The Skinny on Nudism

The National Geographic is one of the only mainstream publications to offer an objective and fair article on nudism. If you have not read the article, click here.

To me, one of the most important benefits of shedding clothes is to achieve a healthy perception of one's own body image. This seems to be a central issue to most nudists, that society has imposed unrealistic and unhealthy attitudes over what is "perfect", and yet we are all unique and beautiful just as we are.

The article quotes Mark Storey: "There are very few model-perfect people out there. At a nude beach, you get a more realistic perception of what humanity really looks like." Are we really so withdrawn as a society that we do not have a realistic impression of the human body? After all, we all have a body, we have all seen ourselves naked - can others really be so different? The ultimate realization that comes from social nudism is that we are all the same in own uniqueness, that we are ALL "flawed". While society constantly presses images of botox-injected, lipo-sucked and silicone pumped Barbie dolls into our brains, we lose touch with the reality that we do not live in that false and plastic world. It's no wonder that people nip, tuck, and vomit their way into trying to achieve the unachievable.

I find it particulary sad when film stars who are beginning to age go on an odyssey of self-mutilation in a hopeless, pathetic atempt to maintain the youth that was captured on the big screen. In the movies, the stars are ageless, and it is both wrong and psychologically damaging to believe that humans should try and emulate that timelessness.

I have always had problems with body image. Some of it comes from being raised by overly modest parents, some of it from the fact that I was "husky" as a child and received some taunting from other kids about my weight. Even when I was 18 and in just about perfect physical condition (for me), I still looked in the mirror and saw a fat kid. In the past few months after going naked for most of the time, my own body image has vastly improved, I am much more comfortable in my skin.

We as nudists have to work hard to dispell the wrongheaded notion that nudism and sexual activity are one and the same. It is frightening to think that the simple, natural act of skinny dipping can land you in jail, or target a person as a sex offender. Yet it's perfectly legal to accept money to perform sex acts on film and sell the product on the Internet, in stores and in most hotel rooms for prurient reasons.

The hope to be found in all of this is that most of the world nudism is a non-issue. The last bastion of Puritanical repression is the United States. It will take time and much peaceful effort to change attitudes, to open up more public land for nude swimming and recreation, to change the laws to be more accepting. It's hard for me to fathom that where I live there is no nude beach at all, that I cannot legally on an hot day strip down and go swimming nude in any public area without risk of arrest or fine. This fear of our own naked selves is symptomatic of a society stewing in a sea of false morality and materialistic mania, resulting in a regimented and continually restrictive lifestyle for everyone. Overworked and underchallenged, forced to think with the masses and denied the pure and natural.

So, get naked and stay naked, take off your clothes whenever you can, experience the true natural state of the human body, and accept yourself for the wonderful person you are.