The first episode of 'controversial' new reality show Naked Beach aired on Thursday night. I’ve put controversial in inverted commas because Greggs' sausage rolls have caused more fuss than this flogged-to-death format is likely to generate.
So what’s it all about then? I could say it’s Love Island with love handles, Big Brother with baps, or maybe just Oglebox (apologies) but that would be doing the makers of Naked Beach a disservice because it’s actually a very serious show – nay, a noble 'quest' to make us all feel better about our bodies.
CHANNEL 4
A serious show requires serious people and that's where the fully clothed (boo!) social psychologist Dr Keon West of Goldsmiths University comes in. Dr West's genuinely interesting and insightful studies (including "Naked and Unashamed: Investigations and Applications of the Effects of Naturist Activities on Body Image, Self Esteem and Life Satisfaction") show that people’s body image, self-esteem and life satisfaction could be vastly improved by seeing more "normal, naked bodies and spending more time with our own naked bodies". Naked Beach puts this to the test with the ambitious aim to "help fix the nation’s body confidence issues".
You started out enjoying being naked around the house, occasionally daring to slip outside when no one was noticing. Along the way you heard that there was a nude beach or resort near you where other people hung out nude. Your curiosity was piqued to the point where you gathered up the courage to finally check out the scene, and you realized that everyone there was very friendly. The people were from all walks of life, but they were the same more than they were different because when people are nude all pretexts are removed. You felt the freedom of being outside nude with no judgment by anyone, so you kept coming back until you realized that you were now a nudist.
Up to now only you and/or your partner was aware of enjoyment of naturism. You’d go off to the beach or resort to socialize with your new nudist friends, but you would not tell your friends and family about what you were doing because of the connotation behind nudity. On the other hand, you now realize the naturalness of being nude and the fact that social nudity is not sexual in the least bit. You have a quandary, because you want to share your enjoyment of naturism with friends and family, but you are concerned about what they will think of you. Additionally, you are reluctant to post or say anything on social media that could impact your career or friendships, yet you know that what you are doing is perfectly natural. What do you do?
Hippies rose in the 1960. Flower power, free love, and yes, nudity, were some of the things that hippies promoted. They were against war (I like that) and most of them promoted a relaxed, kind, loving lifestyle.
A couple with matching flower body paint walks together during the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK in 1970.
During those times, especially in the beginning, hippies shocked most of the good people with their open way of life and their appreciation of the human body. I think it’s the nudity that was the biggest hangup for people.
Early in the 16th century, Fra Bartolomeo painted an altarpiece of St Sebastian for the church of San Marco in Florence. Though stuck full of arrows, the martyr was, according to Vasari, distinctly good-looking in this picture: ‘sweet in countenance, and likewise executed with corresponding beauty of person’. By and by the friars of San Marco discovered through the confessional that this image was giving rise to ‘light and evil thoughts’ among women in the congregation.
‘Vanity’, c.1485–90, by Hans Memling, left, and ‘Hell’, 1450, by Dirk Bouts, right.
It was removed and eventually sold to the King of France (who was presumably less bothered by that sort of thing). So even during the heyday of Michelangelo and Raphael depictions of human bodies without any clothes were not necessarily all about art. This is one of the themes of The Renaissance Nude, a truly marvellous exhibition at the Royal Academy.
This show is packed with lovely things to look at. There are beautiful bodies aplenty, and the roster of artists includes many of the great names in painting and sculpture — Dürer, Titian, Raphael, Signorelli, Memling. As a visitor, that’s really all you need to know.
I have been searching the newspapers over the past week for encouraging news, but I have not been all that successful. The news seems to have been uniformly bleak. Neighbour has been turned against neighbour, friend against friend. There is no peace in the land.
GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images
The times in which we live are undoubtedly distressing, but so, I suspect, have been the times in which everyone has lived. And that leads to an interesting philosophical problem: how are we to react to the tensions, and setbacks that assail us every time we open a newspaper or listen to a news broadcast?
This is where the nocebo effect comes in. We all know about the placebo effect, which may make you feel better because you think that what you are doing is going to have a positive effect. The nocebo effect is the opposite of that – it is the negative effect that people feel when they think that things are bad, and are going to get worse. In extreme cases, it can kill you. If you think you are going downhill, you will.
A nude family swim session at Blackpool’s Sandcastle Waterpark has attracted a backlash from campaigners who say children should not be allowed at the event.
We revealed how the skinny dipping event is taking place this weekend and open to adults and kids of all ages.
