It sometimes isn't the easiest of things to do, as when do you bring it up and why?
If for example you were going to go on holiday with some friends there could be opportunities while planning it. "There is a naturist beach near by, we are naturists so would love to go, you could come with us if you like!" The worry is that they may take the proposal the wrong way. If they think naturism is a sexual thing they may become concerned about the whole holiday!
And this is the biggest issue we face as naturists - promoting it, educating people, sharing it etc. When people consider it may be something perverse, you always have to contend with that problem before moving on, and sometimes people simply will not listen, because they have already made their minds up.
How for example do we actively promote naturism to families when there is an idea that naturism is about swinging. Instead of confronting the issue face on, we instead follow a pattern of hiding from the worry of people suggesting it is not for children and skirting the whole issue by simply pretending families don't exist. All this does though is allow the misconception to grow in strength. Adult only has its own meaning to many, and it is much better to continue promoting naturism as a family thing and taking the short term flack than it is to hide the existence of families and face long term destruction.
Back to talking to people. Hopefully people know you well enough to consider that you wouldn't want to be involved in anything perverse. But you may have your friends talking about you after the idea is brought up asking "what do you think they were suggesting there?"
So what we need is the opportunity to chat, without pressure "Get undressed now!" and hopefully without ulterior motives being considered - without creating the thought: "Do you just want to see my wife's/my breasts?" or even worse "He wants to see my children naked!"
Showing holiday snaps or answering the door naked could maybe be an answer, but that too could be construed as exhibitionist and possibly seen as forcing nudity onto people unsuspectingly. There was a pub near where I live as a youngster that had framed naked images of the landlady in the gents toilets. Was this cool or rather bizarre - I reckon the latter.
Finding good opportunities to talk away from any suggestive ideas is ideal. Then if the conversation is positive, the idea can be approached of encouraging them to try naturism at some time in the future with or without you.
How do you find the right time? If someone is coming to stay you could mention it before they arrive. "Look I like going around the house naked - if you are OK with that I will continue but if you are uncomfortable then I won't." Either way you could then bring it up again when they stay, placing it in context, "I mentioned it because I am a naturist" - and then possibly taking the conversation on from there or at least explaining you reasoning and leaving it at that.
Talking about holidays, beaches, camping trips, bike rides, charity event etc is another good way. "I did
this the other day, oh and I did it naked." "We went on holiday to
so and so this year, it is a naturist venue/there is a naturist beach near by."
Be prepared to answer serious questions, be prepared to argue against the idea of perversion, be prepared to maybe share some info - ANW may be a good starting point as both a website to present to them or for information to quote or refer to. If you do not have the answers then it may appear that the answers do not exist.
Try and be objective, but also as positive as possible. "Yes there are some people who abuse naturism, but there are people who abuse all situations, and they are very much in the minority." I for example have seen more perverts on non-naturist beaches than on naturist beaches, and I spend a lot less time on non-naturist beaches.
When I spoke to my mother and step father about our naturism it was done at a picnic one day, although we had mentioned going to a naturist beach when we visited them in Lanzarote a couple of years earlier. We told them about building ANW, and at first my mother was very sceptical about the whole idea of naturism. "You are naked in front of strangers!" But we simply stayed cool about it and talked the idea of naturism through and by the end of the lunch they got it. My stepfather, thought about it afterwards and then became quite taken with the whole idea, and saw the whole mental attitude behind it, and took to naked sunbathing, and spent time with us naked. My mother who has incredibly sensitive skin simply doesn't expose any part of herself to the sun as she burns very easily, but she became very comfortable with our nudity, and supported the idea of the site. She even swam naked with me once when the sun went down. One of the things was we told them because we wanted too as we were somewhere where we couldn't be naked, but it would have made sense to be able to, so the irony started the conversation. We had no want to encourage them to be naturists, we just wanted to talk about our naturism, so there was no pressure in that respect, and maybe that made it easier for them to accept.
I don't think there is an exact science but maybe there is a spectrum of how things can be handled and work out, do and don'ts, warning signs or signs of "tell me more." And there is also maybe the disastrous things to watch out for, someone may actually like the idea that you are bringing up naturism for swinging reasons! And then you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of dealing with explaining that is not what you want at all.
I loom forward to reading various views and the forum maybe working together in designing a set of scenarios that we can all use as a template.
This post was edited by
Anna ANW
at September 29, 2023 10:18 AM BST