Whenever we tell people that we’re bloggers and they ask what exactly we blog about, we answer something like “naturism, you know, naked people”. It’s the easiest way to describe it. Everyone knows immediately what we’re talking about. There’s no confusion with naturalism or biology. We’re not considered bird watchers or tree talkers. We are the naked people.
Although it’s a great way to point out who we’re talking about, it’s definitely not a good description of who we are. In fact, we believe that it’s this specific description, “the naked people”, that’s the main reason why people are so reluctant to give naturism a try.
Why Michael Jordan should have been a naturist
Nudity is definitely a significant part of naturism and it’s hard to not see it as a defining factor. Naturists are nude, at least from time to time. Someone who prefers to wear clothes every single moment of the day can hardly be called a naturist. But it’s only a small part of what naturism is really about. It’s like calling a basketball player “someone who throws a ball into a ring”. Obviously, if you can’t (or refuse to) throw balls into rings, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll ever become a basketball player. But the description says nothing about the effort, the energy, the tactics, the team play, the oversized shirts and cool sneakers, the size of the court, the rules, or the trophies.
In basketball, those extra factors don’t really need to be pointed out. Everyone knows more or less what basketball is and how it’s played. Few people don’t know who Michael Jordan is. Unfortunately, “Air Jordan” wasn’t a naturist. He didn’t appear on TV to tell the world about the different aspects of naturism. In fact, very few people do. This is the main reason why in the eyes of the outside world, we’re nothing but just naked people.
Is it important that the world knows more about naturism?
Back when we were kids, we used to do a variety of sports. None of which we were particularly good at, hence the variety, but that’s not the point. We picked the cool things. Judo, Karate, wall climbing, anything with balls that needed to be thrown or kicked. We remember peeking into a small room of the sports hall where the yoga class was happening. That stuff didn’t really belong in this place, we figured. It was nothing but a bunch of old ladies who appeared to be half-asleep on thin mats.
Similarly, when we were kids, we didn’t know any vegetarians. We had heard about those people though and we didn’t like them a single bit. Those were the ones who put our beloved Mc Donalds on fire.
Today, we know plenty of vegetarians and we can’t even count the number of our friends who do some yoga moves now and then. Were we just ignorant back then? We doubt it. When we were kids, yoga wasn’t really considered much more than a kind of sport for people who didn’t fit in at karate anymore. And most vegetarians were real activists who wrote “meat is murder” on walls. Something changed along the way.
When things become a way of living
As every yogi well tell you, yoga is much more than a couple of stretching exercises. It changes the way you feel and think. It improves your appreciation of your body. Yoga eases your mind. Doing yoga in the morning may even change how you act in heavy traffic, help you cope with the high workload, adjust how you behave towards others. It can make you a more loveable person in general. If we were yoga bloggers, we could answer the question in the first paragraph with “yoga, you know, the stretching thing”. Without the stretching, it wouldn’t be yoga. But that doesn’t even start to describe what it’s really about.
We could tell you the same about vegetarianism, how it also makes people feel better about themselves and their bodies. How the health-factor is definitely much more than something physical. But let’s talk about naturism instead.
If naturism was about nothing more than the physical state of being nude, we wouldn’t be naturists today. We don’t hate or reject clothes. They give us warmth and look nice and we don’t really mind wearing them from time to time. Many naturists will tell you that after a while, you don’t really notice anymore that everyone is nude. And they are right. It’s not the nudity that connects us, it’s all that it represents.
There are many ways of living
The way you experience naturism might not be exactly the same as how we experience it. You may enjoy other aspects of naturism than we do. You may prefer nude beaches instead of resorts. You may prefer home naturism. You may only get naked on holiday. Or spend every free moment of your life without clothes.
Our vegetarian friends are not all the same either. Some don’t like the thought of animals being killed. Others think that eating less meat is just key to a healthier lifestyle. For some, it’s a protest against mass meat production or a way to protect the environment. Some eat fish, some eat meat only once a week, some even have their guilty pleasures at Mc Donalds. Many of our yogi-friends don’t practice every day. Some only in group and others only on their own. They do Vinyasa yoga, Hatha yoga, Bikram yoga, or naked yoga or one of the million other kinds.
The current popularity of vegetarianism and yoga is because people started seeing them as a way of life. As their way of life. With some simple guidelines and lots of blank spots that they can fill as they like. This is where it sometimes goes wrong within naturism. For a very long time, lots of people have been trying to strictly define the lifestyle. With lots of rules and regulations. But there are as many kinds of naturism as there are birthday suits. Instead of bringing people together, those rules often made people feel like they didn’t belong.