Organised by British Naturism, visitors will be ditching their costumes and trunks to ride the water slides and wave machines in nothing but their birthday suits.
It’s the group’s tenth year at the Sandcastle, where they’re expecting around 300 visitors this Saturday evening, but not everyone is happy with the event.
An online petition has been launched by Emma Hadaway, from Crewe, who says: “I truly believe this is a massive safeguarding issue, children being naked around adults neither their parents or themselves know.”
She adds: “It may be a private event but children should be protected no matter what and should not be allowed at such events. The solution to this would be either to make it an 18s and over only event or to not allow the event to happen full stop.
“I have absolutely nothing against naturists and their lifestyle choice except when it comes to the safety of children.” Continued…Read full original article…
In the Canadian city where I used to live, there was a nude beach where I spent a lot of time. It was no rare occurrence to find, near the beach’s northern boundary, a small but fervent cohort of nude baby boomers distributing Naturism 101 pamphlets. In an outsize font on an ancient webpage they’d set up, the beach naturists dared visitors to “!!BE NATURAL AND FEEL THE FREEDOM!!” They outlined etiquette (no come-ons, no sex) and suggested recreational pursuits (flag football, a potluck). The naturists could be a little doctrinaire — once, someone wearing nothing but a Tilley hat chided me for my bikini bottom, bellowing, “Way to be clothed!” — but they would usually feign tolerance at the beachgoing public’s ignorance of their framing principles.
Mishka Henner
“Naturism” and “nudism” are used interchangeably to describe a doctrine of communally convening outdoors in the buff. But “naturism,” with its Thoreauvian connotations of fresh air and vigor, seems preferred among the true believers. On my beach, I suspect it was also a gentle protest against the prim, Anglo-Saxon mores of a metropolis where cops were known to set up speed traps for cyclists. The precept naturists hold the most sacred is body acceptance — to “not judge anyone by their body shape or other war wounds” and to ignore the nakedness of others. This attitude made their corner of the beach a respite from the outside world and its duller standards of decency. For years, I’d go weekly. Continued…Read full original article…
Claudia jugó con los límites de Instagram… y perdió. O perdió a medias, porque encontró un nuevo enfoque para su arte. Eso, y una comunidad entera de creadores que han convertido las redes sociales en su campo de batalla en la lucha contra la censura del cuerpo. Del femenino, sobre todo. Porque en Internet, el paraíso de la pornografía gratuita y accesible para cualquiera con una conexión, el desnudo de la mujer sigue siendo tabú, y el castigo consiste en eliminarlo.
Hay anacronismos que surgen de otros anacronismos. Si lo de quemar sujetadores nos suena muy sesentero, que esa imagen naciera de una de esas fake news tan siglo XXI no es menos chocante. 7 de septiembre, año 1968, un grupo de mujeres se manifiesta a las puertas del centro de convenciones de Atlantic City. Dentro se celebra el certamen de Miss América. En plena explosión de la llamada Segunda Ola Feminista, la traca final de la protesta prometía ser una gran pira en la que se quemaran los “instrumentos de tortura contra la mujer”, con el sujetador como eje central. Se amontonaron cientos de sostenes, se tiraron a los cubos de basura situados en el centro de la protesta… pero el fuego nunca se produjo.
La (no) imagen fue tan potente que se convirtió en símbolo. Una joven reportera del New York Post, Lindsy Van Gelder, mencionó la hoguera de sujetadores en una columna, más como un deseo que como una realidad, pero el suceso caló y los medios replicaron la noticia falsa en grandes titulares. Había nacido un mito, y medio siglo más tarde el pecho de la mujer sigue siendo el arma predilecta de la lucha feminista, y su peor enemigo, la censura.
Un sábado de marzo, la artista valenciana Claudia Sahuquillo amaneció sin cuenta de Instagram. Ningún aviso, sólo un mensaje en la pantalla: “Se ha desactivado tu cuenta porque infringe nuestras condiciones”. Casi 80.000 seguidores a la basura de un momento a otro. Su proyecto #SkinIsTheNewCanvas convertía efectivamente el cuerpo desnudo de la mujer en su lienzo. Y sí, las fotos mostraban pezones. Pintados, pero pezones. Recuperó su perfil el lunes después de justificar, a través de un formulario, que en lo suyo no había pornografía, sino todo lo contrario. Igual que se fue, volvió. Pero a ella el susto sólo le confirmó que lo que hacía tenía sentido. Continued…Read full original article…
Many years ago, two chefs from two different restaurants decided that they would ban all cameras and photo-taking. One chef said that food was to be eaten, not photographed. He particularly did not like to see his customers snapping selfies with their food. It didn’t take more than a month or two before both restaurants had to close down. One of them tried to salvage his business by declaring that he had changed his mind; he now encouraged photograph-taking. Take as many photos as you want, he pleaded. But it was too late. When a person wages war against a selfie taker, there is no turning back. The die is cast and every selfie lover will do his bit. In most cities in Asia that would mean just about every single customer of yours.
