Naked Europe covers up
Le déclin du naturisme en Europe.
La vie est-elle plus agréable en tenue d’Adam ? Sur le continent européen, pour certains, il semblerait bien que oui. En France, première destination naturiste au monde, près de 2,6 millions de personnes pratiqueraient le naturisme de façon régulière. La ville de Munich, en Allemagne, autorise le nudisme dans six zones spécifiques, dont des parcs du centre-ville. Pourtant, depuis peu, cette pratique semble être en recul en Europe...
Naked, we are equal,” proclaims Ida Karkiainen. The Swedish MP is addressing a packed hall at the 17th International Sauna Congress in Tornio, Finland. She draws a round of applause from the crowd, a mix of sauna entrepreneurs and enthusiasts from Europe and Japan, along with a few North Americans.
2. It is hard to imagine such a speech being made by a politician anywhere outside Europe. Beginning in the late 19th century, ideas about freedom, equality, health, sexuality and public space came together to create a distinctly European enthusiasm for going unclothed. In Scandinavia the focus was the sauna. In Mediterranean countries it was the beach. In Germany it was everywhere: the country’s Freikörperkultur (“free body culture”, or FKK) encourages stripping off while
1. MP = Member of Parliament, membre du parlement, député / packed comble, bondé / to draw, drew, drawn ici, attirer, provoquer, déclencher / round of applause tonnerre d'applaudissements / enthusiast amateur. 2. speech discours / health santé / unclothed nu / focus centre d’intérêt / to strip off se déshabiller / gardening, playing sports or taking lunch breaks in the park.
3. Yet Europe’s taste for bare skin is in retreat. Nudist beaches and resorts, topless sunbathing and nude unisex saunas are declining. Football teams report that players are unwilling to remove their underwear to shower after matches. In recent years, commentators across the continent have remarked on a new prudishness.
POLITICAL OVERTONES
4. The retreat of nudity has unpredictable political overtones. During Germany’s election campaign in 2017, Gregor Gysi, the leader of the Left party, lamented the conservative turn represented by the decline of FKK, which had been strongest in the former East Germany. In the Netherlands, the issue is more often invoked
to garden jardiner. 3. bare nu / resort lieu de vacances, station balnéaire / sunbathing bain de soleil / unwilling peu disposé, réfractaire / underwear sous-vêtements / prudishness pudeur. 4. overtone connotation / unpredictable imprévisible / turn virage, tournant / former ancien, ex- / issue question / on the right. In 2016 Mark Rutte, the centre-right prime minister, worried about a future in which nude beaches have vanished because the country has “surrendered to the wishes of a cultural minority”—by which he meant Muslims.
5. But while immigration plays a role in Europe’s increasing modesty, other factors are more important. The rise of social media has
to vanish disparaître / to surrender capituler, se soumettre. 5. increasing grandissant / modesty pudeur / rise développement, essor /