The modern world has an aura of greater freedom but I sense it’s more about the marketing of freedom than of freedom itself. I dislike everything about any “normalising campaign”, being about naturism, homosexuality, abortion or anything else. Let me try to explain why.

 

We over complicate things. We try to find an almost religious aspect to share about anything and end up behaving like a faith propagator. Everything becomes political as a yes/no against an either/or perspective. It’s like everybody has to have a strong opinion about every subject, including the ones which do not interfere with our own life. I could never be pro or against abortion, it is something which is deeply personal, from the reasons to consider it to the reasons to dismiss it as an option. Confronted with a very specific situation, I would have to find my way through right and wrong for the given case, and only if concerned me. Who am I to pretend I’m in someone else’s shoes? I don’t want a tattoo, but I have no need to understand why some people may want one: it has nothing to do with me, his/her tattoo doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t bite me and I’m not the one to judge if it looks good or bad, as it’s the person’s aesthetic preferences that matter for the purpose. Going back to basics, we can say that naturists enjoy being one with nature, appreciate the beauty of the world and comprehend that bodies are just vessels for an individual, not the whole story. We are many things, one of which is a body. We may agree to a certain point that naturists try to promote a healthier lifestyle, both physically and mentally. But in the end, it all boils down to lack of modesty regarding specific body parts. They enjoy being naked and see no harm to others by doing so. Now, this is not _normal_ in the sense that the vast majority of people don’t want others to see them naked. It doesn’t really matter why that is, but the focal point is they don’t. So, being naked and showing oneself naked (and I mean by simply being naked at a place where others may be naked too) isn’t normal, as it’s not the norm. But I like it and want to do it. And thinking of it, I don’t really want it to be normal: I don’t want the vast majority of people to prefer a naked beach and I’m glad most people aren’t willing to be naked in public, because most people aren’t like we are. I mean, they are not worse or better, but they are different, they believe in some magical property of appendages which is beyond me. The believe one could be offended by a breast or a penis, not by a person. Only people can offend me (and it’s very hard, nevertheless), not an elbow or very small body part _normally_ hidden behind a bikini. Likewise, normalising homosexuality is silly. Homosexuality can’t be _normal_, as the majority of people wouldn’t be gay themselves. It’s a different thing altogether to expect acceptance of what is inherently a personal business. I fully support the right to anyone to enjoy life as fully as they understand. I don’t judge swingers or people in multi partner relationships: whatever works for them. I’m only concerned in whatever works for me. I don’t need to know that John and Mary are gay unless I have expectations of a sexual relationship with either of them. I also don’t have the right to mess or criticise one’s life. Mary lives with Kate: good for them. I don’t care. But I endorse my own punishment if I directly belittle John or Mary for a characteristic which only concerns he or she. I should be punished if I address any person holding hands in public. Who am I to criticise anybody I don’t really know? I also see no particular pride in being straight, so I can’t see any particular pride in being gay. I see no point in telling the world I’m proud of my family. I also see no point in telling the world that I’m not ashamed to be naked. I’m shy. Fernanda is shy, and yet, here we are, almost addicted to posting ourselves fully naked at ANW. The reason isn’t pride or normalising nudity or being “the face of naturism”, it’s engaging with others who are also the weird ones, the not normal, the oddballs who can’t see any harm in naked bodies.

 

I couldn’t be naked in Twitter, YouTube or any other social media. I don’t want to be naked among others who would perceive the photos as an opportunity to be sexual. This is not a critique to the people who do it: it’s a personal statement saying we wouldn’t be able to cope with all the garbage that _normal_ people throw at you. I feel terribly uncomfortable if naked in a crowded textile beach as the only one odd ball. I feel terribly uncomfortable if clothed in a nude beach: somehow, when arriving, I try to remove my shorts as soon as possible as to say “I’m one of you”.

