Interview with Steve White

Steve White maintains one of the most body-positive Facebook pages and Twitter feeds you will find anywhere. Follow him, and his inspirational messages and images will remind you every day how important you are, how beautiful you are, and how much you should love yourself first and foremost.

①. Steve, how did you become interested in naturism? Was there a particular day or event that sparked the interest in you, or was it there from as long as you can remember, even before knowing what “naturism” meant?

 SW: Technically speaking, my initial involvement with naturism and the positive concepts it promotes is actually posted via the Internet upon my local naturist club website (Tallahassee Naturally). It’s an unique sporting event called the Greek Athletic Meet. My name is posted there on a side link of victors who have won that competition in past. It was back in 2000 and I’m listed as Steve.

As someone who has been involved with many sports throughout my school years and recreational sporting activities even today, this particular event back then really peaked my interest due to competing with this type of track and field which has the dress code of nudity and was very intriguing to me. However being involved with that particular naturist event for the first time really opened my eyes to a whole new world – something that immediately took me by surprise. The nudity that day was nothing more then a tool, the result of using the tool was the concept of body acceptance, basically the byproduct of naturism anyway. I was there to just compete, but I found that due to everyone being nude (expressing and exposing) all different body types, there was an appreciation of the human body form and all of its uniqueness. Which in return for individuals to love their own bodies by appreciating and accepting others while others are appreciating and accepting of theirs. That’s a very powerful concept.

②. Living in Florida, you have many options for naturist clubs and resorts. Tell me about your experiences there and your participation in Tallahassee Naturally.

SW: As a Floridian – someone who’s basically born and raised in the Sunshine State, my involvement with this particular lifestyle is truly a blessing due to the geographic location of Florida itself. Naturism can almost be enjoyed all year-round, and there’s only two or three months out of the year where clothes are necessary as being practical. Other then that the weather here in Florida is absolutely fabulous for outdoor nude activities. Even with my own local naturist club Tallahassee Naturally (TN), which is in North Florida, it’s still enjoyable to spend the majority of the year clothes-free. And with that said, I have spent more time in the last few years with Tallahassee Naturally in starting new events as well as being a part of our board – you know, being part of the politics in keeping our club running strong. Hey, you never know that maybe in the future I can start working on doing thing such as workshops, lectures and seminars at TN on body acceptance through the means of naturism.

③. You must do a lot of writing, just to guess from your many Facebook posts! How do you find time or make time to write, and what do you like to read? Do you have favorite writers on topics like love, self-worth, body acceptance?

SW: Do I do a lot of writing…?
HaHa… That’s a good one.Let me phrase it as I “USED TO” do a lot of writing the old fashion way, but now there’s new technology out there (even via your cell phone) where you can talk out and record your words into sentences, phrases, paragraphs etc. etc. etc. something that I see is very valuable for an individual like me who has dyslexia. Before technology such as this, I used to have to spellcheck, proofread and fight through my dyslexia to get what I wanted to convey to others by repeatedly checking over and over to get what I wanted to express. Now I can just let the words completely flow for how I feel on things that interest me such as my motto of “Body acceptance through the means of naturism”, a catchphrase that I use a lot. So when something is a good idea that pops up in my head, I  immediately record my own voice to type it into clear readable words to share with others. Very useful tool for people who love to write, but struggle with writing itself. I may not be the next James Baldwin or great poet like Maya Angelou, writers who I highly admire, but if any of my words can touch the heart, spirit and soul of another person – isn’t that what writing is all about?

④. Your Facebook page and tweets are full of good advice for people who would like to convince their loved ones to try naturism. Is there anything else you would like to add here, or any stories from your own experience, about attracting newbies to naturism?
 
