Niemand kan nudisme echt uitleggen

Geloof me maar. Je kunt praten als Brugman of elke andere goed van de tongriem gesneden spreker, maar uitleggen hoe aangenaam het is om zonder kleren rond te lopen is net zo eenvoudig als aan iemand uitleggen hoe een sinaasappel smaakt als die persoon zoiets nog nooit gezien of geproefd heeft.

Sommige mensen zullen nooit toegeven dat het raar is om kleren aan te trekken als het warm genoeg is om zonder textiel rond te lopen. Levenslange conditionering doet nou eenmaal vreemde dingen. Stel je eens voor, beste medenudist, dat opeens iemand op je afkomt en zegt dat je eigenlijk niet hoeft te eten. Dat je zonder te eten ook prima kunt leven. Dat is moeilijk te geloven. (Okee, voor zover we nu weten kan het ook niet, dus probeer het niet uit!)

Ik denk denk dat we de ideeën van overtuigde kledingdragers in eenzelfde licht moeten zien. Enthousiast zijn over je eigen naakte levenswijze is waarschijnlijk de beste insteek. Praat erover maar zeg niet tegen anderen dat ze het eens moeten proberen. Stel voor dat ze het eens zouden kunnen proberen. Voel je het verschil, de nuance?

We weten allemaal dat kleren niet natuurlijk zijn. Ze zijn nodig geworden door weer en klimaat. Geen enkel levend wezen wordt geboren met kleren aan. Ondanks dat is zowat iedereen aangeleerd dat kleren moeten. Vertel iemand iets vanaf diens geboorte en het wordt een (tweede) natuur. (Genoeg trieste voorbeelden voorhanden.) Stel je ontmoet iemand die wel geïnteresseerd is, of zelfs geneigd om nudisme eens te proberen, dan zou een goede manier zijn om voor te stellen dat die persoon het thuis probeert, alleen waar het veilig is. En dan niet één keer maar een aantal keren. De eerste keer is namelijk het moeilijkste – de meeste moderne mensen zijn zo van hun eigen lichaam afgegroeid dat ze meteen zullen kijken naar de delen waar ze een hekel aan hebben. Dat heeft tijd nodig, acceptatie is jammer genoeg een traag proces. Met wat geluk, als ze het proberen en het prettig beginnen te vinden, dan zullen ze het laten weten.

Why you should not be naked

Strange title for a nudist blog, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’m not going to convince you to put on clothes. I’m trying to collect as many reasons as possible why the world of textiles in general won’t let us be naked when we want to. So here we go:

GodGod or religion forbids it.
1. The Islam forbids nudity to its followers (article on Nudist America) because it preaches modesty. For some reason being nude is not modest in the eyes of Islam.
2. The Christian God forbids it (article on GotQuestions). Even though Adam and Eve were nude at first (the way that the Christian God made them) their sin (eating the wrong apple) suddenly made them the bad guys and the Christian God made them wear animal skins. Since then nudity is sinful and shameful.
Interesting detail: there are plenty of Christian nudists, including preachers:

You look better with your clothes on.
I think this is something that trickles down from religion as well, as that’s what people were taught / brainwashed into believing. Certainly, people can look nice in clothes, but still they cover themselves, they hide themselves. It is a way to avoid revealing your true self.

cigaretteIt’s unpleasant to look at nude people.
Again a brainwash situation, and an expression you can also use for so many other things. It can also be unpleasant to watch someone eat, or smoke a cigarette. It’s what you’re used to, and far too few people are used to seeing naked people.

Clothes set us apart from animals.
Oh yes, such a fine distinction, and look at the big polluted mess the animals made of this planet.

childrenYou have to think of the children!
Silly reason. Children usually are the most accepting and open kind of people, they usually enjoy running around in the nude. It’s after being told a thousand times that you shouldn’t do that, that their conditioning starts to set in.

It leads people into temptation!
Rubbish. How can something you see everywhere be tempting? It’s a fact that what you can’t have or see is what makes something tempting.

Inuit Children in Winter Furs

 

You won’t be cold.
Ah, now there’s a reason for not being naked.

 

Nudity in art and the downfall of morality

It suddenly occurred to me, while watching some old paintings, that nudity in art has been in decline over the last number of decades.Why do I think so? Look at this painting by Rubens:
photo rubens_paris_2_zps5b104d08.jpg
Many nude people in it, and most people will appreciate this as art. In the time that this painting was made (1606/1608 –source-) no one made any fuss about it.

Then there is this painting, made in 1915 (-source-) by Adolf Heinrich Hansen:
photo AdolfHeinrichHansen-MotherAndChildAtTheBeach_zpsca034c12.jpg
No one, except for the obvious, will have a problem with this scene where a mother and her child are at the beach. These days, when a photograph appears somewhere that shows the same basic image, many people will try to beat each other in shouting ‘child porn’. That’s wrong, as there is no porn in this picture. Just a nude child having a good time at the beach. I’m in Europe. When you go to a beach here you’ll see lots of small children running around naked, and nobody makes a fuss about it.

I’m glad that at least in paintings no censorship is used. Please, look at this and tell me if you think this option is brilliant:
Art censored
I’m quite convinced that it’s not. So why is harmless nudity (yes, nudity is harmless!) then so often censored in our modern age?

(Indeed, this is not a painting, but photography is a modern art-form.)

