Great Naked Debate: Nudist Activism
The Great Naked Debate series is back after a few months on hiatus. Our panelists for this fourth installment are top naturist bloggers John Henry of the Nudist Travel Guide, Diary of a Nudist, Dan of USA Nudist, and finally, new panelist Cheri Alexander, a highly respected member of the naturist community who founded Travelites and moderates the Nudist Resorts forum as well as many other discussion groups. Welcome Cheri!
The question we asked our panelists: “Does naturist in-your-face activism make sense? That is to say, is loudly pushing the right to be nude anywhere in public warranted or is someone like Steve Gough misguided…or ahead of his time?”
Our panelists’ answers:
Cheri Alexander:
Nudists and naturists generally will not flaunt their state of (un)dress. They want to enjoy their freedom from clothing only. Pushing the envelope, i.e. being nude where not appropriate, can get new anti-nudity laws passed such as what happened with the “naked man” in Berkeley, CA and what is happening currently in Brattleboro, VT. If nudists work behind the scenes with the authorities to create a clothing optional beach or park, it works so much better. This is how Haulover Beach in North Miami, FL was created.
Nudist Travel Guide:
With great tolerance for all beliefs comes the humility that one’s own beliefs are as good as anyone else’s. Still, I think a lot of people would benefit through more naturism awareness. That’s why I take the educational approach. But I think what Steven Gough did was perfect, courageous and freaking cool.
Maybe more of what he did is what’s needed. People don’t want to change and he shook things up. Most people fear change so much that they would rather stay in a bad job, an abusive relationship or even a war-torn country rather than start anew. That’s why we live in a world where clothing or the lack thereof is a factor for population segregation. People like Steven Gough help build momentum and naturists who share their experiences with others keep the momentum going.
USA nudist:
In most societies, while incidental nudity is usually accepted with a grin, a person appearing in a public place fully nude often causes a knee-jerk reaction. We have seen several repetitions of this theme. Andrew Martinez, “The Naked Guy”, in Berkeley, Stephen Gough in Britain, the “Naked Neighbors”
in Oregon and California, and the “Nudist Tourist” in Battleboro, VT have all taken advantage of legal loopholes and by their actions, caused tougher laws to be passed, restricting the ability of the rest of us to enjoy naturism in those areas.
Many of these activists gain a reputation as being on the crazy fringe, which reflects on all naturists and nudists. We would be much better served by having the public think of us as normal responsible citizens, rather than someone to ridicule. A more realistic type of activism is that such as Richard and Shirley Mason accomplished with the actions of South Florida Free Beaches and the implementation of Haulover Beach near Miami. By working within the system, they accomplished one of the most successful nudist venues in the world. If more areas were to accept this model, we would find more respect from citizens and government officials.
Nudiarist:
This subject is much too complicated for a short answer, but here goes. A single person can make a difference - look at Rosa Parks, or Gandhi, but there has to be a some climate of support for the cause in order for the individual to gather a following. Currently, there is no wide acceptance anywhere for public nudity. Stephen Gough, Berkeley’s “naked guy”, and the people who bared all in Brattleboro, are only serving to deepen the divide between nudists and textiles, although their efforts are commendable and ahead of their time. Rather than risk further alienation, nudists, or “Body Freedom Advocates”, should be pushing to save existing clothing-optional beaches, and lobbying for more public spaces where nude sunbathing is permitted. We need more places like Haulover Beach.Also, one area where social change is more than possible is for women’s topfreedom. Politicians have been reluctant to oppose public breastfeeding advocates - after all, who wants to appear to be anti-motherhood? It’s a small step to take in going from widespread acceptance of public breastfeeding to topfree sunbathing on beaches. States like New York and Ohio already allow women to have the same topfree rights as men, but generally women do not exercise their freedoms. Liz Book, who has won in court her right to protest while topfree, is an example of one person who can make a difference, and next year on March 8 she will be demonstrating in support of International Women’s Day Topfree Stand. If Liz can convince thousands of women nationwide to take off their tops, society will never be the same.
Nudist Day:
Stephen Gough unjustly languishes in a cell in Scotland…Where are the naked protesters outside the jail? In our experience, most people who practice nudism don’t consider it their lifestyle, nor do they want it known, and that is why nudist activism does not get much support at this time. There’s one irrefutable fact here: The right to be as one is born is fundamental. The “right to be naked” activism definitely make sense, as would any claim for the restoration of a basic human right. It’s regrettable that Gough chose to reclaim that right in a place like the UK. Had he led his march across Spain instead, where it would be legal, he wouldn’t be in the predicament he is now, he’d likely have a lot more people joining him in his protest, and he could still have drawn attention to the fact that public nudity is a punishable crime in his native England.
