Nudism – Page 12 – Zjuzdme.org

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.

Car growing on a tree — Crap – was I wrong??

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.

clothes on tree

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.

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.

Nudist bowling alley 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

Naked mountaineering 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 naturist’s view on ‘telling the world’.

Telling the world.

Until a few days ago I didn’t shout my involvement with and love for naturism from the roofs. Okay, I still don’t but a while ago I simply felt I had to do something. That something turned into a blog post on one of the sites I own, a site I don’t use very often. If you want to see what I put up there, please follow this link (which will open in a new window/tab, so be warned). Note that just about everything in that post is stuff everyone of us already knows.

I did this because at times I hear so many bad, weird and wrong things about naturism (and this past week was one of them) that I felt the need to set things a bit more straight via a blog that gets a reasonable amount of attention and which hasn’t mentioned much in the light of naturism so far.

This blog is connected to the evil place called Facebook. That assured me that I would reach a lot of people. Faceborg doesn’t show everything to everyone so this was a long shot, but I think one that paid off. (The post was hardly touched on the big F, as in hardly any ‘likes’ and only a few comments) but the amount of views of the post was impressive.

Will I do more of those posts?

I don't know

I really don’t know. It felt good to do this one. The people who saw this now should be a little more educated about naturism and its benefits, and those who aren’t won’t ever be, so I doubt that hammering them with more is going to pay off.

But it felt good.

A naturist’s view on “forest bathing’

Forest bathing?

Yep. Forest bathing. It’s not that you shower with leaves (although it’s an option), but it’s a Japanese practice. It merely means that you go among the trees. Trees and other forms of nature have a positive influence on people. They bring peace and rest, and stress levels go down rapidly when among trees.

In the forest

I love going into the forest and lucky me, I have a small one right across the street. Forests are good. They provide air, shade, good smells (usually) and… you can bathe in them. Quoting from the site I linked to up there:

Forest bathing—basically just being in the presence of trees—became part of a national public health program in Japan in 1982 when the forestry ministry coined the phrase shinrin-yoku and promoted topiary as therapy.

The entire article is quite a read but worth the while, I think. It tells you so much about trees and being in a forest. There’s no need to walk, run or do anything. Leave your Fitbit at home, there’s no race, no record to break. The only thing you should break there is the tidal wave of stress and other impressions that life throws at you.

The article doesn’t mention nudity so if you’re looking for nekkid people you’re out of luck, but if you’re there and you have the opportunity… take off your stuff and enjoy the forest in the most natural way. Naked.

A naturist’s view on nipples.

Nipples. The dangerous body parts.

Karate

Nipples are difficult and dangerous, or so it seems. Even more so than skilled karate hands and tae-kwon-do feet.

blurred nipples Nipples – let me rephrase that – female nipples are so dangerous that they need to be blurred on ‘regular’ television and in most media.

What is wrong with them?

Recently I listened to a podcast of the Naturist Living Show about breasts and nipples. The things I heard there were astounding…

In that show Stéphane talked about a plastic surgeon that corrected breasts, either to enlarge them or to make them smaller, but also how a woman was changed into a man. The odd thing, he said, was that – when the patient was still a woman, her nipples were blurred. After the procedure of removing the male chest breast tissue was completed (note that this was still the same person but now considered a man), the nipples were shown on television without any form of censorship. The very same nipples! Talk about hypocrisy…

Free the nipple.

It’s because of this idiocy (the only word that fits the bill) that I support movements like Free the Nipple.

Everyone has a body. A body is natural. Why should specific, tiny parts of the female body be regarded as dangerous, illegal, immoral or otherwise be put in a bad light?

Free the nipple. Free the body. Every body.

A naturist’s view on Point Of View

Point Of View

Point of view? For naturism or nudism? How does this matter, you might ask? Well, for me there’s a big difference between points of view. I was struck by that again when I saw a tweet that pointed this out very clearly to me. Maybe, after reading this post, you’ll see my point.

