Thanks Marc, again, a wonderfully well-considered response.  I think that one of the most important things I have gained from social naturism is greater confidence about my own body.  Having been a skinny kid and then accumulating several impressive (but in my mind disfiguring) scars, I always carried a degree of shame about my physique.  In the past decade I have enjoyed times of private nudity but they always felt covert and a little awkward but my accidental introduction to social nudity at Normans Bay last summer blew all those hang-ups away.  The couple that invited me to join them were incredibly kind and, having taken the decision to strip off, there was no turning back.  It only took a short while to get completely "in the zone" and realise that no-one was judging anyone else and the general air of acceptance was so refreshing.  Since this thread is about honesty I must own that, I suspect like a lot of men, I was embarrassed by the fact that I am not hung like the proverbial horse (again, the media is much to blame for this) and that this might be an issue but I quickly discovered that I had nothing to be ashamed of and was actually pretty average!  The whole experience was an epiphany and, I can honestly say, has changed my life.

Pip.

We agree with Marc, that it is true, there is an element to human behaviour that is naturally attention seeking, because by and large we are a social species. The question is where do we draw the line as naturists?

Something we have picked up on recently is the need to be seen, and usually at any costs, and we have found ourselves questioning at what point does the message of body positivity go to far. Last year we encountered a lot of what we called “glory grabbing.” Which is in our opinion exhibitionist behaviour, a quick scroll down twitter or X as it is now known reveals this more and more, and we have found ourselves questioning, is this really naturist behaviour, or is it something more.

We have reached a point, (Because for us we spent a lot of time last year with genuine naturists) where we have started to divide up people into two distinct categories, one being “People who are able and comfortable getting naked,” and “True Naturists.” Because we feel there is a distinct difference. We will elaborate.

There appears to us to be those who show up to events or places that are remote, strip, take images of themselves, and then leave, as they have required what they need for their own brand of validation, and then there are the true honest naturists.

These ‘so called’ new naturist celebrity influencers do appear to us, nothing more than charlatans, who parade around naked, taking pictures not with the aim of promoting honest healthy true naturism, but under the guise that this is what naturism is for the purpose of promoting themselves. They talk big about the naturist world, and link it to charitable acts under the guise of “Look at how wonderful a naturist we are, raising money for charity.” The problem is in the endless stream of staged photos and video clips, we have never seen any proof that money was raised and presented on behalf of any well know cause.

It is all smoke and mirrors, play acting, creating some form of attention fakeness, and we really do not agree with it, as we feel it is damaging to naturism. Images are captured at events that have rules that state “No Pictures to be taken” but they are somehow beyond the rules, and take no heed of them, as they must promote their naked ego’s, we feel it brings naturism into disrepute.

This concept of posed pictures for validation only, appears to be a growing trend, all rolled up with the crotch shots and spread legs wide brigade, all vying for attention and yet highlighting certain so called “naughtier parts of the body” under the guise of “body positivity” Its not, look at any 1970’s copy of Playboy, the poses are exactly the same, it is titillation for the sake of garnering followers and approval, and it has nothing to do with True Naturist values.

It appears to us these days, that there is a contagion within society of narcissism, where certain individuals are incapable of seeking any sort of meaningful validation, other than an exploitive means to garner attention using the naked body, and all trending with the #naturism.

It is sad that there are some individuals with a huge world wide platform, linked to a lot of fund raising, who post a great many articles on their blog as they travel the world, and yet considering their so called passion for naturism, all of their shots are censored, by covering parts of the body deemed sexual. It sort of feels like shooting themselves in the foot, the sites they run are linked to all the usual donations platforms, and if you pay you get to see more, and it somehow all feels a little in bad taste and wrong, is this naturism? Social media we get, it is a mine field for naturists, but on your own private platform, is there a need for self censorship there. We worry what message this gives the general public, because it looks a lot like pay for play to us, give us money for those sensational full frontal images, isn’t that the same thing as “Only Fans” How is that real or natural in any way, and yet they tell us to be proud of our bodies, and not be shy about joining in. Should we add the tag line, “But make people pay for full frontal?” It feels a little seedy to us.