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What can be done to attract younger people to the nudist lifestyle?
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The Great Naked Debate is a new series that brings some of the top seven nudist bloggers together, offering you a different perspective in one place on a number of key naturist issues. For this third installment, Tom Mulhall of the Terra Cotta Inn provided us with the question:
[You can click on blog names to visit participating sites.] |
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| Nudist Day |
The usual definition of “young nudist” includes anyone under 35, but I don’t think we can regard them as a whole. What’s interesting for someone who’s 20 isn’t necessarily the same as someone over 30, thus different strategies are needed. Young professionals could find the current offering of luxury clubs more than satisfactory as they’ll be seeking relaxation more than anything else, while those in their early twenties are more likely to be looking for excitement, aka wild parties, something which isn’t always compatible with naturism. However, a large percentage of youth are active in sports, and perhaps that’s one of the angles we should be concentrating on: promoting nude sports, starting with hiking.
The current efforts to support young nudist associations within universities and colleges is a step in the right direction and should be enhanced. Such organizations need places to go on outings, thus nudist clubs have an interest in encouraging them to visit, either by offering deep discounts or waving grounds fees, for example. These are their customers for the future. Reaching-out to young people is half the job, thus it’s critical that more be done to promote the lifestyle where the younger generation congregates. For instance, the internet via Youtube and Myspace, among others, and positive ads in the magazines they read. There’s an investment to make, obviously, but if you don’t make it, the lifestyle risks dying-out with its rapidly aging practitioners! |
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| Diary of a Nudist |
This topic has already been discussed in great depth among the nudist bloggers. I happen to feel that it’s not so much a matter of age vs. youth, but a matter of venue. Upscale nude resorts and cruises are more popular than ever. Haulover beach attracts over a million visitors every year. Despite these successes, landed nudist membership clubs are on the decline, It’s not unlike the decline of drive-in movies, which once thrived, but became more profitable to sell for the value of the land than to operate. Just recently there were two stories in the news, one about a Canadian resort that was for sale but nobody within the nudist community could afford to purchase, and another about an Arizona resort that was adding 114 time share units on the property. People want to be catered to.
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| Naturist Journal |
I don’t believe there is any one thing we can do to bring young people to the nudist way of life. The same question is often asked about how to make nudism more appealing to women. I think there are a number of approaches that need to be taken. We have to look at issues of Marketing, culture, economics, and probably more. Are we advertising in the right places? Are we doing enough public services to raise general awareness (beach cleanups, charity work, “Nudists shed clothes for the homeless”)? If nudity wasn’t an issue, would young people join our clubs in the first place? Is the vibe not quite right for them? For some local clubs may not be affordable. We simply can’t be complacent, we need to be looking at all of these areas and making continual improvements.
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| Gymnophiliac |
Not too long ago, I posted to my blog the reasons I felt Generation Y (as well as Gen X and Millennial) don’t participate in nudism. Part of it is a consequence of age, and part of it is a culture shift with the newer generation. I didn’t provide any concrete solutions there though (other than those implied by listing the issues) in large part because I’m not sure there are solutions.
A lot of it comes down to how you’re thinking of the “nudist lifestyle”. If the question is how do we get them to start going to AANR/TNS affiliated venues, the answer is probably “you can’t”. As they exist now, they just don’t offer anything to younger people. Many resorts (those I’ve visited, and many others that I’ve read reviews of) seem like throwbacks to the 1950’s, and consequently hold little appeal to someone growing up in the 21st century. On the other hand, if the “nudist lifestyle” has less to do with “organized nudism” than it does with simply “social nudity”, then it’s a completely different story. This generation is (generally) a lot more liberally minded towards nudity than their parents - they’re not shocked to see it, and they don’t see anything innately wrong with being nude or being seen nude. Informal activities like skinny dipping are pretty common, and nudity in general isn’t exactly rare on college campuses. I suspect that the future of nudism lies more in that kind of thing than in commercial resorts. The best thing we could do to grow nudism and encourage participation of younger people is work towards creating more clothing optional public lands, that don’t require memberships to use. That said, if I were to build a commercial venue and wanted to cater to younger people, here’s how I’d do it. I’d build it as close as I could to a population center, so as to make it as convenient to get to as possible. I’d keep the entrance costs minimal. I would look at what younger people are doing with their clothes on, and then provide opportunity to do it with their clothes off. I’d keep a fully stocked bar and try to create the typical “bar scene” on Friday and Saturday nights. I’d make sure that if someone wanted a “Skim milk double shot Latte” I could fill the order. I’d host Wii Sports tournaments and poker tournaments. I’d get live music and real DJ’s. The challenge, simply, is to create a place that the target audience would go to if it wasn’t nudist. The nudity would be a bonus, not the selling point, and certainly not the *only* selling point. There’d be two keys to success in attracting young people to my venue. Attracting single girls and limiting it to 18ish-35ish only. The former is the most challenging, but also the most important. The lack of single, 20-something girls is the most often cited reason why my friends don’t accompany me to the nude beach - they’re rather go one where there are girls present. By a similar token, they don’t want to hang around people their parents age or young kids. The presence of such significantly changes the atmosphere and makes it less appealing. |