Posing with food
Restaurants that ban selfie-taking may survive in Europe but there’s no way such a restaurant can make ends meet in Asia. When I think about it, if I have a choice to eat something without once taking a pic or to pose for pics with the food without eating it, I would rather pose for pictures with the food than eat it.
It’s very hard to explain why Asians are so obsessed with selfie-taking. I was once in a nondescript Underground station in London and a friend I was with asked me why a group of Korean tourists were taking selfies in the station itself. It was quite an ugly station actually but they were all busy taking selfies with their phones/cameras. Before I could think of an answer, a train approached and out came my phone for a quick selfie. I just had to take a selfie with an approaching train and I do this even in my own country. Continued…Read full original article…
Is getting naked the answer to our self esteem problems? As season 4 of the widely debated Naked Attraction takes to our screens, Leah Crossman comes to terms with the naked body and the huge amounts of positivity that we could all benefit from if we stripped off once in a while.
Naked attraction – take away the dating aspect and it is a wonderful display of naked bodies of all ages, shapes and sizes. Where most people feel awkward viewing such a thing on national television, I was fascinated. To see five real human bodies lined up next to each other, you understand how delightfully unique every single one of them is and it makes you realise that to have differences is not so different after all.
Self-confidence, particularly amongst young people, is something that we’re all lacking. This is understandable from a lifetime of unattainable body images being ingrained into us from the moment we signed up to Instagram. Tell us that it’s photoshopped however many times you want, but we will still try the latest fad diet to get that dream body. According to the Centre for Mental Health, one in 10 teenage girls say that they’re unhappy with their body and as our use of social media is only increasing, so are our body insecurities.
Keith Gordon from Naturism in Cornwall agreed: “The more people are used to seeing normal naked bodies and being seen themselves, the more they realise the natural beauty of human bodies without surgical enhancements or chemical introductions. This develops self-confidence and body confidence which leads to greater happiness and fewer distorted pouting photographs on social media.”
I’m not particularly overwhelmed with my body, I have the things I would change just like the next person and social media definitely doesn’t help with that. I long to have the bodies I see every day scrolling down my feed, but by doing that, I’m trying to live up to a body that doesn’t exist – is this because I never really see bodies that do exist?
For generations society has told us to cover up and partly, I think this is to blame for our self-esteem problems as for so long it has been seen as a bad thing to be naked. Older generations are more conservative and in fact, my own Grandma was pretty horrified by the show. She said it was obscene and there was no need for full frontal nudity. But for what reason? The only outcome from that mindset is us having no idea what our bodies should look like because we are never actually exposed to what a real body looks like. In search for this clarification, we have turned to Instagram, where our perception of the human body is distorted by camera angles, lighting and editing software used in excess. When we see a real body, or more importantly our own bodies, we label it as abnormal because it’s not the kind of body we’re used to seeing every day. Naked Attraction unknowingly addresses this struggle by showing us real and very different bodies.
Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign
Many have had a stab at this ‘naked taboo’ too. Take the Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, a celebration of real women, in all kinds of variations and exactly the kind of naked, body positivity we need more of. It makes people feel confident in their own bodies to see how different every other body is, but it needs to be more prevalent.
Celebrity stylist, Gok Wan, also campaigned for body confidence to be a compulsory part of the PSHE curriculum in 2011. His work found devastating statistics such as, 70% of participants stated that they did not like what they saw in the mirror and 71% of participants said they felt self-conscious about their body in changing rooms. Unfortunately, just as this scheme was going to be passed, the general election happened and the campaign lost momentum.
I think Gok hit the nail on the head though, we should start with schools and strike youngsters as soon as they discover what an insecurity is. We should teach them that it’s normal to look different to one another and to love their bodies by looking past the photos they see on social media and tell themselves that those bodies aren’t real. Then as Keith from NatCorn mentioned, this would hopefully lead to less edited photographs online, which fuel this dangerous cycle of body issues and mental health problems.
