During the last weeks we’ve been talking about what will become of nudism in The future of nudism part one and part two. Shortly summarized, we think that nudism “as we know it” will eventually disappear and make place for a newer kind of nudism, Nudism 2.0 if you want.
This new kind of nudism will focus much more on what the younger generation wants. Less jeu de boule tournaments, less swim evenings and less quiz nights. Yes, we dream about naked jobs, naked workouts and naked football games, but there are quite some events that are already happening.
The 2.0 nudists will have their own parties, music festivals, runs and bike rides. We will do everything the textile does… but without the textile.
Thank you Spencer
We are big fans of Spencer Tunick, not only because we like his work but also because he brings nudity to another, more accepted, level. And it’s not that we’re not used to nudity in arts, since the middle ages there have been images of naked people in paintings and sculptures and those were, more or less, accepted by the majority.
In photography it was a bit more difficult. Where in paintings you could see the painter’s idea of reality, in photography you actually see reality. And, for some reason, there seemed to be a huge difference between a painting of genitals and a photo of genitals. But the main reason why we like art so much is because they don’t care about the public opinion. So photographers kept creating nudes, in natural positions but also in erotic or compromising ones. In any case, the model was the main topic of the art work.
Spencer has changed this completely. His photos didn’t focus on one, two or three models, but on hundreds. His models don’t mean a lot individually, but it’s the group that creates the image. The subject of his photos is not the individual but the group, a bunch of naked people who are working together to be part of a piece of art. To be honest, we’ve never been on a Spencer Tunick photo, but it’s very high on our bucket list.
Run or ride
Sports have always been important to nudists. For a long time this has been limited to tennis, volley ball, table tennis, swimming and jeu de boule, but the range of possibilities has increased.
Running became very popular during the last years and many nudist organisations started to organise their own 5k runs. Naked of course. We’re not going to list all runs here, but Google can help you find runs close to you.
But running naked is not that new, the Roskilde festival in Denmark has been organising a naked run since 1999. What started as a joke contest by the local radio where the male and female winners gained a free ticket for next year’s festival, has now become a huge contest. The last years they even had to organize qualifier races in order to get a ticket for the main event.
If running is not your piece of cake, you could also ride your bike. Naked bike rides have been organised since the late 90’s, but in the beginning of this millennium the World Naked Bike Ride became a huge event. Some say it started in Zaragoza, Spain, others will say it started in Germany, but nevertheless, this year you’ll have the chance to ride your bike through the city centers of about 50 countries.
In or on the water
Skinny dipping has been a favourite activity for almost all nudists. If there’s something that really has to be done without clothing it must be swimming. What we used to do in deserted lakes or in the sea after sunset has now become a huge event. Think about the world record skinny dipping in the UK or The Sydney Skinny which attract hundreds, if not thousands participants the last years.
If you’re not so much of a swimmer, you could opt to spend your time on the water. Bare Necessities has probably been the first to organize a clothing optional cruise in 1991 for 36 people, but now, more than 25 years later they’re still going and they’re bigger than ever. Of course several other companies have followed their idea, so currently you can get a nude cruise more or less wherever you want.
And if a cruise is not really your thing, you could always go paddle boarding Orlando Bloom style.
Make your point
All of above events may seem like a lot of fun, but you could also use your body for a good cause. FEMEN is probably the most known organisation that uses this tactic at the moment. For those who’ve been living on another planet the last couple of years, FEMEN is a Ukrainian feminist action group who protest semi-nude for women’s rights.
But FEMEN certainly didn’t invent nudist protests. Already in the early 1900s a spiritual Christian group called “Freedomites” had nude protests against materialism. And many of you will also remember the PETA campaign “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” with celebrities like Pink, Eva Mendez, Alicia Silverstone and Pamela Anderson going naked for the good cause.
Of course, in many of these cases nudity is only used to reach the media, because one naked body will get more media attention than a petition with 50 000 signatures. So we doubt if those manifestations actually help or harm the nudists.
But we can also see it this way: Nudity is a great tactic for protests, so if we ever have to protest against something, all we have to be is ourselves.
Of course there are plenty of other things you can do naked, if you want some inspiration, have a look at our Ultimate Nudist’s Bucket List.
Picture credit: The photos in this post are coming from Google and Twitter. If you find one of yourself and you don’t want it to be on our blog, let us know and we’ll remove it.
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About running, I guess you won’t find in google easy. There is one special event during the Midsummer festival in Kuldīga, Latvia in June 23/24. It is naked sprint run on the old brick bridge over the Venta river. It’s only about 200m long, but starts at 3am and brings a lot of attention. I’ve done it with my girlfriend and dome friends, and it’s fun. 🙂 Come & try it!
There’s a video on YouTube about it, but it’s very dark… Anyway it sounds amazing, we’ll put it on our list!
Thanks for the tip!
We can’t forget Generations X-Z are getting quite a bit of media exposure with tv shows, Naked and Afraid, Dating Naked etc.
Nudity is breaking out of the shell of hidden resorts and beaches. It’s becoming mainstream.
I agree, nudism is changing face for the better. 2.0
Indeed, we didn’t talk about the tv shows because honestly we don’t know what to think of those. On one hand they bring nudity in the living rooms of many people, so they can get used to it, but on the other hand they will often block the genitals (and sometimes even breasts) which will give people the idea that those body parts are not to be shown… Which is not what nudism is about.
The fuzzing out of body parts make it just another show. Nothing to expand n
Channel 4’s “Naked Attraction” (UK) doesn’t pixellate genitals: indeed, they are focused upon and discussed! I do not like the show, but at least it treats nudity as “normal”.
