You may be surprised but I sometimes think about non-naturist things. Feel free to skip this post if you’re not interested.
I hate daylight savings time.
Each time the ungalactic overlords start messing with the clock, I have problems for at least a week, and that can stretch up to 2 weeks. People who don’t feel that problem often shrug that off with the statement “You simply sleep a bit less/longer and that’s it.” If you are one of those, you’re a lucky person.
Here in the Netherlands, a majority is against DST or Summertime as it’s called here. Last Sunday I read a Slashdot article that 70% of Americans are against it. It’s not up to me to say it’s true but it would not surprise me.
Time warping should be left to experts like Dr Who, or the people who invented the Time Tunnel (who remembers that series?)
The Time Tunnel
Moving back and forth can’t be healthy
Here in the Netherlands we move back a week before the US of A does. I am still not back on schedule, which stinks as I have a job. More people I know complain about it.
Also, I doubt this is healthy and the way things should be. We’re still natural beings (‘naturist’ says so much, right? Tell me if I’m wrong) so we should adjust to nature, not adjust nature to us. We’re already doing that in too many ways.
Human health is too much under the table for the benefit of the economy. Let’s at least get rid of this one.
And perhaps not so human, but I shall leave that up to you.
Indoor sports are important
Naked volleyball – a naturist’s favourite, it seems.
Being naked and doing sports is fun for most people. Of course, there are always people whose body isn’t up to sports, either never was or isn’t anymore.
For those who enjoy it, having an indoor option is important. As you can see in the above image, the volleyball players have a lot of fun. In the sun. The times, they are a’changing though, as Bob Dylan already knew long ago. The times are bringing low temperatures, rain, cold things and a general unpleasantness for being outside. I am sure you see my point already.
So if you want to do indoor sports, what options are there?
This depends a lot on where you live and how many nude sport-folks you can round up. Going to a gym for a nude sports hour once a week sounds great but there’s hardly a gym that wants to open up for two people. Still, a nude gym hour is an option.
Here in the Netherlands, many swimming pools have an evening per month for nude swimmers. Sounds like a good option too – unless you’re not in the Netherlands. Sorry.
Following swimming is the good old sauna. Nude in the heat, what is better?
The next thing I can think of is indoor tennis or badminton.
I know there is a location in the Netherlands (I am from here so… 😉 ) that offers naked badminton once a month.
What other options come to mind? Darts sounds like a good sport to do naked, and it’s something many people can do. It’s low impact and still it can be very competitive. And that brings me to pool or billiards.
I am not very good at this but playing this game can be a lot of fun. You will need a place that has a good table, which makes naked billiards a bit more complicated than nude darts, which you can do in almost every home if you have a sacrificial wall. (Not every dart hits the board, keep that in mind!)
Board games are an option too
I admit, you have to be a fan to play board games, but those are just as easily played and lost in the nude as in clothes.
And finally, if you want to take it to the limit, take your clothes off and play a game of chess with this set:
You can find it here. Be warned. This set is not cheap!
Last week I had the joy of going to a sauna/wellness centre again. Always a delight, something like that.
The benefits of a wellness centre
For one, it’s good for you. At least for me, and judging from the number of people there, not just me. 🙂
Such a place is where I can wind down fully. Relax. No stress allowed there. Take it slow, go where you want to go when you want to go. And another good thing: no clothes needed.
This is the most important thing. Your towel. Have it with you to sit on, as any proper naturist knows. In a sauna that’s very important. With all that heat and sweating, you don’t want to sit where someone else has been perspiring a few minutes ago.
That’s a given, I think.
Another wonderful benefit is what you can see.
And no, that’s not the staring at the pretty people there. The same goes for a wellness centre as it is at a nude beach: no staring. Also: you’re there for you, not for the others – unless you’re there with friends, then you’re there with each other. And still, no staring.
What I mean is that you encounter the greatest variety of body-types at such a place. Again, just as you do on a nude beach. We are all so different in the way we are the same! And despite all our different bodies, we’re all the same.
At a wellness centre, nude beach, nude swim, you name it, everyone is there for the same reason: to feel good in their own skin. Perfect. Just before starting this post, I thought about how it would be to run into all the same kind of perfect, beautiful bodies in such a place…
Ehm. Nope. Not for me. I said ‘the same’, right? And that is what I meant. Not just everyone being pretty, ripped, toned, tanned, but the same. Just to add some more dullness to what’s nice to look at once in a while.
To me it would feel like looking at a stream of identical-looking robots.
Give me the differences. The big and the small, the thick and thin, the perky and the flabby, the dark and the pale. Those are the things that show people are people. Every kind of people.
I am sure you know what I mean. Prude social media. Did I hear someone say ‘Facebook’? Ding! Right in one. That one is, as far as I know, the most tight-assed, buttoned up place that allows murder and porn while being on a witch hunt against naturism, right?
