Many may have seen the hashtag #NormalizeNudity or something similar going around on the internet. I guess it goes without saying all of us here support this notion.

Do you think that will ever happen however? Would there ever be a day when not wearing clothes would be seen in the same way as wearing some or lots of clothes? What would it be like?

I personally think clothing is a huge waste of resources - water, land use, pollution (from pesticides, dyes, of the oceans with micro-fiber), wastage to landfill (amount of garments made but never used or even sold). That said, do I see that human beings will let go of clothing because of that? Probably never - the driver being not because of climate and weather, but because of the desire to express individuality.

There's also the point that - to what degree, even for us naturists, truly feel comfortable nude when in company of clothed people? Let's just say, no one will ever be arrested for nudity in public anymore. Do you think that actually will get more people to go nude, or do we only get the "wrong" kind of people to go nude?

I know I myself am much more comfortable nude among nude people. I would appreciate not having to dress taking out the trash, or coming back to the car after a day at the nude beach, but I don't see myself doing so going into the office. I don't mind being seen naked, but I'm not the type to make a statement about my nudity and get naked for the sake of it, and definitely not for showcasing my nudity to anyone.

And... if in normalizing nudity there's a need to make all naturist venues clothing optional and there will always be clothed people around current predominantly naturist venues, then maybe I don't want nudity normalized at all!

The more I think of it, the more confused I found myself but hope that I'm not the only one! :?

You are most certainly not the only one. Clothing optional seems to be the best way to get those that are thinking about being naturists to 'take the plunge'. Unfortunately it is also a licence for those with less honourable intentions to come and gawp at the naked people.

I had to put clothes on to go shopping today , wandering around the supermarket I was wondering how many of the other people there would object to me being naked, and how many would rather be naked themselves ! Whatever the answer is , it seems to rely on people being more accepting of others than they are at present. 

Right, Matt. In today's cultural climate, there are too many people teetering on the edge of freaking out over anyone doing, saying, being just a little bit different than they approve of. It is weird, that for so many years we have heard tolerance and acceptance preached, and some twisted versions of those words have been forced upon us to the point that if we express an opinion that is contrary to much of the perversion and lawlessness going on around us, we become the 'bad guy,' yet if we were to be brave enough to walk into a public arena with no clothes, tolerance and acceptance would go out the window.

General public naturism is never going to be a 'normal' thing, other than certain pockets of society, like some of the places in europe that have become known for it and that is why people go there. What's normal, is what is expected. If I see a young woman on a beach in a bikini, I might think, "There's a pretty lady." But if I came around a shelf in the supermarket and saw the same scene, my first reaction would be, "That young woman is just desperate for attention."

At times, I  have seen comments made on ANW that seem to indicate that if we were really 'dedicated' naturists, we'd proudly strut our nudity wherever we go. The very thought is absurd. Going naked in most public venues, eg, High School basketball game, Holiday gathering on the high street, movie theater, church, political rally, etc, would only be to draw attention to self and cause a negative distraction from the purpose of the gathering. 

Naturism will never be normalized, any more than going around town dressed like Zorro, Father Christmas or Bozo the clown. They all have their place; but that place is not 'everywhere, anytime' for any of them.

Some time ago I created a topic that was hoping to explore what the world would be like if we had not gone down this path of society expecting clothes in the first place. 

And I think these are two very different scenario. 

What is nudity became seen as normal now/in the future?

What if nudity had never became seen as abnormal?  This question although tampering with time travel is actually much easier to answer that the former. Because what we have no is a situation where we have to change habits and run with the current mental state of society - a clothing mad, sex mad, breast mad society! 

So please revisit this topic for a slightly different take https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/101/a-world-where-social-nudity-remained-commonly-accepted


Back to this topic - absolutely - it is hard to imagine but look what we have - a world where people communicate via machines, drive in cars, fly, are kept a live through the craziest of operations and drugs. Who could have imagined that a a few centuries back?

Dip into any place in history and ity can be hard to imagine how things can change for better or worse. Did we ever consider a world with slavery before it happened, did we ever consider a world without segregation after it did? Was there a period of time that we could imagine seeing women having the vote? At a time when women became property of men I would say not. Laws, fashions, ideas, living conditions, religions, inventions, cutting edge technology come and go. Space travel, nuclear war, the cinema, the printed word, reading in your head, the world being round - so much that can not be fathomed becomes reality. 

Here is a thing - go back 200 years and who would have imagined a world where skinny dipping was not the done thing. Bathing suits that covered the wearer from head to toe. Communal washing, household nudity, beach and river nudity - would anyone have thought this would disappear? 