SW: Well, I don’t consider that I’m using a Facebook page when I post what I do there. I use my own personal profile like everybody else (which is not actually open to the public), but to my friends and acquaintances that are a part of my Facebook profile friends list, they are the ones who reap the benefits of what I post there. To which it’s more personal with my fellow naturists and non-naturist friends alike to see me posting things like everybody else on Facebook (event status of my day-to-day life) and some promotion of the lifestyle. However, due to having non-naturist friends there on FB – of course it’s only reasonable to post to them the benefits and tips on giving it a try. Hey, why not promote something that will honestly change their lives for the better – something that would give them self-love, self-confidence, a better self-esteem and improving their body image tremendously. So if I do receive a personal message or a reply comment from some non-naturist interested with naturism or even to help out other fellow naturists to introducing someone else to social naturism – I would tell them that I honestly believe that the best way is to invite them to a very active social naturist event. Something to occupy the mind of that person from the anxiety/stress of the initial nudity factor due to once they’re caught up doing certain activities anyone new to the lifestyle can easily forget that they’re nude – it becomes totally natural to them being that way and seeing others in that way.

Now as for me using Twitter (@AfroMandinka), well that’s open to the public. Little short tweets to provide information on gaining a better self-esteem, self-confidence, self-love and of course my motto of body acceptance through the means of naturism. And even there my Facebook profile is attached as a link on my Twitter account, just in case for anybody who wants to read more than just short tweets on Twitter.

⑤. One of the many awesome things about naturism is that it’s universal – good for anybody of any age, color, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc. But sometimes writers about naturism differentiate advice for women from advice for men, advice for young people or strategies for attracting young people to naturism, etc. As an African-American, do you think there is any particular advice to offer for people of color?

SW: In my humble opinion, naturism is universal or at least it’s supposed to be universal. There isn’t one particular way to help one group of individuals from the next – either it’s by age, gender, race/ethnic background to what have you, body acceptance is universal because all of us have one of those – a body. When a person has a negative body image in return they end up having a low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence etc. etc. etc… all of which can fall upon any individual – no matter who they are. But how can someone find a means to recover from this type of thinking, feeling and depression? Well that’s where naturism can come to the rescue. I am not saying that it will actually cure someone from negative body image, but I will say that social naturism is an escape or sanctuary from our society pressure to achieve a perfect body.

If the promotion and advertisement of naturism can be focused on this point of view (the body acceptance aspect) a whole lot more than what it is, I’m pretty sure it will be appealing to all different types of individuals – no matter what their race, color, sex, age to what have you is. If negative body image is universal and any person can be affected by it, then on the flipside of that, body acceptance is universal too and naturism is a powerful tool in achieving this goal. So how do I talk to people of my same ethnic origin, the same way I talk to everyone else – by using my motto again “Body acceptance through the means of naturism.”

Many thanks again, Steve, for your words of wisdom and encouragement supported by your years of experience and your unflagging optimism.

The Quick and the Nude

a sonnet

A message from beyond the grave I give, 

a lesson learned by one who dwelt in fear:
Your body is your home. You cannot live
but through it, in it. Breath and blood hold dear!
 
You have but one life, friends: know this is true. 
So chest, and arms, and legs do not constrain.
Before the coffin covers all of you,
expose yourself to sun, sand, wind, and rain. 
 
For when all’s left is portrait laid in bone,
what purpose dress, as only heft and mesh?
What garments be these epitaphs in stone
for triumphs reached and heartbreaks felt in flesh?
I say to those who yet live on this earth:
Wear clothes no more than what you wore at birth. 
 

Legends of Naturism

Naturism is multicultural! 
Here are some pithy profiles of nude heroes and heroines 
from around the world and throughout history. 
LADY GODIVA
11th-Century England
Truth, or dare? The truth: Her husband, sure of a refusal, dared her to ride through town unattired. But it was the daring Lady Godiva herself who threw down her gauntlet, and everything else to be worn except her horse’s finery, to protest her Lord spouse’s excessive taxes on his subjects.
She was the sight to see as she cantered through Coventry, although we’re supposed to believe that none of the townsfolk dared admire her alleged alabaster skin, long red tresses, shapely femininity in motion, or, most importantly, her courage. 
The dare: Her challenge has been met throughout history, and nude public protest of the Lady Godiva kind is one of the most common social nudist phenomena.
Lady Godiva by John Collier. Another excellent illustration with original poem here.

