# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/21 "2009-06-01T06:15:49Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My, how times have changed. Yah, now you have to go to Florida during Spring Break to photograph them (nekid). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/22 "2009-06-01T06:54:34Z")
> [@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). Wow. All these years, I thought my dad (Yale '70) had made that up. Now I’m going to have to start believing all of his stories. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/23 "2009-06-01T07:22:51Z")
> [@astro](#): > > It was a common practice from the 1930’s - 1960’s to photograph entering female coeds in the nude? It’s hard to enter them when you’ve both got your clothes on, pictures or no pictures. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/24 "2009-06-01T08:55:31Z")
What a strange article. It’s amazing they did this for so long and hardly anyone said “isn’t this kind of weird?” ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/25 "2009-06-01T09:09:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Wow. All these years, I thought my dad (Yale '70) had made that up. > > Now I’m going to have to start believing all of his stories. Does he tell a story about a big fish? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/26 "2009-06-01T09:43:14Z")
Gives a whole new meaning to **Posture Pals** [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/dDjBsOkidek/hqdefault.jpg "MST3K - Posture Pals") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDjBsOkidek) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/27 "2009-06-01T13:05:37Z")
Then, of course, there’s the intrigue novel centering around the abduction of a young woman from the first co-educational class at a famed school of Renaissance Art. I refer, of course, to _The DaVinci Coed._ :: D&R :: ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/28 "2009-06-01T13:24:09Z")
**Polycarp** – 😛 Fascinating article. I’d heard about the practice, but never really thought about the implications of it, or about the whereabouts of the photos. From the conclusion to the article: > [@](#): > > In other words, “We won’t get fooled again.” Though he [a Yale spokesperson] is undoubtedly correct that nothing precisely like the posture-photo folly could happen again, it is hard to deny the possibility, the likelihood, that well-meaning people and institutions will get taken in – are being taken in – by those who peddle scientific conjecture as certainty. Sheldon’s dream of reducing the complexity of human personality and the contingency of human fate to a single number is a recurrent one, as the continuing I.Q. controversy demonstrates. And a reminder that skepticism is still valuable in the face of scientific claims of certainty, particularly in the slippery realms of human behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/29 "2009-06-01T13:53:45Z")
I attended college in the 90s. While it was general knowledge that the term “co-ed” was used in most places to refer specifically to female students, we understood it to mean “including both genders.” There were men’s dorms, women’s dorms, and co-ed dorms (“segregated” by floor). ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/30 "2009-06-01T14:17:43Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > What a strange article. It’s amazing they did this for so long and hardly anyone said “isn’t this kind of weird?” People were _alot_ more trusting of authority back then. Then men at least would be used to group nudity (gym class, swimming at the Y, draft board physicals, etc). ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/31 "2009-06-01T17:56:16Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > 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. I was just talking to someone about this yesterday, who went to school at the same time as me, and he had no recollection of this. At my school, all of the jocks and other athletic types wore these things all the time. Glad I’m not the only one who remembers, but I haven’t seen someone wear one in many years. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/32 "2009-06-01T18:41:00Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > 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. On the other hand, that t-shirt implies co-ed to mean “both sexes included,” doesn’t it? The discussion here has been about the term “co-ed” to mean female students only. I’m a little older (I was already out of high school 30 years ago), but even then the term seemed very sexist. As old as I am, the concept of a men-only college is unfamiliar to me. I have a buddy who attended Texas A&M when it was men only, but by the time I came up to college age, “co-educational” seemed archaic, and the term “co-ed” to refer to girls was just silly. ---
**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, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/33 "2009-06-01T19:36:27Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > On the other hand, that t-shirt implies co-ed to mean “both sexes included,” doesn’t it? > > The discussion here has been about the term “co-ed” to mean female students only. Not what I was responding to; they said they’d never seen the word. ---
**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, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/34 "2009-06-01T19:57:07Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > What medical reasons? Um, er… to test for possible causes of the _phallus erectus_ condition. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/35 "2009-06-01T20:20:44Z")
Gods…that would mean that there is probably a picture of GW (and Kerry too I guess) floating about, nude with pins in his back! How am I supposed to be able to eat now?? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/36 "2009-06-01T21:12:19Z")
This is a fascinating story, one I had no idea about until this thread. Something I find interesting, though, are the quotes from Ivy League graduates, who are absolutely horrified at the idea that these photos might still exist and might be published, to their embarrassment. We’re talking about people who are well into their 60s at least. I should think that finding a long-forgotten preserved record of one’s 19-year-old physical peak would be a prospect for delight, not of horror. And, after all, the article mentioned that these were almost relentlessly clinical documentations, not prurient at all. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/37 "2009-06-01T21:36:31Z")
> [@Dripping](#): > > What the heck are coeds? 😕 If this question is not asked in jest, it is the most amazing thing I have ever read on a SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/38 "2009-06-01T21:39:10Z")
They may not be American’s (I don’t think co-ed is used in other countries like it is here…I certainly never remember hearing that term in Mexico), or it may be a generational thing (it’s very different today than it was when I went to school). At any rate, it’s not the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard on this board. 😉 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/39 "2009-06-01T22:08:48Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > This is a fascinating story, one I had no idea about until this thread. I remember a news item about it sometime during the Clinton administration, reporting on the apparent existence of nude pictures of Hillary among the Wellesley students. ---
**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, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-a-common-practice-from-the-1930s-1960s-to-photograph-entering-female-coeds-in-the-nude/498289/40 "2009-06-01T22:51:42Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > it is the most amazing thing I have ever read on a SDMB. I’ve read all kinds of amazing things on those SDMBs. [Previous 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=1)