Whether they’re pushing the boundaries of Instagram’s guidelines with #freethenipple or simply flaunting their gorgeous bodies, these stunning women are certainly not shy. From trans babes to America’s Got Talent stars, to models like Emily Ratajkowski and Lindsey Pelas, these topless celebrities bare it all.
From celeb lookalikes to a desert photoshoot, these hot women nude are bound to send you into a frenzy!
Paleolithic Venuses
The Venus of Willendorf, the iconic female figure carved in a Paleolithic stone and discovered in Austria in 1908, is among about 40 small portable human figurines of this kind, mostly women, that were intact or nearly so by the early 21st century (another 80 are known as fragments). Their accentuated proportions—large breasts, hips, and thighs, with little visible detail in the head and face—invite interpretations of fertility and sex, and they have been seen as a type of prehistoric pornography, proof of a goddess cult, feminist icons, and tokens of Ice Age survival.
In a recent study, researchers analyzed 188 of these statues, noting their waist-to-hip ratios and waist-to-shoulder ratios, as well as the locations where they were found. They also rated the Venuses’ pubic areas and lower legs for shape, size, and appearance of sexual organs. A few of the figures—including the Losange Venus el Rombo, the Petrkovice Venus, and Brassempouy figurine no. 14—are obese, with a waist-to-hip ratio of more than 0.70. The remainder are slim, with a ratio of less than 0.70.
Of the three, the Petrkovice Venus is interpreted as being pregnant. This is supported by the fact that the vulva is open and, unlike in modern sculptures of women, the buttocks are not full. The Losange Venus, on the other hand, is not a pregnant woman and is not rated as particularly attractive. This may be because her pelvis is not fully represented, and the thighs are very narrow, with their ends pressed together, suggesting that they never extended beyond this point.
The other two are rated as being middle aged and of lower attractiveness. This is not as surprising as it might seem, since the thighs and bottoms of these figures have a rather masculine appearance. They are, however, the only surviving statues to show the female figure from a gynecological perspective, and the figures that are most comparable in terms of shape to them—such as the male torso from Avdeevo—show a similar body view. It is possible that the Venuses were intended as a symbol of health and vitality, implying that large breasts, hips, and thighs would have been indicative of healthy females capable of bearing children or breastfeeding.
Titian’s Venus of Willendorf
The Venus of Willendorf piques our interest because she is one of the oldest and most famous images of a human figure. She is also a prime example of the Venus pudica, a depiction that exploits the deeply erotic connotations of the mythological goddess. The painting is a reclining nude woman with her left hand covering her genitals. She makes direct eye contact with the viewer, and her pose is purposefully enticing.
Titian was a Renaissance painter, and during that time artists strove to emulate the masterful technique of the ancient Greeks and Romans. But it’s difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his handling of a nude female body. He inherited an artistic convention that had been in place for 2000 years by the time of the High Renaissance. He knew that his audience could see the sexy side of his paintings, and he took advantage of it.
When you look at a picture of a naked woman, the most natural thing to do is to admire her curves. Those of us who were born in the modern age tend to take this for granted, but it wasn’t always so. In the Paleolithic period, when prehistoric cave art was created, a human figure’s curves were more than a source of beauty—they were a sign that a female was fertile.
One of the most important things that you have to do when sculpting or drawing a female is to make sure that she looks very sexy. This is why the earliest female figurines, like the Venus of Willendorf, have such exaggerated sexual organs. It’s believed that these early clay sculptures were fertility fetishes and belonged to a mother goddess cult, but they are still known as Venus figurines because of the prominent sexual features.
Another reason why the Venus of Willendorf and other early sculptures are so sexy is that they were made long before any kind of written language was invented. These early images were carved and painted by people who knew that they would be seen, and they wanted to please their viewers.
The Tassili n’Ajjer
The rocky desert of Tassili n’Ajjer, in south-east Algeria near the borders with Libya and Niger, is home to one of the world’s most important archaeological sites. Its sandstone formations have become canvases for more than 15,000 drawings and engravings, testifying to climate changes, animal migrations and human evolution on the edge of the Sahara.
The female nude is the subject of a number of paintings. For example, a red-figure Attic kylix from about 500 BCE by the painter Onesimos shows a reclining woman with her hands placed on her knees. She has the handle of a deep cup (skyphos) attached to her index finger, indicating that she is playing kottabos, a popular sport at the masculine symposium festival.
A number of rock paintings at Tassili show herds of animals and human figures hunting and dancing. One of these is a depiction of a group of five bare-breasted women with extraordinarily realistic physiques. This work of art is significant because it breaks with the conventions of the time that prohibited depictions of women without allegorical or mythological pretext in Spain.
It also demonstrates the power of the female nude to generate sexual tension. The painting is in a perpetual balance between artistic and obscenographic representation, and the viewer’s perception is continually challenged. It is this balance that makes the work of art so compelling.
In his 1992 book Food of the Gods, New Age icon Terence McKenna argued that Neolithic people used psilocybin mushrooms as part of their religious ritual life. According to McKenna, he was inspired by a series of rock paintings at Tassili showing men and women holding mushroom-like objects in their hands.
Lydia Ourahmane’s mesmerizing high-definition film Tassili, a documentary about the Saharan rock art of the Tassili n’Ajjer plateau, combines ethnographic research with a poetic vision. Ourahmane, who divides her time between Algiers and Barcelona, wanted to make a film that would not be viewed as another colonial expedition. She enlisted a guide named Ahmed Hamid, a Tuareg, to lead the film party through the desert. He is an expert on the prehistoric rock art of the Tassili n’Ajjer and knows how to navigate its dangerous terrain.
Female nudity in art
In modern art, female nudes are often used as a vehicle for raising awareness about major popular causes, particularly those that focus on gender and ethics. This is illustrated by the Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous feminist artists formed in 1985 whose mission is to expose gender and ethical bias in art. One of their most famous pieces is titled “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum?”, a feminist riposte to millennia of male voyeurism.
While it is common to see women as objects of sexual desire in the artworks of ancient and Renaissance painters, some people find such depictions objectionable for religious or cultural reasons. These objections usually revolve around the notion that nudity and sex are inherently connected and that it is therefore a sinful act to portray naked bodies. Others may also object to nude art if they believe it promotes a view of human beings that is too erotically focused.
Many people are also concerned that children may be exposed to nude art and that this will lead them down a path of sexual obsession. This can be especially problematic when the nude images are of women. This is why it is important for parents to make sure they are aware of the kinds of works that their children are being exposed to and have age appropriate guidelines in place.
The nude figure in art continues to be a controversial subject, with new interpretations and ideas being incorporated into old traditions all the time. Some of these new interpretations are highly subversive, such as the erotically charged image of Wilke in the Guerrilla Girl’s work, which offers a feminist perspective on the oppression of being constantly stared at. Other examples of contemporary subversive nude art include Edouard Manet’s sultry portrait of the mistress of the King of France or Gustave Courbet’s naked, sleeping woman.
It is interesting to note that the same sort of complaints can be made about male nudes, though less frequently. In some cases, these are simply a corollary of the religious or moral arguments mentioned above, but in other cases, the objections center around the notion that it is not appropriate for men to show their bodies in art.