IAm Nudebynature

I have been a naturist all of my life. I am the only one in my family, although I later found out that my deceased brother was a home nudist, after his death.

I began dabbling in nudism in my personal time. I began with experimenting with home nudism which graduated to the backyard. By the time that I left home for university, it was my preferred form of recreation. In my various residences in those days, I studied nude in the backyard. 

As a 70s student radical I have no doubt that we have been lied to by government and the media. I regard them with great disdain. My views on this are consistent with my political views and with my views on social engineering. In my lifetime we have been socialised to comply and to acquiesce to their demand that we become part of the mainstream. Media and government have worked hand in hand to weaken group identity and to make us fear being different. Many countries where I have travelled actually encourage individuality and even eccentricity.

As a nudist I see how this has affected individuals and especially women, commodifying their bodies for financial gain and setting unrealistic standards of acceptance. As a skinny teen I personally struggled with body issues and after I married I pushed my nudism into the background, following her direction in child rearing. . My wife is a beautiful woman, inside and out, but she does not want to impose anything on anyone and avoids controversy at all costs. As such we did not embrace a nudist lifestyle as a family.

Well, I am controversial by nature. So, after pushing this into the background for many years I decided when I was fifty that I was tired of living my life as others would have me, or as I assumed that they would. I decided that I would resume my nudist lifestyle. To her credit, my wife has embraced it to the degree that she can. However, her idea of nudism is that it is okay, as long as nobody knows.

Well, it hasn’t worked out that way. I have been a nudist advocate since I turned 50. I am nude in public at least once a day. I garden nude, in the suburbs, in the front and backyard. I take my garbage to the curb and bring it in while I am nude. I have talked to my neighbours on both sides while I was nude, even in the front yard. Everybody around me knows that I am a nudist and nobody complains, except my wife. Mild friction there. It is the part about keeping it secret that is the source of friction.

My feeling is that most people don’t care as much as you think they will about your being nude in public. Most of the time people just turn their heads. I have been nude in many countries all over the globe and quite freely on my suburban property. Nine houses can easily see into my backyard and I am nude there pretty much all of the time. I do early morning watering and weeding in my front yard shortly after the sun is up. I have encountered dog walkers, cyclists, and cars with no problem. I just smile and act naturally. I once had a motorist yell at me, but other than that I have no bad reactions.

My wife’s fear is that someone will report me to the police and that I will get into trouble. I get that. But I push the limits in the hope of expanding the worldview of others, that nudity is normal. 

There is a difference between nude camping and camping nude. To me nude camping suggests a place where you are allowed to camp nude, such as a resort. The focus is on the place. Camping nude, on the other hand, emphasizes the experience of camping while you remain nude.

My recent two week camping trip in the eastern US illustrated this. I researched naturist resorts before leaving and considered two. I told my wife about them and she was all in. I was hesitant. The main reason is the cost. I am not cheap. My objection is based on principle.

Naturist resorts usually charge two fees, one for camping, and one for use of the facilities. Considering that their facilities are no better than, say, a KOA, you are being taxed (or gouged) for the privilege of being nude. That annoys me. If I go to a non-nudist campground then I can use the facilities and camp for roughly half the cost. There are no separate fees. My thought is sure charge a fee for non-campers, but your camping fee should cover use of the facilities.

My objection is based on my desire for naturism to grow and putting barriers to people doing what is natural and normal is not the way to do this. Cost should not be a deterrent to families enjoying nudism.

Don't get me wrong. I love naturist resorts and camping nude. For me camping and nude are like wine and cheese. They just go together. Staying in a non-nudist campground actually restrains me very little. I secretly think this is one of my wife's reasons for being so gung-ho on the idea of going to a nude campground. It will keep me somewhat in check.

When I go camping, anywhere, I look for a relatively secluded site. Then I remove my clothes and begin camping. I only put them on again to go off the site (and sometimes not even then). Take this trip, for example. It was pre-Memorial Day in the US which means kids are still in school and campgrounds are less than busy.

We camped in five campgrounds, one public and four state parks. I went fully nude in all of them. I set up and took down the tent nude. I walked around freely and sat at the table or in a chair nude. My thinking is that nobody cares what you do as long as it does not affect them half as much as you think they might. Everybody is doing their own thing and you are doing yours. People knew and I got a few strange looks, but a naked guy two sites away soon loses its appeal.

I did not stop there. We went to Gunnison Beach twice. It is clothing optional. But every beach other than that was also nude for me. I just waited till people passed by then took off my shorts and it was instant nude beach. At one point I got a thumbs up from a guy strolling the beach for my courage to strip down. He came back and got into a conversation with my wife (clothed) and I (nude) and never mentioned my being nude.

I should note that my thinking is totally selfish. When we go to a nude resort or nude beach, my wife happily joins in, which I love. She no longer minds if I strip down whenever I want, but does not want a confrontation with others over it. But she will not join in the fun and that takes away some of my enjoyment.

I need to give a little and relax my thinking on naturist resorts. I just wish that they believed a little more in nudist ideals and less in exploiting nudists.

I blog and re-blog a lot of photos (almost 14000 on Tumblr plus Twitter and Google). I often get a request to stop blogging certain types of photos. Let me first say that a never blog anything pornographic or sexual. I never blog a photo that links to a sexploitation site. I may post the occasional erection or spread legs shot if it suits what I am trying to say in my caption. So what is the problem?

I get frequent requests not to post natural people that may show more body hair than some might wish or a body type that they would deem to be unattractive. My response is always the same. Nudism and naturism are for everyone. It is not about displaying oneself but about being content with oneself. Some will choose to unfollow me. That is there prerogative. I am not in this to get attention for myself, but to encourage nudism and naturism. Besides I have thousands of followers on Twitter and Tumblr, so somebody must like the images and my commentary.

When I hear such comments my reaction is that I am listening to the voice of advertisers who want us all to believe that we are not attractive, smell bad and could never attract anybody without their help. Or to the sexploitation industry that wants to turn nudity into a commodity for sale. To this end, they carefully airbrush and modify every image so that you are getting a false reality about the human body, to their benefit and our detriment.

This type of comment does not discourage me. It tells me that we all need to speak out and say, when it comes to humans, that we are inherently beautiful and we need to start believing it. There is no normal. Bodies can be any size, shape or colour. Body parts vary greatly in size and there is no shame in being at either extreme or in between. We need to stop shaming ourselves and start to reclaim our own image. You need to love yourself before you can love another or be loved by them. There is a danger in loving yourself too much that we need to guard against, but most of us suffer from body image issues and need to jettison them.

We all know that rubenesque figures were all the rage before the Twiggy generation came along and that the ancient Greeks prized small penises and considered large ones to be coarse. Things come and go in fashion. Should I shave or not? It is the same with tattoos and body piercings. What is right for one person may not be for you, but that does not make it wrong.

We all have preferences. We do with food and we do with the human body. That is okay as long as we remember not to judge others and make judgements about their bodies. Don't let your preference become a prejudice. And try to guard yourself from being brainwashed by the media. Advertising works and that is why they do it. Just remember that and catch yourself when their thoughts become yours.

I post more images of slender women that curvy ones, not because I want to but because that is the biggest source of images available to me. I post every curvy figure that I can. It is the same with minorities and less endowed individuals. I am trying to correct the false image that you have to be 36, 24, 36 (sorry for metric users) or a prefect 10 or to be endowed like John Holmes in order to feel good about yourself.

Let me know how you feel about this and how you deal with others who challenge the way you or others look.