Category Archives: nudism

beliefs, nudism, ramblings

Social Nudity is a State of Mind

Social nudity (often called nudism or naturism) is poorly accepted by a large percentage of the people; something I explore on the On Nudity and Naturism page on my main website, as I have from time to time here.
This poor acceptance of social nudity seems to be because people do not understand social nudity, and curiously that seems to be a philosophical question; one that revolves around one’s mental imagery and state of mind. An interesting, but quite lengthy, article over at Naturist Philosopher looks at this question in detail.


It turns out that the problem is that most people do not have the right schema (mental context/image) to understand because they have no experience of social nudity on which to build this understanding. Their only experience of nudity is generally in a sexual context so this is the image they use to (mis)understand social nudity. And because social sex is (mostly) taboo everyone runs scared of social nudity — and indeed often private nudity within a contained, safe, family setting — thinking it can be nothing but sexual, and therefore “not nice”.
But social nudity isn’t sexual. Or at least no more (actually probably less) sexual than socialising clothed is. And we don’t generally worry about that!
However we aren’t going to change the popular misconceptions without giving people an alternative on which they can build a new schema. So we need some new paradigms and metaphors to explain social nudity to the uninitiated.
One such metaphor might be that clothes are like body armour: providing a barrier to protect me from the environment, the supposed ill-intentions of others and removing any vulnerability I might feel.
All social nudity is doing is removing the barrier — the packaging, if you like — between me and the environment, allowing me to feel the sun and the breeze on my skin and have the freedom I don’t have wearing clothes. And that’s actually fine because in general others don’t stare or make unwanted physical contact, and vulnerability is but a construct of my mind. This surely has to be goodness.
Social nudity is distinct from private nudity (as many of us indulge in at home) in that it emphasises the non-necessity or non-desirability of clothing in normal, everyday, non-sexual human relations. What the naturist movement has to do is to find ways of explaining this paradigm to people. And explaining it in such a way that it starts to give them some semblance of the experience they need to change their mental schema and become more accepting of social nudity.
Maybe, Naturist Philosopher suggests, the key is freedom. After all food free from pesticides is seen as goodness. So why shouldn’t a lifestyle incorporating freedom from clothes be equally desirable?

beliefs, nudism

Thoughts on Nudity

I recently came across a couple of pieces by writer Nick Alimonos on his blog The Writer’s Disease. And given a number of things which have been happening recently they make some sense (although I don’t agree with everything he says).
These first two quotes are from the article Nudity is the Future from April 2013.
I recently had the fortune to read an article in Cracked, “The Five Craziest Ways Men Have Censored Female Sexuality” … what really stood out for me was how Islamist countries like Iran fight to repress human nature. Censors paste cartoon shirts on all of the female characters on the show Lost, because tank-tops are just too arousing. Even things we would never consider sexual, like a man and a woman sitting on a couch or the bulge of a woman’s blouse, is deemed unacceptable. Iranian censors will even blur a closeup of a woman’s face.  No matter how many things the Iranian government tries to omit from TV and movies, boys will find something to be aroused by, because sexual desire comes from within … Trying to repress this instinct is a lost cause. It’s plugging up a pressure cooker bound to explode. The irony is that, by making everything taboo, everything becomes a forbidden fruit. Essentially, Iranian censors are creating the sex crazed society they are trying so desperately to prevent … The battle against free information cannot be won, as history has proven again and again. The only recourse is acceptance, and acceptance is a good thing, because human nature is in the right. Honest, open, free information results in the good of any society. As nudists, we find nothing inherently sexual … so that the act of sex develops naturally, by getting to know a person as a person.
The Internet is changing more than Islamic society, however; it’s changing ours as well. The last irrational, moralistic taboo in America is that of public nudity. There is no difference between an Iranian woman being arrested for going out in the streets without her hair covered and an American woman being arrested for stepping out her front door without a top on. Nobody can give a rational explanation for anti-nudity laws. The government uses, instead, abstract terminology like “disturbing the peace” or “public indecency”. Without realizing it, we criminalize nudity on strictly moral grounds, based on ancient and outdated religious biases that have no place in a modern society.


