# It was a common practice from the 1930's - 1960's to photograph entering female coeds in the nude? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289 "2009-05-31T22:33:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/1 "2009-05-31T22:33:57Z")
A friend claims this is true, and that from the 30’s through the 60’s many women entering college were lined up in gymnasiums by the health/gyymnastic dept. of the college, and made to go through a general medical checkup, and among the procedures was a front and back full frontal nude photo taken of them to diagnose potential skeletal problems. Is this true? ---
**Author:** ![whorfin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/6f9a4e/32.png) [@whorfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whorfin)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/2 "2009-05-31T22:35:58Z")
> [@astro](#): > > A friend claims this is true, and that from the 30’s through the 60’s many women entering college were lined up in gymnasiums by the health/gyymnastic dept. of the college, and made to go through a general medical checkup, and among the procedures was a front and back full frontal nude photo taken of them to diagnose potential skeletal problems. > > Is this true? Are you talking about what happened at Ivy League schools? : [Ivy League nude posture photos - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League_nude_posture_photos) It’s both male and female students, a little later than the 30s, and not all schools, but it sounds a lot like what your friend is talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/3 "2009-05-31T22:38:26Z")
More on [The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal](http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/15/magazine/the-great-ivy-league-nude-posture-photo-scandal.html). ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/4 "2009-05-31T22:54:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > More on [The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal](http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/15/magazine/the-great-ivy-league-nude-posture-photo-scandal.html). Absolutely fascinating article. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/5 "2009-05-31T23:00:05Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Absolutely fascinating article. And the best headline ever. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/6 "2009-06-01T02:56:17Z")
Too bad the photos were destroyed. It would have been good to study them. For historical and medical reasons. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/7 "2009-06-01T03:05:38Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Too bad the photos were destroyed. It would have been good to study them. For historical and medical reasons. What medical reasons? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/8 "2009-06-01T03:07:09Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Too bad the photos were destroyed. It would have been good to study them. For historical and medical reasons. Keep reading. ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/9 "2009-06-01T03:42:41Z")
What the heck are coeds? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/10 "2009-06-01T04:01:19Z")
When I was at Villanova, the school would every year publish a book containing names, majors, and photos of all the new freshmen. The school called it the “meet book”, because it was supposed to help new students meet their classmates, but the students called it the “meat book”, because older students would often get ahold of copies and use them to scout out “fresh meat” in the dating pool. I can only imagine how much more… interesting… the meat book would have been at Harvard circa 1940. > [@](#): > > What the heck are coeds? A co-educational school is term (rather dated, nowadays) for a school that admits both men and women. Since the trend was more towards previously-male schools opening their doors to females than the reverse, “coed” also came to be used to refer to the female students themselves. There’s no good reason for the term to still be used (after all, there’s no special term for a male college student), but it is. ---
**Author:** ![Snow\_Pea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Snow\_Pea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snow_Pea)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/11 "2009-06-01T04:04:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A co-educational school is term (rather dated, nowadays) for a school that admits both men and women. Since the trend was more towards previously-male schools opening their doors to females than the reverse, “coed” also came to be used to refer to the female students themselves. There’s no good reason for the term to still be used (after all, there’s no special term for a male college student), but it is. Is coeds pronounced like “roads”? I’ve never seen this word before. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/12 "2009-06-01T04:11:02Z")
> [@Snow\_Pea](#): > > Is coeds pronounced like “roads”? I’ve never seen this word before. 😕 It’s pronounced ‘co-ed’. The first two syllables of ‘co-educational’. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/13 "2009-06-01T04:13:58Z")
No it’s not like “roads”. Co. Eds. Two syllables. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/14 "2009-06-01T04:34:39Z")
> [@Dripping](#): > > What the heck are coeds? 😕 > [@Snow\_Pea](#): > > Is coeds pronounced like “roads”? I’ve never seen this word before. 😕 My, how times have changed. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/15 "2009-06-01T04:45:04Z")
I suppose it should also be noted that I’ve never seen co-ed spelled any other way than with a hyphen. So this “coed” thing was throwing me off too for a second. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/16 "2009-06-01T04:54:13Z")
‘Co-educational’ and ‘co-ed’ are still in common use here to describe schools that take both boys and girls. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/17 "2009-06-01T05:12:46Z")
But to clarify, using the term “co-ed” to refer to the females only has never been the practice in Australia, and has always struck me as breathtakingly sexist. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/18 "2009-06-01T05:24:40Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > But to clarify, using the term “co-ed” to refer to the females only has never been the practice in Australia You’re right of course. I should have added that. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/19 "2009-06-01T05:45:43Z")
> [@Dripping](#): > > What the heck are coeds? 😕 > [@Snow\_Pea](#): > > Is coeds pronounced like “roads”? I’ve never seen this word before. 😕 How old are you? When I was in high school a decade ago a really popular tshirt, for some inexplicable reason, was “Coed Naked XYZ” where XYZ was some sport; for instance Coed Naked Volleyball, Coed Naked Soccer, etc etc. In fact they seem to be [still available](http://www.wackyplanet.com/coednakedtees.html). FWIW it was spelled without a hyphen. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/20 "2009-06-01T05:53:04Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > But to clarify, using the term “co-ed” to refer to the females only has never been the practice in Australia, and has always struck me as breathtakingly sexist. Oh, sure it is. I have no idea why it has hung on as long as it has, but as just above, it’s now a term for ‘sexy college girls, hopefully in wet t-shirts.’ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289.md?page=2)