EL DORADO
16th-Century Colombia
The Golden One, Chief of the Chibchas, was one of the first pioneers to combine two nudist favorites: skinnydipping and bodypainting. His attendants would blow gold dust over every inch of his resin-coated skin. After incantations and offerings to the lake, he’d dive from a raft in a ceremony of deep purification and glittering rebirth. 
The invading Spaniards heard about some handfuls of gold dust and quickly asserted the existence of an entire city of gold. There are also those who, upon hearing of naturists enjoying the elements, breathlessly assert a litany of imagined depravities. But in neither case is it about excesses of wealth or sex. It’s about humanity, spirituality, nature, and just plain fun.
Ritual of El Dorado, Narrando y Danzando por Colombia

AKKA MAHADEVI
12th-Century India
Clothes get in the way…in so many ways. Akka Mahadevi wanted none of her garments to obstruct her worship of Lord Shiva. In her society and time period, nudity was acceptable among devout men only. But Akka, after fleeing a forced marriage, decided to abandon clothing altogether and wander southern India sharing her songs and verses, some of which are still conserved. She let her hair grow long enough to cover most of her body, for no purpose other than saving the men she dealt with from their own embarrassment at seeing her. 
This “naked saint” is regarded today as one of the first women philosophers and an original feminist whose unorthodox approaches illuminated the clothes-minded.

Akka Mahadevi, Hinduism Today

KIRIKOU
18th-Century Mali
He spoke his first words from the womb. He could run with incredible speed as soon as he was born. With indefatigable daring and impeccable logic, naked Kirikou the man-child saved his village from drought, from wild animals, and from the cruel machinations of a sorceress. He even liberated the sorceress herself from the root of her own evil, and then, to marry her, he grew into a strapping youth in an instant. 
Yet one of his greatest trials was simply enduring the willful ignorance of his own neighbors, who time and again refused to believe his insights. Were Kirikou’s extraordinary knowledge, bravery, and patience developed more thoroughly by his nudity? Living naturally can only help.

Scene from Kirikou and the Sorceress

A Better Meaning for "Open Carry"

Two men walk into an “open carry” retail store. One is naked. The other, dressed in camo, carries a gun. In less than a minute, a security guard escorts one of the men out of the store- which man?


In 2014 USA, “open carry” is about bearing arms, not baring genitals. But firearms and penises have a complicated relationship. Look at the wealth of jokes along the lines of “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” Swords, too, and staffs, and magic wands and light sabers. A penis can “shoot” and sometimes “shoots blanks.” Like a sword it “penetrates” flesh where it can. If a certain part of your body sometimes sprouts up wildly into the air, seeming to defy gravity, you’re marked by it. It’s an important part of how a man occupies his space in the world. 

Firearms have nothing to do with that. They are a different thing altogether. But it’s easy to get the impression that firearms somehow indicate manliness for a lot of people out there. There’s a whole macho culture around guns, and it erupts into the spotlight whenever another gunman perpetrates a massacre. Almost every time, it’s another gunMAN. You don’t have to be a statistician to see that the factors “possessing a penis” and “owning a gun” tend to correlate alarmingly. 

Does living clothesfree reduce or eliminate that correlation? Not necessarily: nude men of the Amazon or the Pacific islands still use weapons for hunting food, but also for maiming or murdering other people. How about wearing an outfit that draws attention to the penis – does that eliminate the correlation? Again, not necessarily: codpiece-wearing European dandies of centuries past didn’t suddenly give up their swords or their muskets just because they had their masculine organ on display. So, having visual acknowledgement as the possessor of a penis does not effectively trump the desire to carry a weapon. 

