Category: Nudism

Naked unless someone is offended.

Original post at The Nook – by Richard Foley:

Many people, in the clamour to be seen to be politically correct, seem to believe in the principle that you should not do something if somebody will be upset by it. Being naked in a public space, for instance. While at first sight, this might sound a most honorable viewpoint, I’m not sure people have thought it through entirely.

For instance, would you be happy to join a WNBR, where nudity IS accepted, and then during the course of the ride if some one person was upset at seeing naked people, you would immediately get dressed?

If so, this seems to me to be the very problem with society today (and maybe forever). If we only ever accept a situation on the basis that nobody (pun intended) will ever be upset, then we should bring back racial segregation because somebody is upset that there are blacks on their side of the street. We should also deny women the vote because someone might be upset, (at least half the population of Appenzell in Switzerland), that women should have any say in the running of the country. We should make gay people illegal (wtf! eh?) because somebody doesn’t like gay people, or is upset by the idea of somebody being gay, or is “offended” by the very thought. Etc. etc. etc.

As Bertrand Russell famously said in a letter to The Times: “In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged …”

True then, true today!

Naturist beach visit

Today it’s very warm. It’s still warm as I write this, 31c / 88F. This afternoon I took some time to go to our local nude beach to relax, get some sunshine and try to finish the book I am reading, So far I have tried that 6 times, but there are always kind and friendly people at the beach and it’s really pleasant to talk with them.

Some nude beach
Note that this is not our nude beach. I wish!

It’s impressive to find out what people visit our little beach. Last time I met someone who makes his own exclusive wine. This time I talked to a lady who has travelled all over the world and spends the winter in South Africa.

As it was so very warm and muggy, a small group decided to go for a swim. I was with them – for the first time as I’m not much of a swimmer. The water was still quite cold, several people were a bit hesitant to go in, but it was by far not as cold as the sea in which I went skinnydipping for the world record. It was great to swim naked (I know, but it’s a nice surprise every time I do it), and I think we scared a few people who were rowing a boat along when they discovered they had reached the nude beach.

As we were back on the grass to dry up, one of my fellow swimmers looked at me and said he’d seen me on TV, in a short report on the news about the skinnydip attempt. Apparently it was only a fraction of a second but I have a few unique tattoos which was how he recognised me. I should try to locate that footage, would be fun!

Meeting Peeping Tom

A few days ago I was confronted by a problem-seeker, a man who lives in same apartment building. (See here for the first post about it in case you missed it.) Today I met him again, as I came home from work. It was in the hall, so on “neutral ground”.

At first he tried to ignore me, but of course I wouldn’t let him do that. He didn’t ignore me nude, now he wasn’t going to ignore me dressed. I asked him if there was something he’d like to say to me, because I had something to tell him. He asked if I was going to take my clothes off again. Yes, absolutely, but not in the hall of course. To that he shared that he still thought it strange and wrong. I replied that I still think that staring into other people’s house the way he did is strange and wrong, and that it was his own fault that he saw someone nude in their own house. His response was that this wasn’t true, if I had not gone around naked he wouldn’t have seen me naked. Then I just asked him how he would like it if I were to appear in front of his window, fully dressed, and stare into his house in the same way that he’d employed.

“You won’t see me naked,” he said to that. Well, that wasn’t exactly the point. I just wanted to know if he’d have a problem with it, when I were to stare at him while he sat watching TV, or reading the paper, or doing something else. “Not at all,” was his first reaction, but when I urged him to really think about that, to envision it, he changed his mind: it wouldn’t be very pleasant.

Home nudist cooking
Home nudist me.

Then I left him standing there with the words: “I don’t mind. Look into my house all you want. But don’t scream at me when you see something you don’t like. I’m right and you’re wrong, and next time I will call the police for harassment.”

No new world record skinny dipping

Yesterday I participated in an attempt for a new world record skinny dipping. Unfortunately we had far too few people at the beach: we needed at least 414 and there were only 153 people there. I think it was because a) the attempt was planned on a Friday afternoon (weekend days usually are much better for that), and b) because of the poor weather (water temperature was 10c/50F).

Still, those that had come went into the water (after waiting for a while, hoping for more participants) because that was what we had come for:

skinnydip zandvoort 2013
Skinnydip Zandvoort, June 2013

(Original image and more at www.naakstrand.info. Used with permission.)

Below a short clip (in Dutch) from the newspaper Haarlems Dagblad about the event:

Why do nudists look so healthy and happy?

Good question, don’t you agree? I mean, look at them:

Nudists on a beach

All tanned, nekkid and not a worry to their mind, it seems. Don’t be fooled. They have many of the same worries as you have; mortgage, bills, all the usual. One thing they don’t have after a day like this is a lot of laundry.