The tweet

tweet about a nude day This is the text of the tweet and the image that came with it. You can find the original tweet here.

Well, you may ask, what’s wrong with this? Isn’t this what naturists and nudists stand for? To this I say yes and no. The answer depends on, you guessed it, the point of view.

Yes. Waking up naked is good. There are lots of studies all over the Internet that show how sleeping in the nude is healthy. It’s also most comfortable. The people who sleep naked know this. It’s a valiant attempt to convinced people who sleep all dressed up to try this.

No. And here we switch to another point of view.

The wording in this tweet depict nudity as something extraordinary. Wake up NAKED. Have coffee NUDE. Emphasis, emphasis. Be CLOTHESFREE for the rest of the day. More emphasis. This speaks as if the person creating the tweet also finds these things amazing and out of the ordinary. A mindset that leans towards textilism. (Is that actually a word; a person who thinks the way textiles think?)

My way of phrasing this would be:

Wake up,
have coffee,
and remain #clothesfree for the rest of the day…

A changed point of view

Do you see the difference? My version, the one I’d love to live (especially the third one as that’s close to impossible), comes from the naked mind, the way of taking nude life as normal.

The first one, pointing out the naked awakening and the coffee in the nude, feels to me as if it originates from what I might call a ‘convert’, someone who is trying to live the nude life but still has his or her hooks and anchors in the dressed manner of being.

Challenging the mind

Of course, as you may have understood by now, this is a tournament of the mind. A way to think differently, to embrace the concept of nudity, naturism, the clothes-free life, or however you want to call it in another way.

A naturist’s view on the perversion of beauty

Perversion of beauty?

Yes. It happens. All around us. The thought that naturists stand for, that every body is a good body, isn’t supported nor carried by everyone.

As I was listening to the November 2009 episode of the Naturist Living Show podcast, a show I can really recommend, I heard so many things that struck me and rang my bells that I had to write this post about it.

So, what’s the buzz?

In the podcast I heard (among other things) a story about a young woman who apparently looked good and healthy, who was incredibly influenced by the media and their unrealistic goals of “beauty”. She had decided to contact a plastic surgeon who would make all kinds of fake alterations to her body to make her “beautiful”.

There would be breast implants, a “tummy tuck” and a few other “improvements”, which she wanted to get done as a “surprise” for her husband who was away. (Image is not of said young woman.)

Now really… who would want to improve a body when there’s nothing wrong with it? And that only because Supermodel the outside world is proclaiming that you are not good enough unless you look like Kate Moss, to name one of the super models that clearly are the basis of existence for many woman.

It’s a shame and it angers me tremendously that wonderful people with what, a flaw, a wrinkle, a tummy, stretch marks… that such good, healthy, beautiful people feel compelled to obey the words of a bunch of lunatics who are only after their money. Because that, of course, is the name of the game. Beauty products that cost hands full of money. Plastic surgery isn’t the cheapest kind either. And for what? To be turned into unreal, plastic versions of themselves?

Photoshopped model

People who have no wrinkle, who are “industrial beauties” and whose cheeks probably will crack when they try to laugh (if their plastified cheeks actually allow them to laugh)?

Stop the plastification of people!

Real people are much better in my opinion. The true value shouldn’t be put on someone’s outside. That’s not going to last, no matter how much cash you throw at plastic surgeons, pill mongers and diet advisers. In my view it’s much healthier to cultivate your inner beauty.

It’s something that will cost you less and bring you much more. Be beautiful the naturist’s way. Trust me, there are more people like us, with our flaws and flabs, than there are industrial grade beauties. We’ll outnumber you always. And we’re far happier.

A naturist guest’s view on asking.

Today’s naturist’s view is from a fellow naturist who sent me his remarkable but also fabulous experience while in Amsterdam, waiting for a connecting flight. Here’s Colin’s story.

