Abstract

England in the 1650s was the scene of a long series of prophetic and protest exhibitions of naked men and women in public places (streets, churches, universities...), causing scandal and misunderstanding among most of the public. These women and men went naked “as a sign”, thus renewing an episode of the Old Testament (Isaiah 20.2-3) by which they denounced the spiritual “nudity”, of those before whom they were exhibiting themselves. This practice sought to demonstrate what God was about to inflict on them : a laying bare, a complete stripping of all their possessions, powers and social prerogatives. A gendered approach to these exhibitions of nudity reveals the theological-political and social stakes of a phenomenon that accompanied the birth and development of the Quaker movement and spread as far as New England.