| USA Nudist |
We are faced with having to deal with many varied interests. What attracts a 20 year-old college student will not be the same for a 30 year-old with a career and children. The common mode of contact would obviously be the Internet. A recent survey of political advertising methods indicated that young people rarely read newspapers or watch the evening news on TV. To reach this group, we need to focus on places like Facebook, My Space, YouTube, and IM networking among their peers. This group would rather send text messages and IM to each other than talk. To get the message to them, we need viral videos and websites that get the attention within these networks. Once they discover it, if it piques their interest, it will spread rapidly to IMs and Cell phones. In the case of the older “youth”, they are often faced with the pressures of meeting the daily requirements of making a living, high rent or house payments, car payments, and many other influences that take away from personal enjoyment time. For this group, we must present nude recreation as a valuable tool to cope with all these pressures, an enjoyable use of their time, and a fun place to go… Without adding to the pressure with high membership and usage fees The married members of this age group are often learning to cope with parenting, including scheduling multiple people in varied locations. They often don’t spend a lot of time together as a family because of all these activities. For this group, an important incentive would be low-priced access to a place where both the parents and children have activities planned or available to them. Clubs should provide organized activities and playgrounds for the children in an environment where the parents don’t have to be concerned about their safety. Free day-use passes, internet coupons, and other financial incentives could be coupled with IM & texting campaigns, social networking sites, and other online methods. Another effective way is to go to where this age group hangs out and pass out flyers and free passes to some special nudist event, such as a concert or themed event on the club property. If we can get this group to visit without paying, a large percentage of them will come back, or if they don’t, will have a positive image of nude recreation to share with their friends. The more youth we get to the clubs, the more people will be sharing their experiences with their friends.
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| Tom Mulhall |
Nudist clubs need to change with the times. First, stop charging annual memberships. Charge per visit. Young people don’t want to join clubs. Next, stop putting out negative pr’s from clubs that are dying out. Recently, the AP wire service carried an article about a nudist club where members were over 55 and they had a picture of their membership chairman in his 70’s. That just destroyed all the hard work that resorts like us and other clubs do to get younger members.
Other things that need to be done to attract younger members. AANR just did a pr about the top 10 nude beaches that was in USA Today. That was excellent as many young people start at a beach first as they are poorer. They then go to resorts when they want more luxury. Next, AANR and TNS need to work to get more nude beaches recognized as official beaches just like Haulover in Florida. Next, use photos of young, baby boomers, and older people in pr and advertising. Not just old people and families with kids. Next, stop promoting nudism is just for families. Promote, nudism for couples. One of the biggest turn-offs for younger people is going to a nudist campground where there are lots of young kids and teenagers. Next, nudist clubs need to allow women to go topless. Many young women are very insecure with being completely nude. Normally within 15 minutes at a nudist resort, the bottoms are off. But, if a young woman was told she had to go nude immediately, she would never have visited a nudist resort. Finally start promoting nudist parks and resorts as a fun place to go on a date. Nudism is fun, and that has to be promoted. |
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Would you ride nude in the World Naked Bike Ride?
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The Great Naked Debate is a new series that brings some of the top seven nudist bloggers together, offering you a different perpective in one place on a number of key naturist issues. For this second installment, the panel was asked:
[You can click on blog names to visit participating sites.] |
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| Nudist Travel Guide [Newest panel member] |
On February 11, 2007, over 800 Bare Necessities nude cruise participants on a Holland America cruise raised over $15,000 “On Deck for the Cure” benefit walk for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer research foundation. Great cause, great success. I wish I had been there. The same goes for World Naked Bike Ride. WNBR supports many great causes and I’d like to ride in it, but the event is not the right fit for me. My wife is worried about privacy and the scariness of being nude in front of a non-nudist public. We do everything together, so her vote wins. We like the private, safe environment that AANR-affiliated nudist destinations provide and are on the lookout for a good charity event at a nudist resort nearby.
