Augustus Stephens

I woke up early this morning and decided to go for a run – to improve my fitness.
It was very early, just past 5:30am, so I decided to do it naked. There would be few people on the street.
So this is what I did. I did get seen by people, cyclists, drivers, walkers who were presumably heading to work, or heading home after a night shift.
As I ran along the main road back toward home I was passed by a police car – it went quite slowly – but it didn't stop. It carried on along the road towards town.
The occupants must have seen me, but happily they must have decided that I wasn't breaking any laws or a danger to anyone. May the police take this sensible attitude in the future too.

(This article applies mainly to Britain.)

In the 1960s homosexuality was illegal and generally considered to be wrong, sinful. Yet now it is almost universally approved of. How did this change come about? Might the same process be applied to naturism?

1. The law. In 1967 sexual acts between adults in private residences were legalised. This was ahead of public acceptance, but helped to change the public's opinion on homosexuality.
2. Having a voice. Up to the seventies there was no gay representation in the media. Homosexuals might be talked about, but never got to talk themselves. In the late seventies, and more so as time went on, homosexuals were able to go on radio and TV and write and sing about their lives, instead of just being talked about.
3. Exposure. Once it was legal, gay people started to show themselves in public, to come out. This happened more and more as time went on. As the public began to realise that homosexuality was common and that many of the people they knew and loved were gay, they began to accept it.
4. Campaigning. Many years of quietly campaigning for acceptance got almost nowhere. Then more radical activists started to make a noise and they got seen and heard. This extremism helped the quieter campaigners too as the powers that be would go to the 'sensible' ones for advice? So quiet and aggressive campaigning are needed.

Now how can we apply this to naturism/nudity?

1. The law in England says that nudity per se is not a crime. People are often prosecuted under other laws, laws about harassment, alarm or anti-social behaviour, so we need to show that it is not alarming nor is it anti-social.
2. Naturism is not a big topic in the public realm. The subject comes up occasionally, usually as an eccentric activity you might try. There is no naturist program on telly or radio that I know of. There are people available for comment (in BN and other places) but they never seem to be seen. So although the attitude is usually benign, we are not getting a voice
3. There are celebrities who admit to going naked at times, this is good. But the telly and newspapers have adopted a sort of 'zero tolerance' to nudity (or at least genitals and female nipples) and this is very bad. Even shows shown late at night often have pixelation to cover up those parts. I think we need to complain when we see this, it is stupid and offensive.
4. There is the WNBR, which gets publicity and is very friendly, this is a very good thing. There is Stephen Gough, a more extreme campaigner, which is also good. We need these different levels of campaigning. Stephen's extremism gets publicity and gets a lot of support of the sort 'why are we spending thousands locking up a harmless man'?. What I don't see is anything in between. I don't see naturists having marches or petitions and stuff. (maybe I'm just not looking in the right places).

Once a week my mother goes shopping at the big supermarket and she gets me some milk and sometimes some cakes or other food. She brings this round on her way home. It is not strictly necessary as I can shop, but it makes her feel wanted and it saves me lugging heavy milk cartons on my bicycle.
Usually she comes around lunchtime and when she rings the doorbell I put on some clothes before answering, although she does have a key for when I'm not home.
Yesterday at about 4:30pm I was reading in the garden naked and I heard a knock on the window and she called out the door. I thought maybe she would just put the stuff in the fridge and go, but she didn't seem to be going, so I got up to go see her.
I thought about putting my towel around me, but then thought 'No, it's too late for that, I'll just stay naked' and went into the kitchen.
But she didn't seem to like it. She wouldn't look in my direction.
I find this very strange and foolish. She is my mother. She has seen me naked a thousand times, she knows me intimately, she has even wiped my bum and all sorts. I have seen her naked. Why is she acting like this?
I find it a bit upsetting. She is insulting me and my lifestyle by acting so stupidly.
And it is so illogical. She has seen it all before.

I had a dream last night / this morning, which I remembered until I got up and wrote it down. It is relevant to NOOK.

