Ian Hayes plays Axel, one of the siblings from the naturist family in Disrobed. He is an actor and musician from Massachusetts, and wrote and performed the music for the show in addition to playing a memorable role as the first character to appear nude on-screen. Ian was eager to discuss his perspective as part of the cast of the play.
What made you want to be a part of this play? Was it daunting to play the part of a nudist on screen?
Two things truly attracted me to Disrobed. One was that it was a story that brought light to the absurdity that nakedness and sexuality are synonymous with each other. It was exciting to possibly be a part of the conversation by being in a show that is explicitly nude and consciously not sexual in any way.
The second reason was that there was potential for me to write, produce, and record an original song. I have been a musician and songwriter since the early 2000s and am always eager to create music in collaboration with others. It wasn't daunting for me to be naked on screen, especially since Troy and the whole production team were 100% transparent and sensitive to everyone's comfort level from the original casting notice to even these interviews we are undergoing now. Troy, Bella, and Steven created a sincerely safe space for us to step into these characters confidently and with great ease.
What is your previous experience with public or social nudity, whether on stage or in your personal life?
In my family and friend circle, I am notorious for having my shirt off as often as possible. My roommate calls me "Nakie Boi", because I am always naked (or just in underwear) at home. Publicly though, besides a few times getting naked in exercises whilst training at the Maggie Flanigan Studio here in NY, I had no experience until this past August.
...the core message of this story is that when you reveal your true self, the risk is great, but the reward is always greater.
I was in Florida with my partner and had just been cast in this production, so as a part of my research I sought the nearest nude beach to us and we ended up going to one on Cape Canaveral. We had an incredible experience. The freedom and equality we felt was thrilling, and there's nothing better than to swim naked in the sun! I can't wait to do it again.
Do you feel that this experience has changed your attitude towards nudity?
It hasn't changed it much other than further reinforce my love for being naked. It is a positive experience I can draw from as support in future conversations I may have about the subject of naturism.
What do you hope audience members will take away from this play? What message, if any, do you take from it?
I certainly hope that the audience walks away allowing themselves more nakie-time in their day-to-day lives outside of the shower and sex. That being said, my true hope is that the audience walks away asking themselves how they hide their true selves in their personal lives. Whether it has to do with their point of view on naturism and public nudity or not, the core message of this story is that when you reveal your true self, the risk is great, but the reward is always greater. We are all freaks in our own way, and owning your inner freak and showing it to the world is one of the most liberating experiences a human can have.
Disrobed: the Virtual Event will stream for three shows only, on January 15, 16, and 17. The performance will stream live, and disappears immediately thereafter. For information, and to purchase tickets, see https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6996.
Karen Lasater plays Sierra, the matriarch of the naturist family, in Disrobed. She is an experienced actress of stage and screen who hails from Katy, Texas. Karen has worked in the past with fellow cast member David McClain on multiple projects - in fact, David was the one who suggested that she audition for Disrobed. Karen graciously took some time to discuss her experience as part of the cast of this unique play.
What made you want to be a part of this play? Was it daunting to play the part of a nudist on screen?
My acting friend Dave McClain, who's been my on-screen husband many times before, asked me to audition with him. Of course, he was so nervous to ask me that he waited to call the night before his Zoom audition with writers Troy and Steve! After he told me about the nudity part, he said, “Well, you haven't hung up on me yet.”
I do work well under pressure and memorize quickly, and since I totally trust his judgement (he vetted the process intently and it seemed in his opinion to be real). We knew our chances were way better if we could read together in the same house. And we only live five minutes apart in Katy (outside of Houston) and had been quarantined from the outside world for the most part during that time.
After he told me about the project, the characters, story, and pay structure, it seemed like I would be perfect for the part too. I liked the idea of taking a bold plunge into acting nude on screen without it being sexualized or gratuitous as usually is the case. At first it was daunting and awkward; Dave and I had never seen each other nude before. His wife was on board for the project, which helped.
Prior to the nude audition, which came when we got a call-back request, he suggested I come over and we casually run lines both clothed and then naked, have lunch, and just "get in the nude zone" about an hour before. That really helped ease the both of us into it and I think made our audition seamless. But indeed my armpits were sweaty from nerves!
