There are plenty of reasons why people chose to become nudists, we have already discussed some in our article 7 reasons why you want to be a nudie so we’re not going to repeat them all. But shortly summarized naturism provides more comfort, self esteem, liberation and a connection to nature.
Those are the same reasons we use to explain our nudist lifestyle when people ask about it. More than often the other party understands, agrees or even gets tickled to give nudity a try themselves.
But recently someone countered our answer with: “Yes, but why do you need to do that in group?”. What’s with the social nudity? What’s wrong with just being naked inside your own home?
As a matter of fact we couldn’t really think of a good reason at that moment. The person was right. We all have our own reasons to be nude, whether it’s because we don’t like tan lines or because we prefer the touch of a summer breeze over the touch of fabric on our bodies. Those reasons explain why we like to get naked, but not why we prefer to be nude among others.
We had to think about this because this question kept playing in our heads (and because we hate to stand speechless).
Why do we sometimes travel far (and often spend money) just to be nude in a social environment?
People are social beings, also when nude
At first we tried to laugh the question away with the idea that we were actually just looking for places to be nude and that we didn’t care about the others, they just happened to be there. But we knew that wasn’t the case.
Why did we chose to spend our holidays in a nudist resort instead of a private beach house for example where we could be comfortably naked as well?
Why do we drive for an hour to the nude beach for an afternoon of sunbathing when we could do that in our own garden?
The thing is that we humans like to spend time with other humans. Well at least most of us. And of course we prefer to spend time with our close friends, most of them aren’t nudists. So it’s often a hard nut to crack, especially on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Do you want to spend time with our friends or do we want to be naked?
When our nudist spirit takes over, we replace our clothed friends with nude ones. Well, not really replace them, just for the afternoon.
We also like to make new friends, but how do you do that at our age? As a kid it was easy, your parents took you to the playground and you started playing with the other kids. But when you have the same partner, job and sports club for years, you don’t make that many new friends anymore.
At a nudist club, at least you know you’ll have one common interest with everyone. The love for being nude. Other than that you know that nudists in general are friendly and social people. It happened quite a lot that we just said “Hello” to someone and ended up talking for ages.
Boundaries disappear when you’re nude
Another important factor why we don’t make that many new friends as we used to is because we often hesitate to talk to someone based on how they look or what they own. We’re not going to start a conversation with the guy in the suit when we are wearing some scruffy training pants and neither will we try talking to the woman who just stepped out of her Aston Martin. It’s a shame really, but it’s how humans are. We don’t like to be rejected or looked down upon so we try to avoid situations where such a thing could happen.
The sad thing is that this works in both ways. Many of the rich and famous are actually pretty lonely because nobody even tries to get in contact with them. We’ve all heard stories about the very pretty girl who couldn’t get a boyfriend because all guys thought she was out of their league. Well, same thing.
As soon as you pass by the “No clothing allowed from this point” sign, all those superficial boundaries disappear. You’ll have no idea whether the person you’re talking to is an artist or a doctor or a lawyer. Whether they are millionaires or completely broke. They are just people. Just like you.
And you may have spotted a Porsche on the parking lot, but you have no idea whose it is. Actually this is good material for a guessing game as it turns out that most of the time you’re completely wrong. At least we are.
Experience something new
The things we do in the nude are often quite few when we limit ourselves to our home. Even though we’re pretty inventive, it didn’t take long before we got completely used to naked cleaning, cooking, sleeping or gardening. Remembering the fact that we loved skinny dipping when we were teenagers we soon started looking for places where we could do that again. Nudist places.
It’s also in nudist places that we learned that practically everything is possibly naked, as long as someone does some organisation. More or less every sport is practiced naked somewhere, the most common are table tennis, regular tennis, volleyball and jeu de boule but there are also nudist clubs organising nude 5k runs, nude hikes, nude surfing or nude horseback riding. For those who really like it rough, there’s even a nude Rugby club in New Zealand.
This is not limited to sports either, several nudist clubs organise art workshops for those into drawing or body painting. There are nudist dance classes, quizzes, karaoke evenings, parties, you name it.
A brave nude world
A final reason we could think of is that from time to time we like to exchange our “real” world for a more perfect one. A world of equality, harmony, peace and friendliness. A world where people are happy and nice to each other. A world without noise. A world without violence. A world without cell phones. A world where nobody’s the boss and everyone gets along.
Okay, okay, we might be a bit romanticizing here. A visit to the nudist club is nothing more than a snapshot of life, it’s not life itself. But that doesn’t take away that it’s a happy place. A place where you can take off your sorrows together with your clothes and put them in a locker. At least for a while. And it just wouldn’t feel the same if there was nobody else.
When we were just new to nudism, we often felt different. The fact that we like to spend our time socially nude somehow separated us from the rest of the world. It was hard to put our finger on. Was it a fetish? A hobby? A strange twist in our heads?
By visiting nudist resorts we found out that we weren’t that different at all. That twist appeared to be a lifestyle shared by many others. And suddenly… we felt normal again.
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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A most excellent article! It’s been our great pleasure that several excellent nudist/naturist websites have appeared in the 10 years since we created ours, and yours is one of them!
There is no dearth of sites purporting to be ‘nudist’, but so many are NOT. We all need to support those who ‘get’ what it’s all about!
