As a long time nudist who prefers to wear clothes less every
day, I dream of the day I could at least walk out in my front driveway without
clothes, similar to the picture below, but without the need to 'shield' the public from my naked body, and without the fear of being arrested for doing so. And the thought of being able to go anywhere
naked, such as shopping, a movie, dinner, etc, would be the ultimate freedom to
me. But sadly, I doubt that it will ever
happen here in the US.
I actually think
that it’s possible, although very unlikely, for society to come to accept the
idea of allowing people to live the way they want to, without dictating when
and where they should wear clothes. I
also think that society may one day realize that the way we currently treat the
issue of seeing a naked person in public is a form of body shaming, is silly, and
is sending the wrong message to our children.
Those are issues that I hold out hope that one day our society can get
over.
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| Working Naked in my Driveway |
But here is the biggest problem I see. First off, I think the main reason we are so
uptight about public nudity is that it is automatically equated with sex. Now as nudists, we know that getting naked is
Not about sex for us. But, if we were to
legalize public nudity I believe the perverts would come crawling out of the
woodwork, and that would be the biggest fear the public would have regarding
legalizing public nudity. We’ve seen it
at nude beaches where they feel that having the right to be naked on a beach
also gives them the right to have sex on the beach, or to masturbate in public,
on these beaches. In most areas, the nudist community keeps them at bay through
beach watches, nudist advocacy groups, etc.
But there are still a lot of areas where this activity continues to take
place, despite these attempts. And if nudity
were legalized anywhere in public I can easily see the perverts sitting around,
playing with themselves, even if discreetly, or gawking and staring at others,
having sex in the bushes, etc. And the police
could suddenly get much busier trying to handle these new problems.
Sure, we could write laws to help prohibit this, but those would be difficult to enforce. For example, how do you prevent creeps from staring at you, or your children, making you uncomfortable if you were enjoying a day in the park without clothes? And then there’s the issue of erections. If the general public were able to be naked anywhere, then there would likely be many occurrences of men with erections. The general public would not all follow the nudist rules of etiquette, and in public, I can see it happening often due to a more sexual atmosphere at times, such as a bar with dancing women, or other similar situations. Even if we make public erections illegal, I’ve seen a lot of guys who appeared to be semi erect, even when they aren’t , so I could see a lot of false reports to police and judgement calls. And even if a guy did have an erection and the cops were called, it would be gone by the time they arrived so would be a his word against theirs.
I feel that overall the problem would be much less than the public would believe, but I also believe that it would be a real issue. I think these are issues that are solvable, but I’m not so sure the public will ever believe that. They will come up with a myriad of scenarios where being naked in public would be more dangerous, and convincing them otherwise would likely be a very difficult task to do. So the easiest thing to do is to just continue to make it illegal to be naked in public.
Sure, we could write laws to help prohibit this, but those would be difficult to enforce. For example, how do you prevent creeps from staring at you, or your children, making you uncomfortable if you were enjoying a day in the park without clothes? And then there’s the issue of erections. If the general public were able to be naked anywhere, then there would likely be many occurrences of men with erections. The general public would not all follow the nudist rules of etiquette, and in public, I can see it happening often due to a more sexual atmosphere at times, such as a bar with dancing women, or other similar situations. Even if we make public erections illegal, I’ve seen a lot of guys who appeared to be semi erect, even when they aren’t , so I could see a lot of false reports to police and judgement calls. And even if a guy did have an erection and the cops were called, it would be gone by the time they arrived so would be a his word against theirs.
I feel that overall the problem would be much less than the public would believe, but I also believe that it would be a real issue. I think these are issues that are solvable, but I’m not so sure the public will ever believe that. They will come up with a myriad of scenarios where being naked in public would be more dangerous, and convincing them otherwise would likely be a very difficult task to do. So the easiest thing to do is to just continue to make it illegal to be naked in public.
But I’m not giving up on gaining my rights as a citizen to live my life, my way, as long as I’m not harming others. I’ll also continue to work on helping society get over their body shame and in Even if I never see the day I can walk out in my front yard naked without getting arrested, or cited, I’ll continue to do my part to stand up for nudists rights everywhere. I hope more of you will join me in this cause.