And these three are from a piece on Alimonos’s philosophy of Naturism.
As Americans, we live in an insane world, where you can legally carry and conceal a gun, but risk imprisonment should anyone see your genitals.
I reject the notion that men and women cannot live in sight of one another without clothes. I reject the belief that bodies are inherently sexual and must be hidden from view. And I know, with certainty, that nudity is not harmful to children — in fact, quite the opposite is true — shaming our kids, making them believe that their bodies are sinful, harms their self-esteem and their sense of identity.
For tens of thousands, if not more than a hundred thousand years, mankind was oblivious to nakedness. After the Ice Age, we adopted textiles to retain heat, but at some point in our history, an invention of necessity became a global neurosis, a hatred for our own bodies.
It seems to me that there is a large amount of common sense there even if some of Alimonos’s views (not really represented here) do support the patriarchy more than one might like.

beliefs, links, medical, natural history, nudism, science

Your Interesting Links

More interesting items you may have missed. Lots of science and medicine curiosities in this edition, but its should all be accessible to the non-scientist.
Who thinks mathematics is boring? You won’t when you see the beauty of mathematics in pictures! I’m definitely worried about image four.


Chemicals have a bad name. Wrongly! Manmade or natural, tasty or toxic, they’re all chemicals.
Shifting to the zoo-world, here’s a piece on the curious and improbable tale of flatfish evolution.
Beaver! No not that sort! Honestly your minds! I’m talking about the beavers that have been reintroduced to Scotland, and which are doing well.
Concrete jungle. Yes, it certainly is a jungle out there. Our cities, yes even the most urban and built-up parts of them, can be important wildlife habitat.
Bananas are in trouble and we don’t have a solution to save our favourite fruit. Oh and they’re quite an interesting plant too.
All our food is toxic, innit. Actually, no. But here’s why the fear, uncertainty and doubt are far too easy to believe, and how to counteract it.
On the continuing saga of why chocolate is good for us, but just not in the form you like it.
Five-a-day doesn’t add up. It’s not all marketing hype, except when the arithmetic is wrong.
Turnips. The humble vegetable that terrorised the Romans and helped industrialise Britain.
What do you mean you thought apples grew on trees? Well, OK, they do but originally not the trees you thought. An interesting piece on saving the wild ancestor of modern apples.

Farting well? It could mean you have a good healthy collection of gut microbes.
Just don’t read this next story over dinner. It seems we eat parasites more than we realise.
And another that’s definitely not safe for mealtime reading … A long read on some of the work going on behind faecal transplants, and how they’re being so successful in treating stubborn illnesses.
Lads, here are three cardinal rules from a urologist about care of your plumbing.
Phew! So now let’s leave the scientific and medical behind us and more on.
Naturism is the practice of going without clothes — and it’s not shameful, embarrassing or ridiculous.
Still on naturism, here’s one young lady’s experience of being clothes free at home.
image6

And here are some more views on the way the new Nordic sex laws are making prostitutes feel less, not more, safe.
From
Vagina in the workplace — a story. The closing ideal has to be a good way forward, surely.
Changing tack (yes, OK, about time!) here’s part five of the ongoing series from a black cab driver about Waterloo Station. OK, hands up, how many of you knew it was a war memorial?
And finally, the BBC have unearthed a box of forgotten letters sent from occupied France during WWII. See you never know what’s in that dusty box in the attic!

beliefs, freedom of speech, links, nudism, sexuality

Your Interesting Links

Interesting items seem to be coming thick and fast at the moment, so here’s another instalment of links to items you may have missed. And not so much boring science stuff this time!
Apocalypse? So what would happen if all our satellites fell from the sky? Yep, apocalypse may not be far off the mark!
Do you wear glasses? Or lenses? Ever wondered whether you could see without them? You can. Here’s how. And it really does work!
The strange story of a tetragametic woman — that’s someone made from four gametes (two eggs, two sperm) rather than the usual two. This is a form of chimerism and as chimeras are normally detected only because of external abnormalities (for example differently coloured eyes) we don’t really know how common it is.
We know the phases of the moon influence the behaviour of many creatures from big cats to owls, but how much does the moon affect human behaviour?