Great way to meet. I am 80 now and and have been involved for over 70 years. [email protected]
Many interesting points brought to this question.
For myself personally, I feel it is a sense of liberation being with like minded people with no judgement.
Stay Naked
Fabien
I couldn’t agree more….life is to be enjoyed naturally and even better with like minded people who can just live.
A very well written article,i am a home nudist right now, but the resorts are far from me,plus, I am rather shy,but would like to meet other nudists to associate with, I am 63 and rather lonely
Well Kenny we are in the same situation. I’m an at home nudist and go nude in my fenced backyard also. I’m not really lonely but it’s nice to hang with other nudists and I’m 64. If you’re ever in Florida look me up to hang nude with. Deej
مااجمل المشي بجسد عاري في الأماكن العامة التحرر من الملابس شي جميل انا في بلد لايوجد به أي مكان للتعري انا احب التعري لكن في الأماكن المغلقه وأحيانا في أماكن بعيده عن الأنظار كم أتمنى أن أذهب للدول التي يوجد بها التعري
Translation: How beautiful to walk with a naked body in public places being free from clothes is a beautiful thing I am in a country with no place to strip. I love nudity, but in enclosed spaces, sometimes in places that are out of sight, I wish I could go to countries with Nudity.
أتمنى أن التحق بالعراة في أي مكان لكي أو شاركهم ذالك الشعور الجميل مااجمل أن تكون تمارس مايحلو لك دون قيود والأجمل من ذلك أن يكون البلد اللذي تقطنه هو من يشجع على التعري ويساعد على تنظيمه وطرقه
Translation: I wish I could join the nudist anywhere, or share that feeling. how beautiful it is to be practicing what you want without restriction. What is more beautiful is that the country that you inhabit is the one who encourages nudity and helps organize it and its ways. (based on Google Translate)
هنيئا لكم أيها العراة ذكورا وإناثا ببلدانكم الجميله التي لاتمانع أصول التعري بجميع أشكاله وألوانه ذلك الشعور لايصف إلا من مارسه وعاشه
Translation: Good for you naked males and females in your beautiful countries that do not mind the origins of nudity in all its forms and colors that feeling does not describe except who practiced it and lived it. (Google Translate)
We need to help people to understand that it’s quite normal (natural) to be naked if it’s warm enough or indeed to do things where clothes could be a pain (I once stripped off when doing a painting job in a bathroom on a cargo ship crossing the Atlantic, to keep my clothes clean because I was sweating a ton and what was more natural than to be naked in the showers?). Where I live now, most of my neighbours know I am naturist and will be unfazed if they find me in the nude. But it’s not always easy to bridge the gap and get people to understand.
Very good article. At the moment I’m a home nudist living in the south of England. Have a secluded part of my garden where I can be naked. More recently I have been getting a little braver to be able to sit in the sun more. It is possible I could be seen. So far no-one has complained. I think to myself it is only an offence if you are trying to shock and cause distress which I am not.
What a good article. So often we talk about the motivations for the individual. Here we talk about our collective desire to be together. It may not be for runs or sports or even swimming. Some of the nicest gatherings I have been to involved a potluck and an evening bonfire. Chatting, singing songs, and telling stories are all even more fun nude with friends and new friends.
Indeed, and we really enjoy naturist places which encourage these social gatherings. At Bare Oaks in Canada for example you can buy wood for your own bonfire for 8 dollars per bag but you get it for free if it’s for a communal bonfire.
Hi, great article, thought provoking, thank you! It’s an interesting question, why do people want to be nude together? For me, it’s quite simple to answer. I’ll give you a little bit of back story so you will understand how I know exactly what the answer is, at least for me. I’m now 42 and pretty much your average base wage single man in a one bedroom apartment. But until about 3 years ago my life was a train wreck, with 2 really long freight trains. Unemployment, drugs, homelessness, prison, you name it, I did it wrong. One day while sitting in a jail cell (again) I thought to myself, I’m nearly 40, divorced, with a daughter I rarely see, I think it’s time for some changes. In short, I changed my life, right there and then, with that decision. After a lot of soul searching, mending fences and hard work, I’m now going on to 2 years of full time employment, paying bills and generally having a life. A few months ago, I realized that even though my life has improved dramatically and I’m a lot happier and really proud of myself, something was missing. I needed someone to share it with. I’ve found joy and a love for life that I never had before, but it is still somehow a hollow victory without someone to share that joy with. And I think that it the reason that you feel the need to share your love of nudity with as many people as possible. I’m really happy for you that you are able to share something that obviously brings you a lot of joy. I’m still searching for my special someone to share my joy with but it’s only a matter of time. I just hope she is a nudie too so I can join you in sharing my love of life without clothes. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks for all the hard work you do for us nudies, your sharing of the joy you have brings joy to a lot of people, you you should be proud of yourself for that! ???
Thanks a lot for sharing this story Daniel! And you’re absolutely right, any lifestyle is better when you can share it with someone. The advantage of naturism/nudism is that people in general seem to be open minded and easy to approach. But of course we wish you all the luck with finding a loved one who enjoys nudism too!
I’m Korean nudist and swedish massage therapist. Nudism & healing massage available. When come to south Korea, keep in touch with me. West Seoul, near hongdae.