What is your previous experience with public or social nudity, whether on stage or in your personal life?
This is my first nude appearance on TV or stage. A long time ago, in my early career as an actor, I was asked to be in a nude scene as a prostitute for an indy film. I declined on advice from my acting coach, who said it would potentially typecast me for that kind of part. I was a mother of young children at the time and she didn't think it was worth the risk.
We judge ourselves plenty all the time. But when we come from a place of love, genuine interest and care in others, and the barriers of class come down when the clothes come off, we can really just “open up and accept our true nature.”
Fast forward to this film. Because the message is wholesome and we are naturists, it seemed only a problem perhaps for others in my family who may not want to see mom naked on the screen.
However, in real life my husband and I have been to nudist resorts in Jamaica and Cancun. So the experience of being nude in public wasn't totally foreign to me. In fact by the end of the trip we both got a bit depressed that we had to put clothes on again to go back to the “real world”!
Do you feel that this experience has changed your attitude towards nudity?
Not really. My attitude had been pretty okay with nudity in general. In the right setting I'm okay with it. And to each his own how you want to live your life. But I am not a nudist or naturist and no one in my family is either. I think they are some of the nicest, kindest, most genuine people I've ever met. I still have some body image hangups, especially as I get older. I’m still critical of my extra weight here or there on my belly or butt, but I feel pretty good about how I look at my age!
What do you hope audience members will take away from this play? What message, if any, do you take from it?
For me my character Sierra who came into nudism later through her husband George summed it up at the end of the show.
“This is all about acceptance, body positivity, and feeling liberated. And if we're all made in God's image, depending on what you believe, then who are we to judge?”
We judge ourselves plenty all the time. But when we come from a place of love, genuine interest and care in others, and the barriers of class come down when the clothes come off, we can really just “open up and accept our true nature.” I like that idea.
Disrobed: the Virtual Event will stream for three shows only, on January 15, 16, and 17. The performance will stream live, and disappears immediately thereafter. For information, and to purchase tickets, see https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6996.
Following my review of Disrobed - The Virtual Event, I chatted with some of the creators and cast from the play, to try to understand their motivations, experiences, and relationship to nudity and naturism as part of this production. In this first interview, I talked with Troy Peterson, the man who conceived of the Disrobed online event, co-wrote the adaptation (with Disrobed playwright Steven Vlasak), and directed and starred. Troy is a playwright and actor, and can be found on twitter at @TroyMP94.
What compelled you to take on this project? Do you consider yourself a nudist, or what is your experience with social nudity?
As a writer/director/actor, I was compelled to do a virtual version of Disrobed after seeing it in its first run because it checked a lot of boxes I was looking for creatively. It seemed ready made for a virtual production: it was obscure and new to people, had very few budgetary prerequisites (being a contemporary story with no costume or setting requirements), and it struck the uplifting tone I was looking to put out in my quarantine art. As a long-time subscriber to naturist ideals, I also saw it as a chance to spread its fun, positive message about nudity being natural, and social nudity being more fun and normal than people often think.
Also, on a purely selfish note, I had never gotten a chance to play a lead before and I felt the histrionic, nervous, overly clever role of Eric was the perfect vehicle for the Wallace Shawn-esque talents I often deploy in my acting.
What special challenges did this play present, both with its online-only presentation, and with the unusual level of nudity for cast members?
Just by virtue of its cast being spread out across four time zones, it was a challenging production to pull off. Working on the comedic timing of a screwball comedy when the person you're talking to is three states away is near-impossible. It took a really strong commitment from everyone to learn their lines in just six rehearsals across two weeks and keep their excitement levels up for a play where everyone could be seen, but aren't necessarily called upon to interact with the scene at hand. That we were able to do that despite our busy schedules and the personal loss of friends, family, and pets during production is a great testament to everyone's skill.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the nudity. We were completely transparent from the beginning and put all the control in the actors' hands. The complete script and the requirement for full nudity were listed on the initial breakdown. We communicated with every actor about what was required, and they signed waivers attesting to their agreement at every step of the way.
