The issue of sharing our photos on much of social media which depict us as we'd see each other in a nudist setting is complicated by their refusal to accept that naked people are not always in a sexual situation. This further confuses the non-nudists who think we're involved in orgies behind the walls/fences/gates that traditional nudist clubs have around them to keep non-nudies out. This digital fence has not helped the wider acceptance of our choice to live and socialise without clothing IMO. The idea behind sharing photos that just show 'a body' in its natural state is fine to most long-time nudists, ideally these photos will convey what we actually do in 'normal' nudist environments. In the clothed world these images of us naked can be interpreted in many different ways, some good, some negative. I actually think that 'normalising nudity' is a good thing, illustrating that nudists do what textiles do but without clothing, if we continue to hide away in clubs and resorts that are set up for nude use then we're adding to this mystic of what nudism is really about. I'm not knocking clubs, I've had some great times at them. Having said that I can't actually say what nudism is all about in a generalised way, nudists are individuals and among us we'll have different takes on what nudism/naturism is. Having image-free articles like this well written article is good, we can concentrate on what is being said in it. The more serious printed newspapers have photos but tend to have far more text, the more clickbait focused newspapers(before and since the internet became popular) tend to have a higher proportion of photos relative to the word count. I think that there is a similar balance needed in articles about nudism.
Nice Article. This is something that has troubled me for years. Naturism in the US has had a problem normalizing social nudity for decades. The easy way out has always been to ride on the coat tails of softcore porn or glamor (e.g. Health and Efficiency magazine) to get attention and, as you point out, that keeps us on the border between mainstream and prurient interests.
In the 21st century we have another issue: The younger generations are not very attracted to the sunbathing and wandering around a camp ground sort of nudism. They are OK with being socially nude, but they want more event or purposeful context. Like: 5k runs, WNBR, Protests, Hiking, nude yoga, nude game nights, etc. They are less interested in preserving our nudist enclaves precisely because they are more accepting of social nudity.
I think there are a couple of things we could investigate. First, examine what BN (British Naturism) has achieved. They have opened the doors to naturism and convinced the authorities that mere nudity is not an offense. They are organizing events in semi-public venues that are drawing more people to nudism. Second, we should examine the attitudes and activities of French naturism. They are not growing as rapidly as the British but the acceptance of social nudity is somehow "baked in" to their culture.
Also, as I think Evan has written, we need to continue to advance the notion that people have the right to be socially nude on their own property as part of their personal freedom and people have the right to be nude in public as protected speech as long as there is no intent to shock or solicit sexual behavior
This is a good analysis of why traditional nudism is dying and nudism as a whole may be evolving. I call them free range nudists and they aren't interested in living in reservations.
it is also important to note that some areas are more nude friendly than others. If there is any organization interested in expanding nude freedom,(not sure there is) that's where they need to focus.
I truly appreciate your point of view as it comforts beliefs I've already had about social media. I have abserved that we've gone back to the middle ages where knowledge was primarily transmitted through drawing and pictures as the masses were either illiterate or didn't have acces. Today naturism and the naturist lifestyle is perceived and fed to the masses as some kind of kinky fetishes. People no longer actively seek truth. They rather passively scroll pictures of sexual nudity then get it all confused and shove it all in the same box. On the other hand this could be natural selection. Less sometimes does mean more.. j just hope for those who tempt the experience it's not with a big orgy party sex fetish in mind.
This is an EXCELLENT article. We can not stress this enough....quoting from the article, "Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have enabled enthusiastic fan bases for some naturist individuals. What has been the effect on our overall community? Where is the data that demonstrates our activities on social media platforms have advanced our mission of greater acceptance in some appreciable way? After nearly twenty years of working with the big social media platforms, our organizations are smaller, our publications are leaner, and many of our beaches and campgrounds have closed. Nudity on public and even private land is coming under increased scrutiny by law enforcement officials." We seem to have long lost the sense of "community" and that is heartbreaking .
It occurs to me that one way to combat the financial failure of our camps could be to employ a different business model-that of a closely-held corporation.(limited number of stockholders, charter rules about limitation of any one individual's percentage of stock ownership , number of stockholders(board members), and the possibility of smaller lifetime membership fees coupled with yearly fees such that members needing an extended absence due to family illness for example could nonetheless retain a membership in a club. These are just a couple of ideas that should be explored in order to fund and populate larger camps. Larger camps have the potential to be able to provide a larger variety of activities such that a larger number of members of all ages would continue to be interested in joining and staying. It goes without saying that a much larger venue with a much larger population would contain a larger variety of folks and as larger cities do, would be more interesting to mire young oeople (the future naturist population). The challenge would be in the financial planning and initial financing, but this midel should be seriously considered.
