Skinny dipping is not a crime. Dive in
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Version 0 of 1. I’m not a naturist, but our family is certainly not prim when it comes to nudity, and I have authored a guidebook about wild swimming. So I had mixed reactions to the news that police in Northern Ireland have threatened two young men with a criminal record, and the possibility of being put on the sex offenders register, for going skinny dipping in Belfast Lough last week. Perhaps these two men had been cavorting about on a busy beach strutting their stuff in front of everyone, petting each other or even propositioning people? That kind of behaviour is at best offputting, and at worst downright offensive and intimidating. But no, it turned out they had just been going for a simple swim in the sweltering heat, and didn’t have a swimming costume with them. There were other people on the beach, including picnicking families, but it was not packed, and they were mainly in the water, with their nether regions hidden. This kind of behaviour is far more acceptable, and if it might be deemed a little insensitive, it is certainly not illegal. Occasionally us wild swimmers simply don’t have our cozzies with us, so a discreet skinny dip is an obvious solution. Moreover, swimming naked is a wonderful feeling, the ultimate form of immersion in nature and something everyone should try, at least once in their lifetime, if not every summer. In the early Georgian era, when sea bathing was the height of fashion and good health, swimming was always done naked. Indeed the curative powers of the plunge were thought to be diluted by the use of swimming dresses and costumes. Men, in particular, were expected to swim naked, albeit at their own segregated beaches, while the ladies tended to enter the water more discreetly, with the help of a bathing machine. Nowadays swimming costumes are the norm, but there is no law against skinny dipping. In England and Wales indecent “exposure” is covered by the Sexual Offenders Act 2003 (part 66) which defines an offence if (a) a man intentionally exposes his genitals, and (b) he intends that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. Exposure is only an offence if the man (and the law does not seem to include women) exposes himself in order to cause alarm or distress. So what can you do to avoid causing offence this summer if you would like to try the wonderful feeling of swimming without clothes on, or if you are simply taken by the urge to swim on a hot day but have forgotten your costume? The simplest etiquette is to only swim naked when no one can see you. That could be at an empty beach or lake, in a remote location, perhaps early or late when no one else is there. Failing that, head far away from where the crowds are clustered, to a distance where no one can see your private parts anyway. It’s also good decorum to cover your parts with both hands on entering and leaving the water (note bottoms are generally considered less offensive) and not to saunter around once on land. If you are really unsure as to what’s acceptable, then just don’t do it, or go in wearing your underwear. I think in an ideal world there would be more naked wild swimming in the UK. Not only would that mean we were a nation of liberal, nature-loving and adventurous people, less constrained by our prudish stereotype, it would also mean more swimming in wild areas, communing with water in the way nature intended. Naked swimming, especially when done in the wild, is spiritual and exhilarating. It certainly is not a crime. |