Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 70

Ivy League Posture Photos 

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of seven more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.

Yale freshman E. M. on October 8, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

Yale freshman Hiram Percy Maxim on October 8, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

Yale freshman David Newell Flood on September 30, 1941.

Photos taken before the fall of 1952 show only a side view.

Yale freshman Henry Thomas Motz on October 6, 1941.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

Yale freshman J. W. on September 30, 1941.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

Yale freshman Leigh W. Hunt on March 4, 1941.

Freshmen were told to report to Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium, and once there, they were told to strip.  The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of the gymnasium.  Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

Yale freshman Leslie Sterling Waite, Jr.  on September 30, 1941.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

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Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Ads - Part 89

The Ad That Can Only Be Seen on SBS

SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) is Australia's public broadcasting network, funded by the government.  In 2025, they ran a promotional ad for the network called "The Ad That Can Only Be Seen on SBS" that featured full-frontal male nudity.

This is the ad.  It got widespread publicity, even from rival commercial networks, causing many Australians to tune in to SBS just to see the naked ad.  Hopefully people kept watching SBS for other reasons.

Weighing In - Part 91

Bradley Skeete

Bradley Skeete,  born in 1987, is a British boxer.  Above, he weighs in for a fight against Colin Lynes in November 2013 for the English welterweight title.

I think the guy in front of the scale was holding up a modesty cloth, but he held it so low, we got a full frontal view of Skeete, although he covered himself with his hands.

And after the weigh-in we got a quick rear view of him.

Skeete looks like a skinny little thing, not a big muscleman, but he won the fight, and he held the British welterweight title from 2016 to 2017.  His overall record is 29 wins and 4 losses.

Events - Part 91

Maslin Beach Nude Games

Maslin Beach is near Adelaide, South Australia, on Australia's south coast.  It was proclaimed the first legal nude beach in Australia in 1974.

Soon afterward, it began hosting an annual event called the Maslin Beach Nude Olympics.  However, in 2013 the Australian Olympic Committee told the Maslin organizers that they could not use the word Olympics in their title, so it was renamed the Maslin Beach Nude Games.

The event features just-for-fun nude competitions not likely to be mistaken for the real Olympics, such as the sack race (above) ...

and the three-legged race ...

and the tug of war ...

and the Frisbee-throwing competition ...

and the Tissue Box competition, in which each contestant's partner tries to throw ping pong balls into the empty tissue box suspended above their butt ...

and the marathon, which isn't a real 26 mile marathon, but just a run up and down the beach.

And let's not forget the Best Bum competition.  These were the winners one year.

Hiking - Part 91

Reykjadalur Valley, Iceland 

Today's hike is the Reykjadalur valley in southern Iceland.  The trailhead is less than a one-hour drive from Iceland's capital, Reykjavik.

Reykjadalur means "smoke valley" in Icelandic, but that's actually steam, not smoke, from volcanic vents.

It's best to bundle up on this hike, not hike naked.  The trail is open year-round, but it's Iceland, after all, which is as far north as central Alaska.  Above, the trail begins with a bridge across a small river that flows through the valley.

The trail gradually ascends.  It can be muddy and slippery if the weather is bad.  But it has beautiful scenic views, including a waterfall off to the side.

And in a little under two miles, you reach this bathing area.  The river is fed by boiling volcanic hot springs and glacial meltwater, resulting in warm-to-hot water.

There are no changing rooms to change into your swimsuit, just this X-shaped screen, which blocks the view from two sides while you moon the other visitors.

But some people want to enjoy the warm water without a swimsuit.  They find less crowded places upstream or downstream.  The farther upstream, the hotter the water gets.  The farther downstream, the cooler it gets, so somewhere is bound to be just right.

Another visitor to the valley who wants to enjoy the warm water au naturel.

And so he does.

Poem of the Day - Part 91

A Song for Kilts

This is a poem by Robert Service (1874-1958), a Canadian poet of Scottish descent, on a traditional Scottish subject.  And speaking of tradition, you know it's traditional not to wear underwear under a kilt.

How grand the human race would be

    If every man would wear a kilt,

A flirt of Tartan finery,

    Instead of trousers, custom built!

Nay, do not think I speak to joke:

    (You know I'm not that kind of man),

I am convinced that all men folk.

    Should wear the costume of a Clan.

Imagine how it's braw and clean

    As in the wind it flutters free;

And so conducive to hygiene

    In its sublime simplicity.

No fool fly-buttons to adjust,—

    Wi' shanks and maybe buttocks bare;

Oh chiels, just take my word on trust,

    A bonny kilt's the only wear.

'Twill save a lot of siller too,

    (And here a canny Scotsman speaks),

For one good kilt will wear you through

    A half-a-dozen pairs of breeks.

And how it's healthy in the breeze!

    And how it swings with saucy tilt!

How lassies love athletic knees

    Below the waggle of a kilt!

True, I just wear one in my mind,

    Since sent to school by Celtic aunts,

When girls would flip it up behind,

    Until I begged for lowland pants.

But now none dare do that to me,

    And so I sing with lyric lilt,—

How happier the world would be

    If every male would wear a kilt!

Artists - Part 93

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic is a Serbian performance artist.  She was born in Belgrade in 1946.  In 1976 she moved to Amsterdam and met West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen who went by the name Ulay.  They began living and performing together.

Above, Relation in Space, 1977, in which the naked Marina and Ulay repeatedly pass, touching each other, and finally collide.  Is it art?  According to them, it is.

Another 1977 performance piece called Balance Proof.  Naked Marina and Ulay stand on opposite sides of a mirror.  Each cannot see the other; they can only see themself in the mirror.

A performance piece that generated a lot of publicity was Imponderabilia, performed at the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, Italy.  Marina and Ulay stood naked in a narrow entrance to the museum, so people going in or out had to squeeze through between them.  According to Marina, the point of the piece was to see whether the person would face the man or the woman as they squeezed through.  Above, a woman's body is facing Ulay as she squeezes through.

But most people faced Marina, as it turned out, including two police officers who arrived to shut down the performance after ninety minutes (above).

Imponderabilia has been re-staged since then, using different performers.  Above, the male performer at an art gallery in Basel, Switzerland in 2012.

Luminosity was a 1997 piece in which Marina sat naked on a bicycle seat attached up on a wall with arms extended and illuminated by a spotlight, enduring discomfort for an extended period.  Above is a recreation of Luminosity by another performer in 2024.  So, even though Marina Abramovic is 79 years old, her performance art lives on.