Being naked in school is normal - Sweden

'Nothing wrong' with naked Swedish farm student video

Published: 22 Nov 10 14:45 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation 

An internet video featuring naked Swedish high school students frolicking with farm animals and riding tractors on school property is nothing out of the ordinary for Sweden, according to the school’s principal.

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“This kind of thing happens all the time,” the school’s principal, Peter Gustavsson told The Local.

“There’s nothing wrong with being naked. That’s still allowed.”

The eight-minute-long video, entitled “farmers daughters”, opens with a shot of a young man in bed with two young women. As the scene unfolds, it becomes apparent that all three students are naked.

“Damn, do you know what I just realised?,” says one of the girls.

“It’s our student cabaret night tonight. We forgot again!”

The two girls then run out of the room and proceed to let two other naked girls, both of whom are bound and gagged, out of the back of a truck.

Gustavsson explained that students at the school, the Natural Resource Use Programme high school (Naturbruksgymnasiet) in Strömma in western Sweden, periodically organise cabaret nights in which they perform satirical skits.

“These nights are a way for the students to poke fun at themselves and be creative,” he said.

Other scenes in the film feature half-naked young men sitting in a pig pen, a bare-bottomed young woman laying bareback on a horse, as well as a trio of young ladies who appear to be showing their breasts to a cow.

Nevertheless, the tone of the film is light and humourous, rather than erotic, and the students take great pains to keep their sex organs and nipples covered.

“I think the film is rather nice, actually. No one is drunk; there is no alcohol, no drugs. It’s just a bunch of naked kids having fun,” said Gustavsson.

In one sequence, two naked girls summon a third girl who is sawing down a tree with a chainsaw wearing only a protective helmet and lumberjack’s harness, while another scene shows a surprised young lady covering her nipples with a pair of rodents as she is called to follow to other nude co-eds.

As the video progresses, more and more bare-skinned students gather on the back of a tractor which eventually ends up at the door of one of the school’s buildings, at which point all of the students disembark and run inside the building.

In the closing scene, the students are seen slamming on a door.

The film was shown for the first time at one of the school cabaret nights in front of an audience of about 30 people, according to the Aftonbladet daily.

When the film ended, the door to the auditorium opened and the stars of the film dashed into the room naked, adding yet another creative twist to the project.

According to Gustavsson, the students in the film all graduated in 2009 and thus would have been 18 or 19 at the time the movie is believed to have been filmed.

He suspected the video was made while the students were still attending the school, however because "otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to get access to the buildings and the equipment".

Despite the school’s farm theme, the video indicates there may be a number of budding cinematographers within the school’s ranks, prompting Gustavsson to think about offering classes on making movies.

“I’m actually considering it. These students have something they want to say, so we might look at adding an elective class on film making,” he said.

While Gustavsson remained relaxed about the film, there were a couple of aspects of the cinematic work which bothered him, in particular the discrepancy between the amount of skin shown by the young women relative to the young men.

“From a gender perspective, the film is out of balance. These girls are good students, capable students – they don’t need to be running around naked to prove anything,” he said.

He also regretted that the school’s efforts to educate students about the risks of putting compromising material on the internet appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

“They’ve now lost control of their film, and I find that problematic,” said Gustavsson.

He also explained that, had he known about the students' plans for their cabaret show, he wouldn't have approved it.

“We require that they tell us ahead of time what they plan to do. However in this case, the students pulled a fast one on us and showed something that we hadn’t agreed upon,” said Gustavsson.