I've been thinking lately that many of the reasons we as nudists think that the public is not accepting of our public nudity, may be incomplete, so I did some research. I found the site below and copied some of the most common reasons into the list below. While this doesn't cover every reason out there, these were the most common reasons given.
So if we are going to try and convince the public that nudism is healthy and not something that should be illegal, we need to address the concerns listed above. I will address a few of them here, but welcome your input as well.
1- What makes it right for one individual to decide who can and can't be seen naked in public, or in a bikini, etc? So many in this country are so embarrassed about the way their body looks due to this attitude.
2- Most of us know you can't std's from a toilet seat, so this is mostly moot. And as we know, nudists sit on their own towels, but would the public if it was legal to be naked in public? I actually have to admit, probably not, at least many of them. So this is an understandable concern, although blown way out of proportion.
3- No proof of this, and as we know from visiting nudist resorts, this is totally untrue. Actually, women are safer overall at nudist resorts than in public and get groped and such much more when dressed, than when nude.
4- Nudist families have proven for years that nudism does not harm kids and is actually beneficial as it teaches them what our bodies really look like, that our bodies are not shameful and it takes away that curiosity about the human body that generally only gets answered once they start having sex. And because they are so much more open with their nudist parents, it's much easier for them to ask questions about sex and for the parents to discuss safe sex, etc.
5- Again, see #4
6- Clothing didn't make it innappropriate, society did that for puritanical reasons. And by making nudity be associated with sex, as this person suggests is good, we teach kids that if they see a naked person that it's ok to be sexually suggestive to them, or to assume they want to have sex with you. Bad idea.
7- This doesn't even provide a reason they say it isn't wrong to be uncomfortable around naked people, just that it is the way our society is. Being uncomfortable around naked bodies is teaching shame of our own bodies. How can that be good? 100 years ago we could say 'It's not wrong to enslave another person for your own needs, as it's just the way our society is', but that didn't make sense then, and doesn't make sense now. We have the capacity to use out intelligence to decide if there is a real reason for being uncomfortable with nudity. If there's not, we need to learn to get over it and embrace this wonderful body we have.
8- Nudists have never said clothing doesn't have a purpose. But if you don't need clothes to protect you from the elements, or other danger, then why wear them? And we have epidemic proportions of Vitamin D deficiency in this country from being brainwashed into believing we need to avoid all sun on our skin. Nudists know how to not get sunburned by using sunscreen, limiting our time in the sun, etc, all without any clothes. Bacteria? Clothes harbor bacteria and make it worse. Sure, if you wear long sleeve shirts, pants and such you are slightly more protected from bacteria and germs, but barely. You pick up most germs from your hands, not your crotch, sorry. So unless you wear gloves everywhere, your clothes are doing very little to protect you.
9-So, sophisticated means you have to spend a lot of money on clothes? And what makes you think we all want to be 'Sophisticated'? I see nothing sophisticated about it. I see arrogance and pompous attitudes with the types of clothes we wear, and we use them to separate our selves into classes, but I don't see this as good. I prefer to judge someone on their personality than the money they spent on clothes, but I guess we're not as smart as the sophisticated ones. And again, nudist resorts prove that allowing public nudity doesn't lead to orgies or open copulation. Besides, we can write the law to state that just because you are allowed to be naked in public, having sex in public is still an offense.
10- No, the advocacy of public nudity is NOT meant to be sexually charged. This is someone making up crap out of ignorance or with the simple intent to make nudist look like perverts.
I welcome your input on these objections, and your thoughts as to my explanations. I'm willing to modify these answers to better address the concerns society has if you show me a better way to do so.
Thank you,
Guy Purcella
www.wearlesslivemore.org