It may seem counterintuitive, but giving the camera to the actor in a virtual space returned a lot of power to them. On a set or stage, you are depending on your trust with the director and cinematographer that you will be filmed in a way you're okay with. In a virtual setting, the actor is their own cameraperson and has complete control over how they are shot and what is seen. It thankfully never came to this in Disrobed, but actors could have even left the virtual room if they felt disrespected or uncomfortable, simply by logging off. That’s much easier than trying to leave a toxic situation on-set.
While there were a few required poses in the script we had to clear with the actors, there was never an emphasis at any point of the process where we demanded to "see" the cast fully nude or put certain body parts on camera. That the final product has as much nudity as it does speaks to the comfort and commitment of the actors in our production and how fully they believe in our message.
We had many strong female voices in the room at every step of the way, which reinforced our ethos of respect and boundaries and went a long way to help everyone involved stay comfortable.
The play, in its many iterations, has a strong pro-nudism position. Do you share this attitude towards nudism? Do you see yourself as evangelizing nudism in this production?
I certainly share a pro-nudism attitude. While I'm more clothed than not for practical reasons in quarantine, I think it's one of the most honest, most wholesome ethos a person could have.
I don’t really think the original play was totally pro-nudism. Tom Cushing made the nudists in his original play pretty unreasonable and even mean. The family even talks about drowning Eric when they find out he's a textile in the original! I have to give all the credit to playwright Steven Vlasak and the play's stage director Brian Knudson for adapting the play to make the characters sweeter, funnier, modern, and more distinct.
While there have been some good naturist stories and movies, I think it's safe to say most of them fall into the trap of making all the naturist characters too similar, well-adjusted, and only focused on saying the party line on nudism at the drop of a hat. What this play does better than anything else I had seen in the genre is establish its nudist characters with their own independent interests, emotions, and complicated dynamics. In adapting it, my main contribution was to pump those distinctions even more and make each character stand out as unique, fully rounded people.
I think this offers the best method to "evangelize" about nudism. It's too easy to dismiss nudists as people who just want to be naked and that's all they want out of life. But by allowing them to spend an hour with funny, charming, memorable people who just happen to be naked, they can see a bit of themselves in the characters and maybe find it more palatable. Scientists, artists, accountants, professors...no matter who you are, we all have the power to reconnect with our humanity and be comfortable in our skin around others.
How do you avoid sexualizing nudity with a production that puts multiple people fully nude on camera? What ensures that this production is not sexualized?
Our commitment from the very beginning was to make this as wholesome a production as possible. When I saw the show, I realized its strength was how it felt like a cheesy 1980s sitcom episode or a 1970s Disney movie. These are the kind of earnest, sweet stories that just don't get told anymore and while some might scoff at such storytelling, I think people today could benefit from more earnestness and sweetness.
To reinforce that wholesome end, we even edited out a lot of the sex jokes from the original version with only one or two mild double entrendres remaining. While the nudity alone unfortunately means we have a more adult audience, our aim was to make something that a whole family audience could enjoy if the characters were dressed.
However, if nudism becomes more focused on being welcoming to all, listening to diverse perspectives especially from women, POC, and the LGBT+ community, and is able to portray itself as a complementary aspect to people's daily lives instead of a radical change, then it could prosper.
Of course in our society, nudity is a Rorschach test. Some people will automatically sexualize it. We can't control that kind of obsessive behavior, but it's hard to think of a less sexual pose than someone sitting with just their upper chest and face visible in a corner of a screen on a Zoom call. Our focus was always on people understanding our emotions and performance, so the blocking we use was always in favor of the story and never in service of objectifying any of us. Even during one sequence where Axel is oblivious about what his camera image looks like, no one can argue his appearance in that sequence would be sexual if he was wearing pants. Again, it all came down to our attitudes and none of us viewed ourselves or our other cast members as inherently sexual.
The source material, Barely Proper, was subtitled "An Unplayable Play". In our relatively liberal age, it has been a hit at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and now in your online production - no longer unplayable! Does this bode well for mainstream culture's acceptance of nudism, or will nudism always be relegated to the fringe of society?
Despite its success, some people might still consider it unplayable. It's tough to gauge in my American perspective, especially when our society has a tendency to swing from very liberal to conservative to back again.
On one hand, I think nudity is unfortunately an easy thing to ban for large corporations who don't want liabilities, our cinema is having a very body-negative moment due in part to the excesses and abuses of previous eras, and no one wants to make waves on social media by being too out there.