 

I believe I have the right to be naked because there’s nothing about my nakedness that can cause you harm or distress. There’s nothing I demand from you for the purpose of I being naked. What I demand from you is exactly the same as when I’m clothed: let me be, it’s not your business if you like my clothes or the lack of them. I don’t exist to please you. It shouldn’t bother you if I enjoy things you don’t when I’m not forcing you to do anything. That’s why I don’t go naked in a football stadium. But I would, if more people would. I like to blend with the crowd, not to call attention to myself. When I’m in a naturist resort I’m naked and still invisible. I want to be one in the crowd, not the odd one off. I’m just a person. If I were a public figure, I’d still go to nude resorts. It would be the being recognised part that would bother me, not the being recognised while naked.

 

I am not the face of naturism. I don’t want to normalise nudity. Nudity is already normal for me, for you and for our friends here. It will never be normal for my neighbours, therefor I’m trying to seclude our garden. It will never be normal for the lady who carries our mail. Therefor, I’m keeping clothes near the door when I need to answer it. It is normal for a few of our friends, so I can’t even recall if any of us was naked or dressed the last time one of them was here. Should any of our friends at ANW visit one day, we may open the gate for them naked. Or we may not. Most of the time, if I’m wearing a t-shirt and nothing else, I don’t even consider myself naked. It takes me a moment or two to realise I’m “indecent” for the vast majority of _normal_ people. 

 

We don’t have clubs here. To us, a club is an association of people with its own private space in which members can just hang out naked. If we had a club here, we would certainly join. We don’t join the Portuguese naturist federation because they have nothing to offer except a membership card. We live in a part of the country which isn’t like Algarve or any part of costal Spain. There are no nude beaches here except an unofficial one which has been a sexual hangout place in the past. I went once and didn’t find it _normal_, even for a not _normal_ person like myself. It’s sexually charged, and I don’t want to be in a sexually charged environment as a _personal_ choice. We do have long stretches of beach here in which nudity is possible, but it’s possible in a way that sexual activity is also possible. In fact, it’s even more likely to find someone having sex than simply being naked (I’m not judging, it isn’t really sex in a public place, it’s more outdoors sex as you have to walk a very long distance to be able to find a place with no one around). Somehow, I don’t find it disrespectful. It’s not naturism as I see it, but it’s not exhibitionism if there’s an almost 100% probability of not being seen. That’s why we dislike going to secluded beaches. We rather leave them alone for people who want to hide.

 

We also don’t want to be the face of naturism. We are gladly here to be ones among others. There’s this photo here of a bunch of people in the sea with their backs turned to the camera. I could be one of them. I could also be with my face turned to the camera. I don’t want to show myself naked in photo to anyone who’s looking at it like we’re animals in a zoo. Nudity isn’t _normal_, but doesn’t mean it’s wrong. For me it is normal. For my son, playing drums is normal, and yet the vast majority of people don’t play drums. I don’t want to normalize drums playing. It’s something one does and others don’t. It would be very dull to have every single person in the world playing drums.

 

The world of influencers, internet public figures and famous people does nothing for us. I dislike fame. I much prefer success. But have ANW make a public initiative like, say, attempting to break the Guiness world record for skinny dipping and we’ll happily be there, if possible, completely comfortable with TV cameras. In fact, we missed it when they attempted it in Vera Playa a few years ago by just a day and were sad that we couldn’t stay.

 

Nevertheless, we both believe that there are many persons using the “I am the face of naturism” and the “normalize nudity” tags who are doing it for the best of intentions. It just doesn’t work for us. Most activism doesn’t work for us anyway. But I reckon that if there’s any kind of activism involved, what you are certain to never achieve is normalisation. 

[blockquote class='siteforum_icon_quote']Steve ANW said: 

Don't people also travel? And we do have members from all over the world, and our local relevance will only grow with time, especially with association connections.
[/blockquote]

Also, connecting here with people from UK, France, Germany, USA, Italy, ..., makes us believe we are not alone. We may be mad, but there are other mad ones out there. And that's the beauty of it.

