Are Nudists Born or Made?

I enjoy reading questions and answers on Quora.  I learn about a lot of subjects and I like putting in my two cents on topics that I have some knowledge of.  I do so under the name Rick Orlando, which is, of course, the name I use here.

Yesterday a question came up there that got me thinking:  Are Nudists Born or Made?  If you follow the link, you can read my response.  Meanwhile at about the same time, Nick Alimonos of The Writer's Disease wrote a very interesting article Sex Nudity and Science which I think is a "must read".  His article least likely to become a nudist has a lot of parallels with my own life.  Including my growing up not very far from (actually, scary close to) where he grew up.  Maybe it was something in the water...

Nick brings up the point that when he had a pituitary problem and his testosterone level sank, he lost interest in being naked.  From my understanding, having low testosterone causes men to lose interest in just about everything.  Plus, why do so many women love being nudists?  Or for that matter, why do so many of us of "advanced age" with lower testosterone levels still love being naked?

Beyond that, in the "Sex and Science" article he ponders the "nature vs. nurture" question.  In other posts I've talked about my background of being likewise painfully shy well into my 20's, yet raised in a family that was apparently more casual about nudity than most other families around me were.  Humm...  So did I come to identify myself as a nudist because it developed naturally from my upbringing?  Or was I genetically predisposed to become a nudist because I inherited it from my mother, who was the most casual one in the family about nudity?

I thought back to when I was dating my then future wife and she told her mother that I liked being naked (she has a weird habit of outing me, which I've learned to appreciate).  She said that her mother's response was a nonchalant "maybe he's a nudist".  What the heck was she thinking when she said that?  That men have their unique kinks, but at least that one's a rather harmless one?  As in, sorry dear, he was born that way and that's the way he is.  Or that he's been conditioned or influenced to be that way and maybe he'll grow out of it.  What's the truth?

So yeah, why do I like being naked?  The more I think about it, the more I think why the heck shouldn't I like being naked?  It's more comfortable, it's often more practical, I feel better about myself when I'm naked, and I feel happy for others when they're naked and feel accepted by me simply as they are.

Thinking further about it, I'm just resentful that my culture doesn't accept everyone just as they are.  And that for a long time, I didn't accept myself, simply as I was.  It's not that clothing is a perversion, but that the need to hide oneself in it so quickly becomes one.

So am I different?  No.  I'm sorry to say that other people have just simply made themselves different from me.  After a couple of bad decades of not being happy being what I was, I became happy to be as God made me and I've been happy to be that way ever since.

Naked Ramblings

Yes, it's been a long time since I've posted anything, mostly because I don't have much new to say that I haven't said before.  I still answer questions related to nudity and nudism on yahoo answers, figuring it's a better outreach than just having a blog sitting around waiting for someone to visit.  I don't have a whole lot to say today.  So if you don't mind, I'll just ramble a bit.

I'm still bothered by the "-ist" thing.  Why is my accepting my own form and accepting others simply as they are, an "-ist" thing, when the culture instead has developed a perverted self-loathing of what we are and what we look like?  As if compulsively hiding ourselves in shame from each other is a good thing.  It isn't.  Sorry.  No thank you.  I'm tired of playing that game.

Moving on to "Dating Naked" and "Naked and Afraid", both of which I find too contrived and awkward.  I dated a nudist girl for a while.  Being naked with her either at home or at her club wasn't any different than when we were out clothed.  We shared a few common interests, of which that was one, but it didn't work out and we parted friends.  I understand that the taboo of nudity (annoyingly blurred out as it may be) draws people to watch those programs.  But I think for most people the novelty quickly wears off and there's not enough left to keep them (or me) watching.  Dating is painful enough to do, much less watch.  Especially when they're being so weird about it.

"Naked and Afraid" is supposed to prey on the audience's conditioned feelings of vulnerability with regard to being naked.  I'm sorry, but I spent many decades hiking and camping in the wilderness and I don't see how putting people who don't know how to survive in the wild out there without any training or equipment is all that entertaining.  It's painful to watch them being so miserable at night when it invariably gets too chilly for them to be able to sleep without sufficient shelter and warmth (clothed or not).

