Trust me. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, or any other colour you fancy, but it’s just as easy to explain how wonderful it is to walk around nude and carefree as it is to explain how an orange tastes to someone who’s never seen or tasted one.
Some people will never agree that it’s silly to put on clothes when it’s warm enough to go without them. Lifelong conditioning does strange things to a brain. Imagine, dear fellow nudist, that suddenly someone comes up to you and tells you you don’t need to eat, that life goes on as usual without food. That’s hard to believe as well. (Okay, as far as we know now it’s not true, so please don’t try it.)
I think we need to see the ideas of convinced textiles in a similar light. Being enthusiastic about your nudist lifestyle in an honest way is perhaps the best approach. Talk about it but don’t tell people to do it too. Suggest that they might try it some time. Do you feel the nuance?
We all know that clothes aren’t natural. They were adopted as a necessity against the influences of weather and climate. No living creature is ever born with clothes on. Still, people’s minds are ingrained with the certainty that you need clothes. Teach someone something from birth and it becomes (second) nature. (Lots of sad examples for that.) If someone you meet is interested in, or even inclined to try nudism, a good way might be to encourage them to do it in the safety of their home, alone. And not just once, but advise them to try it several times. The first time is the most difficult one – most modern people have grown so distant from the sight of their own body that they’ll immediately focus on the things they hate about it. It takes time to get used to that for them. Unfortunately. But with some luck, if they do try and like it, they’ll let you know.
For some strange reason, many naturists often use the textile’s fantasies as the starting point to explain what Naturism brings to their life… and end up explaining what it is NOT rather than what it IS.
Some others try to avoid this trap but fail to explain what it IS as well, when they say that “In a naturist club people do exactly the same things as other people with the only difference: they don’t wear clothes”. What’s the point then?
Finally, I almost never hear naturists to say the truth:
The main explanation of why Naturism is so beneficial is that it frees people from irrational fears of other people. Clothes make us SLAVES of irrational fears and hypocritical lies about their necessity. Naturism LIBERATES us from slavery.
This point even overshadows the widely known fact that going without clothes as much as we can is also actually very HEALTHY.
Finally, the absence of fears and closeness to the nature brings us into harmony with ourselves, other people and nature, thus making us BEAUTIFUL. Did you notice how many people are looking for “nude” photos? This is because they are looking for beauty which they miss in their textile life.
i appreciate your analysis. but i dont think that “people arent telling the truth”. i think its not something one actually thinks about typically. you argue a socio-psychological approach. i get it. i definitely consider it a subliminal possibility. but i think – generally – its about a comfort that is instinctual – versus the learned systematic view of being clothed. both are natural at this point in our cultures, but come from different places in the psyche.
but to state so firmly that we arent telling the truth, that we are freeing ourselves from slavery of irrationality? because we are vulnerable in a nude state? we are – physically and mentally – the first is obvious, the second is prescribed. a fear, yes, irrational – not necessarily. but i still dont get the slavery unless you are discussing the shedding of status as implicated by dress and accouterments that represent that socio-economical status. in the nude state, we are certainly liberated from full view of that difference between us.
still, i think those that choose nudism already shed much of that. because that is judging and judging is a trait that wont go away with shedding clothes, it will be projected to something else like skin color or body type. most nudist have shed that judgement as well.
maybe the nudist is enlightened in this regard. maybe you are referring to those who have not yet chosen to diminish judgments. they are indeed slaves, though only to their own prejudices.
maybe i answered my own question. maybe not. but i am glad you made me think about it.
Totally agree! Textiles will never understand nudity/naturism without trying it and without getting over their religious, moral aversion to the human genitals! Someday I want to be able to be naked 24/7 in society. Yeah, in my dreams!
Amen to that! Nudism is a feeling of joy and freedom that textiles simply cannot understand.
It’s not nudity that relates to “ism.” We were born nude, it’s quite natural, and throughout history humans have been nude when practical far more than they have been clothed- natural behavior that still exists in some cultures. If there is an “ism” or “ist” it attaches to the obsession that some have with wearing clothing, therefore, “clothism” as practiced by “clothists.”
when being clothed is the social norm, being nude is a defiance and an ism
Actually I was not talking about nudism which is only limited to nudity and its social and medical benefits, but about Naturism, which is a much wider application of the initial definition: “Respect yourself, respect others, respect nature”.
We could further simplify it by stating: “Respect Your Nature!” …
Thus this “-ism” becomes a philosophy because respect can be applied to ALL aspects of our life: friendship, ecology, human rights, scientific research, gastronomy, culture, arts, sexuality etc.
Textilism is a prison: “You MUST follow that or that rule, otherwise we will make fun of you or put in jail if you do not comply.”
The amazing this is that this prison has no locked doors, yet many choose to stay there, because we are so used to be there that we simply don’t even notice the door and look suspiciously at anybody who tell about the world behind the walls.
Excellent article! You have touched upon some significant points that we all understand but have a hard time expressing. Runat makes some good arguments also, though I’m not so sure that those fears we shed are altogether irrational.
Women, especially do feel a great sense of safety among nudists/naturists that is lacking in textile society, and a lot of that has to do with shedding the clothing that creates ‘fear’. Fear of appearing unlovely or skinny or fat; fear of dressing poorly and looking bad; fear of dressing inappropriately for the situation; fear of attracting the wrong attention of of not getting the desired attention!
Without clothing, all pretense is lost and there IS no ‘wrong’ that they need worry about. ‘This is ME, take it or leave it’! Nowhere else are they able to feel truly free to just be themselves.
We’re looking forward to reading more of your work, thanks! Angie & Steve