If I was to offer up another possible group to say thank you to, what about the attitudes of celebrity culture? It might be on the same level as TV, in that there are costs and benefits to nudity portrayal, but celebrity attitudes to gain the ‘fame points’ they need to keep their income flowing has tangibly shifted in recent years from a purely ‘look at my body, isn’t it perfect, you should be like me’ angle to more one of ‘do your own thing, love yourself, don’t stress, be happy’. I think that the Lady Gagas, Katy Perrys, Orlando Blooms et al, are responding to a culture shift that we’ve seen on TV and on social media and there’s almost a snowball effect whereby they feed off each other. Equality and tolerance…part of the social media liberalism…is playing a part here too. All this gives body acceptance, top-freedom, and ultimately simple nudity a celebrity shot in the arm. We follow celebrity almost unconsciously. Probably enough for a blog in itself!
Totally right there! The influence of celebrities is enormous so if they promote body acceptance and normalise nudity, it will flow through to the rest of the world.
Especially when Orlando Bloom or Justin Beeber get caught spending their holidays naked it’s certainly a big present for nudists. Although it has a bit of a bitter taste because those pictures were taken without permission, but nevertheless we imagine many people thinking “If Orlando spends his holidays without pants, maybe we should also give it a shot”
Something not brought up, and seemingly not even thought about. When the younger generation of nudists start becoming families, it’s not always possible to experience nudism in the 2.0 manner. Try it when your children are infants or toddlers, when your kids begin to go through puberty. Many of the events you cite are decidedly child unfriendly, or difficult to say the least. Oops, back to Nudism 1.0
That’s indeed a very good point Jim. There are already nudist resorts that cater specifically to families with young children, they organise pool games in the afternoon and animation in the evenings. Maybe one day there will be clothing optional days in the amusement parks? Wouldn’t it be great if we even had our own “nudie land”?
Great points you are making Nick & Lins. I experience more and more mixed beaches where the “naturist” border is not respected anymore but blurred where textiles comes the naturist side and naturists go the textile side, without any real issues. On another point as well, with naked runs, naked bike gatherings, come naked hikes. It’s becoming more and more “mainstream” with the NEWT in Austria and many others in Spain or France, with great success and acceptance. Even though there are a lot of blockers still to public nudity, I think it will continue to be more and more accepted and will completely get out of the normal nudist “ghettos” that are nudist resorts.
We can only hope that nudism will be more and more accepted but we have a strong feeling that we’re going the right way.
If you look at where nudism stood 20-30 years ago, a couple of beaches and campgrounds and you look at the opportunities now, we can say that we’re improving a lot!
Totally agree with you! Naturism requires people like you to continue “preaching” what is it about and its numerous benefits. Keep it up!
Nick and Lins — Yet another great post. Enjoyed all three posts addressing the future of naturism. I definitely agree that naturism is changing. While there are some negative indicators as to where it’s headed, there are definitely positives, many of which you discuss in your posts. Unfortunately, much has been written on the negatives (aging population, closing clubs, and decreased naturist organization membership…) and less on some of the positive trends.
Overall, I’m a believer that change is good. It keeps something vibrant, current, and alive. But change can be shaped and nudged along the way. As nudists and naturists, I feel we have some responsibility to take on that role.
Your post got me thinking so much that I wrote a similar one on my blog entitled “Naturism Next”. Give it a read and let me know your thoughts.
https://naturistthoughts.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/naturism-next/
Thanks again for the post! Enjoyed it.
Naturist Thoughts
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Events like the Bare to Breakers are especially important. Textiled folks get to walk for 7.5 miles alongside nudies like me. We talk, we take pictures, we mingle exactly like we would with clothes on. Doesn’t take long before being nude is of no more import than any other costume. Probably a 10 to 1 ratio of positive comments to negative ones. Nakedness shifts from a suspicious state to encounter, to amusing, to just another costume choice.
We’ll never overcome the textile impaired but we should always work to coexist peacefully. A clothing optional society is the direction we need to go.
Every human endeavor is done better naked in warm weather or indoors. Hiking, golfing, shopping, driving, office work, dining, baseball, yachting, farming, and with few exceptions everything else is better and more comfortable done naked. We are the most beautiful species and we don’t need to hide our beautiful selves from each other.
Nudists who promote nudism only in hidden places and ban cameras are opposing public acceptance of naked human beings. We do not need to hide.
Great you mention Spencer. I was part of the Munich event. Great! It brought me a huge step forward not only being a nudist, but not making it a secret any more. Beind nude in art is very special.
Running – just made it on my vacation at the Baltic Sea. 7km at sunrise (almost no one to disturb), great feeling. You don’t need to mind anymore, if you step on a wave and get wet.
Hiking – I joined one tour this year. So liberating to be together with like-minded people. Up to that point I was always only on my own … . And walking barefooten and naked through the forest (alone for some time). It needs to sound silly to all who have not done it, but it IS a different experience of the nature and yourself.
Someone wrote about blurring boarders: Yes, I see it. I prefer this over pure nudist/non-nudist beaches. It is a higher level of acceptance. It makes the day more interesting. It allows may wife to join (she is not a nudist). And it covers up that to my experience the number of nudists is going down. So sad.
I hope all of this will get more and more popular.
We agree with every point except that the number of nudists is going down. We believe that it’s actually growing but because of the range of available opportunities it becomes more scattered. In the past there was a nudist camp or colony and maybe a beach and that was it. Now there are bike rides, bar nights, yoga, whatever. There are plenty of choices.
always love reading your blog..it is quite helpful to me as beginner…thank you
Cool! Glad we can help!