The Naktiv site has a gender imbalance, (approx. 85% male, 10% female, 5% other), which might reflect all sorts of societal issues to do with nudity, but also online interaction too. The questions are: is this actually a problem? and if so, what are we going to do about it?
Is gender imbalance on a social network even a problem?
I do see gender imbalance as an issue, because when I see all single-sex groups in society, I don’t see especially (socially) healthy environments. Think of single-sex schools, convents, church choirs and monasteries, groups of football hooligans, the army, closed university professorship promotion systems, the upper echelons of the police force, ballet schools, modeling agencies and porn movies, etc, and so forth.
There are exceptions, of course, and some countries/organizations are better/worse than others, etc. and we all know women are making giant strides in all sections of society, but not everywhere, yet. Furthermore, most of us would probably agree that where there is a healthy male/female ratio, these environments tend to be better balanced, with more varied opinions being heard and less misogonistic attitudes. Last but not least, people learn how to get on with the opposite sex without treating them as a only a sexual object.
Online, the issues are the same, and predictably, the results are the same. And, yes, it IS a bit of a problem that online forums and groups, as open social networks like the Naktiv site, are manifestly over-populated by visually excited males, who vastly outnumber their female counterparts. This perpetuates the urge to see pretty young female nudity at the expense of BALANCED and more representative postings of both male and female postings, of all body types, inclinations, and of (nearly) all ages.
I would expect any social network to attempt to represent the society from which it is comes, representing the basic gender (m/f) spread, varied sexual inclination groupings (hetero/homo/bi/etc.), and to be neither spiritually nor politically aligned, and to not pander to any personal agendas. If we want to educate people about how nudity is healthy, normal and fun, then we need to encourage both male and female, and to foster an interest in largely equal numbers, to actively participate in this naked revolution. So, YES, gender imbalance is a very real problem, and we do need to address it.
So what is going to be done about gender imbalance, and who will do it?
First of all it is critical that we ALL realize that to address this issue, WE need to address it. There is no point in waiting for them , to do it for us – whomsoever we might like them to be. Firstly, we need to increase the visibility of the network, and secondly we need to actively attract more people from the less represented contingents. Fortunately this is a fairly simple operation consisting of 2 separate components.
1. Use the handy Share facility to expose your blogs, feed items and posts, to other more mainstream networks, like Facebook and Twitter, Google+, etc. etc. This Share facility is available for every new post you make here.
2. Invite your friends and fellow group members from other groups, forums and networks, using the <a href=”/contactimporter”>Contact Importer</a> facility.
It’s not good enough to just sit back and complain that activity on this social network, or gender balance on that social network, or posting frequency or topics, are not precisely as we want it. All of these social networks, including the Naktiv site, are exactly what we make of them.
There are maybe 5 people in my facebook friends list that I would trust here. Most of them are contacts and associates, very few friends.
I am sure I speak for many when
I share my concern with the idea of sharing on Facebook and other social sites. Our contacts there are not at all ready for our sane and reasonable positions. We have thought it through and are comfortable with our natural nudity. In an ideal world, I suppose our FRIENDS would follow our own thought processes. The actuality is bound to be far different, and tragically so.
Unfortunately, there's little we can do about this. The long religious tradition making women to cover up "for decency" added to the fact that males get much more easily aroused by seeing nudity than females, make online (and offline) nude communities to be unbalanced. I say offline too, as there's nothing more common on a nude beach than a couple where he goes naked and she's wearing a bikini or at least the bikini bottoms.
Anyways, we're doing our best to get things moving, and information is the key.
The topic of gender imbalance has been discussed many times and is a society/nudist/naturist issue as much as a naked activity issue.
At our guesthouse i had to stop naturism due to our neighbour which calls the police or municipality. I could loose my licence. This is the twisted mind of indivionals which make you naturist live diffilcult. We lost many guests because of this.
Some people aren't happy unless others are unhappy.
The shame of their own shame knows no bounds.
It's that shallow thinking that the media loves and pushes.
Total acceptance will be difficult. We need people with open minds that are willing to look past what the media wants.
I have tried to be nude as much as possible but there are things I need to change. I started eating better and avoid the fast foods but weight loss is still a problem.
Total acceptance is the key issue!!!! As you said Yvonne, the important is not how we look like, but how we feel for ourselves. It is not so easy, but we can start with nudity which is the outside image(I have nothing to hide) in order to get to the inside which is the important….
Women are more exposed to the current perception of the nude than men. All beauty standards refer mainly to women which makes them vulnerable in relation to the assessment have on their body and their appearance.
Well this site is obviously one of the first steps in the right direction, for correcting the gender imbalance on the Nudist Social Networking issue. This of course assumes a rightful responsibility, upon every member of this site, to represent the Nudist lifestyle and this site, in sharing all that can be shared of this wonderful lifestyle, with those who lack it in their lives, who offer the slightest invitation to be educated, and accept our offer to share that education, as it is accepted.
This point of view needs to be shared widely.
Just to clarify what is meant here, so as to forestall a number of misunderstandings which I have seen and removed. NOBODY is suggesting inviting strangers to be friends on Facebook (or anywhere else). What IS being suggested here, is that you invite your EXISTING FRIENDS on Facebook, (or elsewhere), to JOIN your existing account HERE on the Naktiv site.
I hope that helps to clarify this point…
No no no!!!
Please do not confuse people by posting seemingly, but not, related replies. Cheers
I had the same problem Dave……