But in today’s mechanized, filmed, overly mediated day-to-day life, a social nudity sense of “open carry” could in fact go a long way toward remedying violence in society. Social nudity “open carry” is simply what social nudism is: openly exposing the entire body among others doing the same. After all, it’s tough to be sneaky about weapons when you’re naked. Carrying a firearm, whether open or concealed, is not natural, but “open carry” of a penis is entirely natural. A firearm can be used to defend life, but almost always at the expense of taking someone else’s life. The main reproductive function of the penis is the opposite: it is to give life – to produce pleasure while engendering a new life. That’s a beautiful thing. 

“Let’s go shopping but not for clothes”

We need much more social nudist “open carry” in our everyday life. Through social nudity we recognize ourselves and gauge the range of humanity. Social nudity, non-pixelated, is what we need for TV, films, and videogames, too – along with a lot less violence. Even though simulated or narrated violence might help build suspense in a movie storyline, or help create a TV commercial-break cliffhanger, it’s not the only way to do so. Through violence we teach ourselves to degrade and abuse. Through violence we merely terminate, with exaggerated force, the complex interactions and dialogues of life instead of engaging fully and intricately with  them. Guns symbolize this fatal violence and are used to bring it about. Very much in contrast to guns, penises–as another part of our mortal bodies–symbolize our humanity, and are used to bring it forth.  

We DO need stronger laws regulating gun ownership and use. We DO NOT need stronger laws regulating which parts of our bodies have to be covered where and when. Let’s admit that social nudity, for all its humane benefits, is not a panacea. But living our vulnerabilities daily, with our all-too-human limitations in view, reinforces just how fragile, how precious, how worthy of extended analysis, and how much to be celebrated, our lives are. 


Dump Your Duds at the Door

The nude welcome is a simple and yet profound welcome.

Can there be anything as sincere as being welcomed to a friend’s home and being invited to remove your clothes? Your hosts are already nude, they prepare you something to drink, perhaps introductions are made if needed, and all during this time, you are unburdening yourself of layers of cloth or fiber. It is a relief, a comfort, a true well-coming.

After all, why stop with the shoes? Many folks take their shoes off just inside the door when they arrive home, for reasons of cleanliness. But clothes, too, have been exposed to public transportation, school desks, theater seats, waiting room furniture, spills and smells and microbes. Why not take them off too?

If it’s a warm summer day, an ideal welcome would be to remove your clothes and rinse off at the outdoor shower that these ideal hosts have on their beautiful deck. If not, OK, an indoor shower. Maybe if it’s a cold day, your hosts invite you to draw a quick bath while they fetch you a towel and prepare your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

The point is that even if it is only you yourself that you are welcoming to your own home, drop your garb as soon as you can. As soon as you unload your groceries, or take out the trash or walk the dog or whatever it is that you still must do clothed because of our paranoid society that would rather see guns than penises, then take off your clothes and feel your stress reduce, your blood pressure drop, your spirits rise.

But then what do you do if you’re relaxing at home in the nude and you hear a knock at the door? Well, if you can, extend the pleasure of a nude welcome to your guest. He or she may be surprised or alarmed at first, only to later realize what a terrific boon you’ve given. But, what if it’s someone that you just couldn’t or shouldn’t receive in the nude? And – how can you tell which kind of visitor is at the door?

Here’s the answer! As I was preparing this post, I saw a series of tweets from MattNaturist, who has devised a clever solution:

 
I wrote Matt to ask about his interesting approach to the nude welcome, and he explained to me that he set up two independent, wireless ringing devices. He has tweeted a few results: a solicitor used the upper bell, so he dressed. A neighbor used the lower bell, but he wasn’t naked when he answered and didn’t feel that he needed to take the time to undress at the moment. MattNaturist also told me that he copied the idea from yet another naturist Twitter user, which means that the idea is spreading…

If you can’t or don’t want to set up two bells, you can always try yelling through the door, “I’m nude – are you OK with that?” On the other hand, maybe that’s too polite –  maybe you’re the kind of person who opens the door stark naked no matter who is there, come what may, welcome who may be welcomed. The nude welcome will not work for everybody or for all occasions, it’s true. But as one of life’s finer pleasures, it should definitely be extended to, and experienced by, more people – whether they are already nude-friendly, or just one Dump-Your-Duds-at-the-Door-experience away from being lifelong naturists.

