naturist thin skinned or skinful?
Recently I made some observations about naturism from old and new sources. I have been reading a book published in 1924 called Nudism in Modern Life. The new gymnosophy. This volume from a college professor recounts the experience of the early years of naturism in Germany and Shares some of the social and scientific rationale for the movement. Nudism or gymnosophy is described as both philosophy and practice. This is a concept that really resonates since I have always described clothes free living as both philosophy and practice. The author Maurice Parmalee discusses the connective nature of nudism (gymnosophy). He suggests gymnosphy at its core helps human beings connect to nature and to each other. His description of what gymnosophy looks like is quite vivid and paints a clear picture for the reader along with a few small black and white photos.
Fast forward almost 100 years to 2016 the age of the internet and digital communications. Digital images are everywhere. What does nudism look like in the digital age? I can sum up in one word SKIN! Nudists online seem obsessed with showing skin. By that I mean naked bodies. Their naked bodies, the naked bodies of others it doesn’t really matter the conventional wisdom is in order to promote nudism in the digital age one MUST SHOW SKIN!
Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with the naked body or pictures of a naked body. However, that is all it is a naked body. Some naturists and nudists seem convinced that is the most effective way to promote naturism, Naked bodies. Along comes social media platforms like Twitter who says any nudity in your profile picture or cover photo might be reports and could be grounds for suspension. Some we must be skinful to promote naturism the cries rise up Twitter discriminates!
To be clear Twitter didn’t say you can tweet pictures with nudity. It simply changed its terms and to make community for everyone lets keeps profile pics and cover photos G and if you tweet nudity mark your account as PG. This is similar to the nudity policy on Flickr. But react of some “nudists” and nudist influencers is “We must show skin how can we promote naturism if we can’t be skinful?” Skin takes precedent over experience. Naked bodies mean more than human beings. #normalizenudity
The result people all across the board are confused. Is there a difference between nudists tweeting skin and all the other folks who tweet skin? Do a Google search for naturist movies or nudist anything for that matter and if you are lucky you may find a few links to actual naturist information or experiences. Most of the returned search will be links to “skin” that has very little if anything to do with naturism. Newbies are confused because most of what they see defined as promoting naturism and nudism online is just “skin”. It makes it very easy for me to see why people outside the online nudist bubble might be skeptical. They see the same things online newbies to naturism do. The message they maybe receiving is naturism is about skin, and skin in about sex. It’s no wonder many are hesitant to see a partner, parent or spouse participate in clothes free life.
I started my saying this was a piece about observations so let me add another. Whenever I make the observation about the skinful focus of some online. The response is usually that I am a thin skinned prudish naturist ideologue. The result is unwarranted defensiveness in my opinion . I lost any impetus to moralize about anything online. There are way too many opinions and points of view to expend energy trying to convince others from a moralistic standpoint to adopt a participular view. Instead I try to share my perspective without hesitation and let others moralize.
The recent trend seems to be that the skinful movement has taken control of the conversation around naturism and nudism online. These are the only folks who seem to have any sway online and prominent naturist leaders seem to be falling in line as normalizing nudity becomes the preferred slogan for promoting naturism. It cause me to wonder why is #normalizing naturism which expresses healthy living, environmentally conscious living, ordinary non sexual clothes free living, respectful intersectional social living is such a hard thing for “nudist influencers” to embrace. All these things are potentially accessible to a wide range of people.
All of the naturist pioneers including the late Lee Baxandall and writer philosopher Marc Alain Descamp promoted an intersectional approach to naturism. Making naturist living available to many different kinds of people was the objective. Why is that being abandoned to just get naked.
Time will tell if the shift will actually work and make sense or just gets more people naked online. Maybe that is the objective. For my part I will continue to promote the naturist ethic that says people are more than their bodies and naturism is more than naked bodies and naked pics posted online.
This was originally published on clothesfreelife.com in August 2020 https://clothesfreelife.com/2020/08/naturist-thin-skinned-or-skinful/
As a naturist who draws from nude models twice a week, I want to say that I think artists—including photographers, writers, musicians, filmmakers (you get the idea)—have the job of studying and interpreting all human activity. The irony we naturists see is that a world that claims to value authenticity penalizes our showing up as our essential, biological selves. There are probably blind nudists, but for the rest of us, the experience is very visual. More skin please.
Forgive me for asking but this question came after reading...
Why are we as naturists trying to promote our lifestyle?! Each person has the right to use and do with their bodies as they see fit. As a community we share our experiences. I embraced naturism because of the core values of respect and acceptance...I do agree that today nudity and skin is used commercially to promote things from a sock to a lollipop. That will never change. So let's all as nudists share our values in the only way that's truly effective and that's through true human contact and not through digital media.