Life should be this easy…
Author: Paul
Promoting the clothes-free lifestyle.
A naturist’s view on morals and ethics
Morals and ethics
Things that many people like to hold in high regard. Certainly when it comes to naturism. To many non-naturists, naturism isn’t ethical nor moral.
What are morals?
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of moral is: of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior.
In that light no one can win the discussion on morality when the two parties are either in favour of, or against the nude lifestyle.
This shows that morals are subjective. Personal. Group or culture related. What one finds right, the other finds wrong. Is eating people wrong? Ask a cannibal.
What are ethics?
According to the same Merriam-Webster, the definition of ethics is: a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values, the present-day materialistic ethic, an old-fashioned work ethic —often used in plural but singular or plural in construction, an elaborate ethics, Christian ethics.
So morals are the building blocks of ethics. Define a set of morals, wrap a ribbon around that set and give it a name.
Again this is a subjective assessment. Personal. Cultural. Brought about by your environment.
The ethics of naturism
I am sure everyone can come up with reasons why naturism isn’t ethical. You just have to consider naturism from the mind of a hard-core non-
naturist. Suddenly exposing your nude body to others isn’t ethical. Allowing (or even forcing) children to see nudity isn’t ethical.
All those are things that serious naturists have moved past a long time ago. From ‘our’ (in any case my) point of view it’s not ethical to deprive your body from sunlight. It’s not ethical to look at people and judge them based on their clothes.
I’m sure you can all come up with some ethics that contradict between several groups. If you have examples, I’d like to hear about them. 🙂
Sunday Noon Nudist
Anyone can be naked and body-painted. Naturists and nudists are among the most accepting people.
Sunday Noon Nudist
A naturist’s view on what’s normal (and what’s not)
What is normal and what isn’t?
One of the biggest misconceptions today is that people don’t seem to understand the difference between normal and natural. Not everything that’s normal is natural.
Natural is what we find in and do with nature.
Normal is a result of the general acceptance of ‘norms’ in a group of people. Like, you guessed it, wearing clothes.
I know I’ve touched this subject several times, but I can’t stress it enough. Nor can I hope enough that clothed people will read this and start understanding the difference between normal and natural. So many things are being called natural while they are only normal. For example most people consider it natural to own a car. Seeing what the manufacturing of cars, and the pollution from the exhausts does to nature, I would dare to say that nature doesn’t agree.
Cars don’t grow on trees, so they aren’t natural.
Clothes don’t grow on trees either, so for that simple reason they fall in the normal category. This to the chagrin of many a naturist or nudist who prefers to be natural when the weather and environment don’t require that normality.
Benefits of normal
Of course there are benefits to having norms. Not going around killing everyone you don’t like is one of them, a norm that in general most people seem to adopt quite easily.
Driving on the same side of the road as anyone else in your country (after picking one of those cars from a tree) is another one that I consider a good norm. I’m sure everyone can list another of such norms that makes sense. (Not making a lasso out of two rattle snakes, for instance.)
Natural and why that’s smarter
Being clothes-free when you don’t need clothes is smart because you don’t sweat in those clothes. Sweat, trapped in fabric, causes unpleasant odours.
Being clothes-free will decrease the need for air conditioners tremendously.
Eating natural food is much healthier than stuff that comes from labs and adjacent factories. But what about allergies, I hear some of you say. Allergies seem to arise from the chemical warfare you wage on your body by eating the stuff from aforementioned labs. My rule of thumb is that if a package contains at least 2 ingredients I can’t pronounce, I don’t buy it. And what about the colouring additives to make food look nicer? I can do without that. Spots in apples? Please, if that means there was no DDT on them. Did you know that margarine in its pure state is white? It has food colouring added to it so it looks like butter.
Give me natural, please.
Sunday Noon Nudist
A naturist’s view on nudism. (And naturism!)
Nudism. Naturism.
Is there a difference? I know that in most of the US of A the words are used interchangeably.
I also know that in Europe, for instance, the two words are used differently. Naturism appeared after nudism. I’ve been thinking about those two words recently.