Hi Vitor - I agree with so much of what you have written above. In my recent articles in H&E I have been talking about balance in life - not just with naturism but with everything. And how the need to force things simply doesn't help. Lines like "I also see no particular pride in being straight, so I can’t see any particular pride in being gay" are so true yet the modern world insists that we need to make a bog deal about such things as homosexuality - holding it up on a pedestal almost. I know this is partly a reaction to the days when it wasn't acceptable but instead of finding a balance and saying what does it matter - we have gone the other way. Similar things are happening with race issues. The problem is, and I think it is becoming a very big problem indeed, this forcing of issues is actually making things worse. It is breeding contempt as opposed to leading to any thing like equality. We shouldn't be making a distinction that black lives matter - when the fact is all lives matter. As you say "if there’s any kind of activism involved, what you are certain to never achieve is normalisation."  I really believe that positive discrimination and a constant reminder of various differences, failings in the past and everyone fearful of saying the wrong thing is causing society to hate - we are not bringing society together by encouraging it to grow up, we are forcing it apart like little boys and girls who play in separate parts of the school grounds. I think society was a lot more accepting when I was a teen when art galleries didn't promote art based on the colour or sexual orientation of the artist but by the paintings themselves - a time when we had a much more sensible balance. Employing or promoting someone because of their minority group is just as bad as not employing or promoting them because of their minority group. Our son is being bullied by the only black boy in school and he teases him because of his Spanish accent - it is wrong but when we have complained the school says the boy means no harm. But what if our son was doing the bullying and the teasing of the black lad? The worrying thing is is that our son is aware that the boy is untouchable because of his colour and is that not more likely to make him racist than the boys behaviour? Is it not the methods of the school that does damage. Schools and hospitals refusing to serve pancakes on pancake day or hot cross buns on Good Friday because they assume it will offend is a nonsense. The fact that they then replace this by serving naan bread instead is simply ludicrous and insulting. To not serve anything different for the day is simply a rejection of our history but to replace it with an ethnic food surely turns the rejection into a resentment. I am sure ANW members of any sexual orientation or background does not want specialised treatment over others and sees the damage such attitudes create. I have recently seen complaints that Emma Thompson is donning a body suit to play Miss Trunchbull in Matilda - "Why isn't the part played by an overweight person!" are the cries. And at the same time TV cookery programmes are told not to mention calories in case they offend those people with weight problems. Meanwhile J-Lo who has built her fame by selling her own sexuality as a semi clad, curvaceous woman is applauded for referring to her child as a "they" so as not to label "it" with a gender. Ideally what the world wants is everyone to be nondescript - a blob - no gender, no colour, no specific size, no specific height, we are in danger of being afraid to have individual feelings and attractions. 9 year old boys and girls in my son's class describe themselves as being attracted to both sexes - the need to to part of the trend of not choosing is so extreme that it effects children before they have even got sexual feelings at all. We should be proud to be individuals and to be decent, moral kind people, to be passionate, caring and giving, to have friends and family that we love and who love us - our genetic or life choices should not dictate whether we should be proud - it is what we do and how we behave that counts. 

I think one of the great aspects of ANW and naturism is that  it is a great leveller. Spend time on a beach and you spend time with naked people - and that is it - nothing else matters. If they behave then that is great and if they don't then that is a shame. I don't care about anything else. I have been on beaches where I am very much in a minority as a woman, but I am there as a naturist, so who cares. As you say it doesn't matter if people are tattooed - that is there choice - as long as people have free choice then that is what counts. If people remove their body hair and others don't then that is cool - but if one group says the other group is wrong then we have a problem - if a fashion becomes forced as a normality then choice is replaced by need. 

And I agree "normalising" campaigns attempt to remove one choice by replacing it with another. To me naturism is already very normal - being naked is actually as natural as can be. We cannot attempt to force society to change, but we can hope that attitudes towards nudity shift over time. That as society progresses it becomes accepting that it doesn't matter if someone is a naturist, just as we should think it doesn't matter if they are gay. I think in our core we all have an instinctive want to be relaxed about being naked, but we have to learn to wake up to that feeling again, and society is a long way from being that cool.   