I was walking naked in the countryside near a village. I was in a field approaching the gate that would lead onto the road when I saw a group of school children at the gate, in maroon blazers, boys and girls, differing ages.
I worried for a moment. I wondered about getting dressed. I didn't want to upset anyone. But I carried on walking.
The children called to their friends to come see there was a naked man, and lots more children gathered at the wall of the field. Then a teacher looked over the wall. I was worried that he would get upset, but instead he just talked to the children in the way teachers do about things they see on field trips, about observing what they see etc.. So no-one was getting upset.
A little girl approached me with a tray of sweets and offered them to me so I could take one, but I declined.

A little later I was still walking naked, but now I was in the village. It was a very prim and twee and well-kept village with little cottages and pretty flowers.
It came to me that I should get dressed. Somehow I felt that my nudity was not appropriate in this setting, where every window has net curtains and every table has a cloth on it.

The End

I like to go about in the nude, but some people say that they would be worried for the children about nudity out in the public world.
So 'What about the children?'.

Nudity isn't frightening or alarming for children.
When very small, kids are totally used to nudity, their parents dress them, bathe them, wipe their bums, anything.
When a little older the funniest word you can say to a six year old is 'Willy'. And if a six-year-old were to actually SEE a willy, that would be funnier still.
And later on when they start to learn about sex and move into puberty, they are developing naturally to be sexual beings, to want sex and to have sex. Their minds and bodies are growing together so that they can cope with the knowledge of sex. So a naked man or woman is not going to scare them, more likely they would be curious, or just laugh.

So, I don't worry about the children.

DV8 Physical Theatre are touring a show called 'John'
Developed by Lloyd Newsom following interviews with 50 men on the subjects of love and sex
The info warns that it includes nudity.
I haven't got a ticket yet, but I aim to have one soon

https://www.dv8.co.uk/projects/current/john

It was a warm morning yesterday and I woke early and felt full of beans
I decided to go cycling, nearly naked.
I went for about an hour with just a leather breech cloths at front and back.
It was wonderful!! When you haven't got shorts on your legs move so easily, free of the constricting lycra.
I could feel the breeze through my toes and over my whole body.
Fabulous!

As I approached home, still in the countryside, I was passed by a lady cyclist.
She asked 'Why are you naked?'
I pointed to the leather cloth covering my genitals and said 'I'm not naked! I love being naked. Don't you?'
But she sped off.

When I got home there was a small boy riding round on the pavement by my house (he is about 7 years old I think)
As I pushed my bike in the house he called
'Excuse me. Why are you naked?'
'I'm not naked!' I said (again) flapping my breech cloth to show that it existed.
'Yes you are!' he chuckled.
'I'm not!' I said, flapping my breech cloth again
'I love the feel of the air over the skin' I added
As I turned to go he said 'Your back one's ripped'
'It'll do.' I said, and went inside.

I grant you that the breech cloth at the back is narrow, revealing the buttocks but not the bum crack, and it is pale tan so might not be noticed from a distance.
And the front cloth would not be apparent as I am sitting, leaning forward.
But I wasn't naked!

Just seen a picture that Bernard posted of himself in NEWT 2009.
He's standing on the edge of vertiginous precipice. A step away from a free-fall to the afterlife!

Now, I'm going on this walk this year, but I hope we don't have to take a path up there!
I am alergic to Cliffs.

If your going to walk up the north face or the Eiger or something, I'll stay back at camp and do some basket weaving or something (if I remember to take my safety glasses) 🙂

Here is part of the introduction to 'Essays' published by Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne in 1580.
"You have here a book of good faith, reader. It tells you at the outset that I have here proposed to myself no other aim but a domestic and private one….
I want to be seen here in my simple, natural and ordinary manner without exertion or artifice: for it is myself I paint. My defects are there to be read to the life, and my natural form, so far as public decency permits me. If I had been placed among those nations which they say still live under the sweet liberty of the laws of nature, I assure you I would most willingly have painted myself entirely and fully naked."
Montaigne is talking about his character rather than his body, but it reminds me that being naked is the most honest state of dress, and I prize honesty very highly.
Are nudists more honest than textiles?

Today, in England, if a fellow walks down the street naked he is sometimes arrested.
We have had people in this country convicted (the lowest level court, not a jury trial) just for being naked.
I wish it were not so.
Why can't people see that nudity is not indecent, perverted, disgusting?