An interesting short read on saffron, that brightly coloured spice from crocus flowers.
While on plants, this stunning piece of sculpture was carved into an olive stone in 1737.
And so to religion … here’s an interesting evolutionary tree of religion.
Allegedly the human mind is primed to believe in god. If so, how is it that atheism is on the rise?
Meanwhile archaeologists have been staring into the mists of time and come to the conclusion that Britain’s oldest settlement is Amesbury, near Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. Doesn’t seem too surprising to me.
An American mother takes a very sensible look at nudity and how it does not cause any problems for kids.
And to finish on our usual theme of sexuality, here’s a considered response to the Nordic conception of controlling prostitution from a Canadian sex worker.
These final two items may not be safe for those of a pathetically puritanical mind; they are included here in the interests of normalising our attitudes to sex and sexuality.
Girl on the Net asks whether blowjobs are anti-feminist. Spoiler: No, because feminism is a state of mind not an attribute of “things”.
And really finally, with the spotlight on Girl on the Net, here’s an interview with her in the University of York student newspaper, York Vision (it was called Nouse in my day!).

beliefs, nudism, personal

On Nudity and Naturism

I’ve just added two new pages to my Zen Mischief website.
On Nudity and Naturism — in which I explain my views and why I believe we need to normalise nudity (and sexuality) rather than marginalising and criminalising it.


Nudity and Naturism Quotes — from a wide variety of people; some great and/or good; some ordinary; some unknown.
I’ve been meaning to write these pages for a long while, and today was the day.

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, nudism, personal

The Pornography of David Cameron

So David Cameron is intent on restricting internet access to anything which he deems might in someone’s eyes be pornographic.
This is so prattish and dangerous it makes me angry on just so many levels.
Just who does DC think he is to tell other people what to think, say and look at? How dare he impose his (apparent) morality on anyone else? Imposing one’s morality on someone else is frankly … well … immoral!
This is government censorship. Given that freedom of speech and belief is enshrined in international law, that probably means the UK would be in violation of international law.
A freedom which exists only when it is in accord with your views, is no freedom at all.

f6b79-a 0e033-b

These two images are perfectly legal, and must remain perfectly legal. If you don’t want to see them, don’t look. If you don’t want your kids to see them, take responsibility yourself for looking out for what your kids view.
The proposals are impractical and pretty much unenforceable. Any law which is unenforceable is (a) bad law and (b) a waste of time. It is impractical because of the complexity of the internet and the fact that everyone is not dependent on just one service provider but many.
What is even more worrying is that there is absolutely no evidence to back up the necessity for this. On the lack of evidence see, for example, here, here, here and here.
It’s about time that we let people make up their own minds and take responsibility for their own actions — ie. develop their own sense of morals and responsibility. We’re becoming a nation of the molly-coddled; people who have to have everything done for them; who are unable to think for themselves or cope for themselves; people who cannot cope with adversity. People cannot be protected by outside agencies from all dangers and risks — that way lies a mixture of amorality (because people won’t have to think) and a police state. In the words of Thomas S Monson (Pathways To Perfection):

When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be.

Goethe says the same:

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.

Or looking at it another way, in the words of the great Spanish ‘cellist Pablo Casals:

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage.

If we want people to be responsible, then we have to treat them as if they are responsible.
Finally, as I’ve said many times before (for example here and especially here) sexuality and nudity need to be normalised, not marginalised and criminalised. Only by doing so are we likely to drastically improve the nation’s overall health and well-being.
It is time to be a leader, not a cow-herd with an electric cattle-prod!
[PS. No of course rape, violence and child abuse are not acceptable; no-one is saying they are! But blanket censorship is not going to get rid of them; it will just drive them further underground and into the hands of the criminal fraternity.]

beliefs, nudism, personal

Nudity and Children

A few days ago there was a piece in the the Portsmouth News, the local paper for the eponymous city on England’s south coast. The reporter, Liz Bourne, asks “Why do we think nudity is shocking for children?” and comes to the conclusion that it isn’t.