Like you I wouldn't want to be the only naked person in the room (unless there was a purpose - such as life modelling) and I also wouldn't want to be the only dressed person. We do have a need to fit in, and I think that is one of the problems naturism faces. At the moment most non-naturists consider naturism as not fitting in and so hold back from it, when if it was more culturally accepted they may be happy to embrace it themselves. Fitting in is great and I think society has lost the idea of how great that is - we forget that we can fit in on so many levels - on ANW we fit in by being respectful to everyone no matter what their differences because we share the common love of naturism. 

Thanks for also sharing the interesting points on the Portugal national body  - I wonder what other bodies seem to offer nothing but a membership card? 

I think you are right people do use terms like "I am the face of naturism" and "normalise nudity" with the best intentions and when I suggested it was a false positive I wasn't suggesting those who use it are false but that the idea does not actually work so although it may seem positive the idea that it is to me is false - that if a national body considers this a working idea in my opinion  they are wasting their time. No matter how well intended these are as positives towards promoting naturism I believe they do not work. We can suggest the idea of "walking backwards to Christmas" as a positive towards changing the way we move down the street but no matter how well intended the idea ultimately is fruitless. "I am the face of naturism" suggest solitude and a unique quality, "normalising nudity" suggests that nudity is abnormal  and also it doesn't suggest what type of nudity. Most people on Twitter share sexual nudity - how many people consider that the type of nudity attempting to be "normalised" and of course some say exactly that. Arguing that sex is a normal and natural act and displaying it should therefore be equally natural. My argument in defence of the difference is that naturist presents nudity in situations that are currently totally acceptable in everyday, universal, social situations. If you ignore the nudity then naturism is exactly the same as everyday life. Sexual sharing is not acceptable in everyday, universal dressed society so likewise isn't in naturism. Just as getting drunk and beating your wife isn't in either situation, or pestering a member of the opposite sex when they have asked you to leave them alone. 

I love the idea of ANW trying to organise a world record breaking skinny dip. Maybe such ideas are things we should investigate - it is a shame that we are spread all over the world - but at the same time it is also a wonderful positive thing. And that is part of the balance that we have in life. Seeing that there is good and bad in all things and we need to be accepting of both things to find that grey middle ground. A middle ground where we all just get on with life without picking at scars and suggesting that some people sit firmly on the side of good and others on the side of bad. Yes we love naturism and we know it is great and we need to try and show that it is safe, healthy and wonderful and change perceptions but maybe the best way to do that is through being positive about naturism and allowing people to learn by example than by suggesting that if you don't get naturism then you are somehow lacking. The national federations should be at the front of such positive promotions - showing that naturism is great for everyone - the young and the old, men and women, individuals, couples and families - (and welcome without forcing the idea - all those other differentiations that can appear to segregate society and shouldn't) and I wonder how many are successfully achieving this? Or how many ignore families -(which makes naturism appear worryingly sexualised)  or shout out "we want women!"  (which makes naturism appear pornographic in intent)?

Wow!  Between Vitor's post and Anna's reply there is some really good material here.  I'll try to collect my thoughts and put in my "two cents".

The modern world has an aura of greater freedom but I sense it’s more about the marketing of freedom than of freedom itself. Thank for that quote Vitor and Fernada, because that is the nail hit right on the head.


The way we see it, and trying to take everything the above two posts account for, which is a lot to absorb, and we agree with, we try to take the simple path. Today's rhetoric is based in post modernism from the sixites, and it has been built upon and expanded through academia over the last 30 years, and we now find ourselves in a place, where activists want to completly remove sex, as in Male/Female and replace it with gender identity, and as with Vitor, we agree, we want no truck with it, because it is divisive, and creates conflicts between the masses. We have seen touches of it at a national level. Within it is a veiled attempt, to tell us we are all free to be who we wish to be, and to a degree, some of that we can accept.