Gok Wan campaign for body confidence
Whether you agree with being naked or not, it can’t be denied that Naked Attraction holds some educational value. The way I see it, the more we get naked, the more realistic our perception of what a real body looks like. We would learn to love and embrace ourselves, instead of resenting ourselves for actually having a normal human body. From having the confidence knocked out of me throughout my teens, to being filled with body positivity as I watched Naked Attraction was almost euphoric. If one episode of Naked Attraction has that kind of power, then isn’t it time to get your kit off?
Original work by: Leah Crossman, Falmouth University, Journalism
Volunteering at your naturist club Years ago, after we had set our first careful steps into naturism and when we were browsing the internet for a new naked place to visit we stumbled upon a mention “federation membership required”. What was that supposed to mean?
Until then, a naturist campground to us was just like a textile one where you could show up, pay and setup your tent. Now, apparently, we were in need of some membership card.
It only took a couple of clicks to figure out that naturism was in fact something pretty well organised. That there were actual federations taking care of the rights of naturists and guarantee a safe environment. They organise events where it’s possible to get in touch with other naturists and what appealed the most to us, they would give us a card that promised entry to places where until now we wouldn’t be allowed.
Unlike in many other countries, in Belgium it was not possible to directly become member of the naturist federation. One has to become member of a naturist club. So that’s what we tried to do. We picked one of the 10 or so clubs, it didn’t really matter which one as long as we would be able to get federation membership, and received a form to fill out. Name, age, gender, address, all the regular questions, and then “What can you do for our club?”
Well… euhm… yeah…
The difference in nudist camps is enormous, ranging from the small 10 spot campground which normally caters only to members and once in a while a guest to huge naturist villages like Cap d’agde in France.
The choice can be difficult, where do we want to go?
Both types have of course their advantages and disadvantages, and what seems to be an advantage for one isn’t necessarily the same for someone else.
To help you find out what fits best in your perfect nakation, we’ll give you some of the characteristics.
It’s easy to imagine that the amount of facilities on the bigger camps is much bigger than on the smaller camps, but that doesn’t make them better. Swimming pools for example. Most nudist camps have one and the smaller camps often won’t have a 25 meter pool. But what’s the need when you only have about 20 guests at one time? Unless you’re planning to practice your swimming skills, you’ll have enough space in the smaller pool. When, on the other hand, there’s only one big pool on the larger camp, it might get a cramped from time to time. Continued…Read full original article…
The Chairperson of Karnataka’s Women’s Commission NG Nagalakshmi Bai, in a letter to the state’s Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, has come up with an unusual request – a dress code for men on beaches.
Nagalakshmi’s letter was prompted by the sight of nude men she saw at Gokarna Beach earlier this month when she was there for a holiday.
Gokarna Beach Wikimedia Commons image
“I was in Gokarna three weeks ago and observed men walking around the beach nude. They should wear at least a little bit of clothing to cover themselves up,” she said, speaking to TNM.
In her letter, Nagalakshmi told the CM that male nudity on the beach “is not only posing a threat to the safety of women and children but also a security threat (sic)”.
She called for more police personnel to be posted on beaches for security reasons. “There are many women and children, including young women who are selling items in the beach, who are affected by this. There have been accusations of sexual assault against them,” she said. Continued…Read full original article…
That’s something I realised a while ago. Being undressed in the right weather / temperature conditions has become so natural to me that I hardly think about it.
That’s also the reason why I opened the front door naked a few times this summer; it was Very, really Very Warm for a long time.
Out on a forest walk.
The interesting bit was that some people, after their initial surprise, seemed to pay little mind to my (lack of) attire. Especially after explaining why I wasn’t wearing clothes. It was – in a way – weird to find that many people at the door understood the reason immediately, but that I had to explain the why to them first.
After hearing that, most of them agreed that it was a clever thing to do. Such encounters tell me that being naked is basically accepted by many people, but that the actual doing is something that doesn’t cross their mind until they see someone who actually does it. (Leading by example, anyone?)
“The lady sat next to me was knitting a scarf, naked, except for flip flops and the guy on the other side was reading the newspaper, totally nude,” says Jane Baker, describing a scene of apparent domestic bliss. Jane, 52, who has been part of the naturist community for over two years, is one of a growing number of Britons who have taken to a starker way of life.
Jane Baker has been a member of the naturism community since 2016 Jane Baker
Indeed it seems nudity is having something of a moment, with British Naturism, the UK’s official organisation, noting a sudden increase in membership for the first time in 15 years. With 8,900 members – up from 8,300 last year – we appear to be edging towards the ‘nude not crude’ way of thinking.