Introducing the Family, part two

In three years on this blog, the most popular post that I’ve written is Introducing the Family from October 2011. Evidently a lot of people would like some tips on how to get the whole family to embrace naturism. In fact, when my whole family and I went to the naturist park two weekends ago, we were asked that same question more than once by complete strangers – how did we do it? We stood out, a bit unfortunately, because even though the park does have quite a few family memberships, there did not seem to be any other families at the park that day.
The naturist park Oaklake Trails is about an hour drive from our home. Ahead of the trip, I invited a friend who lives in our city, with whom I’d carpooled to the park before, and so all five of us went out (my wife, my two daughters, our friend, and me). It took awhile to get out the door. We left MUCH LATER in the day than I would have hoped, because, ggrrr, yes I’m impatient when it’s a matter of getting to the park. But, even to go to a park WHERE NO CLOTHES WILL BE WORN there is a fair amount of planning involved (food, gas, cash, towels, sunscreen, etc.)
But so we finally got to the park. It was overcast but warm and no rain, and lots of folks were in the pool. My partner let her clothes go quicker than I had expected. She asked for something to drink, I purchased some beer, and we had a great couple of hours in the pool. Then it was time to eat, so we laid out the picnic assortment we had brought, and invited another park guest from the pool to join us–one of the folks who saw us as a family and asked, how do you do it? As we were eating our late lunch, the sun came out, and then we all six went to visit our friends who live at the park.

It’s always great to see these friends of ours, a married couple whom I credit highly with helping my family understand what naturism is. And their home, which has a huge deck facing west with a wonderful view, is just a magnificent location. So there we were catching up and making introductions over drinks and snacks, and then their neighbors came over, and then another park visitor, and in the end there were 11 of us–of all different age groups, 6 males and 5 females, most of us wearing nothing and the others wearing very little–chatting and watching the sunset (and then the starry sky), in and out of the hot tub and the hammock (my daughters), and just a general happy buzz, and the neighbors brought some sweet homemade desserts to add to the mix… and it was just heaven. “Paradise,” in fact, my partner said, and typed it onto the caption of the photo she took (see below). Also in attendance were two dogs, two deer that wandered through, and some dozen hummingbirds at the feeders on the deck. And as the sun was setting our great friend and host stood to make a toast to friendship, and my partner and I later talked about how the heck we could make a plan to buy property out there…and as we left, our host said it had been one of the best nights on the deck they had had in years.