We were challenged last year when we commented about it, we were told, “You’re no better you guys are recognised bloggers, you are well known.” To a degree there was some truth to that, we do blog a portion of our gardening and our socially naked life, but we do feel there is a difference. Firstly, there is no trace of us naked on social media, we do not post there, Rob does add things on his personal profiles such as articles that are well written and highlight the benefits of naturism, but there are no images of us. We blog only for ANW, which is a world wide platform, and so in that sense we are known for those blogs, articles, and contributions we have made, but we did argue, not one of our written things is attention seeking or for validation reasons. If the truth be known, we do not pose for images, well, not often, but when we do it has been for a worthy reason, such as, we posed with the ANW birthday cake, or the beautiful pictures of us that had been painted by a member. The rest of what we do is shots taken whilst being engaged in naturist activities, we would even say some of which are not really that flattering, but they are natural in every sense.

We do not see ourselves in the same sense influencers do, if anything it is label, we will always refuse to wear, what we write may influence people to try new things within naturism, but the images are not there for our personal glorification, they are there as examples to show we practice what we preach, which is True Naturism. Our focus has always been to inspire, encourage, and show the benefits of a naturist life, and we do feel we do it with a degree of respect.

The point is, there is a difference between seeking validation and being normal and natural, and yet this message appears to not be getting through to the public or to other naturists, because there appears these days to be far more shots that seek approval and attention for the sake of titillation or ego, and not so many which are just simple natural images. We do feel it is important to have these sorts of thoughts in mind if you are going to post images to a platform.

If you are going to attend an event, stay for the duration, and if you are going to use naturism to raise money for a cause, do precisely that, and show the result, do not do it simply to seek validation and attention. Keep in mind the message you want to get over, because a simple “Look at how cool I am being naked here.” Is not a good reason to splash yourself all over the internet. Be real about it, and be honest in what you are doing, and present your images with some taste, so that the public at least get to see what real naturism is all about. Our rule of thumb has always been, an image has to be unremarkable, and a tad boring if we are going to promote naturism, because in truth, all we are doing is what all the dressed people are doing, we just do it sans clothing and are honest about it.

It is a shame that most of the past few posts didn't go into the Get Real topic https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/253/get-real-with-naturism-and-anw as I feel a lot of it is very much connected to this campaign and will be even more relevant in some future articles connected to the campaign we have planned. 

Originally this topic was about being honest about your naturism in daily life - like at the doc's, to estate agents or to neighbours etc. But this happens sometimes with some of the topics, maybe it didn't have the most obvious title. 

Anyway, there has been some fabulous stuff shared here and I do agree with RnR that some of the charity raising by individuals is dubious. How do we know that any of the money ever finds its way to the causes. As for fundraising for individuals - I do get it that at times a lot of energy is put into things, and websites can be expensive to run, if you are giving a service to naturism then it is only fair to get some financial support if needed. But a lot of what you see is just funding for funding sakes. "You will get to see nudes of me if you pay me" is just awful, but also doing something purely for money does raise questions as to why do it at all, where is the passion? And where is the value? When we created ANW we had (and still do have) people saying it is wrong to cash in on naturism, but I like to think we offer more than a handful of nudes or the occasional video, or even the odd blog.  ANW means something to us and we work many many hours (and pay a lot towards the site simply existing - much more than most people would ever realise - the storage of the albums area alone is a fair bit every month) and we can honestly say we wouldn't bother if it was just about money. We could have made a lot more money putting a lot less effort into other ideas. But we care about naturism and we want to offer naturism something in return and that is our drive. I wonder how true that is to all these influencers - who are paid simply for existing - and possibly earn a lot more and for some reason are often applauded louder. 