On the other hand, the naturist rhetoric is seeping into the mainstream. More and more young people are realizing how toxic a negative attitude to our body is and I would not be surprised to see topfreedom for women in America de-stigmatized in a few decades. And if movies are becoming more prudish, you can't say the same about Game Of Thrones which commanded a huge audience every week. So it's possible nudity may very well become as accepted in North America as it is in the United Kingdom, if not Scandinavia.
The acceptance of nudism is a different question I think and it depends a lot on the image that naturists present. If the focus of nudism is an insular one, one focused on little-promoted resorts, constantly ignoring broader discussions in the textile world, and focused only on being nude and nothing else, then I feel it will always be a fringe philosophy attracting only true believers.
However, if nudism becomes more focused on being welcoming to all, listening to diverse perspectives especially from women, POC, and the LGBT+ community, and is able to portray itself as a complementary aspect to people's daily lives instead of a radical change, then it could prosper.
I should also add that in the United States, the major divide between the urban and the rural might hurt nudism. People who might be interested in nudist events are moving towards urban centers, while the current nudist model centered on beaches, resorts, and nature retreats are far away from cities, making them cost-prohibitive for those people to attend. As a gig-working 20-something who lives in Los Angeles and doesn't have a car at present, it would be very expensive and time-consuming for me to go to any of the SoCal nudist resorts for even a day trip, much less become a member!
What future projects are you planning? Where will you go from here as a playwright and director?
This project has taken up so much of my time that I genuinely have no idea what I'm doing next. To be honest, I've found that my comedic acting is my most marketable skill so I'd like to work on that further through my class in the Groundlings and through comedy sketches percolating in my head. Locking down my first agent or manager would be helpful, I imagine.
However, I have some film ideas I'd like to work on and there's been an idea for a play about Abraham Lincoln meeting George Washington in Heaven bouncing around in my head. But let's not forget, there's a sequel hook at the end of Disrobed! If the play is well-received and everyone in the cast is down to return, I would definitely love to revisit these characters with our wonderful cast and crew.
Disrobed: the Virtual Event will stream for three shows only, on January 15, 16, and 17. The performance will stream live, and disappears immediately thereafter. For information, and to purchase tickets, see https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6996.
It's been a hard year. Social nudity is not possible now, and will not be for the foreseeable future. Nude parties, gatherings, swims, and bowling nights have all been cancelled. Attending movies and plays is right out as well. The pandemic put on hold a very successful revival of a nudist play - Disrobed: Why So Clothes Minded?, originally produced for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
But adversity can inspire us to try new, better things. Many people have used the pandemic lockdowns to try home nudism for the first time, and nudist organizations (particularly BN, which has organized many online events) have reported a surge in new memberships. Nudism is certainly on the rise.
And the nudist play Disrobed has arisen again as well.
The story of this work stretches back to 1931 when playwright Tom Cushing published Barely Proper, subtitled "An Unplayable Play". In this work, a young man meets his German fiancée’s family, who are naturists, and who have been led to believe that he is a naturist as well. It was an experiment in theatre; no one would produce a play, surely, with every single cast member fully nude on stage.
Indeed, Barely Proper was not produced until a 1970 Broadway run - which found only witheringly negative reviews. It would lie dormant again for decades more, although nudist clubs would occasionally produce the play (including my local club Bare Oaks, which produced it in 2011.
The play finally hit the mainstream in 2019, when an adaptation written by Steven Vlasak and directed by Brian Knudson, Disrobed: Why So Clothes-Minded?, was performed at the Hollywood Fringe. The play received positive reviews and the Fringe festival’s Producers Encore Award, and established a monthly run for the rest of the year.
And then, 2020. With stages all over the world shuttered, it would be difficult for this play to see the curtain again.
Enter director Troy Peterson. Working with Vlasak, Peterson gave the play a very 2020 twist, changing it from a stage play to an online production. And the results are a remarkable success.
In this adaptation, Skye’s family is distributed about the globe - Skye in Iceland on a research project, brother Axel in southern California, sister Kat in New York, and parents George and Sierra in northern California. Unable to be together at Christmas, the family gathers together on Zoom, eager to meet Skye’s new boyfriend Eric, who is at home in Boston.