It’s all down to the excesses that the porn industry bestowed upon us, and the manners of extreme people that take things much too far. Because of them, the knights of morality put a stamp on anything that shows parts of a body that we ‘should be ashamed of’. Not only the sexually extreme are responsible for this, however. Overall hypocrisy which is often fuelled by religion and other factions also plays a part in it. It’s sad that the world desires so much ‘guidance’ in what’s acceptable in nudity. What happened to the common sense in morals?

Nudism and nature

I think that one of the biggest problems of today is that people are closed-minded “by nature”. By their environment, by the dogmas that are tossed onto them, by interpretations of religion, by the sad but true conviction that nudity is bad. “Sinful” even, as nudism/naturism these days is so often 1 on 1 connected to sex and porn, while it has nothing to do with that.

Being nude for no other reason than to be nude means being in direct and constant touch with your skin, and that again means being in touch with nature itself, something that most people these days seem to be scared of, or have forgotten/repressed. If something is not sterilised and wrapped in 3 layers of plastic, it’s unhealthy. Many kids in schools these days don’t dare to drink milk from a cow, because “real milk comes from the factory”. You don’t get your hands dirty any more, you wear gloves and a ton of protective clothing that needs to be cleaned afterwards.

Getting dirty when you’re nude means you wash yourself afterwards. That’s all there is to it. No attack on nature with the detergents needed for cleaning clothes, no disposable things (unless you need something to stay safe and/or in one piece).

Nude lumberjacks

There should nothing wrong with being naked, as long as others aren’t bothered by it. Let’s start with being nude in nature, in an uninhibited way. Everyone’s seen a naked body, and when you meet someone who’s nude you can see that this person literally has nothing to hide.

Driving in the nude

driving nude

I hadn’t done that a lot. Driving nude. Actually I was pointed to it after I had joined the Nook.

Why would you drive nude? Well, why wouldn’t you if you’re a nudist? You wouldn’t when it’s too cold, I can see that. But when it’s warm and nice, there would not be a reason to keep your clothes on while you’re in your car, unless you suspect you need to get out of your car at any moment.

 

 

A few things I have learnt since that time:

  1. It’s very comfortable. Nothing pulls and yanks, just like being nude in general.
  2. I needed to get used to feeling the seat belt on my skin. That was annoying for a while.
  3. Nobody watches you. I think this is a major thing to realise; people don’t expect you to be in your car naked so they’re not on the lookout for you. If you act naturally (and how else can you when you’re in your natural skin) they will do that too. They’ll also be paying attention to traffic. (Or their phone… 🙁 )
  4. Putting something on again is much easier when you slide the seat back all the way. (But only when you’re standing still, don’t try this on the motorway!)
  5. Keep something of clothing near in case you need to stop for a sign by e.g. a police officer. You can pull it over your lap to avoid compromising situations. (I do understand that this would not be enough for ladies.)
  6. Keep a towel in your car and sit on that. You’ll sweat and the sweat will go into the upholstery of the seat. A towel is much easier to wash.
  7. The air conditioning is much more effective: instead of mostly cooling your clothes it actually cools down you, so you don’t have to crank it up so much to feel comfortable.

 Some tips if you want to start carefullyNude behind the wheel

  1. Take back roads that you know to be quiet, or drive around quiet industrial areas in weekends if there are any.
  2. Drive in the evening when it’s (getting) dark. Of course, in the summer this would be difficult unless you’re okay with going for it much later than usual. In the winter it’s dark early, you could drive around a bit until the car’s warm and then take off your clothes.
  3. Drive around dinner time if that’s something in your area which makes most people be inside.

 

Should nudists be represented by beautiful people? | Naked Historia

Reblogged from NakedHistorian:

Should nudists be represented by beautiful people?

Posted on July 22, 2013 by

I was thinking about this whilst writing about Lady God1va.  Being an attractive woman, she is the sort of person the media want to have as a spokesperson for naturism.  It is unfortunate, but many people’s aversion to nudism is not directed to nudity as to ugliness.  How many times have you seen ignorant trolls posting “I don’t want to see that” and similar comments in response to articles which include pictures of old or overweight naturists.  A lot of people are very superficial.  Recent interviews in Portsmouth about whether men should be allowed to go topless often got the response “It’s ok if they are not fat.” The media would rather show (and the public would rather see) young, fit naturists; preferably female ones, who are seen as less threatening.

However, interviews with attractive female naturists are likely to attract the wrong sort of attention.  How many people watching “My daughter the teenage naturist.” chose to watch it because of an interest in naturism and how many were watching it because it featured a young naked woman?  Perhaps people might tune in to see boobs, but learn something useful and interesting about naturism.  However it could also perpetuate the sexualisation of nudity.

The use of attractive spokespeople also leads to the opposite effect, with people saying “It’s ok for people who look like her.”   This was the response of some people when nudists in Manchester were promoting a naked dinner party.  If attractive people are talking about being naked people with poor body confidence will compare themselves and think “I’m not good enough”.  If older, overweight people are advocating nudism, them shallow members of the public with take the attitude of “I don’t want to see that.” Which leads to wanting nudists to keep out of public areas.

The only solution seems to be having us represented by a mixed group of people of all ages and shapes, but this potentially invites both types of negative responses.

What do people think?

(Original at Should nudists be represented by beautiful people? | Naked Historia.)