More of us are waving goodbye to textile environments—the term used to describe our restrictive, clothed world by those in the know—and embracing our natural state. Continued…Read full original article…
Dressed? Yes. Dressed. You know how that works. It’s putting on the dreaded clothing. We all have to once in a while, although occasionally there are people who avoid it in a brilliant way.
If you are in any way dealing with health hazards, I can imagine it’s smart to have some protection on. For instance when dealing with chemicals or toxic fumes.
Also when there are things around like hot metals or when you’re working with things that can throw dangerous waste around (for instance when working with metal) it’s a smart thing to have some protection around. Continued…Read full original article…
The man, who lives in Stuart, Fla., was told by sheriff’s deputies he can do yard work in his birthday suit as long as he doesn’t touch himself. Melissa Ny, who lives opposite the naturist, is among those who have complained.
She told WPBF: ‘I came out Sunday night to put the trash out, and I look over and he is bent over, winding up his hose, and I’m like, “That is my view of the neighborhood”. ‘He works on his car, and he does it naked, and everyone has called the police. ‘He is just out there doing his yard work, whatever he needs to do outside – naked.’ Continued…Read full original article…
Nudism and monarchy It happens that on traditionally nudist beaches, where their presence was always allowed, textiles now seem to be overwhelmingly major, as in heroic times.
On August 16, 1984, 34 years ago, a parish priest led a group of residents of Cangas de Morrazo who, with sticks and stakes, threatened some nudists camped near the beach of Barra , while the municipal police dismantled their tents and the Civil Guard was there. In Orwellian 1984, nudism had been practiced for 15 years on the beach of Barra and had recently been authorized by the competent Civil Government, that of Pontevedra.
The story of the affair made by El País named a priest from another town, not the one who actually participated. The newspaper publicly rectified that error as soon as it had news (in the Sunday edition, circulation much higher than the other days of the week), but the priest mentioned in the first information sued the journalist María José Porteiro and the publishing company of El País by intrusion in his honor. Continued…Read full original article…
My children spend most of their lives naked as little jay birds. I’m pretty sure our property has been unofficially designated a nudist colony. This past summer, I don’t think my daughter had clothes on when we weren’t leaving the house. But even beyond our borders, my kids have never had any qualms about “putting themselves out there.” Now that they’re getting a little bit older, I try to teach them the importance of “time and place,” but when they were toddlers? Ha. I let my toddlers run around naked in public and I’m not sorry.
Look, it’s not like I defiantly march them nude into libraries and grocery stores to make some sort of body positive, political statement. I don’t look at signs that say “no shirt, no shoes, no service” and, in protest, encourage my kids to disrobe. If we leave the house we put on clothes. But they regularly failed to grasp the concept of which body parts are supposed to be hidden from public view and which are fair game. They’d run out of a public bathroom with their underwear around their ankles (or, when they were younger, remove their diapers all together). My daughter had an inexplicable habit of lifting her shirt or dress above her head everywhere and anywhere for no discernible reason. It’s not that I’d let these things go unchecked — I would casually put an end to their random acts of streaking — I just didn’t get flustered or bent out of shape about it. I’d usually chuckle, snap a picture (because what is parenting if not a decades long blackmail scheme?) and tell them it was time to put their clothes back on. This casual approach is very much intentional. Continued…Read full original article…
I spent a couple of days up in Cairns last week and after hiking up Glacier Rock, I decided to take a dip in Stoney Creek. I wandered all the way up the creek, as far as I could get, which was only a couple hundred metres but it was far enough away from people that I could skinny dip without too many people coming across me! There was a little cascade at the end and it was real pretty and super peaceful.
The water started getting cold so I got dressed again and that’s when 2 older women arrived. I later found out that they were 60 and 70 year old sisters who frequented the area, in particular, this spot.
The elder sister approached me and said “I dont want to offend you love but we’ve come here to go skinny dipping.” My eyes lit up and I laughed, telling them they’d run into the right person!