Now the sight of nudity is shocking to most of society. The publication of nudity teaches people to the kind of nudity. Makes them indifferent to the sight of bare skin. But, this is only the first and insufficient step on the way to naturism. The next step should be the transition of public opinion from indifference to understanding the benefits of naturism.
Social networks are filled mainly with photographs of nude women of model appearance. This solves only one problem: the elimination of shame from the sight of someone else's nakedness. At the same time, the shame of one's own nakedness in society is only intensified by comparing one's own body with the bodies of ideal models. Apparently, this is the secret of the fact that the ratio of naked photos of women and men in social networks is inversely opposite to the real state of affairs in the naturist community. I think it is important in photo publications to focus on photos from real naturists' vacation spots, and both women and men together. And it is in a non-sexual context. I think it is such photos that can reduce women's fear of their own social nakedness and the fear of their own nakedness in front of the opposite sex. In addition, eliminating the fear of nudity is only part of the task of attracting people to the naturist community. It is important to form a conscious belief of people in the benefits of naturism for their health. This requires comprehensive research on the benefits for physical and mental health of the naturist lifestyle and their publication in the media.
Excellent read as always. Years ago, before I received tenure, I asked my dean how it might impact my application if I revealed publicly I participate in nudist activities. His suggestion was that I should keep it private as the more conservative colleagues might vote against my tenure just for that reason. Having a young family, I was not about to jeopardize my livelihood. When I was granted tenure, I eventually had to go for promotion. I remembered the dean’s message and kept my growing interest in nudism private. I wish I had I had taken a different track. But its a challenge because nudity=sex for so many people, probably the majority. Nudist websites I used to participate in years ago have increasingly become sexualized. I guess they felt they need to stay in business. Sad. We do need a new approach!
I know Dan personally, and what happened (or almost happened) with his employer was very unfair. Ultimately he saved his job by sacrificing his blog. Luckily, he’s back to writing on Medium though, which is good for all of us! https://medium.com/@naturistdan
Being one of those individuals that has kept an arms length from organized social media, I of course agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts. However, I dove into the social media world with my membership to the naturist hub, and I have posted nude photos of my hiking adventures. The thought process in that “safe” environment has been to encourage the posting of nude photos, although I never understood why (thank you for your information as to why some feel it is important). In recent months, I have noticed some members pushing back on that, and that may be due to some of the photos that have been posted. Regardless, I do strongly agree that we need to advocate for the cause. I admit that I could do more personally, but feel one of the most important acts is to be a paying member of the major organizations (AANR, TNS). The debate seems to be that the younger generations don’t like to “belong”, so spreading this word is all the more important.
The "bedroom or bathroom selfies in a mirror" do nothing to promote nudism. They do represent some one who is saying "I belong too." to the rest of the group.
However a textile sees the same photo and thinks "dick pic" because there is no context.
Short blurbs on Twitter or Facebook or MeWe or whatever are useless for promoting nudism. The most they can do is direct people to a longer post that has something meaningful to say. If a person isn't interested in the longer post, that's the end of that.
Most of the communication I see on social media has nothing to do with promoting nudism. Rather, it is nudists communicating with each other. That makes nudists feel supported, less alone, and enhances camaraderie. That's important but ought not to be confused with promoting acceptance in the general public.
The internet is full of nudist publications but by and large textiles don't go there. (Those who do are often looking for soft porn.) OTOH, they might go to a site abut a hike or a bike ride or a vacation on a Caribbean island and it happened to be a nudist activity. And you can toss in a nude or two (level of explicitness depends on your audience) but that isn't the story.
I don't think the number of followers you have matters nearly as much as what percentage of those are textile.
Yes, I read Dan’s blog regularly. It really is rather ridiculous how people view nudity and naturism. Commercials have more sexualized content than what you see at naturist places and yet that seems ok to the culture police.
A very interesting article & the complex subject. In society, for every matter there will be mix of people with good, bad & neutral intentions. It also applies when anyone uses social media for promoting the naturism. Unfortunately there is no definite formula which will help us to isolate the people having bad intentions. One can just use social media tools to isolate such people & that too when someone genuine naturist actually interacts over a certain period of time. Similarly there is no fix pattern by which we can guarantee that naturism will be widely accepted across the globe. Every genuine naturist can contribute towards the advocacy of naturism in his/her own way & style to further hope for best to happen about naturism.