Nope.
They are against nude images that show ‘too much’.
This up here is too much. Totally unsafe. You can clearly see body parts. Something that Facebook is against, unless – under conditions – it’s meant to be art. They decide what is art. Or unless it’s ‘educational’. They decide what is educational. (See, you’re picking this up quickly!)
This up here is Facebook-Safe. I hear what you say: this is bonkers, mad, crazy, bull-shit, BS, insane, unreal. In short: this is Facebook.
And still there is a way, but you may not like it.
Yes, there is a way to promote naturism on social prudia. And you don’t even need to deface (I mean de-body) images for that.
Victorian bathing fashion
The way is to be smart about your images, or forget about images entirely. You can write a good piece on naturism, add an image of someone in a bathing suit and detail how insane such a piece of cloth actually is.
If you are into blogging and you really want to post the links to your blogs on a social prudia, make sure you are careful with the imagery. The hard part is that it’s difficult to predict which image will show up on a Facebook page. When you use WordPress, you can assign an image to be the main one but Faceprude can select a different one. You can work around that by removing the preview from the link. Or add a prude-book safe image to your post there, which will remove the preview and still you’ll have something to show.
But I need my images to express myself!
I know there are lots of people who desperately want to show the world how nice it is to be nude, using pictures. Do so, by all means, in the places where you can. Diaspora is cool, Mewe is cool, Twitter, for now, is cool. Naktiv.net is a good place too. But Faceprude isn’t. You can spread the word there by doing exactly that: spreading words.
I thought I’d dump this info here, in case you are a dedicated Zuckerberger. I understand that – the whole world and their aunt is on Faceprude. If you want to tell the world there about your nudism, your naturism, your clothes-free lifestyle, use the right words and the safe images. Using images that show the opposite of what you want to tell the world is a good way, especially when they are funny.
Dedicate some words to the benefits of looking great in a bathing suit and how it keeps you warm in the water.
Sing the song of your people about the benefits of walking around in smelly, stinky clothes after a hike.
Be creative. Don’t hold back. Use what’s available.
During a walk a while ago I suddenly wondered about that. Suppose that one day (and may it happen soon), there would be no more bias against the nude body, and we were all free to go naked wherever we want.
How long would it take before the majority of people would be fine with that? After how much time would people stop pulling out their phones to take pictures of yet another naked person walking by?
Here are my uneducated guesses
I think the first days would be bad. There would be outrage by the overly pious and ‘faint of heart’. Tonnes of images and miles of video footage would go online and I am sure we’d be mocked and called names too.
But after those first few days I think that more and more people would feel the urge to at least try this. Mostly after the first wave of pictures and video has come to an end.
Why just a first few days?
I base this guess on how quickly people get used to being naked when they try naturism themselves. Usually, it’s only a matter of an hour and often even less. When you see more nude people, the fact that they’re nude vanishes. I think the same thing will happen in the streets. It’s like the Carnaval in Rio: when 1 person dresses up and goes into the street, everyone will notice that person.
Carnaval, Rio de Janeiro
But if more than 20% of the population does it, there is some kind of critical mass that gets passed and then the dressed-up folks get not that much attention anymore. Now I am probably way off with the 20% for Rio but it’s not Rio I am talking about here. This post is about the number of people who want to go nude when the weather’s okay for it – and it’s okay for going nude much faster than the dressed community would agree. Simply because we know and they don’t.
And then, after a few weeks…
I think that after a few weeks the big acceptance will happen. When people notice that nude people are just like dressed ones. We won’t go around having sex all over the place, like they don’t.
I am convinced that there will be people who are going to do that though. And then it would be our responsibility to step in and stop that behaviour. It will have much more impact when a nude person stops other nude people from such behaviour than when we wait for the (dressed) police to come and do that. Showing the textile world that we, the nude, are against that, makes the most powerful sign.
Naked discrimination should stop
Nude, bodypainted girl being arrested
I think we all agree with this. It is my experience that most normal people (the ones in the street, not the politicians, religious zealots and other ‘influencers’) don’t have a big issue with nudity. It’s the media that make it a ‘big deal’, and then there’s the ‘lucky few’ who take it as an opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight, but if it’s not nudity, they would find something else for their own purpose.
That’s what irks me the most. During nude walks in England, I’ve met people, also older people, who didn’t give a damn about me being naked. They liked me being polite, wishing them a nice day. The normal things.
Also here in the Netherlands people don’t really care. I do notice there is a trend in the wrong direction going on, which has to do with the influences of the many restrictive cultures and religions that are coming in. And then there is Germany, where clothes-free recreation, FKK, was ‘invented’. They’re really okay with it.