We all went skinny dipping together and got talking. The 70 year old woman was telling me that she grew up in the 60s and 70s and she started skinny dipping and getting naked in nature when she was in her 20s and has been doing it ever since! She explained that it was completely normal at that time and it’s just what everybody did. Continued…Read full original article…
¿Qué sería de Vera sin el turismo nudista? En Teleprensa (diario digital de Almería) he podido leer un artículo publicado recientemente por el Sr. Javier Salvador, titulado “El nudismo no es un deber en Almería”, y creo que el texto exige al menos una reflexión por mi parte y algunas replicas…
Comienza diciendo: “Las zonas turísticas siempre eclosionan por un hecho diferencial que se da en el lugar, algo que la hace distinta. Si ahora quieres triunfar en el nuevo modelo turístico de 18 a 45 años, el hecho de tener una buena ola surfeable o un viento constante para practicar el kitesurf te ayudan una barbaridad para atraer a esos jóvenes de pelo abrasado por el sol tras los que llegan verdaderas oleadas de turistas, como bien pueden contarnos desde el País Vasco o Tarifa. Pero Almería no tiene olas muy surferas que digamos, aunque alguna hay, y las cometas sólo pueden volar de vez en cuando y, cuando lo hacen, suele ser con viento en exceso así que eso, por ahora y salvo que el cambio climático nos haga un regalo envenenado, tenemos que seguir siendo fieles a nuestros referentes en el exterior, nuestros hechos embajadores diferenciales, de eso por lo que hablan de nosotros, y el nudismo por suerte o desgracia es uno de ellos“.
Más o menos de acuerdo en casi todo salvo por la última frase ¿de verdad que el nudismo puede significar una desgracia para el desarrollo del turismo en Almería? Lamentable que haya quien piensa que eso es así y es preocupante, pero lo es aún más el que haya muchas personas que olviden el pasado más reciente y no vean que gracias al nudismo Almería y Vera se han puesto en el mapa de los destinos turísticos.
El artículo continúa: “Almería sigue casi tan mal conectada con el resto del mundo como a los finales de los 70, porque salvo la autovía del Mediterráneo, no hay más cambios que mostrar en este sentido. Y fue precisamente el nudismo, poder quedarse en bolas en mitad de una playa inmensa a la que era difícil llegar, fue lo que hizo de este apartado rincón un lugar especial para una clase de turistas que, normalmente, suelen ser de un poder adquisitivo entre medio y alto”. Continued…Read full original article…
Your body is just one part of what makes you, well, you. And even though people are finally starting to embrace cellulite, stretch marks, and other “flaws” that make us unique, most women still have a pretty complex relationship with how they look.
As part of Women’s Health’s “Naked Truth” issue, WH polled more than 4,400 American women—as well as thousands (!) more people around the world—about everything relating to body image, from how women felt about their naked bodies to where and when they feel the most confident. And your answers were really surprising: Continued…Read full original article…
A little over two weeks ago I blogged about the current problems existing within the nudity/naturism culture in Australia. Or more specifically how the culture has been hijacked and has completely lost its appeal to anyone considering involvement. I identified problems in which many of you can relate and I asked all of you to get involved in the first step of the process; Cleaning up online.
What a response we’ve received so far!!!!!!
The last two weeks have been overwhelming. We have received so much support from our followers and its so incredible to see so many people willing to get on board with us and what we hope to achieve. We’ve had a number of people who have previously stayed silent about all the messages they’ve received starting to “call these people out”. A number of people from existing naturist communities both within Australia and around the globe have also reached out and thanked us for starting this campaign. Whenever someone comments something inappropriate on our photo’s, before any of our admin team have even seen the comment, there have already been a number of comments from you people “calling them out” and letting them know that their comments are not welcome here! AMAZING!!!!! Continued…Read full original article…
I am asking this question because almost all of the outrage being expressed against nudity, especially nudity in the home and in public, is prefaced with “My God! What if children see nude people? They’ll be scarred forever!” As a naturist and as a therapist, I obviously don’t believe that nudity in itself causes psychological scarring for children or for adults. We are all nude beneath our clothing and are born nude. We are the only species that covers up because of some sense of shame at our nakedness. But at the same time, I don’t want to let my opinions get in the way of truth, so I went out searching for answers.
Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me, 1633, Cornelis van Haarlem
Curiously, I didn’t find any scientific or psychological studies that confirmed that seeing nudity (oneself or others) was psychologically harmful in itself. Where there was harm, other factors were also present. However, I did find serious studies that basically stated that nudity was not the factor in the psychological scarring of children, studies such the one led by Paul Okami (cited below), Higgins and Hawkins (1984), and Dr. Conrad Manning. What was interesting in doing the research was the act that few children in North America saw any adult nudity while children. Continued…Read full original article…
In 2017, we went to our first nudist beach in Adelaide, Australia. At the time, we were broiling on the Maslin beach sand, in the “clothed” area, getting up occasionally to jump in the water. Jackson found out that down the beach a little ways was an FKK (nude) beach. Curious, we walked over.