Our view is that being naked is natural, it is part of being human, it is how we were created, and on a anthropological scale, it is how we are meant to be, dare we say the words, Shaved Ape? There is a trend currently driving gender and identity, but it is being driven by wealthy people, invested in big business, politicians have been bought it is as simple as that, look at all the countries and their Socialist/Markist agendas, it is clear who is getting the cheques. Again referring back to the quote of freedom, and its perception, we agree, we are perceived to be free, we argue that freedom is at risk.

So where does that leave naturisum and the national bodies, we have read forums on the national level that talk of the need for the young (Who enbrace gender identies) to continue the future, and how they are working hard on our behalf to bring awareness to governments, and to a very small degree they are right, some changes have been made, especially in the UK, where the law has been revised, which is a huge positive, but where does that leave us, and everybody else, as we try to push our message through the mass of all the latest gender issues currently being touted?

This dogma that is plauginging the modern world, is everywhere, but when you confront it with facts, it falls down, and actually, people are not as stupid as they first appear, and there is a lot of opposition to it at the moment from the common man, social media, which has been a primary vehicle for this is suffering as a result, and big business is getting the very strong message that it is starting to fail in its message.

The simple truth is, as we have stated before, it appears that Naturists are as misinformed about none naturists, as none naturists are about naturists. The truth is, when faced with a mass of gender identy issues, a large majority of people, reject them, and yet they are far more willing to accept a naked body, which is evident in some of the new advertising we have seen of late, a good expample would be the Adidas or Stella adverts. Yes they are to sell, but the point being missed is the simple fact that they include nudity, because it is less divisive, than gender. Our national organisations are failing to see this, and capitalise on it. On our national forum last week the WNBR was mentioned, and it was instantly stamped out as, "That is nothing to do with us and a seperate organisation."

Talk about sheilds up? We remember streets lined with happy smiling faces, it may not be 100% Naturist, but it is achieving a greater acceptance than natioinal naturist organisations currently.

The truth is, that gender, has even detracted us from the actual sunject matter, which is "The good, the bad, and the ugly of national organisations."

Rob has been involved in a forum post on British Naturism of late, which is the same tired old question of where are the young? A couple of members of which one is Rob has hit the nail on the head, when a photo of Glastonbury was shown from a national paper, of two naked people walking through the clothed crowd, and no one cared at all. Rob highlighted his point, he had in his youth been to Glastonbury several times and he and his friends always ended up naked. He posed the question, "Why is our national naturist organisation not there?" It was a good point that ruffled a few feathers.

The truth is, a large number of our young enjoy being naked and have embraced it more than people realise, they are just where BN is not. They do not tend to join clubs, and tend to hang out in groups, Rob is currently as he posted working to arrange an interview with a group of young people to get their views, something he will be blogging here on the site. 

What our national organisations are failing at, is in one sense, they are failing to embrace one tradition, "Family natuism" and in the other sense, they are enforcing the wrong tradition. "Hidden old school club mentality" There is a strong sense of stuck in the past, and it is eroding naturism , which is seen by the young (18-30) as filled with old people and uncool.

We have globe trotting naturists who preach they are the new naturisum, whislt hiding their privates through clever screen shots, but are they really? We think not, because as we stated in our blog, naturism especially on a national level, is starting to feel a little elitist, and that is really detering the young, and families. 

If naturism is to move forward, it does need to be balanced and inclusive to all, as Anna so rightly wrote. But we also think it needs to be seen more as natural, not normal. Normal suggests it is abnormal to start with, we would even argue, the word "Authentic" would be more fitting, because as we all know here, when clothing comes off, all we can be is our authentic sleves, which by simple deduction, states everyone is unique, but enjoys being naked. That word alone removes gender indenty and politics.

There is too much hype, politics, and trendy words being banded around today, and the national organisations are missing the point. Again as we stated in our blog, the key to the future, is to naturalise families and the young, so that it appeals to all and has a future, and those two aspects are greatly lacking within the national organisations.