December 12, 2016. To most of you, this date will probably not ring many bells. Neither to us, as a matter of fact, except that this day we published a blog post called “Why are naturists such friendly people“. We had only been blogging for a couple of months and the reason we tackled this topic so early in our journey was because the friendliness of naturists had been one of the cornerstones of our appreciation for naturism.
We had been naked and afraid while taking our first steps into naturism, and what we found were a bunch of happy people who did their very best to make us feel welcome and comfortable. Today, that fear is long gone but the sense of companionship with fellow naturists still remains. Given all the experiences we gathered over the last years, we figured that it’s time to reanalyse what makes naturists some of the friendliest people around.
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Being confidently vulnerable
Naturists like to say that by removing your clothes, you’re also removing artificial barriers between people. That we become our true selves. This could not be more accurate, but it has very little to do with the actual clothes. It’s all in the mind. We all fear judgment. From a young age, we’re being told to be strong, to look cool, to be confident, and if you aren’t, you better pretend. Because that’s how you make it in life.
Few people know that you can gain a lot of strength from being vulnerable. When you’re naked, it’s all there in the open. You have nothing to hide. What you see is what you get. This shift in mindset between trying to appear confident and gaining confidence from your vulnerability also reflects on the way you think, feel, and treat others.
This works in both ways. If you see a couple in designer clothes step out of a Ferrari, you may be reluctant to walk over and have a chat (unless you also drive an expensive car and wear an expensive suit), because what will they think of you? You’re afraid that they may judge you. When the clothes are in the car and the car is in the parking lot, they will look no different than you or us. The boundaries disappear and you might meet some lovely people who you would never have dared to approach in the clothed world.
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No clothes, no problems
We love to tell the story of how we once sat at the breakfast table at Barefeet Naturist Resort in Thailand. There was a Muslim, a Hindu couple, a Buddhist, and ourselves, not much of believers but baptised into Christianity. While we were enjoying our coffee and eggs, chatting about a variety of topics, we couldn’t help but think about how this mix of religions has many times been a source of conflict. In the clothed world.
It’s as if naturism as a common ground lifts us above all other differences that we may have. Country, background, religion or favourite sport don’t break the bond that we get from being naked together. If any world leader is reading this, here’s a tip: If you ever manage to get Putin and Zelensky in one room, you may want to have them strip naked before starting the conversation. The future of the world could be a lot brighter.
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We’re all in this together
It’s not because we’re naturists that we lose all fear of judgement. It is true when we’re among each other, but many of us still have the fear of being judged by the outside world, just because we’re doing something that isn’t particularly considered standard behaviour. This too creates a connection, because we feel understood among each other.
One could say that this is probably the same for all common grounds. If a tennis player from Germany walks into a tennis club in Mexico, the common interest will probably be a good icebreaker. But there’s one big difference between sports fans, quiz players, stamp collectors, and naturists. In naturism, there is no competition. You can not be a better naturist than someone else.
Truth be said, we have met naturists who think that the number of hours or days they spend naked, or the temperatures they can bear without clothes are a reference to how much of a naturist they are, but they are wrong.
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Respect is key
The foundation of naturism is respect. If we wouldn’t be respectful towards each other, if we would make disrespectful comments about each other’s appearance, we would never be able to embrace our vulnerability and naturism would fall apart like a house of cards after an unexpected sneeze.
This morning, our neighbour at the naturist resort started telling us about how she survived cancer. To visualise her struggle, she opened her sarong to show us the scar where there used to be a breast. This is something unimaginable to happen in the textile world. For one, because showing your naked body is considered indecent, but mostly because we would never trust a complete stranger to handle our vulnerabilities respectfully.
It’s just one example of so many that we’ve seen along the way. For non-naturists, the human body is often considered sacred, private, sexual, or sinful. Most of all, something that needs to be hidden at all cause. To us, it’s just a package, and what’s within is what counts.
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I agree with you. The example of the woman who had had cancer really is such a good example. I think that our understanding of various medical conditions would be so much better if people didn’t hide their ailments behind clothes. Unfortunately, there are many who frown on those who would expose a body that does not meet society’s ideal.
great post
Binnen een naturistenresort of naturistenterrein is men gelijkwaardig, het verschil ziet men op het parkeerterrein.