In real life, even in the most primitive tribes people band together, sharing chores and building on what people have done before them.  I've done a lot of long distance solo wilderness backpacking in my day, but it takes a lot of equipment (modern or otherwise) to pull that off comfortably.  On hot days, it was nice to get out of my clothes, sometimes while hiking, but mostly at camp.  Skinny dipping at a stream or lake was much appreciated, and it was nice to be able to rinse my clothes off (all of them) and let them dry on a rock while I stayed naked and aired out late into the day until it got too chilly to stay that way.  The few people that ran into me undressed, didn't mind.  Nor did I mind when I stumbled onto them.  Being naked in the wild is a luxury that's frankly too nice to pass up on when it's warm out.  BTW, one quickly learns that you sleep a lot more comfortably naked in a warmer bag, than clothed in a colder bag.  Clothing traps one's moisture against you, leaving you feeling cold and wet.  Modern sleeping bags are designed to let the moisture escape, keeping you warm and dry if you don't sabotage it wearing nasty smelly, and invariably damp, clothing inside.

Enough for now.  Happy New (Nude) year!

Outreach

Sure, some people are curious and run into our web sites, blogs, and forums.  But for the most part, the general public doesn't hardly know we exist.  To them, we're a fringe group.  Something they've heard about, mostly as a butt of jokes, without a reason to investigate further.

Those of us who have tried social nudity know how odd it is that people have allowed themselves to be so conditioned to be ashamed, unaccepting, offended, and just plain uncomfortable to be what they and other people simply are.  Being naked in a social non-sexual environment is not only easy, but liberating, relaxing, accepting, friendly, practical, and yes, very comfortable and sensual.

Groups like Florida Young Naturists and Young Naturists America do a good job at offering young people the opportunity to try it.  I've met several of them and they're wonderful people.  If I were them, I'd be visiting college campuses, leaving leaflets, and doing meet and greets.  Man a booth at an art show and various other events.  Hell, set up a stall at a flea market.  Many won't let you set up, but if you push the boundaries and hold your ground, some of them will let you be there.  Most likely, your booth will be popular and if you're well behaved, you'll be welcome to come back.   I've seen AANR set up at outdoors and travel events, and they do fine.  When I see them, I go out of my way to stop by and thank them for their efforts.

Yes, these groups are on Facebook and do meet-ups.  But people still have to look to find them.  I'm not in a position to be promoting naturism directly, but I have found one outlet that allows me to introduce the idea and to challenge other's opinions on the subject.  I answer questions on Yahoo Answers, pulled up from keywords of naked, nude, nudist, and naturist.  Most of the questions related to the first two categories are related to sex and relationships.  Most of those are from teenagers and people with other problems.  But sometimes I even answer some of their questions.  A serious answer even to a stupid question gets read by other people, even if the asker isn't interested in my response.

Others do the same.  Some are official spokesmen for organizations.   Some are club owners or officers in various organizations.  But a few of us are just individuals, doing it out of a sense of trying to educate others.  And sometimes, just to amuse ourselves.

Hats off to those others who are trying to help.  You know who you are.  Thank you!

Nudity and Sexuality

Well, I see that it's been way too long since I've contributed anything.  I finally have some time, so I'll give it a go...

If we're to convince others that being social nudity isn't sexual, we're going to have to face the 800 pound guerrilla that many, if not most, people do assume that it is. Most people seem to be terribly insecure about their own sexuality and they feel too threatened by other people's sexuality to be comfortable with the idea of being naked around others if they can't get their head wrapped around the whole subject of human sexuality itself first.

Our sexuality is something that's not totally within our control. When aroused, our inhibitions are suppressed, our judgment is clouded, and we find ourselves willing to do some pretty strange things to relieve the tension and to provide pleasure to ourselves and our partner. So it shouldn't be a surprise that most people don't want to tempt that reaction when they know it isn't appropriate. And at a nude beach or nudist venue, they quickly learn that it isn't appropriate, even if they aren't told explicitly that it isn't.

People assume that seeing others without clothing will arouse them, or disgust them, because they've been conditioned to have those reactions by our culture. We know those reactions aren't natural and don't occur once one simply gives it a try for more than a few moments. But other people don't know that and they're afraid of it.

The right attitude to project is that we're human and that we have nothing to be ashamed of for being human. Yes, we are male and female, tall and short, young and old, skinny and fat, and we come in many colors and body types. And isn't that wonderful! We're also sexual, but we're only sexual towards each other at certain times and places, and these aren't appropriate venues for that. So instead, we're just social towards each other no differently than we would be otherwise. And there's no reason why we shouldn't be.

Why the Blog?

The problem with the web page format is it's relatively static.  Pages beg for lots of content done right, and they really get stale fast.  Twitter is on the other end of the spectrum.  Too short to have any meaningful content.  Facebook?   I guess I don't get it.

I write blogs and answer questions on other subjects using different usernames.  There isn't any advantage of my mixing them, as many of my interests have nothing to do with each other.

So I'll blog on my thoughts about nudity and nudism here.  Expanding on my Yahoo Answers, answers, and referencing appropriate blog entries, if I think the asker or other readers want more depth.

We'll see how it works.