If you are interested in helping to promote the cause of making it legal to be naked in more public places, reducing body shaming, gaining acceptance of the naked human body and more, join us on our Facebook page called ‘How can we Promote Nudism Faster in a Positive manner’ at https://www.facebook.com/groups/PromotingNudism/. As of this post we have over 2,200 members and we are growing by about 10-20 new members per day.
"For example, how do you prevent creeps from staring at you, or your children, making you uncomfortable.."
ReplyDeleteIts this kind of attitude that classifies people as "creeps" and promotes anti-naked laws. If you are uncomfortable being seen naked then you should cover up. Your comfort or discomfort it your doing, not the person looking. Blaming alleged "creeps" for looking promotes clothing laws and keeps fenced nudist compounds in business.
I said it's when people 'Stare' at you, not just look at you. There's nothing wrong with being seen or checking others out, but if someone is staring at you for an overly long time, it makes anyone uncomfortable and is inappropriate. Then, they are a creep. It bothers me to be stared at like that even if I'm dressed, so would be worse for say a single woman, or a woman with kids to have a single guy staring at her for a long period of time. And if everyone was naked, then it becomes a creepy, sexual perverted stare and would be wrong in most peoples books.
DeleteAside from being much too timid for their own good we nudists seem to have very thin skin. We must accept that if we do something unusual others may stare at us. Those creeps and perverts, as we like to call them, are pests, but they are completely harmless. If the people being stared at closed their eyes they would find it impossible to detect if they were being stared at or not. This means the discomfort they experience exists only in their minds. If they chose to ignore them the creeps would cease to be a problem. To make the creeps uncomfortable you can photograph them. That usually discourages them.
Delete"The general public would not all follow the nudist rules of etiquette, and in public,"
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope not. So-called nudist rules are hopelessly up-tight and insulting.
"If the general public were able to be naked anywhere, then there would likely be many occurrences of men with erections."
Its just this kind of anti-men, anti-body bigotry that caused me to leave the AANR and never come back. If public nudity is ever to become legal we all need to be tolerant of normal human beings, including being tolerant of men. This kind of prejudiced is insulting, offensive, and works against changing laws to allow public nudity.
I personally find erections to be a non issue and not offensive. BUT, again, in a situation like a single woman in a park, with a man oogling her and then getting an erection, and parading it around, then it would be offensive and even dangerous for a woman. IF the man ignores the erection and doesn't parade it, play with it, etc, then it's not an issue, to me. But most of society would disagree with that, and that would be the problem. We don't see that problem at nudist resorts because it's not tolerated there.
DeleteAnd the problem in allowing it to be okay is where do you draw the line as to what's appropriate and ok, and what's not. Is it ok to have an erection and purposely parade in front of naked women, or kids? In my perfect world, no one would be a pervert or child molester, rapist, etc, and erections would always be a non issue and just the way our bodies react, but this isn't a perfect world, so there will always be issues with this around strangers.
I have said many times that it's not our semi-involuntary bodily reactions that should concern any of us, rather our voluntary actions and words. I have seem women comment when this subject "comes up" that in some circumstances at least, they consider erections a compliment--but these women were usually naturists with some experience. It will take a long time for our societal body issues to be healed.
DeleteIt is also very unlikely as that may do major things. First, it will dig into the clothing industry from cloth making to shopping for clothes. That would make Madison Avenue very nervous. Second, it would make nudist resorts near obsolete. So groups like AANR (American Association for Nude Recreation, Kissimmee, FL) and TNS (The Naturist Society, Oshkosh, WI) would not be interested in making public nudity legal, but are more interested in keeping clubs legal and backyard nudity mostly legal as much as possible or they would not be necessary. Self preservation kicks in on both accounts.
ReplyDeleteSee http://bacn.bravesites.com/naturism_ecologicalysound
You might also ask people to contribute to the Naturist Action Committee.
ReplyDeleteGood idea Rich. We support the NAC as they work to help gain the freedoms we are talking about here. If you would like to support their efforts, visit http://naturistaction.org/
DeleteHmmm... If the public came to accept the possibility of universal nudity, they would first have come to accept the naturist ideal that being naked does not need to be about sex. Then those who would continue to take nudity as a "license" to do public sex or masturbation or the like would be universally acknowledged as perverted in outlook and, likely, publicly shamed for their behavior.