This is a very thought provoking article. It touches correctly on the current media environment as the enemy of nuanced thought. The fact that politics has been influenced so deeply recently by the electronic media might have been our first clue that there is a sea change underway in our society's new way of receiving information. But now the author has astutely seen that not only opinion but underlying attitudes are being affected and has challenged us to do some creative thinking about how not to turn back the clock, but to perhaps ride this wave ourselves and carve out a distinctive fresh trail to new successes for social naturism.
An excellent article and it made me really think about what I should be doing to better support naturism. I am blessed in that where I live there are numerous places to gather nude but even there, it is not inexpensive and I am sorry to say there are few younger people who attend. But I realized I do not advocate for nudism and naturist freedom. You gave me much to think about. Thanks.
I'm very late to the party but first of all 🙌🏼 for am epic post.
Secondly, thank you so so so much for outlining the inherent sexism in historical photos. I have felt very alone in this thought and didn't want to articulate it because people are protective of history and sometimes overly sensitive. I feel tremendously relieved to have that thought in broad daylight.
As for social media, I'll take a twist on an old JFK quote and say, "Ask not how social media can work for you, but what you can do for your club with social media."
Why isn't next to anyone using SM to advertise to their customers? Instead our eyes are shredded by old websites, emails go to spam, etc, etc (does anyone even answer the phone anymore?)
Social should be all about eyeballs that matter on things that will drive revenue. It's not am evangelism platform. We all know the algorithm isn't going to do that. But you can use it to direct adverise your events, promotions, any merch you have. You can set up a Shopify store in a jiffy.
And you can also set out a strong organic social strategy that will resonate. It's not about volume of reactions, it's about getting the right engagement. So if your strategy is about being clever and subversive, figure out how you bring that to life. If it's about body acceptance and self-care, find a way to build what resonates with your base. Maybe it's about community and the environment. Great! Build it. Observe the posts that are strong and toss $100 behind it to boost it.
Social media is advertising strategy, plain and simple. And you're completely correct that there needs to be structural supports built for how communities continue to survive and thrive. I think part of the issue might be that we are more time-starved than we used to be. So how do we build for that fact instead of staying in denial.
The issue of sharing our photos on much of social media which depict us as we'd see each other in a nudist setting is complicated by their refusal to accept that naked people are not always in a sexual situation. This further confuses the non-nudists who think we're involved in orgies behind the walls/fences/gates that traditional nudist clubs have around them to keep non-nudies out. This digital fence has not helped the wider acceptance of our choice to live and socialise without clothing IMO. The idea behind sharing photos that just show 'a body' in its natural state is fine to most long-time nudists, ideally these photos will convey what we actually do in 'normal' nudist environments. In the clothed world these images of us naked can be interpreted in many different ways, some good, some negative. I actually think that 'normalising nudity' is a good thing, illustrating that nudists do what textiles do but without clothing, if we continue to hide away in clubs and resorts that are set up for nude use then we're adding to this mystic of what nudism is really about. I'm not knocking clubs, I've had some great times at them. Having said that I can't actually say what nudism is all about in a generalised way, nudists are individuals and among us we'll have different takes on what nudism/naturism is. Having image-free articles like this well written article is good, we can concentrate on what is being said in it. The more serious printed newspapers have photos but tend to have far more text, the more clickbait focused newspapers(before and since the internet became popular) tend to have a higher proportion of photos relative to the word count. I think that there is a similar balance needed in articles about nudism.
Nice Article. This is something that has troubled me for years. Naturism in the US has had a problem normalizing social nudity for decades. The easy way out has always been to ride on the coat tails of softcore porn or glamor (e.g. Health and Efficiency magazine) to get attention and, as you point out, that keeps us on the border between mainstream and prurient interests.
In the 21st century we have another issue: The younger generations are not very attracted to the sunbathing and wandering around a camp ground sort of nudism. They are OK with being socially nude, but they want more event or purposeful context. Like: 5k runs, WNBR, Protests, Hiking, nude yoga, nude game nights, etc. They are less interested in preserving our nudist enclaves precisely because they are more accepting of social nudity.
I think there are a couple of things we could investigate. First, examine what BN (British Naturism) has achieved. They have opened the doors to naturism and convinced the authorities that mere nudity is not an offense. They are organizing events in semi-public venues that are drawing more people to nudism. Second, we should examine the attitudes and activities of French naturism. They are not growing as rapidly as the British but the acceptance of social nudity is somehow "baked in" to their culture.
