[blockquote class='siteforum_icon_quote']Anna ANW said: if a good proportion of people are comfortable with the idea of naturism than are we simply guilty of worrying too much? Or is it that the people who don't like it are too vocal? Maybe we are purely suffering from a fear of support because most people who do not mind are simply part of the silent majority?
[/blockquote]

Great questions Anna. My simple answers to those question would be:
1. Yes, we are generally guilty of worrying too much
2. Yes, a minority can be loud and cast doubt, fear and outrage
3. Yes, most people won't say a word

The overarching point, shown in the numbers you shared, is that a majority of people either don't care or are supportive. However, minorities have rights too. Hence, if a minority of people is outrage by nudity for cultural, social or religious reasons, their voice is heard and the way to respect their rights is to decrease our rights to be peacefully naked.

My point is generally that if my nudity offends you, I don't force you to watch, space is large enough to walk away. However, all it takes is an angry vocal person to make a ruckus and call the police that could lead to larger negative consequences. So, net net, a majority of people won't care, hence let's be open about naturism and get naked whenever and wherever we can, while getting prepared to walk away from outraged persons so they don't perceive us a threat to their mental distortion of the human body.

BN's survey is interesting, but we feel they missed out an important question. They had the opportunity to ask a lot of people questions, and the one question we would have asked is.

Does nudity offend you?

We actually think the answer would have surprised everyone, because we still think most people are not bothered, like most things in this world of virtual signalling today, we think the main agenda like most things is being set by a minority, a small vaciferous group of closed minded individuals, who use their overtly loud voices to shout down all opposistion, and drown out the voice of reason.

We have thought for some time now, Which is why we started this thread) that there is a lot less opposition than most naturists realise. We have spoken to so many people, and we do not advertise, but we never deny it either, we are open about our naked lifestyle because we really do not feel that our natural way of living is something to be ashamed of. We do and have questioned as to those who hide their naturism, why they do it, because as we have seen, most people do not care. We wanted to see if we were right, and one way we tried that out was to ride naked through a city as a part of WNBR, and even we were surprised at the response we got.

We have over an hour of film, and we have watched it a few times now, and we encountered thousands of people on a busy friday night in Manchester, and out of all those thousands, we encountered four people who said something negative, the rest cheered, clapped, laughed and shouted well done. We had to stop in front of a busy area of people all sat drinking in the evening sunshine, and we had one on one conversations as we slolwy made our way along, it was enormous fun, as we were completely naked, and they were dressed, but no one was uncomfortable.

People did not condem us, they cheered us on, had a joke or two, and told us how much they admired us for being able to do it. Most people stated they would love to give it a try, some admitted as much as loved it, they wished they could, they felt too afraid to, but no one in that long line which was at least sixty said anything negative, they supported us fully. It was eye opening, because we like all other naturists believed that people in general are against it, and that night, we learned, they are not. 

As you all know through our blogs and opur posts, we have encouraged others to give it a try, it is a good cause, but for us that was not the reason we did it, we wanted that experience, and we wanted to know if our theory was right. We think every naturist should join a ride and see for themselves, because we know, it will open their eyes to the real people, not the select few who use their voice to pull the strings of media. The majority from what we have seen, have no problems and a very live and let live attitude, naturists have been given and are fostering the wrong impression of the public at large. 

As one who has done probably as many nude dives as clothed dives, I can say that I only ever had one negative response at the surface to my nudity. Since I was shore diving mostly, there were times that I came back only to discover others.  One site in particular on Bonaire ("Oil Slick") had a ladder to get from the water up to dry land - it was a small cliff.  There were at least two times when I came up that ladder to find folks at the top.  No one said a word.  

The one negative response was at a remote site and I encountered a couple my age.  I had aborted the dive due to currents and wanted to give them my findings as they were preparing to dive.  As I approached I was told angrily to stay away.  As I turned around I was also told to "put something on".  My guess is that they were fellow countrymen (Americans) but that was the only time I had that response.

I was seen numerous times underwater.  There was no way to judge reactions but my guess is that they were neutral to positive.

My personal feeling is that it is fear that make people react and the thought that it is against the Law. Also religion will play a big part in the fear stakes.

A naked bike ride with lots of people will be accepted as it is an organised event and seen as a bit of fun, a titilating experience to make people laugh, but not something that they would do.

Naked sun bathing in Parks in France and Germany seem to be accepted in some cities as they are more accepting of naturism in those countries.

I think in the UK there would be to many not so nice characters with their phones out patrolling the areas getting off on it for totally the wrong reasons.

Is that why naturist clubs are behinds fences and hedges ?

The problem is if we want to go anyway to normalising naturism we have to get it out from behind the high fences and into more mainstream society.

Here as in the UK merely being naked is not against the law, but many people think it is.  The police have guidence but even some of those remain confused.

One of the things is a lot of people are scared to try naturism.  It involves them taking their clothes off.  I have often said "The biggest prison in the world is the fear of what people will think".  Reality is most, not all, but most people don't care.  Those that do will try and whip up histeria amongst the others.  Those with the greatest fear are usually those with the greatest level of insecurity.

In NZ, I will swim naked off just about any beach and with just one or two exceptions I have never had issues.  Issues I have had are always concerns about children.  I have lots of kids and I have never known them to care.