Then when it came did anyone think there would be a time of bikinis, crop tops, mini skirts, corset less dresses? 

Go back forty years and would anyone have foreseen a world where piercings and tattoos were common place? You do not have to love or hate such things to see that no one would have imagined these fashions to take hold? Shaving legs in 1920? Shaving genitals in 1970? Who would have imagined that a few years later this would be so common. It isn't that they didn't exist it is that they became normalised in a very short time. How about shopping in night-wear- could anyone have considered that people would do this a few decades back? Ear stretchers - who would have seen that coming - yet overnight things change. So can we ever really guess how nudity will be excepted tomorrow? How did the idea of removing a child's foreskin ever become something that would be seen as normal? The fact that it is now places no understanding into a world before that became a common practice. Without arguing about whether anything should or shouldn't be seen as normal it is easy to see that new "normals" develop all the time. When our parents were young around 90% of men smoked - but go back before the invention of cigarettes and who would have thought that anyone would do that. "Yes I walk around with some burning leaves and paper hanging out my mouth!" It is fantastical!  

What we mustn't forget is that nudity is actually normal - and really it should not need normalising. Clothes are abnormal - they are false additions and it is up to clothes to fight for remaining recognised as normal. 

I would be the first to admit that walking into a supermarket naked today would be an attention seeking thing to do, I do not even think these naked interviews in TV studios with naturists are a good thing - it turns naturism into a freak show. It is abnormal simply because it is forced. But it is sometimes forcing a thing that can change things.

Naturism is already normal but not as common place as it should be. 

To make it more commonplace we have to encourage it - but we have to encourage it in a world where people lust after nudity and people exhibit their nudity - so it is not easy. If I went naked into a bar I would be rightly seen as some sort of exhibitionist. So we take small steps and sensible decisions based on situations. But one day we may wake up to a world where nudity has been trended by the right people and the right followers and we may find that the world is a very normal place in deed.

One of the things that really fascinated us when we were writing the free the nipple article, was how recent a trend hiding the nipple was, because it can be dated back the crowing of Queen Victoria, who had a very puritan mother who to a degree shaped the mind of the young Victoria.

Victoria noted she would tolerate none of that “Sex stuff.” And yet in her real life behind the scenes with Albert, it appears she was very different, and kind of liked that “Sex Stuff”.

The point here is that if you dig back through the ages, you will find nudity was normalised, in such much as it was not frowned upon in the daily lives of others. The Romans bathed naked, the Celts fought naked, swimming was always done naked, and in the medieval period bathing was a communal and social thing. For generations, art has depicted nudity in a dignified manner, and even in the past, it was normal for a female to expose one of her breasts.   

Today to a degree today, some nudity is normalised, it has just been hijacked by the wrong parties. Porn and Only Fans are seen as acceptable in a dysfunctional world, we may not agree with it, but it is out there and doing rather well. Black and white nudity in photographs are quite acceptable as a form of artwork, naked bike rides are accepted as a norm, and protesting naked to make a point know, is seen as old hat, yet accepted as a normal form of activism. Most people are aware of naked beaches, and naturists camps, of which they do not protest outside daily, they accept it happens. Nudity in movies is common place, and everyone accepts that, and so to a degree, and we know we are going out on a limb here, in the right setting, nudity is accepted by the masses, and so it is not that big a stretch to understand that one day, it may be possible, to have nudity considered normal again as it was in the past.

Trends and patterns of life return, and so we can consider the point, that eventually, it will be tolerated and acceptable once again. I remember when you could buy jeans in some countries that had a vinyl panel to reveal the bare buttock cheeks, it was not a long lived fashion, but some people embraced it.

Today young women under 25 are fighting within the workplace for equality, and in so doing are refusing to wear bras, suggesting that is people have a problem with it, then that is their mindset and nothing to do with them, and they are right, and they are gathering more momentum than was considered at first.

The truth is, we do not really know where this will lead, recently Tumblr lifted its nudity ban, Twitter to a degree allows it, and Facebook has been forced into a position where its advisors have told them, banning female naked breasts is discriminate, and then must change their policy. It appears that there has been a subtle and quiet shift in some policies of what were once considered to be the three biggest and strictest puritan social media sites.

We really do not know where this will lead, but with the rise of more and more people turning to naturism and acceptance being given in passive ways, this could really lead off in many directions, but the simple fact remains, nudity currently, is more accepted today than it has been for some time, and as naturists, we should feel some optimism, and keep pushing away.

Sam could be right, the idea of tolerated public nudity may never happen, but considering the above, at the same time, it might. Either way, we have to watch and encourage more tolerance, after all, with that comes the benefit of body positivity, and that can only be a good thing for all of us.