Only when we can understand that the naturist way of life is also one with many choices, we will grow as a community. And the outside world will start seeing us as more than just the naked people.
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Interesting tho i always ask this question.
Do you .. i mean not YOU but you as nudies of ANY kind, … do u really want it to be like an everyday think where NO1 will even blink when they see a nude person pass by?
Will it be special then? Will it bring less thrills then compared to now?
Anyway ..
Interesting question. Most naturists will tell you that they definitely want to move towards a general relaxed attitude about nudity. We’re among them. Our lives would be much easier if we could just be naked whenever we want to.
But on the other hand, we (personally) are attracted to adventure and out of the box thinking. If naturism hadn’t been out of the box, we might not be attracted to it. But since it’s now a very common thing for us and we’re still naturists, we figure that in a would where nudity is no taboo, we’d just be nude too.
Ya but its a if if kinda thing … u cannot really understand the feeling unless it happens.
You know u wrote about it many times b4, about exib .. every1 relates that to sex, i dont .. i can be sexual but also can be a … non sexual like a … i wanna stand out kind of think.
I do think most nudies are like that , or maybe the adventurers is more the word or something..
But anyhow this is the nudies mojo ,ur thing .. if it becomes mainstream, will it still have the same power, essence, being unique/different .. ?
But ya, im out of the box way way out of the box in thinking, sometimes hesitating to really write what i want about it … but ya the Q is .. if ud reach that point, would it be enough? Or would it push you to something thats a next level, whatever that would be.
Cause u know ppl , always want more hah.
In my opinion, the view from the textile world that could use some adjustment is that naturism is less what you see and more what you feel.
Great post! Most people wish to define things, to create a neat little box around things so they are easy to understand I think. I have seen this in naturist communities, likely because they have been pushing back for a long time against attitudes and false assumptions about their choice to socialize in the nude. Also as a way to keep a general sense of order and security. So, I loved how you wrapped this up at the end.
“Only when we can understand that the naturist way of life is also one with many choices, we will grow as a community. And the outside world will start seeing us as more than just the naked people.”
Thanks for showing us your world.
Een naturist is iemand die zich niet onnodig aankleedt en geniet van de zon en wind op de blote huid. Ook houdt de naturist zich aan de morele regels van hoe je goed omgaat met de naamgever: de NATUUR. Het is spijtig dat de commercie de mensen weerhoudt om dat overal te doen.
Badkleding moet ontworpen, gemaakt en verkocht worden, daar verdienen bedrijven aan..
Lichamen moeten voldoen aan onmogelijke eisen die gedicteerd worden door 20 personen die als voorbeeld denken te moeten zijn voor de rest van de 7.000.000.000 mensen op aarde. Fotoshop gedijt om die 20 te promoten, voldoe je daar niet aan dan ben je een “looser”, in plaats van jezelf.
Er zijn mensen die liever naar een naaktstrand gaan dan naar de textielstranden omdat daar de “competiedwang en -drang” om te voldoen aan het, door wie opgestelde?, ideaalbeeld met vergelijking met die 20 en de gefotoshopte lichamen in de media op het naaktstrand ontbreekt. Je moet op die 20 lijken, desnoods door het lichaam d.m.v. operaties aan te passen, maar moet ook zichzelf zijn! Dat is met elkaar in tegenspraak.
De wereldgodsdiensten en hun afgeleiden hebben een grote negatieve invloed op de kijk op het menselijk lichaam, terwijl kardinaal Woityla, de latere paus, heeft gezegd dat er niets mis is met een bloot lichaam. Dusdanig, dat de naturist veroordeeld is tot gebruik van kleine toegestane plaatsen, terwijl in Nederland 2,5 van de 17,5 miljoen inwoners regelmatig ongekleed recreëert, dat is 1 op 7 !!! Wereldwijd zijn er meer dan 25 miljoen naturisten. plus een onbekend aantal die het niet kan schelen dat ze tijdens een wandeling of tocht alleen of met hun gezelschap even bloot een bad nemen in een beekje, rivier of meer om af te koelen, maar zich geen naturist noemt of zelfs maar daarover heeft gehoord. Ze doen dit heel natuurlijk.
Ook is het voor mij een (lichte) frustratie dat een kleine groepering (in vergelijking met de wereldbevolking) tegenhoudt dat naturisten hun foto’s en verhalen kunnen delen op sociale media, want een bloot lichaam is volgens hen, en zij hebben het voor het zeggen, aanstootgevend terwijl dat blote lichaam heel natuurlijk is.