We’re always game for trying out a new experience and this one was great! We got a great tan and enjoyed getting up and taking a dip in the water without the worry of our bathing suit sticking to us.
Since Australia, we’ve explored nude beaches in Croatia, gone hiking and camping nude in South Africa, and explored the Costa Del Sol in Spain for nudist beaches. Although I wouldn’t categorize us as seasoned pros, we’ve gotten our fair share of the outdoors, naturist lifestyle.
Maslin Beach. One of the top 10 beaches in Australia for 2017. It had a nude section, which we would have been remiss to try out, at least once. This is proof.
I think, in today’s world, people are looking for new and exciting experiences and going beyond a drunken skinny dip and into a full-on nude beach is one of the bigger thrills of a traveler abroad. That said, ain’t nobody on that beach wants a group of total noobs coming in to gawk, take pictures and act like general idiots.
Look, we get it: if you are new to this you might be a bit self-conscious, but the last thing you want to do is draw more attention to yourself by acting like you don’t know what the hell you are doing.
Instagram recently added a new feature to it’s platform which allows people to ask questions to their audience and gain responses. Initial thoughts were that this was a pretty cool new feature! The first day it was out, I posted a “sticker” which allowed people to “Ask me a Question”. I was excited to see what was going to be asked and I was eager to answer. However, the responses were appalling. It was disheartening to see the types of questions people decided to ask. Some examples include, ” I have an erection right now, what will you do with it”, “I want to see naked girls”, “Why can’t you post frontal nudes, I want to see”. Ridiculous right? For a brief moment I thought about wiping the account because I just couldn’t deal with the shit anymore. Was it really worth it?
There are new accounts popping up every day claiming to be ‘body positive’ and a portrayal of ‘true naturism’ yet feature only young, slim, attractive females bent over in sexually submissive poses. What has happened to the huge positive movement online using the naked in nature theme to promote body positivity and naturism that gained so much media attention last year? It has been hijacked. Hijacked by the perverts, the sexually entitled, the swingers and the scum of the earth. The Get Naked Australia page has been as strong as ever, but these people are using what we’ve started for their own perversion and pleasure. We’ve seen this in how many dropkicks message the females who have contributed to our page or request to follow them. They send dick pics, they ask for nudes, they even request sex as if they are somehow entitled to it because they posted a nude photo online. What started out as a really positive thing still remains but our following is being over run by perverts. Sorry if this offends you, but surprise surprise its consistently the middle aged males who are the culprits. Continued…Read full original article…
I’ve grown up with nudity all of my life and have considered myself to be a naturist for the best part of my cognitive years. Spending a large part of my youth in mainland Europe, I was exposed to a more liberal and less prudish approach to nudity than I have experienced in the UK. When I was old enough to do so, I joined the Central Council for British Naturism (CCBN) and its affiliated group Young British Naturists or YBN. I had always been told how welcoming and kind the naturist community was, so was excited to start attending the local monthly swim.
Unfortunately, no other members of the YBN came to my local swim, and as a single male, the more elderly couples viewed me with scepticism and cynicism; however, after we had conversed over a quick steam many had began to accept me. I went as often as I could so that I would become a familiar face, and while more and more people started to recognise and engage with me, due to the significant age difference, there was very little that I had in common with them other than naturism and never felt truly welcome there.
I enjoyed the freedom that being naked afforded me. It felt natural. I never once saw nudity in this context as sexual. It was liberating and comfortable for me. However, as I got older, insecurities struck and I had zero body confidence. Women consistently judged me, men routinely mocked me, ironically the only place that I never felt judged was in the naked community of British Naturism. I never questioned their motivations, never thought for one second that I was being judged for the number of moles I had on my body, my lack of muscularity, the size of my penis, or sexual prowess; as far as I’m aware everyone that I’ve met since joining British Naturism has lived up to this expectation, whereas a significant number of people I’ve met and grew close to outside of the community, have let me down over and over again. Continued…Read full original article…
Why Nudists Love Twitter As platforms like Facebook and Instagram crack down on explicit content, Twitter has allowed nudity to thrive.
Since Martin Belcher, a 50-year-old customer-services adviser based in the U.K., joined Twitter in 2012, he’s tweeted out thousands of naked photos of himself hiking, gardening, reading, eating, and watering his lawn. His nearly 3,000 followers respond by favoriting, retweeting, and frequently sharing nude photos of their own.
