# Where are the naked white people in National Geographic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 3, 2000, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533 "2000-10-03T22:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/41 "2015-05-05T21:25:56Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I haven’t had a subscription in at least 30 years now. Does the magazine still do such pictorials, or have they long since ceased doing such things? I subscribed from the mid 1980s through the late 1990s, and I can’t recall ever seeing such pictorials. Not saying I couldn’t have forgotten the odd photo here and there, though. ---
**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:** [May 5, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/42 "2015-05-05T21:29:23Z")
I recall at least one layout of a European topless beach. It must have been in the '80s. You had to squint hard to see the boobies. I recall an image of a topless woman on one of those things that looks like a surfboard with a sail. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/43 "2015-05-05T22:41:20Z")
I am not sure what prompted the revival of this zombie, but since it is back titillating the impressionable, (who, I am sure, have all rushed out to their libraries to look up old copies of NG), I have a question: Which was the most recent issue in which pre-literate peoples were portrayed in the magazine, with both sexes unclothed or topless? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/44 "2015-05-05T22:52:14Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I recall an image of a topless woman on one of those things that looks like a surfboard with a sail. That _was_ the woman - she was small-breasted and wearing oversized trunks. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/45 "2015-05-05T23:35:14Z")
I think the “naked natives” pictures disappeared by the 1960s. Face it, most of the world is discovered now, and aside from a few obscure Amazon tribes, everybody wears clothes now. I was reading about the French artist Paul Gaugan-he was famous for his pictures of topless Samoan women-only it was all fake. By the time Gaugan arrived, all of the native women had adopted western dress. He was portraying what had been 50-100 years earlier. Plus , NG ceased to be a magazine about expolration-now the articles are about travel, social issues, etc. The world has been thoroughly explored, and there are no more exotic places left.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/46 "2015-05-06T00:04:15Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I have no doubt the editors knew what they were doing, and continued showing nude girls in he rain forest long after that was of any real anthropological or sociological value. Regardless, they thought they needed some “legit” angle to justify publishing such photos, and couldn’t think of one to justify naked white girls. Unless things changed in the 80s, every time I’ve seen an anthropological picture of topless tribal women, it’s been of haggard looking people with crowbars through their noses and their bubbies hanging down past their navel. I’ve never been inclined to think that they were including these pictures out of an expectation that it was going to boost sales among pervs. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/47 "2015-05-06T00:42:04Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I think the “naked natives” pictures disappeared by the 1960s. Face it, most of the world is discovered now, and aside from a few obscure Amazon tribes, everybody wears clothes now. > I was reading about the French artist Paul Gaugan-he was famous for his pictures of topless Samoan women-only it was all fake. By the time Gaugan arrived, all of the native women had adopted western dress. He was portraying what had been 50-100 years earlier. Plus , NG ceased to be a magazine about expolration-now the articles are about travel, social issues, etc. The world has been thoroughly explored, and there are no more exotic places left.:smack: They were Tahitian; not Samoan. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/48 "2015-05-06T02:33:31Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > We need to merge this with the “naked swimming at the YMCA” thread. Both were revived by **Laurence Almand**. Guess he likes reading about naked people on the Internet. Me, I’m more visual. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/49 "2015-05-06T15:20:51Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I think the “naked natives” pictures disappeared by the 1960s. Face it, most of the world is discovered now, and aside from a few obscure Amazon tribes, everybody wears clothes now. > I was reading about the French artist Paul Gaugan-he was famous for his pictures of topless Samoan women-only it was all fake. By the time Gaugan arrived, all of the native women had adopted western dress. He was portraying what had been 50-100 years earlier. Plus , NG ceased to be a magazine about expolration-now the articles are about travel, social issues, etc. The world has been thoroughly explored, and there are no more exotic places left.:smack: You’re quite right, by the time I was in 6th grade, there were very, very, very few undiscovered jungle tribes, and by the early Seventies, most tribes who HAD been discovered were wearing Western clothing. But even so, the magazines I received still contained photo features on whatever such tribes still existed, and I can’t help thinking the editors knew there was more titillation value than sociological value to such stories. That may have been one reason they were quick to fall for the Tasaday hoax. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/50 "2015-05-06T16:02:34Z")
> [@Crazy\_Boob](#): > > National Geographic Explorer sometimes shows naked people–usually undeveloped cultures who find no need for clothes. No problem! Of course National Geographic started publishing shortly after the establishment of Imperialism and Colonial Rule in Africa. For those who don’t know, this is when white European leaders divided up Africa. It was a time when most Europeans viewed Africans as inferior child-like creatures. So for almost a hundred years now we have been seeing pictures from different cultures around the world and there has never been a problem wish publishing photos of naked African cultures. But what would occur if pictures of naked white people were published in National Geographic? Has there ever been any? > > Could it be that western culture has some unspoken quirky racist morality that says it’s OK to see black people naked because, perhaps “they don’t know any better?” However, a naked white person in the same context many would likely lead to book banning and be called “softcore-porn,” or whatever. The naked white people in Nat Geo are wearing clothes. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/51 "2015-05-06T16:36:04Z")
Naked white people are only found in international editions 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533/52 "2015-05-06T23:22:12Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Naked white people are only found in international editions 😃 Right, you should see the version of National Geographic that the tribes in the Amazon and New Guinea subscribe to. It is filled with photos of hippy rituals and Mardis Gras. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-the-naked-white-people-in-national-geographic/35533.md?page=2)