Nudity. I don't understand why that's even a word. Regardless of how we hide from each other, it's nothing more than what we simply are. We're born preferring to be naked, not caring if other people are naked around us. We had to be taught to be ashamed and intolerant of what we are. Conditioning ourselves to feel that way about ourselves is cruel, and teaching that to our kids is a not so subtle form of child abuse.
I like being naked because it's more comfortable to be naked. I like that being naked encourages others to do the same, and that their being naked with others makes them feel better about themselves.
We like to talk about nudism, naturism, or whatever label you prefer as if it were a secret technique, an alternative lifestyle, or a learned behavior in itself. It isn't. It's our natural behavior. It's cooked into our DNA to like being human and to like what our own species looks like. It's also our natural social behavior to accept each other's flaws as part of what binds us together as people. That's why it takes so many years to condition children not to be naked, and why, as adults, that conditioning is so easily shaken.
People who have never allowed themselves to experience that freedom view us as curiosities. A little perverted, driven by an exhibitionist streak that we're in denial about. But mostly harmless, as long as they don't have to see it. But with the Internet and the need to fill the 24 hour news cycle, people can't resist the fact that we do exist, and they're puzzled by it.
The trick is o get people to try it. Until they immerse themselves in it for at least several hours, they can't and they won't understand. They'll continue to criminalize what their own species looks like and they'll continue to believe that being naked is something sinister and sexual, when it's not.
We can continue to feel smugly enlightened in the privacy of our homes, at the beaches our friends would never be caught dead at, or in our walled in clubs and resorts they don't know we go to. Or we could reach out. If each of us convinced one other person to try it. Not to go to nude beach and keep their swimming suits on, but to immerse themselves in it for a day, it would make a big difference. They'd start to "get it" and we wouldn't have to be so secretive.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Your Pix All Over the Net
Source: http://www.wired.com/2015/02/dick-pics/
The author appears to be speaking from a non-nudist perspective about simple nudity becoming so common on the Internet and that people are so much more likely to take and have nude pictures of themselves and others, that running into naked pictures of people that you know is becoming no big deal. I'm not sure we're to that point yet, but I like how he winds up the story saying that we shouldn't be ashamed and embarrassed to be what we simply are.
The author appears to be speaking from a non-nudist perspective about simple nudity becoming so common on the Internet and that people are so much more likely to take and have nude pictures of themselves and others, that running into naked pictures of people that you know is becoming no big deal. I'm not sure we're to that point yet, but I like how he winds up the story saying that we shouldn't be ashamed and embarrassed to be what we simply are.
Compulsively Clothed. Compulsively Naked.
Every workday I come home and immediately remove things that haven't bothered me all day. The minute I step into the house, they have to go. First to go are my shoes and socks. I wear comfortable footwear, but my feet scream to be free the minute I get inside the door. I'm barefoot every minute of every day I can get away with it to the point that I'm usually barefoot when we have guests over, even if we're throwing a party. It's not that I'm not aware that other people might not want to see my bare feet or that it's unfair to them to be wearing shoes when I'm not wearing shoes. It just doesn't dawn on me that anyone should care. It never bothers me when other people are barefoot, even inappropriately so. I'm happy for them.
The next thing that has to go are my contact lenses. Those too, I never notice until I get in the door, then they too, have to go as soon as possible. Next the watch has to go. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I don't like things strapped around me like that.
As compulsive as I am about those items, I'm not a compulsive nudist. If I'm going to be in and out of the house for a while, I put on shorts and a tee shirt (the default casual attire here in Florida). If it's hot out and I'm working outside, the tee shirt comes off. The heat and humidity most of the year here make keeping a shirt on at times miserably uncomfortable. That's perfectly acceptable here. For a male, anyway. Yes, it's unfair to women and yes, I'd be happy for them and for society if we'd get over it. That's a lot of area to keep covered when it's hot out and what remains (shorts) is small enough to get most of the benefit of being naked, without offending others.
I'm naked at home the way most people wear comfy things they wouldn't walk out on the street wearing. It's my right to be as comfortable as I can be in the privacy of my house and out in my private back yard, where a patio, pool, and hot tub await my wife and I to use naked whenever we want to be there. When I'm naked, I prefer to be completely naked. I'll wear shoes if I have to walk on hot or unfriendly surfaces. A hat, if I must because the sun is beating down on the top of my head. Sunglasses, if the sun is too bright. But nothing, whenever I can get away with it. The only concession I make, is that I never take off my wedding band. That reminds me of the commitment we made to each other and I don't want to take it off.
I don't think I'd be compulsive about being naked even if I lived in a nudist community. Being naked is my default natural state. I don't feel compelled by external conditioning to be nude, it's just the most comfortable natural and easy choice most of the time.
The next thing that has to go are my contact lenses. Those too, I never notice until I get in the door, then they too, have to go as soon as possible. Next the watch has to go. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I don't like things strapped around me like that.
As compulsive as I am about those items, I'm not a compulsive nudist. If I'm going to be in and out of the house for a while, I put on shorts and a tee shirt (the default casual attire here in Florida). If it's hot out and I'm working outside, the tee shirt comes off. The heat and humidity most of the year here make keeping a shirt on at times miserably uncomfortable. That's perfectly acceptable here. For a male, anyway. Yes, it's unfair to women and yes, I'd be happy for them and for society if we'd get over it. That's a lot of area to keep covered when it's hot out and what remains (shorts) is small enough to get most of the benefit of being naked, without offending others.
I'm naked at home the way most people wear comfy things they wouldn't walk out on the street wearing. It's my right to be as comfortable as I can be in the privacy of my house and out in my private back yard, where a patio, pool, and hot tub await my wife and I to use naked whenever we want to be there. When I'm naked, I prefer to be completely naked. I'll wear shoes if I have to walk on hot or unfriendly surfaces. A hat, if I must because the sun is beating down on the top of my head. Sunglasses, if the sun is too bright. But nothing, whenever I can get away with it. The only concession I make, is that I never take off my wedding band. That reminds me of the commitment we made to each other and I don't want to take it off.
I don't think I'd be compulsive about being naked even if I lived in a nudist community. Being naked is my default natural state. I don't feel compelled by external conditioning to be nude, it's just the most comfortable natural and easy choice most of the time.
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