women dating back 9,000 to 10,000 years and considered one of the earliest representations of human nudity. Early images feature women reclining, some carrying children. Later depictions show multiple women lying prone together or sitting with animals on their laps.