I was travelling home [to the UK] from a short business trip in Germany. All was going well until my flight was cancelled because of the wintery weather. I needed to stay over in Amsterdam and quickly found a hotel at the airport. The following day, once I had checked out, I had a bit of time to pass before my flight in the early evening [which was also cancelled, but that’s another story]. I considered what I would like to do and concluded that I would enjoy a swim.

I just lacked 3 things: a pool [even the hotel that I had just left did not have one], swimwear and goggles. Finding a pool was a matter of using booking.com to find local hotels and filtering to show ones with a pool. There were two that looked promising, so I hopped on a shuttle bus. At the hotel, I explained my problem and asked if their pool was available to non-residents. The woman said that they had no policy, but I was more than welcome to use the facilities [free of charge!]. So, one problem solved and, as I can manage without goggles, I only needed to address the swimwear question.

Nude Swim Amsterdam — Actual photo from Colin’s experience.

My first choice would be to swim nude, as this is always my preference. I figured that Holland is quite a liberal country, so I might be able to get away with it. Otherwise, I guess I could have worn underpants. I headed to the pool changing room, got undressed, wrapped a towel around myself and went to the pool. There were two other users; a pair of young women, who, it turned out, were also English. I explained my “problem” and said that I would be OK to wait until they were finished, if they were embarrassed by someone’s nudity. Their response was to say that I should just carry on – they did not care. So, I had a very pleasant swim.

The moral of the story is: if you want something [in my case, the use of a pool and permission to swim nude], you should just ask. What is the worst that can happen?

Thanks for sharing this, Colin!

If you, dear reader, have a story you’d like to share, don’t hesitate. You can reach me through my contact page, or go the old-fashioned way and drop me an e-mail.

A naturist’s view on paintings

So what about paintings?

Paintings have been made since the early days of mankind. For example the cave paintings that were found in France.

Back then no one had any issues with people being depicted naked, dressed, full frontal or in any other way.

How different things are now. Paintings that show nudity can be removed because of the type of visitor showing up in the gallery or museum (remember the horror about Hylas and the Nymphs?)

Nudity in art is of all times

What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful that the garment with which it is clothed?
~ Michelangelo

I seriously cannot wrap my mind about the fact that the nude form of people can be the subject of so much debate and controversy even in art.

We all have this one, fine layer that protects us from so much. It’s our skin. Why does that need to be hidden, stashed away as something dirty or unclean?

As you can above, even the great master Michelangelo knew this.

There are only few great, ancient painters that may not have created images of nude people. Also modern painters don’t shy away from that, and with good reason: what more beautiful can they portray than humans in their most humble, natural form?

male nude painting — Found on Pinterest. Origin unknown.

Nudity is honest. Nudity doesn’t hide flaws. Anything not portrayed is up to the discretion and intent of the painter. This is 100% contrary to clothes, where any piece of fabric can and will be used to cover up whatever one wants.

I wonder (actually I don’t!) if the people who despise nudity in art (or anywhere else) carry that conviction from their own experience and will, or if this is all implanted through culture and upbringing.

Ancient times and nude art

Musicians and dancers on fresco at Tomb of Nebamun — Via Wikipedia

The above Egyptian painting shows nude dancers at the tomb of Nembamun. It was painted around 1400 BCE. Nudity was normal back then and no one had a problem depicting something that was normal.

I want to finish this little trip (okay, I admit those are jumps) through the history of nudity in art with this painting of Cleopatra by the Italian Giampietrino, actually Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli. It was created somewhere between 1520 and 1540.

Through the ages, nudity hasn’t posed a problem. Why then, I ask, is the world suddenly churning out so many prudes and sensitive people who pale at the sight or idea of painted skin?

Questions for you.

So now I will leave you with some questions:

What is your favourite painting? I really would like to know. They can be ancient, modern, any style.
Who is your favourite artist?
Do you make paintings? If so, where can we enjoy them?

Thanks for reading all the way to here.

Be happy and naked…

Sunday Noon Nudist

Sunday nudist