normal

There’s normal. And then there’s nudity.

Or: is the world too sexualised for naturism?

The most common state of being. Accepted by the majority.

Nudity

Considered either weird and not normal, or exciting and something to be secretly enjoyed by (probably) that same majority, these days.

Sexual

What nudity is associated with, these days.

Making people see what naturism actually is, seems to be an uphill battle more than ever. The entire world is so sexualised that anything involving skin is immediately considered erotic, if not worse.

Or am I using the wrong word and is the world sexually repressed? At times I’m not certain. Maybe it all comes down to the same thing, who knows.

It’s a sad state of affairs though.

Freedom

So many people could lead a much happier and carefree existence if they could escape their clothes once in a while and experience true freedom.

Every time I hear or read about the kind of freedom someone experiences when submerged in naturism the first time, I smile. A dozen people will say a dozen different things, and they will never really touch the essence. Maybe it is such a deep-rooted feeling that there isn’t even a word for it.

Natural

Lots of people also mistake ‘normal’ for ‘natural’. Most of the time they couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not natural to wear clothes when it’s hot; it’s adjusting to the normal. Natural would be to take off the clothes and be less hot, instead of switching on an air conditioner (which is ‘normal’).

It’s not natural to have a car, it’s normal for most people and very convenient.

This shows how far the ‘normal’ people have removed themselves from nature, where being ‘natural’ is normal.

I will keep my naked fingers crossed for a more natural normal. Maybe it’s not too late.

Normalising Nudism

You don’t have to be naked to normalize it

You may have heard of it. Or seen it online as #NormalisingNudism.

And yes, the British s in Normalising pops up everywhere.

A great naturist/nudist friend of mine,Nevada Motojicho, wrote: “You don’t always have to be naked to normalize it.” (Follow the link to find him on MeWe or look for him on Twitter.)

That struck a chord with me that sparked this post. Because he is right.

Traditionally nudists flock with birds that have the same lack of feathers, in this instance: clothes. That’s how they feel most at home and natural. The fewer restrictions for the body, the more nudist they are. Check.

But… statistically, as far as I know, the majority of people in this world are not nudists but textilists. They’re the human species that do not come close to nude beaches and such venues because, well, there’s a lack of textile there. Figures, right?

So, take your average group of people.

Like on the left.

All happy and… dressed. Poor souls. We all know that.

What better setting than this to start educating?

No, this doesn’t mean you should find a bunch of people in clothes and get naked near them. Unless you like that and want to risk being arrested, which will happen in most Earthly places.

It’s just grabbing the opportunity to talk about nudism or naturism. As soon as hobbies come up. When vacation comes up. When spending a leisurely evening comes up. And you don’t need to slap nudist in their face immediately either, unless you know it won’t be a problem. There are many ways to introduce a nude lifestyle to people. Expressions like ‘clothes are overrated in my house’, for instance. That leaves it to everyone to draw their own conclusions. If they’re curious, they will come and ask, even when it may take some time for them to gather some courage.

I think it’s also important to keep it at one or two remarks at first. Don’t overdo it, or you risk ticking people off. Looking like a nudist addict can stigmatise you as a pervert in modern society.

I’m curious what you think about this. How you approach things like this.

Paul

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.

Natural vs. Normal

Every so often you hear that nudism is normal. Walking around naked, clothes-free, undressed, nude, call it what you like, it is normal.

Actually it is and it’s not. Why do I say that? According to Dictionary.com, ‘normal’ stands for

conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

There is says that normal is natural. Interestingly enough though, looking at ‘natural‘ in the same place doesn’t list ‘normal’ with ‘natural’:

– existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificial)

Normal means that it’s the norm, the regular, standard thing to do. Most people wear clothes, as that’s the norm. It’s generally considered the proper (normal) thing to do. And then there’s us, the bunch of freaks who renounce clothes wherever possible. Have you heard people say “that’s not normal”? And do you know that they’re right? It’s natural but not normal. Now if they were to say “it’s not natural” then they’re wrong.

Unless they can present empirical proof that most of them were born clothed.

In the end the thing that stands to question is: do you want to be normal or do you want to be natural? And before you get under steam and start venting: yes, we all want natural to be the new normal, but that’s not going to happen by tomorrow. We’ll just have to stay natural as much as we can to make the point that “not wanting to be normal” doesn’t mean we’re abnormal.