It struck me that 50 years ago, if two men had kissed each other in the street, they might have been arrested.
There would have been people saying 'Disgusting, perverts, should be locked up..' etc..
But now, in 2013, it is perfectly acceptable. It's legal.
There possibly still are people who think 'disgusting, perverts, etc.', but they have no say in the matter, the law protects the innocent (i.e. two innocent men in love).

How did the gay community bring about this change?
Perhaps we could learn from them.

I do truly hope that we nudists can bring about a similar change for OUR alternative lifestyles.
And that it doesn't take 50 years!
(Actually, I think we nudists are in a better position than gays were 50 years ago. It might not need much of a push to make a lot of progress. Nudity isn't actually illegal here, but the judiciary seem happy to consider it a public order offence)

The morning was sunny, but not warm.
I packed up my camp and set off with three layers on for warmth. Went through the second tunnel (480 metres)
It continued cloudy and not warm.
As I walked southwards the sun came out sometimes which really warmed the place up, but a breeze also started which cooled it down. Several times I was considering stripping off but didn't because of the breeze or I saw people approaching or…
At last, not far from Brixworth, I stopped and stripped off completely.
I then continued south. Sometimes I had to speed up to keep warm.
I met/passed cyclists and horse riders and walkers.
After an hour and a quarter I was spoken to by a cyclist who said a lady who had run past me (pushing a pushchair) had been distressed.
He then said something like 'we have to face up to what happens to us' which I took to be a threat that he'd call the police.
Once again discouraging.
I put on some clothes (mind you, it was getting rather chilly be then)
Luckily, I encountered no coppers.
Finally got to the train station (it was not well sign-posted at all!) about five and a half hours after I set off.

Reflections:
Was the lady who ran past me distressed, or did the cyclist assume that she was because she was running? (She was dressed in lycra etc, she was out for a run)
I'm afraid that this country has a long way to go – many people here seem to confuse nudity with sexual intent.
And then there are the busy-bodies who seem to think that they have to stifle self-expression.
Oh dear, oh dear oh dear 🙁

I took a train to Market Harborough where I joined the Brampton Valley Way. An old railway track that is now a cycle route between Market Harborough and Northampton.
It was a warm evening and once out of town I got down to just breech cloths (front and back), but didn't go bare.
Then I put on a vest for warmth and walked through the first tunnel, it was slippy inside so I used my torch.
On the other side I was intending to go naked, but on exiting the weather seemed to have changed. It felt about 5 degrees colder and was cloudy.
After another mile or two it warmed up again and I knew I wasn't far from my intended campsite. I took the step of stripping off totally.
Took some pictures.
I met 2 cyclists
Then an elderly couple, she said hello but he said 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself'
This was rather discouraging.
I covered up soon after that. Only about 10 or fifteen minutes naked then 🙁
Camped just north of the second tunnel.

Before I go on my pilgrimage I need to practice walking naked and wild camping and all that.
I need to get fitter
And I also want to test out whether I'll get arrested or remain unmolested.

I feel a bit sad because the last two times I walked naked I WAS arrested, although on those occasions I was with Stephen Gough the naked rambler. I think that being two men, and him looking so wild and unkempt, meant that we were more likely to face arrest.
Whereas I am a friendly, harmless looking fellow and I think I stand a far better chance of being left alone.

Anyway. Tomorrow, (Tuesday) if I remain in good heart, I shall be getting on a train and going to the start of a trail that I hope to walk most of in the nude. Should be finishing it on Wednesday morning.

My spiritual path has led me to become a pagan.
I talk to trees and commune with spirits out in nature.
Plants and rivers and mountains don't wear clothes, and I find that if I am to connect with the natural world I have to take my clothes off too.
Therefore I find myself out in the world with no clothes on.

An important part of spiritual paths are pilgrimmages. Getting off one's fat backside and walking somewhere or seeking someone or something.
I have been shown the way for a pilgrimmage that I must take.
In order to fit in with my spiritual beliefs I would like to do it naked. In that way it might work for me, it might advance my spirituality to a new level.

Yet I know that that could be a difficult thing to achieve. The walk is over one-hundred miles long through the heart of England.
I am not sure yet how naked I shall be when I do my pilgrimmage. I am still waiting for the necessary guidance from my friends the trees and streams.