Thoughts on the difference.
Nudism. The word has ‘nude’ as its base. Being nude. Like the people in the image on the right, playing bowling, having a clothes free, good time. Great for them, and if you’d ask me I’d join them in an instant. For one it’s a great way to be socially nude, and for another it would be nice to practice bowling again. (I truly suck at it.)
Naturism. The word has ‘nature’ at its base. Being with/part of nature, like the people
on the left. Naked in nature, being part of it and experiencing it that way. Exposing themselves to the real, rough world in their own vulnerability. It’s a way to get things into perspective.
An average human, in clothing (be it protective or not), will consider himself or herself master of the world, maybe because we’ve conquered just about everything. How untrue such a statement is when you’re naked and perhaps even afraid!
We’ve not conquered things. We’re adjusting them – and often with disastrous results, like the acid rain the world faced and still faces, climate change, and earthquakes that happen because we empty the earth below us from fossil fuels.
Can you be a nudist and a naturist?
I think that’s perfectly possible. Being naked in and around your house, whenever that’s possible, makes you a nudist (in my view at least). Enjoying the outside in the nude, being close to and having respect for nature (one of the pillars of naturism according to the INF) makes you a naturist.
More and more I feel like dropping all those words and labels. Be who you really are. Be naked and nude and a nudist and a naturist and clothes-free. As long as you feel good about it and you don’t intend to shock others when you’re in your natural state.
A question to you. About the Naturist’s Library.
This is a question for you all.
I’ve made some changes to the Naturist’s Library pages. Yes, PageS! Now there’s another thing I could add, but I really need to know if there’s some kind of interest for that.
At the moment there’s just the basic info for a book on the page. Title, author, purchase links, and (as one of the recent changes) if it’s a volume in a series.
I could extend that with (part of) the back cover text that comes with most books.
At the moment a book entry looks like this:
I could add a little button/option/gimmick/whatever to each entry that will let you see the back cover text, for instance when you hover the mouse over it. However, that involves a lot of work. Not creating the option, that’s the fun part, but adding all those texts to the information. Note there are over 150 books in the library so I’d have to go over all of them and copy that text.
So here’s my question: how valuable is that? Would you appreciate that? Would you use it? Would it be a good addition to the page?
Sunday Noon Nudist
A naturist’s view on respect
Respect? Why address that?
If that’s your reaction to this post then either you’re wonderful or you don’t understand. Either way, read on and see for yourself if this was a waste of time. 😀
What is respect?
Let’s have a look at Wikipedia:
Respect is a positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important, or held in high esteem or regard; it conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities; and it is also the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for their needs or feelings.
Respect is something easily overlooked, or even misinterpreted as just any kind of attention.
It’s also something of key importance in naturism (and real nudism).
Objectification
In an interview I heard an older lady talk about respect. She said that, in the ‘outside’ society (meaning the world outside a naturist area), women are trained to wear these clothes, put on that make-up, behave such an so, all to be acceptable. That same ‘outside’ society trains men to be on the lookout for such women. She said also that such a society implicitly trains men to see women as objects.
This is exactly what the industry is after. Creating impossible goals for people. The reason for nervous breakdowns, cosmetic surgery (lunacy, surgery should be saved to rescue people’s lives) and a never-ending stream of frustration.
Naturism and respect
The lady then spoke about her experience at naturist resorts. People there treat you with respect, she said. Men don’t need to undress you with their eyes, because there’s nothing to undress. They look at your face, talk with you because they want to talk with you. And that implies respect.
Most amazing fact about this lady was that, as a child, she’d been sexually abused between the ages of 10 and 20. She said that in the ‘outside’ world she often overdressed as to appear sexless, and still she felt insecure. In a naturist environment she felt safe, respected, accepted, and she felt no fear at all.
Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that beautiful? How much baring yourself can bring?
Do you have experiences of respect that are related to naturism where you would have expected them to occur in the ‘outside’ world as well? I’d love to hear about them…
Be happy. Be safe. Be nude. And… be respected!