Also, as I think Evan has written, we need to continue to advance the notion that people have the right to be socially nude on their own property as part of their personal freedom and people have the right to be nude in public as protected speech as long as there is no intent to shock or solicit sexual behavior
This is a good analysis of why traditional nudism is dying and nudism as a whole may be evolving. I call them free range nudists and they aren't interested in living in reservations.
it is also important to note that some areas are more nude friendly than others. If there is any organization interested in expanding nude freedom,(not sure there is) that's where they need to focus.
I truly appreciate your point of view as it comforts beliefs I've already had about social media. I have abserved that we've gone back to the middle ages where knowledge was primarily transmitted through drawing and pictures as the masses were either illiterate or didn't have acces. Today naturism and the naturist lifestyle is perceived and fed to the masses as some kind of kinky fetishes. People no longer actively seek truth. They rather passively scroll pictures of sexual nudity then get it all confused and shove it all in the same box. On the other hand this could be natural selection. Less sometimes does mean more.. j just hope for those who tempt the experience it's not with a big orgy party sex fetish in mind.
This is an EXCELLENT article. We can not stress this enough....quoting from the article, "Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have enabled enthusiastic fan bases for some naturist individuals. What has been the effect on our overall community? Where is the data that demonstrates our activities on social media platforms have advanced our mission of greater acceptance in some appreciable way? After nearly twenty years of working with the big social media platforms, our organizations are smaller, our publications are leaner, and many of our beaches and campgrounds have closed. Nudity on public and even private land is coming under increased scrutiny by law enforcement officials." We seem to have long lost the sense of "community" and that is heartbreaking .
It occurs to me that one way to combat the financial failure of our camps could be to employ a different business model-that of a closely-held corporation.(limited number of stockholders, charter rules about limitation of any one individual's percentage of stock ownership , number of stockholders(board members), and the possibility of smaller lifetime membership fees coupled with yearly fees such that members needing an extended absence due to family illness for example could nonetheless retain a membership in a club. These are just a couple of ideas that should be explored in order to fund and populate larger camps. Larger camps have the potential to be able to provide a larger variety of activities such that a larger number of members of all ages would continue to be interested in joining and staying. It goes without saying that a much larger venue with a much larger population would contain a larger variety of folks and as larger cities do, would be more interesting to mire young oeople (the future naturist population). The challenge would be in the financial planning and initial financing, but this midel should be seriously considered.
Now the sight of nudity is shocking to most of society. The publication of nudity teaches people to the kind of nudity. Makes them indifferent to the sight of bare skin. But, this is only the first and insufficient step on the way to naturism. The next step should be the transition of public opinion from indifference to understanding the benefits of naturism.
There's also a big step from acceptance on a screen to acceptance in person.
This was a really good read, thank you.
Social networks are filled mainly with photographs of nude women of model appearance. This solves only one problem: the elimination of shame from the sight of someone else's nakedness. At the same time, the shame of one's own nakedness in society is only intensified by comparing one's own body with the bodies of ideal models. Apparently, this is the secret of the fact that the ratio of naked photos of women and men in social networks is inversely opposite to the real state of affairs in the naturist community. I think it is important in photo publications to focus on photos from real naturists' vacation spots, and both women and men together. And it is in a non-sexual context. I think it is such photos that can reduce women's fear of their own social nakedness and the fear of their own nakedness in front of the opposite sex. In addition, eliminating the fear of nudity is only part of the task of attracting people to the naturist community. It is important to form a conscious belief of people in the benefits of naturism for their health. This requires comprehensive research on the benefits for physical and mental health of the naturist lifestyle and their publication in the media.
Excellent read as always. Years ago, before I received tenure, I asked my dean how it might impact my application if I revealed publicly I participate in nudist activities. His suggestion was that I should keep it private as the more conservative colleagues might vote against my tenure just for that reason. Having a young family, I was not about to jeopardize my livelihood. When I was granted tenure, I eventually had to go for promotion. I remembered the dean’s message and kept my growing interest in nudism private. I wish I had I had taken a different track. But its a challenge because nudity=sex for so many people, probably the majority. Nudist websites I used to participate in years ago have increasingly become sexualized. I guess they felt they need to stay in business. Sad. We do need a new approach!
