The use of the mask, consciously or unconsciously, is changing the way we see, our reactions and the very image we have of other people and the world. The face has become a forbidden fruit, accessible if you have the password to unlock the barcode. Now that we no longer have the chance to see people’s faces, something has changed, something profound. Under the pretext of a health measure, the face (i.e. people’s identity and recognition) is hidden behind a mask. But precisely this concealment increases the desire to know other people. But there is also an implication: and we nudists know it well. If you keep something hidden, you wonder why. There are two answers: 1) increase of desire 2) shame: and you may ask why those parts are hidden from sight. The situation is perfect for all those who don’t like their faces, who think they are ugly. But what about the majority? The desire to see a person’s face is the same as the desire to see a crucial lack of information. The shame for one’s face is to drive people who have a weak character into a corner, instead of including them in society. The parallel with “anonymous navigation” is evident. Moving in society without being recognized by other people has undoubted advantages; thermoscanners identify us: knowing, recognizing each other as persons, as friends is a secondary matter. Most probably, there is also a sexual component involved, that is, that attention, curiosity, desire is turned to that very something hidden more recently – an now we see: it’s so full of identity information.
I am convinced – and this serves me as an antidote – that we must defend ourselves against this intrusion. Knowing the games helps to unmask them and go another way.
An old song comes to mind (Andrea True Connection – What’s your name what’s your number, 1977) and it seems to me that in front of another person we’ve become policemen: we believe in ID cards, bar codes more than in natural faces…
Nie. Nie nie powinni używać masek.
I haad thought of putting on one of these ‘masks’ and then going for a walk along the lane to a lady friends house. Naturally, I would be naked and sporting a massive erection! But then I remembered the social distancing and forgot the whole idea!
Alas I can only agree with everything you say. Yet another barrier is in place and personality is hidden further away. Freedom is even more eroded by a material cover. What will a naturist gathering look like now in the ‘clubs’ and on the beaches where ‘uncovering’ is the whole reason to be there?
Thanks, Patrick. Alert is everything we need in these times. Some madmen try to make us as mad as they, every means work: money, illness, the myth of freedom. We, the gymnoi (those without weapons) have eyes to see, we have our experience in the matter of hiding critical parts of our body; we are deeply conscious of the innate freedom of our body, of our dignity (“die Würde des Menschen ist untastbar” the dignity of man is untouchable, says the preamble to the German Constitution)
I wonder if the ‘madness’ of society today is a bigger infection for us naturists than any virus. The obsession with outlandish fashions and even stranger attitudes makes me wonder if some ‘Alien’ life has inhabited our fellow mortals? We seem to be the ‘odd’ ones for pursuing a natural way of living, but our visitors are likely to leave us much happier and more relaxed than when the first arrived. Our freedom is most decidedly “Important & Relevant”
I defer on the side of caution and not getting sick. I don’t believe anything the politicians say about it being safer now. I will listen to ehe medical experts The politicians care about the economy not the people. So I wear a mask when out. A person I know rails against wearing a mask while claiming to be pro-life as well… how ironic lol
Where to put the limit between prevention and fear, isn’t it?
I always use the mask when out, and put alcohol on my hands every time.
When we can go to do social nudism, shall we use masks?