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1 Defining Interwar Naturism in Theory and Practice The Drs. Durville Two brothers and doctors, Gaston and André Durville, justified their approach to naturism and nudism in 1929: “Isn’t it preferable to recruit five hundred thousand moderate naturists in France who really practice, and who . . . will progressively get a taste for sport in the open air, than to attract five or six hundred nudist naturists [naturistes nudistes] who are already convinced practitioners? We want, before all else, that healthful naturist ideas spread to the mass of French people [emphasis in the original].”1 In the interwar years, having already developed ideas about proper diets and the practice of medicine without drugs, the Durville brothers focused on the importance of physical activity in the open air as both a preventive measure and as a cure for virtually any malady that might befall a human being. In the process, by improving individual bodies, they could “regenerate” France. Like so many others, they spoke to French cultural anxieties about presumed depopulation, the perils of disease (especially tuberculosis and syphilis), and the supposed weakness of the French social body in the wake of World War I. Yet the Durvilles had a very different prescription from the pronatalists, interwar critics of modernity, modernization, or “Americanization,” and French officials who blamed luxury, couples’ and especially women’s selfishness, and workers’ disease-ridden slums for France’s perceived troubles.2 For the Durvilles, a comprehensive approach to naturism alone could solve France’s apparent problems. The Durvilles played a key role in advocating naturism in France to “save” the French nation through nearly nude, mixed-sex exercise and leisure in the fresh air, under the sun, in the water, and, for the hardy, even in the snow. And they almost included complete, mixed-sex nudism as part of their program. Yet, when forced to choose publicly, they claimed that amateur sports in the open air for the barely clad multitudes were preferable to the risks entailed Defining Interwar Naturism in Theory and Practice 15 by championing nudism. It would prove a wise choice in interwar France. It allowed the Durvilles to become successful champions of naturism, welcoming up to two thousand practitioners on a nice day at their first installation near Paris, while many thousands more read their various publications. Although they clearly toyed with publicly advocating nudism, even sounding out their followers and the police, in the late 1920s such a move would have jeopardized their profitable medical business and their credibility among the “mass of French people,” as they put it. Instead the Durvilles and many of their followers practiced nudism at home and clandestinely out-of-doors while outwardly condemning mixed-sex nudity at their centers. Although this approach would earn the Durvilles the derisive label of “hypocrite” from their primary rival, Marcel Kienné de Mongeot, they profited handsomely from it. The experience of the Drs. Durville in the interwar years reveals a critical transition of naturism from medical theory to leisure-time practice. On the one hand, the Durvilles clearly reinforced continuities of naturism from before World War I. They focused heavily on the importance of diet; in that, their medical advice differed little from earlier and contemporary naturist doctors, most notably Paul Carton. They stressed physical activity, particularly out of doors, following in the footsteps of Georges Hébert, and this emphasis also differed little from that of other naturists. Their naturism rested heavily on aesthetics; naturist bodies needed to be beautiful, and the effort to make bodies beautiful would, according to the Durvilles, be good for individual health and for France. On the other hand, the Durvilles established naturist centers for sport and leisure, both in greater Paris and on the Mediterranean, laying the groundwork for the rapid expansion of nude tourism after the Second World War. While naturism had clearly meant an appropriate diet, exercise, and fresh air at the end of World War I, by 1939 it meant spending time outdoors sunbathing and swimming in little or no clothes. The actions of the Durville brothers thus reflect the slow evolution of French norms governing exposed bodies in the interwar years. The Durvilles’ decisions reveal that, while small nudist groups were clearly forming in interwar France, there was still somewhat limited demand among the French for mixed-sex public nudism. Broader public acceptance was out of the question. Traditional assumptions about the implicitly sexual nature of complete nudity prevailed. Responding to...

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