Christmas is always a busy time for me. I got up very early this morning to get to church in time to tune my instrument and to do some final rehearsals with the rest of the orchestra. But I do try to put in a word about naturism whenever I can. Today, at breakfast between services, I managed to engage another musician in a conversation and I spoke about naturism. He asked a very pertinent question. After telling him that I reject the worldview that nudity is obscene or inappropriate, he asked why anyone would bother to go hiking naked. I was telling him about NEWT and hence the topic of hiking in the nude. He said you could always accept that there is nothing indecent about nudity but you don't have to go hiking in the nude just to prove that nudity is decent.
It again boils down to the question of sincerity. What's the point of saying that nudity is natural but I keep my clothes on all the time? And there is this point about staking our claim. If all we can do is to have an intellectual acknowledgement that nudity is natural and decent but we don't do anything about it, the day will come when we'll lose all our right to go naked.
This is one insidious thing that naturists must guard against. Naturism is not just an academic point. It's a right that we should lay a claim on. Naturists must continually practise naturism. We have to live it and not just give it mental assent.
Hence the importance of NEWT and other such activities. Multiculturalism is now very much a buzzword in our world and the day may come when sensitivity to a foreign culture (usually religion) may demand that we don't go nude. And if we haven't been engaging in nude activities, we can't insist on continuing with something we haven't even started to do.
Tonight I was at a neighbour's house for a Christmas party and again I had the opportunity of talking to some of the people about naturism. The more we talk about it, the more 'normal' it will appear to people around us. That is why those of us who are prepared to be open about our naturism should really be open about it. Closet naturism is totally ineffective in spreading the seeds of naturism.
Those are the things I did this Christmas day.
Nakedness isn't a club you join. Naked is what you are. So we live naked as much as we can. We are clothes free at home, we summer at a naturist ranch, when we vacation we go to naturist places, we hang with naturist friends as much as possible. We talk about it with some family and we try not to force nakedness on anyone. I agree with Lim "We have to live it…", That's the way to normalise it.
" What's the point of saying that nudity is natural but I keep my clothes on all the time?"
"The more we talk about it, the more 'normal' it will appear to people around us. That is why those of us who are prepared to be open about our naturism should really be open about it."
Agree with this whole post. Talking about naked being natural is pointless if we wear clothes all the time. I once belonged to an AANR "Travel" club who's members would get naked in a hot spring, but would not get naked for the 2 mile hike to the spring. They would pose "naked hiking" but put their clothes back on to do the actual hike. They were all talk and very little naked. There is a point at which calling yourself "nudist" silly if you insist on wearing clothes almost all the time.
"…he asked why anyone would bother to go hiking naked."
That question is backward. A better question is why anyone would bother getting covered with uncomfortable unsanitary expensive fabric to go hiking when your own hide is perfectly adequate.
"he asked why anyone would bother to go hiking naked" My answer would be that the body regulates its temperature better without the interference of clothes, and that makes it more comfortable to walk naked and it doesn't need to be an especially hot day for this to be true.
I would also go on to point out that sunlight is good for the skin and should be our primary source of vitamin D and serotonin. (If he mentions skin cancer, my answer would be that it is skin that doesn't regularly see the sun that suffers when exposed to UV from whatever source.)
I agree that we should avoid naturism becoming just an academic point. The questions arise though, who amongst us is willing to speak out loud and say "I prefer social nudity"?. who amongst us is prepared to be naked in their own surroundings no matter who enters there? Who is prepared to say "I will enforce my rights to speak freely to encourage more people to adopt social & leisure nakedness."
I spend as much of my day totally naked as possible, whoever enters knows in advance that I stay naked, whoever objects has two options a) Go away & say nothing. b) Go away and consider trying naturism before condemning it.
You are very fortunate you don't live in my country. If a guest complains that you received him or her in the nude, you will be prosecuted even if it's your own house. Years ago, the papers were all abuzz about a married couple from Hong Kong who were prosecuted for being naked early in the morning in the kitchen of their flat. A neighbour could see them from the opposite block even though she could not see them clearly. But that's bad enough.