ReplyDeleteSo I feel that any campaign for society to accept public nudity should focus on three things:
1. For the average person, the simple knowledge that nudity is fun and healthy may be enough to effect a "conversion."
2. For public officials, we should emphasize that simple nudity is not a threat to public order; that only folks who already demonstrate a tendency to disrupt order through public sex etc. would increase their activities in response to universal nudity, so there is no compelling reason to continue this prohibition.
3. For adherents to religions whose leaders tend to disapprove of nudity, such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam, we must demonstrate that nudity is not in fact against our sacred documents, nor is it inescapably sexual in nature.
If we can get many folks to understand these concepts, then we will be well on the way to a clothing-optional society.
I said it's when people 'Stare' at you, not just look at you. There's nothing wrong with being seen or checking others out, but if someone is staring at you for an overly long time, it makes anyone uncomfortable and is inappropriate. Then, they are a creep. It bothers me to be stared at like that even if I'm dressed, so would be worse for say a single woman, or a woman with kids to have a single guy staring at her for a long period of time. And if everyone was naked, then it becomes a creepy, sexual perverted stare and would be wrong in most peoples books.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It is natural to look and appreciate the beauty in other people; we do it whether they are clothed or not. But staring without consent is definitely creepy. (I added "without consent" because of course lovers often stare by mutual consent and enjoyment, and some folks who aren't lovers still enjoy long eye contact.)
DeleteApparently, public nudity is allowed in Oregon (where local laws don't prohibit it). I think other states allow public nudism too - like Vermont.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be good if genuine naturists would show the world that nudity is wholesome and not sexual.
http://naturistaction.org/StatesFrames/State_Laws_Frames/Oregon_Laws/body_oregon_laws.html
When the federal reserve note goes into hyperinflation in a few years it will be legal to be nude in many public places, at least until order is restored. The reason is simple: cops won't work for free. No one is going to work when they can't buy things and pay bills with their earnings.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article that covers a lot of ground. Interesting comments, too, even if it appears that some folks miss the point of the article and others strayed off-topic. We can nitpick over individual lines of print or ideas, but it's overwhelmingly clear that widespread public nudity is a long way in the future, if at all.
ReplyDeleteA loosing of restrictions in some public places my come, and topfreedom is a (largely unused) reality in a few places. That's a long step from full nudity at the grocery store, at school, work, or at church!
People have to inject a little reality into their hopes and dreams sometimes, and to simply deny those realities because they conflict with their own desires accomplishes nothing. If there's an obstacle, it won't be overcome by pretending it doesn't (or shouldn't, darn it!) exist.
We just read an atrocious article by an oversexed 'nudist' who totally slammed your article, even going so far as to misquote Webster's dictionary to 'prove' that there is no such thing as a pervert, and thus exposing you as a bad writer! all it 'eposed' was that he had to look up the word to see what it means, then didn't bother to read the whole definition. And HE's giving YOU writing instructions!
Folks like him, spreading misinformatin to newbies, are why we started All-Nudist.com years ago; and it's folks like you whose work we can share to demonstrate what mainstream social nudism is really all about that make our job easier!
Excellent article that covers a lot of ground. Interesting comments, too, even if it appears that some folks miss the point of the article and others strayed off-topic. We can nitpick over individual lines of print or ideas, but it's overwhelmingly clear that widespread public nudity is a long way in the future, if at all.
ReplyDeleteA loosing of restrictions in some public places my come, and topfreedom is a (largely unused) reality in a few places. That's a long step from full nudity at the grocery store, at school, work, or at church!
People have to inject a little reality into their hopes and dreams sometimes, and to simply deny those realities because they conflict with their own desires accomplishes nothing. If there's an obstacle, it won't be overcome by pretending it doesn't (or shouldn't, darn it!) exist.
We just read an atrocious article by an oversexed 'nudist' who totally slammed your article, even going so far as to misquote Webster's dictionary to 'prove' that there is no such thing as a pervert, and thus exposing you as a bad writer! all it 'eposed' was that he had to look up the word to see what it means, then didn't bother to read the whole definition. And HE's giving YOU writing instructions!
Folks like him, spreading misinformatin to newbies, are why we started All-Nudist.com years ago; and it's folks like you whose work we can share to demonstrate what mainstream social nudism is really all about that make our job easier!