But, perhaps… perhaps these people look so healthy because they are. Far too many people get too little air and light on their skin, which makes for an unhealthy body. Of course, you may argue that the sun is creating a lot of problems with skin cancer and such, but perhaps there’s a subtle difference that nudists may be more aware of than textile-covered people: in general I think nudists know that they have to protect their skin, as more sensitive parts are exposed to the sun as well. But it’s not only the sun that’s good for you. Airing your skin is important. Giving it freedom from the stuff that sticks to you, gets in the way when you want to move. It’s relaxing to wear nothing. It’s also a great way to obtain some vitamin D – it’s sent to us by the sun and taken up by our skin. Clothes are the big enemy of natural vitamin D.

male-nudists

And trust me, it’s not just the people with slim, firm bodies that are nudists, despite what so many pictures try to tell you. Nudists are people with real bodies, with scars, stretch marks, and plenty of parts in a shape that doesn’t live up to the artificially created concept of beauty and health.

And it’s those people, who are comfortable with showing themselves they way they are, who have 100% accepted that not everyone is a supermodel, those are the people who are the most healthy of all. Not just physically, but (and this is my personal opinion as is everything on this blog) also mentally. They have shifted their inner focus from “I’m not perfect in other people’s eyes” to “I am who I am, deal with it“. This is the body type you don’t see on Tumblr and sites like that a lot, but it’s the body type that you encounter everywhere, be it covered up. It may even come close to your body type.

I am convinced that it is this what makes nudists healthy and happy. This acceptance of who they are, how they look and not giving a damn what others think of it. It’s liberating. I can only advise you to try it. Try it at home a few times as you probably need to get used to it, as you learn to shed the idea that clothes are an integral part of life. If they were, we’d be born with them.

Feeling like a full-time home nudist.

At the moment I’m between assignments. As the weather isn’t good enough to head out to the nude beach (the wind is too cold and someone stole our sun), I spend a fair amount of time at home and therefore clothes-free. It’s great. In the past 2.5 days I had to slip into a bathrobe once for a caller at the door, and into shorts and a shirt for someone who delivered a package. Both events took 10 dressed minutes at best, probably closer to 5.

The box that was delivered contained something I had to assemble. If you never did that, assemble something while in the nude. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to kneel and move around when you’re not restricted by clothes. It’s so much better.

Male nudity and the collective unconscious « home clothes free

Via male nudity and the collective unconscious « home clothes free:

I have been thinking about the greater amount of men versus women who are practicing nudists. After viewing a couple of vintage videos that showed that up until recently is was much more socially aceptable for men than women to participate in nude activities.  I wondered if male nudity is something embedded deeply in the collective unconscious of humanity.

The collective unconscious is a concept developed by psychologist Carl Jung. It posits the idea humanity has collective unconscious mind that independently shapes and organizes human experiences. This consists of universal inherited preexisting forms, images and representations shared by every culture and group of people in human kind. When these representations are personified Jung calls them Archetypes. Following that thought I am suggesting that one of those universal representations is the nude male.

Read the entire post at: male nudity and the collective unconscious « home clothes free.

History of nudism – Dutch – 1969

Reporters visit a naturist resort and interview the people present. Central question is: what is naturism and how is it experienced. About the ruling culture of being ashamed, and the relation between naturism and eroticism.

Verslaggevers gaan langs op een naturistenterrein en interviewen de recreanten. Centraal staat de vraag wat het naturisme is en dit beleefd kan worden. Over de heersende schaamtecultuur en de relatie tussen naturisme en erotiek.

Being naked outside. Isn’t that cold?

I’ve been thinking about the strange effect of being cold vs. not really cold with respect to the difference between being clothed and being naked.

A while ago I was sick and tired of the continuing cold spring over here (and that feeling comes fully dressed) so I went to the sauna.

Sauna interior

Being there was great, care- and clothes-free, and as I sat outside wearing nothing but a good mood and talking to nice people it didn’t feel cold at all. And that with the same temperature as before, around 14c/57F, which I found cold while wearing all that cumbersome stuff. I’m sure most of you have experienced something similar.

The same thing happened on my nude walk a few weeks ago; despite the 11c/51F, the wind and a little rain it felt just fine.

thermometer

Now I’m not an expert on the subject, but suddenly I had this idea that the change in sensation might come because of the clothes. Clothes keep many parts of you very warm while other parts cool down. The difference between these two ‘sides’ of the body can give your brain entirely wrong information about the actual way you feel.

When you wear nothing, every part of your body senses the same temperature as it’s more evenly distributed over your entire skin. No big difference from head to toe, so no real sensation of naturally cold (cool) versus artificially warm.

Does that make sense?