We have been told by some of these influencers for example that they get free membership to national bodies, they also get free promoting of their "funding" at the same time - why do these bodies find the so appealing - do they really fall for the fakery? Naturism is surely far beyond such ideas and national bodies should know much better. Why would they be interested in self serving publicists - they should be interested only in promoting the growth of genuine naturism and supporting the clubs and venues under their umbrella and the events these clubs create. Celebrities for being naturists! That seems crazy. Helen Mirren that is a celebrity naturist - someone who is famous for something that isn't naturism. The idea of celebrity means more than the message of naturism - it is beyond equality. Like RnR we do not want to be considered as influencers (because influencing on the internet is a dangerous and sordid idea) and we have no want to appear "better naturists" than anyone else. We want to be Real, we want to Nurture Naturism, we want people to consider naturism through their own eyes and not be jealous of it through ours. If you are a genuine naturist and treat naturism with respect then you are an equal in naturism. We have always wanted the averageness of who we are to be important. Naturism is about normal people doing normal things (as RnR point out) but without clothes. There is no aristocracy in naturism but the influencers want there to be, and that shows a great misunderstanding of naturism, which I think shows in their various ways of attracting attention. Like RnR we try to limit our "posing" though we realise that sometimes we have to, for a specific purpose, but it is never "Oh look at us now - we are naked again!" Proper naturism doesn't place an importance on what you can and cannot see, and that is another thing many of these "influencers" get wrong - it is all about what can and cannot be seen.  

I would just like to ponder RnR's thoughts on “People who are able and comfortable getting naked,” and “True Naturists.” I get 100% where you are coming from but I wonder if they are so "comfortable" - they like being naked and they like being seen to be naked but is that about being comfortable. I wonder if maybe they are too aware because it isn't 100% natural and comfortable for them. To be needing so much recognition maybe suggests that they actually are not so at ease but think it is a big deal. When I first tried naturism the nudity was everything - it was the whole reason I was doing it, I needed to be seen naked to come to terms with the issues I had about myself and my body. To not be seen would have been pointless. I was not comfortable at first, I was forcing the issue of nudity for my own needs. At some point it no longer mattered, I found that I had come to terms with myself and no longer cared about being seen naked - which meant that I was also 100% happy to be seen naked too. I found comfort and after that I was naked because of naturism and not for a bigger personal purpose. And yet through naturism I also found a bigger im-personal purpose - I wanted to world to enjoy naturism as I did, I saw the social and individual healing power that it had and it still amazes me. Everyday I am amazed by individuals and their stories, and the passion and their reasons and their drive. Not influencers or celebrities they leave me in doubt, but people of ANW - normal everyday naturists doing small and big things and sharing in small and big ways. It delights me and stuns me. Naturism is endlessly inspiring. I wonder though if these people who are trying so hard to be seen have never found that comfort zone, can they ever just enjoy naturism for naturism's sake? I do not think they do. 

As for the word True - I love that word - True Naturists - that is Get Real isn't it. And yet Anna and I often end up rejecting the term from description because there is a large website that uses the word True and is about as far from naturism and the idea of Get Real as we are from being naturists on the moon. And sadly it taints the word. Connotations, that is what we have to deal with because of the internet. Another word that we are told has bad connotations is Lifestyle - naturism should not be described as a lifestyle because lifestyle means sexual sharing now, how tragic is that? Connotations! Which is where this topic is going isn't it? What are we teaching people about naturism and nudism on the internet.

Too many are teaching society that it is about selling nudes, libertine behaviour, sharing stolen images, sharing images of young strangers who aren't looking at the camera,  exhibitionism, getting attention, hiding parts or shoving them towards the camera, acting sexual and pretending it is positive, that it is adult only, that it is about partying, that it is about dressing up in revealing clothing or exposing leathers, that it is about giving women sanctuaries, that it is about hiding from the public behind organised events, that you must not mention children, that it is about meet ups in the dunes, that it is about plastering nudes on the internet to shock people, that it is about websites that also make money form swinging, dating and sexual sites, it is about treating people who do not understand with contempt...How can we ever expect them to understand with all of this nonsense going on? Why would people want to be naturists when we are either angry, obnoxious show offs or body obsessed exhibitionists with hidden (if we are lucky) perversions or a clique, "we own naturism and you will never be as good as us," and "naturism is our own private/trademarked life choice that we want to keep mysterious and bewildering" anti-social group. We make it impossible to get  to know, impossible to understand, and make naturists appear like a rather unappealing bunch who you simply wouldn't enjoy being with? And then we wonder why it isn't more accepted. 

Get Real is about breaking all that down and saying: everyone can be a naturist because at heart everyone is a naturist. No tricks, no segregation, no nonsense and no reason to be bemused, concerned or unwanted. The average person can not connect to influencers, exhibitionists, celebrities, sexualised sharers etc but they can connect to naturism - if they are able to see what Real Naturism is - and Get Real is about selling that to people. So people can say "Now, I Get It!"