REUTERS / MARK BLINCH
Belcher isn’t a porn star or spam account sharing unsolicited photographs of his penis—he’s part of the thriving community of nudists on Twitter who have flocked to the platform after most others have made a policy of censoring or banning images of naked bodies. Nudists on Facebook have had their profiles suspended after failing to properly crop or censor their photos. On Instagram, they’ve been penalized for showing female nipples or too much pubic hair. Tumblr allows NSFW (Not Safe for Work) content, but nudists say the platform is so overrun with spam that it’s unusable. Continued…Read full original article…
Dame Esther Rantzen has rhapsodised over the joy of nude sunbathing, and urged neighbours who take issue with people doing it in their gardens to “look at something else”.
The TV star, 78, said she has been a fan of the practice for years and does not see it as too different to the skimpy outfits worn on Strictly Come Dancing.
She recalled shedding all her clothes to sunbathe on her 50th birthday, before posing for photos with her neighbour’s children, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You must try it, it just feels completely different, you haven’t go the sweaty bits where your clothes are overheating you, you haven’t got the bit where the straps cut into your flesh.
Esther Rantzen on Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Anton Du Beke Kieron McCarron/BBC
“You have got whatever draft or soft breeze there is on every pore and every cell of your body and it really makes you feel wonderful, and far from neighbours complaining, when I did it on my 50th birthday – I wasn’t completely nude because I was wearing a hat and a necklace too actually – the neighbours came round with their children, who started to giggle.
“It’s a good thing they did because my late husband was quite cross with me and was trying to remonstrate with me, because he’s a little bit more inhibited than me, and when he saw the girls giggling he went and got his camera.
“And so the photographs exist but the terrible thing is, in my senior moment, I’m trying to remember where those photographs are and I don’t know.” Continued…Read full original article…
“I walk around naked at home. It’s not a big deal to me, right? At the end of the day, I do enjoy keeping fit at my age. I don’t have any ego about me, but I do love having a fit life,” he tells ESPN in a lengthy interview to coincide with his much hyped naked appearance in The Body Issue which came out on Friday.
Greg Norman posing for ESPN in the nude and sharing it on Instagram for all the world to see. Kwaku Alston/ESPN
This is the same guy who stripped down to his abs and pecs for a shirtless visit to the offices of Golf Magazine, where he proceeded to undertake a round of “tricep dips” at some poor sod’s desk, in a flagrant display of muscle worship.
Then there were the shots he shared on his Instagram account last year of him cooling off buck-naked in a stream on his Colorado ranch, telling his followers he was all hot and sweaty after riding his horse. Continued…Read full original article…
After my inbox was filled with e-mails from men asking me advice and tips for their first time on nude beach I decided to ask one of my male nudist friend to give me a help to write nudist tips for man. Because, you know, I honestly don´t know what it is like to get erection on a beach full of naked people.
Even though I have discussed all of questions and worries that I received on e-mail with my partner and answer to all of them, I really wanted to publish some of the most common questions I get. And I wanted them to be answered by my friend Matijaž from Slovenia. So, I made a little interview with him: Continued…Read full original article…
Naturist Stuart McConville, who beat an offensive behaviour charge in Byron Bay Local Court last week, is encouraging other people who’ve been charged go to court rather than pay the fine.
Stuart McConville, who beat a charge of offensive behaviour for swimming naked at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Lake in April. supplied
Mr McConville pleaded guilty to the offence for legal reasons, but Magistrate Dunlevy recorded no conviction.
Mr McConville welcomed the result and said it should encourage others who had been served with a fine, adding that taking the matter to court cost him less than the $500 fine he would have had to pay. Continued…Read full original article…
Naturists come from all political stripes. Liberals, conservatives, middle of the road folks, all enjoy the freedom of nudity once they discover it. Legalized nudity is a goal for many nudists around the world.
What would the world look like if nudity was legalized everywhere?
Well, probably not much different than it looks now.
If nudity was legalized everywhere, it would be up to the property owner to determine whether or not they allowed it. This means that store owners would have the choice to allow naked people in or to kick them out. Nudists wouldn’t be able to just invade Wal-Marts or shopping malls. I imagine there would be a lot of companies that would forbid it. Continued…Read full original article…
Also when there are things around like hot metals or when you’re working with things that can throw dangerous waste around (for instance when working with metal) it’s a smart thing to have some protection around. 
