The internet is so troubled by nudity. Those that hate it and mistrust it and those that abuse it. Facebook's attitude towards nudity is getting worse and is becoming more common on other sites. Though when you see the behaviour on Twitter it is hardly surprising that some sites are scared of it. Sites like Twitter will I am sure go the same way, fearful of being part of the degredation of society they will pull the plug on all nudity, which on facebook appears to be moving onto paintings and nude photos that don't actually show those parts of the body they used to concentrate their fear on. If people were able to behave as naturists do then the whole banning of nudity on Facebook and other sites would probably never have happened. I think that average person is pretty cool about a mother breast feeding or a non-sexual nude photo that doesn't emphasise the genitals, but the level of unpleasant photography and sexual commenting has led to the idea that there is no safe barrier and resulted in a blanket ban. A portion of the human race simply does not know how to behave, and everyone suffers in return.   

I am reminded by a supposed News story on an internet site today shared by RnR that the media hypes up the idea of people being offended by nudity - and it is a sad state of affairs. 

The article ignores the many hundreds - or even thousands of people who happily took part and viewed the WNBR in London and instead refers to two families with children who were supposedly offended. 

With lines like: One frenzied mum took to Twitter to announce that her children had been horror-struck by the sight of the ride, and to complain that she herself would probably lose sleep over it too, telling her followers: "OMG we saw the naked bike ride, all ages, all sexes, my girls are scared for life, in fact I won't sleep tonight."

And another with an aunt using foul language when referring to the fact that she has her 2 year old niece with her! And the Aunt and Uncle fought furiously to shield the eyes of their toddler charges.

The article goes on to have one man complain that the people were not the sort of people you wish to see naked and another talking about the need to clean bike seats after use. 

There is so much about this article that is disgusting and shameful - and I wonder how much the author had to push to find some people willing to be involved in the vile tripe on display.

The sad thing is that people read this and they see the words of a hand full of people and are lead into believing this is how people actually feel and how they should feel. Too many people are sheep and will follow where they are lead. The public are offended when they are told to be, because they feel that it is right to be. While the media enjoys stirring society into fearing nudity - society will continue to fear it - even if they do not see the logic. 

This is a big problem that all sensible aspects of life are facing at the moment from all sorts of media. If the internet told people they could fly then thousands would be jumping off cliffs like lemmings. It is sad that the media doesn't wish to encourage people to recognise the good that can be found in being comfortable with your body and nudity.

"I wonder how much the author had to push to find some people willing to be involved in the vile tripe on display."

We would say quite hard, as she had to resort to searching Twitter. It is abundantly clear, this trash peice was written by a person opposed to naturism, but that begs the question, how is this even considered to be worthy journalisum? A good peice would have allowed a rider to talk about the body positive aspects of the nudity, of which there was no mention at all, she covered the rest of the rides facts, but not tyhe reason for the nudity, in so much as it is firstly a symbol of how vulnerable the cyclists are on the roads, and secondly, it is about being body positive, and highlighting how every human body is normal. The fact she fat shammed riders is completely uncalled for, and simply contributes to the sort of rhetoric we have seen leading to a negative body image crisis amongst the majority of the population of the UK.

Sadly, this reporter had a real chance to write a good balanced peice, and yet for some reason or another, chose not to, and in doing so, she has created yet more inequality and discrimination against naturists.

It is a sad state of affairs when "News" through views on social media rather than social media discussing the News and other important topics. These people on Twitter may not even have been in London on that day. 

It stuns me that individuals will take the word of someone on social media about any subject - despite there being no proof of their right to comment on such subjects - and ignore the words of qualified experts in any given field. But for "journalists" to do the same is a tragic state of affairs and shows how little they really care about actually researching and exploring topics. A story based on children being horrified by nudity will gain clicks - even from people who know it is nonsense. And clicks on the page earns money from the advertising pop-ups littered all over the website in question. While the internet remains a "cookie-monster" we will continue to get journalism that encourages clicks over education. 

Some websites even specialise in fake news - and you don't know it from casual reading - it is hidden in their "about us" pages or small print. These "news" items then get copied onto social media as truth. A year or so back someone posted a fake story about a seagull biting off a naturist's testicle on a beach - thinking it was a shocking truth - on the ANW home page. 

I wonder if anyone on social media is silly enough to think our fake 1931 advert is actually real?  https://www.anaturistworld.com/albums/photo/view/album_id/1297/photo_id/15143


Fake concerns travel like waves around the internet, moving around the globe to resurface on your computer screen months later. Chinese whispers in print form. Sadly they never seem to be positive or helpful to good causes. Always negative and harmful. I think one of the toughest things we face as naturists but also as humans is combatting the high level of fakery, damaging and hateful behaviour on the internet. The reason there are so many scams and cons on the internet is because even the most reasonable of people can be suckered into believing things in print - and when that comes to trends of attitude and behaviour in society - the wrong influences can be really scary.

If the media wants to teach people to fear their bodies and the bodies of others - then that is what will happen. You can fool 99% of the people 99% of the time.    

I wonder if the survey that we covered here: https://www.anaturistworld.com/article/46050/the-bn-ipsos-naturist-survey-october-2022 could shed any light on this topic. 

Can the public really be that offended or concerned about naturism is 14% of people are happy to take on the name of naturist or nudist, 39% of people have done at least on of these four: 

Sunbathed without a costume

Swam without a costume

Been on a foreign naturist beach

Visited a British clothing optional beach, resort or club

and 22% of people have been social naked at least once in the last 12 months.

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 noty mind are simply part of the silent majority?

Any thoughts?