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| Naturist Journal |
It depends on how well organized the group is. If the group has an understanding with local law enforcement then yes I would participate. If on the other hand there is more risk of arrest involved then I’d have to know what the legal issues are going to be, as well as what kind of planning has been done for such cases. I’m all for helping out to further a cause!
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| Gymnophiliac |
Sure, why not? I think it’d be fun to ride nude through a city in a safe and (presumably) legal manner. Though the event isn’t designed to promote the acceptance of nudity, it still does that by its very nature. Tying nudity to political speech helps bolster the first amendment argument in favor of public nudity (in the US, at least), and it puts nonsexual nudity in front of a lot of people who might not otherwise have been exposed to the idea.
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| Tom Mulhall |
I would not bicycle in the World Naked bike ride, but that is due to a permanent knee injury. However, I would walk the course nude as long as the group has an understanding with the local police where there would be no threats of arrest. I feel that the more people see nudity in a non sexual environment, the more they will accept it.
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| Diary of a Nudist |
I would participate in the World Naked Bike Ride if it began to reach the scale of a Spencer Tunick photo shoot with hundreds or thousands of participants. I’m not so sure that I would feel comfortable riding naked with only a dozen or so people through city streets, because the attention focused on the event would be from the police, the media and the voyeurs. From what I understand, London has the largest ride and more are expected this year, so it is a growing event. As for Tunick, my wife and I are signed up online should he ever come to central Ohio for a shoot.
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| Nudist Day |
No. While we support the cause and it does promote body acceptance a bit, we personally wouldn’t feel comfortable having our picture taken and exhibited in the non-nudist media.
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| USA Nudist |
Promoting acceptance of nudity in public in appropriate places is important. I support that effort, but would not personally participate in the World Naked Bike Ride. Unfortunately, the premise that the World Naked Bike Ride promotes the acceptance of nudity is false. The WNBR is a demonstration protesting the negative aspects of petroleum fueled vehicles and dangers of these vehicles to bike riders and pedestrians, and not to promote acceptance of appropriate nudity. It uses the nudity for shock value to gain publicity much the same as are done in the PETA campaigns. Both are treated by the media as a freak show. This negative perception overshadows the public’s acceptance of their messages and associates nudism with the same negative feelings. There are many other ways to promote nudism with less controversial methods.
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Clothes-Free or Clothing-Optional?
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The Great Naked Debate is a new series that brings some of the top nudist bloggers together, offering you a different perpective in one place on a number of key naturist issues. For this first installment, the panel was asked:
[You can click on blog names to visit participating sites.] |
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| USA Nudist |
While clothing optional has the advantage of being more acceptable for the novice’s first time in a nudist environment, it does have the stigma of having been, in the past, more associated with the resorts with less restrictive sexual behavior standards. Clothes-free does not mean nude all the time. Even the hardiest souls must occasionally cover-up in inclement weather or to prevent overexposure to the sun. While clothing-optional may, at first, be more inviting to newcomers, clothes-free is the option chosen by most real nudists.
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| Naturist Journal |
Clothing Optional - I’ve been involved in so many events where people wanted to attend and were sincerely curious but not quite ready to take the plunge. I find that making events clothing optional helps people take that step in the door to give this naturist idea a chance. And there are others, such as my wife, while comfortable nude, isn’t always comfortable in every naturist situation so it gives them the freedom to participate as their own level of comfort allows.
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| Gymnophiliac |
Nude is better than either term. Clothing-centric language seems like an attempt to obfuscate what we’re really about, whereas “nude” is unambiguous, clear, and honest.
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| Tom Mulhall |
[abbreviated] Nudist Resort sounded too scary to first timers…First timers told us “‘clothing optional’, I could try that as there are clothing-optional beaches in Europe and the Caribbean.” …There is research done by TANR (trade association for nude recreation) where people who have never tried nude sunbathing like the expression “clothing-optional” better than “nudist” resorts. They feel it gives them a choice, especially women. This study was done around 7 or 8 years ago, so the expression clothes-free was not in use at that time. Click here for Tom’s complete answer.
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| Diary of a Nudist |
Clothing-optional is better because it allows freedom of choice, although I certainly understand why some resorts are clothes-free because they want to keep out the gawkers. A fair compromise seems to be when resorts require at least one member of a group to be nude at all times when on the grounds, but it seems that most of the clothing optional facilities require nudity in the pool and hot tub areas anyway.
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| Nudist Day |
Clothes-Free all the way. Clothing-optional conveys the idea that you DON’T have to get naked. On the other hand, if everybody is nude, it’s more likely to incite newbies to do likewise. Note that “clothing-optional” is an American concept, the tendency elsewhere in the world is to require nudity or “don’t bother coming”.
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