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Subject: Nudity; (passed with merit)

   We are finally able to quietly ponder the success of our initiative, The Optional Swimming Clothes Day at the ComplutenseUniversity swimming pool in Madrid on the 1st of August, 2010. After having read and heard the different reactions coming from, among others,  the average man on the street, the mass media, and political and religious groups we now know where we stand.
   From the legal point of view, acceptance of nudity in public places was established in 1989, with the scrapping of the public indecency, or ‘escándalo público’, offence, as it was termed, from the Penal Code. Its abolition was upheld in the reformed Code of 1995. Our legislators stated very clearly, more than 20 years ago, that our legal system could not criminalise nudity.
   Acceptance of nudity at beaches by the average citizen and man/woman equality in most  swimming pools had been achieved earlier than 1989.  However, the first of August, 2010, will be remembered as the day normal acceptance was most evident. That nudity as a subject for social acceptance, using the academic term, had passed with merit, could be observed at a university swimming pool on that day.
DSBComplutense
(Photo: El País.)

   That day meant the beginning and the end of the word nudism. What could be observed was that no disturbance of social order resulted when some people decided not to use swimming clothes to bathe in that swimming pool, as is the case in our houses, side by side with others who kept to their habit of wearing swimming clothes. All that showed that people should not be discriminated in different places or with different timetables according to the clothes they may or may not wear.  We tried to show exactly that, when we came up with that initiative, and, therefore, we can declare it a success.
Two reporters from two national newspapers, El País and El Mundo, enjoyed the company of the bathers on that day. Both published reports mostly agree. The headline in El País, “Chapuzón al desnudo” (‘A Plunge in the Nude’), is followed by these opinions: ‘It was a big successs regarding natural acceptance throughout the day’ or ‘There was a general opinion among those wearing clothes: “I have nothing against it although I’d rather wear clothes. The others can do as they like.”’  And the newspaper ends by saying: ‘Conclusion:  the pool area was full of people and everybody got along impeccably.’
The headline in El Mundo read: “Queremos dignificar la desnudez” (‘We want nudity with dignit’) It goes on to say: ‘Many  last minute supporters who are not members of the association [ADN] did not hesitate to take their clothes off when they saw the atmosphere. “We should accept it [nudity] as something quite natural” explains Cristina, or “I was surprised to see that nobody looks at you” added Andrés, who is also new at this.’ “We have it harder than boys because of male imposed habits. Women are treated as body objects” says Raquel.
Although La Razón, another national newspaper, did not send any reporters to the pool, it entitled an article as follows: “Fracasa el día sin bañador en la piscina de la Complutense” (Failure of The Optional Clothes Day at the Complutense Pool). Why did it fail? ‘Because most of the public did wear swimming clothes.’ However, it added: ‘Most saw it as something silly and nobody complained.’ What La Razón did not understand is that the purpose was not to make the general public opt for not wearing clothes but to show that it it is another convivial option to being together, ‘a silly thing’ in the words of the newspaper. Thus, La Razón positioned itself  in contradiction with CONCAPA’s president who said that this activity was designed to ‘attract the attention’ of the vice-chancellor’s office.
Some media, which by the way had not been present at the pool, were certainly critical. If you anlalyse the news reported lately about ‘La Complutense’, we can see that they criticise, without exception, any endeavor taken up by the present governing body of the university and, in particular, by its vice-chancellor, Berzosa. For example, Tele Madrid, the TV channel run by the regional community of Madrid, showed on this occasion images of a physical aggresion on the vice-chancellor himself taken a few months earlier, as if they had anything to do with the actual report.
In conclusion, we have passed the test. Social acceptance should allow the management of all swimming pools, university swimming pools first, to adadpt reality to legality based on this experience, by stating in their regulations that nudity is recommended, although wearing swimming clothes is also permitted.
Thanks to the Complutense University vice-chancellor’s office and, in particular, to the vice-chancellor, Berzosa, we were able to put into practice what we have always believed in, (in fact, the basic values of our western cultura), in the university he so worthily runs. 

Translated by Alberto G. Iglesias.

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Ismael Rodrigo Ismael Rodrigo,
(ADN president and organiser of the Optional Swimming-Clothes Day at La Complutense pool.)

More articles by Ismael Rodrigo:

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SPANISH:

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