Preface: the day i got (almost) naked in public -- Introduction : visual rhetoric and the sexual body -- Nudity, communication, and the first amendment -- The naturist photography of Jock Sturges -- The confrontational nudity of Milo Moire -- Femen and the rhetoric of topless protest -- Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's retrieval of shock performance art -- Ritualistic nudity during Mardi Gras -- Leather pride at the Folsom Street fair -- Conclusion: the public body -- Bibliography.