This interested me because, aside from my interest in nudism, local papers are not often known for their liberal views. But here was a balanced and reasonable article which said essentially children aren’t phased by nudity, even when “a little squeamish about wrinkly bits” and we can all understand why some people want to be nude even if it isn’t for us.

Here are the nuts of the article:

In my experience, children love nudity. When very young, two of my children both enjoyed stripping off and flouncing around with the sun on their bare skin. On several occasions my son was known for taking all his clothes off in a rage, usually in the most public of places … Although not encouraged, within reason I did accept it as an expression of their innocence and, in my son’s case, frustration of being restricted by clothing. Now that they are older, they are less keen to bare all. And when news of the naked bike protest was revealed, they were struck with both bemusement and horror.

“Ughh, all those saggy old men”, one declared.
“Won’t they get cold?” was another reaction.

But as a parent of three impressionable children, at no point did I feel the need to sign a petition against the protest. By making a point about nudity being ‘offensive’ and ‘indecent’ aren’t we sexualising it unnecessarily? Children revelling in their own nudity isn’t sexually motivated. And the naked cyclists had other things on their agenda. By protesting against it, isn’t this linking nudity with a sexual element, which is much more skewed?

I explained to the children that the cyclists were protesting against global oil dependency and our inherent car culture, as well as how vulnerable cyclists are on the roads. With this information, they understood the purpose of the nudity and, although still a little squeamish about wrinkly bits, accepted that if this is how some people wish to express themselves, so be it.

The protest took place in the middle of the day — a school day — and passed without incident … for research purposes, I took a couple of snapshots and showed them to the children. The images of blurred buttocks were met with derisory laughter, not shock and outrage. They were more perplexed that I had chosen to go and watch it …

Why anyone would be concerned about such an event I am not sure. Why should we protect our children from nudity? There are so many other things we should be protecting them from — drunk people in the street, dog poo on the pavement and the overpowering stench of celebrity culture in the media … That, in my mind, is much more damaging than seeing a few saggy buttocks on bikes.

Indeed so!

beliefs, nudism

Nudity is Good for You!

I make no apology (when did I ever?) for returning to the subject of nudity.

In the last couple of days I have seen two rational, reasonable and apparently well researched articles supporting the contention that nudity is actually good for you, does no harm to children etc.

The first was written by Lee Jenkins on the Backbencher blog.** In it Jenkins very briefly summarises the arguments against the main objections to public nudity:
* It’s harmful to children
* It’s unsanitary
* It will encourage rape and sexual assault
* I shouldn’t have to see it
* It’s just wrong
All of which are just plain wrong. Here is just one snippet:

[A]n 18-year longitudinal study [by Dr Paul Okami] showed that, if anything, [childhood exposure to nudity] was associated with slight beneficial effects …
“Boys exposed to parental nudity were less likely to have engaged in theft in adolescence or to have used various psychedelic drugs and marijuana … Girls were also less likely to have used drugs such as PCP, inhalants, or various psychedelics in adolescence.”

Public attitudes to sex and nudity are far more relaxed in Europe … Much like alcohol, the difference is cultural. Indeed, it’s rather telling that British and American attitudes to nudity are fairly similar, and both the US and UK have a teen birth rate far in excess of their European counterparts.


The second report, by Hank Pellissier at Immortal Life,** is more concerned with promoting the benefits of nudism, rather than refuting the objections. Under headings like “Weakened Bodies”, “Barefoot Medicine”, “Superior Socialisation”, “Soothe Away Your Crazies” and “Soak Up the Rays” he provides links to research and articles suggesting that nudity would improve our lot. Especially there appears to be evidence that the young would develop better (mentally and physically) from nudity, we would be better adjusted mentally and we would all benefit from time soaking up sunshine to counteract what is an increasing deficiency in Vitamin D.

As Jenkins observes, if you are genuinely troubled by the site of human form, it’s probably worth asking yourself why, rather than insisting others cover up. According to Pellissier’s article twenty million Europeans already go to nude beaches and spas. What’s stopping the rest of us?

** As far as I can see both these blogs are independent and not associated with any nudist or naturist organisation nor has any overt commercial axe to grind.