Well, it certainly was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had, and I’m still living the afterglow, but here’s the most interesting part, the reason I’ve written this as a continuation of the Introducing the Family post: the initiative for the visit came from my family. This is an immense victory because I did not say anything: I did not directly proselytize, agitate, cajole, advocate, or act in any way to bring this about. What happened is that my younger daughter randomly said to me in the car one day not too long ago, When are we going to the naturist park? I wanted to shout for joy and yet I somehow avoided a traffic accident, feigned indifference, and asked her if she liked going. Yes, the pool, the house (our friends’ home)… We should go, she said. Then the next day I was coming out of the shower and my wife said, You’ve got tan lines, and I said Yeah that sucks, and nothing more. After a few moments, she said, I’d go to the naturist park if we can swim. And I said, funny thing, our daughter asked me about going yesterday… So the end result is that I am very pleased that this happened so organically. Years of patiently modeling naturism, as patiently as possible for yours truly, without insisting, have paid off. It’s true that all my family had been out to the park with me before, and had been on our friends’ wondrous deck before. So that was certainly an incentive – they knew what a gorgeous place it is–both the park in general and the deck specifically. But in the past I always had to do all the suggesting and convincing. This time none of that was needed, because the idea came straight from them.
So I am really quite proud of my partner, and my kiddos- a 19-year-old and a 10-year-old, after all, comfortable with their bodies (and unfortunately there weren’t any other kids around, closest in age were our male friend who carpooled out with us–age 30–and the other young man who joined us at the pool, age 28). Everyone was respectful, although the 28-year-old I think got a tiny bit too “happy” with the wine. But I don’t condemn the wine; it is very helpful for relaxing and overcoming inhibitions, and certainly appropriate for such a gathering whether nude or not.
And so this was the dream I lived, we lived, that Saturday. I drove us back home late, me wanting to stay of course… and now, and now… it’s “back to reality”: could we actually sell our house, get a smaller place, and buy one of the park lots …?
My sincere thanks, again, to our friends and hosts, who were among the founders of Oaklake Trails 22 years ago: such an uncommon initiative, unprecedented in this area.
I WAS SO HAPPY. And still am pretty damn happy.

A Nipple For Your Thoughts

The function of women’s nipples in lactation makes sense. But why do men have nipples? 


It’s a great question. And there are many who have given their two cents: science, religion, ancient myth…

But I prefer a different question: 

Why do we all (almost all) have nipples?

To show that the sexes exist on a continuum, not as a male/female flip of the coin. At different points along life’s journey, males may have swollen breasts or they may have flat chests, females may have flat chests or they may have swollen breasts. And anywhere in between. 

I remember that when I was fourteen, I went through an excruciating summer in which one of my nipples had puffed out but the other remained flat. This can happen to anyone, female or male, especially during adolescence. I’m male, so I was expected to uncover my chest for swimming at camp. The body shame that most of us learn to feel, left me desperate to spend as much time as possible submerged or lying on my abdomen. 

There is a big but welcome challenge here for naturism and for those of us who consider ourselves naturists or nude-positive: to more effectively broadcast naturism’s corollary to body acceptance. Nipples, breasts, chests – just like any other body part, they come in different sizes and shapes and colors and are not even always symmetrical. Just like any other body part of either sex, they can and will be eroticized by some people. But any kind of law, regulation, or censorship guideline that attempts to prohibit some nipples and not others in the perverted name of decency, or prohibit some particular parts of breasts defined with bizarre specificity, is inhumane, psychologically damaging, prurient, and ultimately, ridiculous. 

Not just our twin nipples like two coins, but the entire wealth of our bodies should be able to be freely displayed in more, not fewer, contexts, whether in cyberspace or in real space and time. But freedom cannot be forced, or it’s not freedom. Mandating top-free in public may sound ridiculous, and it is, but it is no more ridiculous than mandating that women, and not men, always cover their chests or their nipples in public. 

Free the Nipple! That’s my two cents. 



Naturist Family Values

Naturist families face any number of questions about how to deal with making known their naturist values. Do you tell the neighbors? Co-workers? What about close friends and family?

What about if your family is already well-known, celebrity-status? Maybe you want to keep the paparazzi at bay as much as possible. Probably all celebrities do, most of the time. I don’t normally care to read or write about celebrities as celebrities, but what strikes me as a particularly compelling family example of naturist values is the Willis clan of Hollywood fame. 
Paterfamilias Bruce Willis has never been shy about acting nude in his films, perhaps most famously in the 1994 movie Color of Night. His first wife Demi Moore made history with the 1991 Vanity Fair cover photo of her nude pregnant self, followed up by a body-painted cover photo for the same magazine one year later. Predictably, mainstream media reactions to the nudity both in the film and on the magazine covers were little more than juvenile attempts at provoking scandal. 
Two decades later, has anything changed? Well, the family’s next generation is in the news for nudity now. In fact, in Demi Moore’s Vanity Fair cover photo, she was pregnant with daughter Scout, who has now, in the past month or so, become a vocal supporter of women’s right to go nude or top-free, and associated herself with the #FreetheNipple movement. In response to banishment from Instagram for her photo in a sheer top, Ms. Willis went for a top-free stroll through New York City, where doing so is perfectly legal though not always recognized as such. Then she wrote an eloquent, forthright, and just terrific essay about it, in which she addresses her own particular circumstances about how to deal with making her values known. An excerpt:

I understand that people don’t want to take me seriously. Or would rather just write me off as an attention-seeking, over-privileged, ignorant, white girl. I am white and I was born to a high profile and financially privileged family. I didn’t choose my public life, but it did give me this platform. A platform that helps make body politics newsworthy. 

[…]

I am not trying to argue for mandatory toplessness, or even bralessness. What I am arguing for is a woman’s right to choose how she represents her body — and to make that choice based on personal desire and not a fear of how people will react to her or how society will judge her. No woman should be made to feel ashamed of her body. 

Scout’s older sister Rumer has supported her publicly. It’s easy to imagine that mom and dad, separated though they may be, are very proud of their daughters. I don’t know if any of the four of them are on the record using the word “naturist,” but the word itself is not necessary here. What is important are the very visible, high-profile examples that they all have made toward showing the world how to be comfortable with your body and assertive of your right to do so. 

Epitaph for an Undershirt

Here is hung
an old undershirt. 
I knew it well, or it knew me well. 
It was not a bulletproof vest
nor a shirt of chainmail, 
yet in its way it was designed to protect me;
it swaddled my heart,
it absorbed my sweat. 


Here is folded 
a tattered undershirt. 
I come not to praise it
but to recycle it –
a work rag it shall become,
that it may continue a textile utility
until the soiled and stained saturation,
the bitter dirty end. 

Here lies
a torn and faded undershirt,
washed to threadbare, 
shrunk to almost sleeveless.
I shed it, freed from it, and
I miss it not, nor covet another,
for in the end, clothes are only trappings,
and what I want is liberation. 

The shirt off my back,
all garments rent, ripped, or ragged,
the raiment I don today
is naught but the rain-bringing breeze 
and the sun-baked soil. 
Let the elements swathe me:
I give gladly of my nudity 
back to nature. 

Why Get Mad About Naturism?

Don’t get mad, get naked. On NPR.

Lately there have been some elevated agitations regarding online petitions and organizational leadership in the naturism community. Let’s recognize that there are motives for concern. For example, it may well be that the idea of naturism, at least in the US, would be better served by a more unified front than the current splintered array. But still, the US is a large, very diverse nation, and we need all the help we can get to move forward with naturism, social nudity, body acceptance, and general tolerance for nudity.  
But let’s not get mad about it, let’s just work together and get things done. 
photo credit clothesfree.com

I think the only people who should be angry about naturism are those people who find out about it, try it, love it, and then are mad they didn’t know about it or try it sooner. If that has happened to you, then turn any anger, or regret for lost opportunities, into action. Help spread the word about naturism in a casual, maybe even dispassionate, way. Help get the word to, say, NPR, which might be the only media outlet that could actually do some serious investigative journalism for a large public, without making silly jokes. Just as importantly, NPR is a mostly radio/print media outlet, so there would be no need for pixelization or black bars. Imagine, as warmer weather finally banishes the polar vortex, a week of daily feature interviews with naturist leaders speaking knowledgeably, and being taken seriously, on NPR. These would be naturist leaders from a variety of respected organizations talking about mental, physical and emotional health benefits, about tourism and sustainability, about body acceptance. 

Maybe I’m dreaming. But why should France or Spain be the only countries that seem to be able to promote naturism matter-of-factly with any success? Let’s not get mad, let’s be mature and positive and matter-of-fact. And successful.