An interesting and well-written piece, thank you. I've always enjoyed reading your work and appreciate your thoughtful approach. In that spirit, I'd like to offer some additional food for thought in your historical analysis, namely the shift in the locus of moral authority over the past 100 years and how that has affected organized nudism.
Nudism has always been playing defense against mainstream culture, and a large part of the reason for the presentation of the movement as "just like you, but without clothes" is that from the 30s through the 50s that moral authority rested almost solely with conventional, heavily-WASPy institutions and their lingering puritan traditions, traditional mainline Protestant churches, social and cultural organizations, institutions of polite society, which many minority groups sought to replicate to demonstrate their belonging to, and a ability to participate in, American society. When The New York Athletic Club doesn't let you in, well, maybe time to start a club that will let you in.
But that began to change in the 1960s, not just because those parallel structures began to move towards acquiring more participation in mainstream institutions, but also because of the sheer demographic force of the Baby Boom generation and the emerging cultural dominance of postwar cool.
There's any entire book to be written behind this next sentence, and since this is just a comment field I'm going have to ask you to take a little on faith, but the anti-Vietnam war movement began supplanting that institutional moral authority with cool as not just a cultural, but a moral arbiter.
By the mid 90s, when the Baby Boomers were firmly in charge of academic, political, and religious institutions in America. The radical, liberation politics of the late 60s and early 70s have become the institutional politics of our current day, particularly in academia. Take a minute to look up how many members of the Weather Underground ended up as tenured professors, and for a bonus look at what won best picture the other night. And now, as the Baby Boomer demographic edge is fading, a new generation schooled in those politics is coming into charge. A generation that, like a fish, doesn't really understand what the water is.
And institutions being what they are, ways of being in control seem to get handed off surprisingly intact when someone else comes into control. So those same puritan modes of operation are still lingering, only with a different set of ideas behind them. Foucault, Said, and Butler have combined into the new Emily Post. Here's another sentence which could have a book behind it, but because cool has so often derived from Black, Queer and other marginalized cultures in America, as cool has become institutionalized, those identities have been invested with a per se moral and cultural authority.
And, nudism is still playing defense against a very different mainstream American culture. But instead of aggressively displaying conformity to the American mainstream as it was 100 years ago, now the call is to center LGBTQ voices and racial diversity initiatives. I am in no way saying that these are bad things or unworthy goals. I'm only noting that when the object in embracing them is to atone for the original sins of our forefathers, the new boss may bear some resemblance to the old boss. That the institutions of nudism may come across as out of date is that they are, by and large, still working to appease the demands of the old boss.
Personally, I think a hot day, a cool lake, and maybe a beer or two naked under the sun is a pretty appealing proposition, and ultimately welcoming the people to whom that proposition appeals, from wherever they may come, is probably the simplest path forward for organized nudism in America.
Again, thanks for a great essay. Even if it's not on nudism, please keep writing and I look forward to reading more from you in the future.
The "freedom" we need is a generic one - just because you don't want to or can't should not allow you to demand that we are forbidden. In the USA there are a huge number of "freedoms" which are forbidden and this is ok with pretty much everyone ;o( If you are beating your head against a brick wall - stop, or at least find a way to avoid the wall.
As someone who is involved in a handful of activist causes lately and is also trying to directly be involved in nudist/naturist advocacy, I really resonate with what you've written here. I especially relate to the feeling of moving on from it. A lot of nudists I've met in person seem completely content with the state of things, which keeps making me think, "Maybe this is not what I thought it was, maybe this is just not for me..."
It keeps making me feel like my energy and time could be focused better towards movements which have foundations that align more with values I think are important, such as autonomy and liberation. That's ultimately what I thought I'd be getting out of going into nudist spaces and interacting with nudists, but I'm just not seeing it as part of the culture at the moment.
Excellent work by the way, loved the exploration of dichotomies especially!
An interesting and well-written piece, thank you. I've always enjoyed reading your work and appreciate your thoughtful approach. In that spirit, I'd like to offer some additional food for thought in your historical analysis, namely the shift in the locus of moral authority over the past 100 years and how that has affected organized nudism.
