General Discussions

There’s a number of things I’ve been pondering a very long time and I feel like this is the right community of people to have a conversation with about it.

Some of these things I’ve spoken about with Rok and others. I suspect there’s a few who might think the same, but for one reason or another, haven’t felt they’ve been in the right environment to have an open conversation about it.

Issue 1: The naturist/nudist manifesto.

At no point in my life have I ever considered myself a naturist or a nudist. If I absolutely had to pick, then Naturist maybe. Bottom line is I resist labels because I don’t entirely agree on what others think those labels mean or infer.

Among the things I can’t align myself with is “like minded people”.

I’m not liked minded.

I change my view and perspective on things frequently. New information always changes my assessment on things. Thus I often don’t agree with what the majority are led to believe.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist either. Reality is stupider than fiction. There’s next to nothing nefarious going on. It’s typically just plain old incompetence!

At best I’m a critical thinker. I evaluate the facts at hand until a better set of verifiable facts with reputable sources comes along.

I get kind of irritated by the “nudists are friendly”, “naturism is an equaliser”, “It’s a healthy lifestyle” rhetoric.

These are all unfounded cliches trying to justify a perfectly acceptable and what should be normal activity.

Most people in most special interest groups are welcoming and friendly to newcomers. Nudism doesn’t have an exclusive claim on this.

It kind of bothers me that to date there seems to have been insistence on justifying nudity.

When the mood strikes me and the conditions are right I enjoy being naked. It’s seldom anything more or less than that.

If others want to participate fine. If they don’t that’s equally fine. The whole world doesn’t need to be naked for me to enjoy being naked.

Why can’t people who enjoy being naked just live and let live?

Issue 2: Nobody actually cares about nudity (In NZ)

My social experiment in nudity at local beaches at various times of day proved to myself that 99.999% of people don’t care if you’re naked at the beach.

Last summer and well into the winter I swam naked at the local beach every other day irrespective of who was around.

I’ll caveat that by saying I kept some distance from others. When entering and exiting the water, I didn’t walk right in front of people.

I’d wait for them to pass then walk up the beach. I began to suspect most around me either didn’t realise I was naked or decided to simply ignore it.

My underlying point here is this uproar of nudists that nudity isn’t accepted in society is balderdash in my experience.

The walk we did in autumn up Billy Goat track is case in point. 99% of people were friendly and chatty. One bloke was a bit grumpy about it. He was very much the exception.

This leads me to feel that nudists who keep harping on about how hard done by they are because people are supposedly offended by nudity aren’t doing anybody any favours. All they’re accomplishing is making newcomers feel even more insecure and far more like something is wrong with them for wanting to be naked!

Issue 3: Leper colonies

I wish I’d been more independently minded and self confident far earlier in my life.

If nudist clubs didn’t operate like leper colonies assuming anyone interested in joining is assumed to be a sexually deviant pervert. I might have had the courage to find somewhere I could enjoy being naked, and get the kind of community support I needed at that time.

As it is I think nudist clubs continue to do far more damage than good. There’s plenty of people that would strongly oppose this view. Bottom line is though; what have clubs done to normalise nudity? Attract younger generations to naked activities or nudity full stop?

Issue 4: Non-sexual nudity and sexual predators

“Non-sexual nudity” has to be one of the stupidest notions ever thought of. There isn’t even “non-sexual existence“, let alone “non-sexual nudity”!

The whole planet is populated by species whose sole purpose in life is to procreate. Taking clothes off or putting them on doesn’t flick a magic switch from sexual to non-sexual.

It could be argued that clothing is even more sexually charged than outright nudity. At least with the latter nothing is left to the imagination. Once people get accustomed to nudity, it’s fairly non-stimulating. So why can’t we cut the crap on that front?

Which brings me to sexual predators. WTF basically.

If you want to get your rocks off, why lurk and proposition those whose clear agenda, outlined by a code of conduct, is not sexually motivated.

The internet is an absolute cesspit of every depravity imaginable and then some.

Why actively contribute to the confusion around sex and nudity by carrying out clandestine hookups within communities that very plainly stipulate that isn’t their purpose or intent?

It completely undermines the simplicity of nakedness.

Have I contradicted myself here?

Clothed or not we’re highly sexual beings. We’re also very capable of moderating our urges and behaviours to suit circumstances. Limiting ourselves to appropriate setting and environment. No contradiction. On the contrary I’m merely reinforcing my point about time and place.

Those who aren’t sure about themselves in the first place. Those that think they might be some kind of deviant for enjoying nudity, are only going to have that concern negatively reinforced, when there’s those who are proposing less than innocent hookups in an environment clearly not intended on facilitating this.

There are so many places and forums for that. Take it there. Stop being so incredibly selfish, disrespectful and self centred!

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There's probably a few more issues I could raise but these are a start to get some conversation going :)