You are not the only person in academia who encountered this pressure to stay "private." Google "Dan Carlson Meandering Naturist"
I know Dan personally, and what happened (or almost happened) with his employer was very unfair. Ultimately he saved his job by sacrificing his blog. Luckily, he’s back to writing on Medium though, which is good for all of us! https://medium.com/@naturistdan
Being one of those individuals that has kept an arms length from organized social media, I of course agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts. However, I dove into the social media world with my membership to the naturist hub, and I have posted nude photos of my hiking adventures. The thought process in that “safe” environment has been to encourage the posting of nude photos, although I never understood why (thank you for your information as to why some feel it is important). In recent months, I have noticed some members pushing back on that, and that may be due to some of the photos that have been posted. Regardless, I do strongly agree that we need to advocate for the cause. I admit that I could do more personally, but feel one of the most important acts is to be a paying member of the major organizations (AANR, TNS). The debate seems to be that the younger generations don’t like to “belong”, so spreading this word is all the more important.
Thanks for sharing! I agree with the need to support the orgs!
The "bedroom or bathroom selfies in a mirror" do nothing to promote nudism. They do represent some one who is saying "I belong too." to the rest of the group.
However a textile sees the same photo and thinks "dick pic" because there is no context.
Short blurbs on Twitter or Facebook or MeWe or whatever are useless for promoting nudism. The most they can do is direct people to a longer post that has something meaningful to say. If a person isn't interested in the longer post, that's the end of that.
Most of the communication I see on social media has nothing to do with promoting nudism. Rather, it is nudists communicating with each other. That makes nudists feel supported, less alone, and enhances camaraderie. That's important but ought not to be confused with promoting acceptance in the general public.
The internet is full of nudist publications but by and large textiles don't go there. (Those who do are often looking for soft porn.) OTOH, they might go to a site abut a hike or a bike ride or a vacation on a Caribbean island and it happened to be a nudist activity. And you can toss in a nude or two (level of explicitness depends on your audience) but that isn't the story.
I don't think the number of followers you have matters nearly as much as what percentage of those are textile.
Yes, I read Dan’s blog regularly. It really is rather ridiculous how people view nudity and naturism. Commercials have more sexualized content than what you see at naturist places and yet that seems ok to the culture police.
A very interesting article & the complex subject. In society, for every matter there will be mix of people with good, bad & neutral intentions. It also applies when anyone uses social media for promoting the naturism. Unfortunately there is no definite formula which will help us to isolate the people having bad intentions. One can just use social media tools to isolate such people & that too when someone genuine naturist actually interacts over a certain period of time. Similarly there is no fix pattern by which we can guarantee that naturism will be widely accepted across the globe. Every genuine naturist can contribute towards the advocacy of naturism in his/her own way & style to further hope for best to happen about naturism.
This is a very thought provoking article. It touches correctly on the current media environment as the enemy of nuanced thought. The fact that politics has been influenced so deeply recently by the electronic media might have been our first clue that there is a sea change underway in our society's new way of receiving information. But now the author has astutely seen that not only opinion but underlying attitudes are being affected and has challenged us to do some creative thinking about how not to turn back the clock, but to perhaps ride this wave ourselves and carve out a distinctive fresh trail to new successes for social naturism.
An excellent article and it made me really think about what I should be doing to better support naturism. I am blessed in that where I live there are numerous places to gather nude but even there, it is not inexpensive and I am sorry to say there are few younger people who attend. But I realized I do not advocate for nudism and naturist freedom. You gave me much to think about. Thanks.
I'm very late to the party but first of all 🙌🏼 for am epic post.
Secondly, thank you so so so much for outlining the inherent sexism in historical photos. I have felt very alone in this thought and didn't want to articulate it because people are protective of history and sometimes overly sensitive. I feel tremendously relieved to have that thought in broad daylight.
As for social media, I'll take a twist on an old JFK quote and say, "Ask not how social media can work for you, but what you can do for your club with social media."
Why isn't next to anyone using SM to advertise to their customers? Instead our eyes are shredded by old websites, emails go to spam, etc, etc (does anyone even answer the phone anymore?)
Social should be all about eyeballs that matter on things that will drive revenue. It's not am evangelism platform. We all know the algorithm isn't going to do that. But you can use it to direct adverise your events, promotions, any merch you have. You can set up a Shopify store in a jiffy.
And you can also set out a strong organic social strategy that will resonate. It's not about volume of reactions, it's about getting the right engagement. So if your strategy is about being clever and subversive, figure out how you bring that to life. If it's about body acceptance and self-care, find a way to build what resonates with your base. Maybe it's about community and the environment. Great! Build it. Observe the posts that are strong and toss $100 behind it to boost it.
Social media is advertising strategy, plain and simple. And you're completely correct that there needs to be structural supports built for how communities continue to survive and thrive. I think part of the issue might be that we are more time-starved than we used to be. So how do we build for that fact instead of staying in denial.
Anyhow, what a great post. Thanks again. 😊