Nudism has always been playing defense against mainstream culture, and a large part of the reason for the presentation of the movement as "just like you, but without clothes" is that from the 30s through the 50s that moral authority rested almost solely with conventional, heavily-WASPy institutions and their lingering puritan traditions, traditional mainline Protestant churches, social and cultural organizations, institutions of polite society, which many minority groups sought to replicate to demonstrate their belonging to, and a ability to participate in, American society. When The New York Athletic Club doesn't let you in, well, maybe time to start a club that will let you in.
But that began to change in the 1960s, not just because those parallel structures began to move towards acquiring more participation in mainstream institutions, but also because of the sheer demographic force of the Baby Boom generation and the emerging cultural dominance of postwar cool.
There's any entire book to be written behind this next sentence, and since this is just a comment field I'm going have to ask you to take a little on faith, but the anti-Vietnam war movement began supplanting that institutional moral authority with cool as not just a cultural, but a moral arbiter.
By the mid 90s, when the Baby Boomers were firmly in charge of academic, political, and religious institutions in America. The radical, liberation politics of the late 60s and early 70s have become the institutional politics of our current day, particularly in academia. Take a minute to look up how many members of the Weather Underground ended up as tenured professors, and for a bonus look at what won best picture the other night. And now, as the Baby Boomer demographic edge is fading, a new generation schooled in those politics is coming into charge. A generation that, like a fish, doesn't really understand what the water is.
And institutions being what they are, ways of being in control seem to get handed off surprisingly intact when someone else comes into control. So those same puritan modes of operation are still lingering, only with a different set of ideas behind them. Foucault, Said, and Butler have combined into the new Emily Post. Here's another sentence which could have a book behind it, but because cool has so often derived from Black, Queer and other marginalized cultures in America, as cool has become institutionalized, those identities have been invested with a per se moral and cultural authority.
And, nudism is still playing defense against a very different mainstream American culture. But instead of aggressively displaying conformity to the American mainstream as it was 100 years ago, now the call is to center LGBTQ voices and racial diversity initiatives. I am in no way saying that these are bad things or unworthy goals. I'm only noting that when the object in embracing them is to atone for the original sins of our forefathers, the new boss may bear some resemblance to the old boss. That the institutions of nudism may come across as out of date is that they are, by and large, still working to appease the demands of the old boss.
Personally, I think a hot day, a cool lake, and maybe a beer or two naked under the sun is a pretty appealing proposition, and ultimately welcoming the people to whom that proposition appeals, from wherever they may come, is probably the simplest path forward for organized nudism in America.
Again, thanks for a great essay. Even if it's not on nudism, please keep writing and I look forward to reading more from you in the future.
The "freedom" we need is a generic one - just because you don't want to or can't should not allow you to demand that we are forbidden. In the USA there are a huge number of "freedoms" which are forbidden and this is ok with pretty much everyone ;o( If you are beating your head against a brick wall - stop, or at least find a way to avoid the wall.
As someone who is involved in a handful of activist causes lately and is also trying to directly be involved in nudist/naturist advocacy, I really resonate with what you've written here. I especially relate to the feeling of moving on from it. A lot of nudists I've met in person seem completely content with the state of things, which keeps making me think, "Maybe this is not what I thought it was, maybe this is just not for me..."
It keeps making me feel like my energy and time could be focused better towards movements which have foundations that align more with values I think are important, such as autonomy and liberation. That's ultimately what I thought I'd be getting out of going into nudist spaces and interacting with nudists, but I'm just not seeing it as part of the culture at the moment.
Excellent work by the way, loved the exploration of dichotomies especially!
What other movements are there? Anarcho-communist party of one!
Thank you, Timothy, for advocating a freedom to be nude.
What we look for determines what we find. What we find determines how we respond. Our response changes the system.
When we look for and respond to limits to free bodily expression, we are looking the wrong way.
Looking for examples of 'freedom to' will find and expand those opportunities.