However, Skye has not found the nerve to tell her uptight boyfriend that her family are naturists, and they all participate in these group calls naked. Skye has also led her family to believe that Eric is also a naturist, forcing Eric to play along with a lie that is far, far outside his comfort zone.
In essence, it is a fish out of water comedy. Conventions are turned on their head, and the main character needs to work out whether they are insane, or he is; Eric and Skye are forced to choose whether their love can survive the confrontation of their very different ethics.
Each character brings a completely different energy to the production - these are not paper-thin nudist stereotypes. Eric (Peterson) is nervous and shrill as he works through the terror of being nude with this family. Skye (Eloise Gordon) has a difficult role, protecting both her family's naturist tendencies and her fiancé's extreme reaction. Axel (Ian Hayes) and Kat (Shayley Gunther) are utterly convincing as young, artistic-minded, completely comfortable naturists. And Sierra (Karen Lasater) and George (Dave McClain) are great as picture-perfect parents-of-the-girlfriend types, complete with dad jokes and hopes for grandchildren - except that they're nude. The comfort and chemistry that the cast have built comes through beautifully, even though they are in separate parts of the country, communicating only on-screen.
Successfully transplanting a stage play to Zoom seems like a daunting task, but Peterson delivers the play extremely effectively in the new medium. Instead of walking on and off stage, characters enter and leave the call. The framing of each character - sometimes to obscure nudity, and other times to present it in screen-filling detail - is used to great comedic effect. The entire narrative plays out convincingly and entertainingly throughout the play’s fifty-minute run time.
The work shows a deep understanding of the nudist perspective as well. Skye’s family is not only unconcerned about whether they are visibly nude on camera; they revel in it, knowing that they are among others who accept and appreciate being naked together.
And yes, there are nudity puns and some silly sight gags as well. The characters try to hang a lantern on some of these, but they provoke rolling eyes rather than sincere laughs.
At other times, characters - particularly Skye’s father - also fall into some tropes that always seem to choke up nudist narratives. Absurdly academic speeches don’t feel like authentic characters responding to the others around them. (Vestiges of the original play's context come out when he refers to naturism as "the movement".) Naturists don’t typically talk that way in real life.
But this is theatre, not real life, and these speeches could all be a calculated way to reach non-nudist audience members, to explain naturist ideas to them. For a naturist audience, though, this sometimes weakens the spell of the narrative.
These minor quibbles take nothing away from the marvellous effectiveness of the play, or the many very funny moments that resonate long after the virtual curtain falls. Disrobed is remarkably successful where it digs into real truths about personal integrity and expression, and modern attitudes towards nudity (which haven’t changed all that much since 1931).
The production clearly shows the influence of real naturist thinking. Some vignettes, like one’s first time undressing with a group of nudists, or the often contradictory thoughts and emotions we cling to about nude bodies, ring so true that they must surely come from some real nudist experience.
There is a distinct lack of naturist-inspired and naturist-friendly media in the world; for so many reasons, non-sexualized nudity remains a nearly impossible line to cross in our society. Disrobed should be celebrated by naturists everywhere, and supported as a positive naturist work that elevates all of our voices.
Disrobed: the Virtual Event will stream for three shows only, on January 15, 16, and 17. The performance will stream live, and disappears immediately thereafter. For information, and to purchase tickets, see https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6996.
With its relatively liberal policies on nudity, twitter stands alone as the most popular nudist-friendly social media platform out there these days. You can post nude photos, you can talk about nudity and nudism, and you can interact with other nudists openly.
Any of those things could see your posts removed and even your account banned on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and most other social media sites. There are a few social media sites, like MeWe, that are open to nudist content, but they tend to have far fewer users.
Twitter stands alone as a destination for nudists. But a recent trend there has started to make it a less warm and welcoming place for nudists - and puts a serious damper on our connecting and socializing together.
That trend: blocking people.
There are plenty of good reasons to block people on twitter; it can be a toxic place.
Women - especially nudist women - are often (if not constantly) harassed, criticized, propositioned, judged, and vilified, and receive numerous creepy DMs and sexually-laden replies to every tweet. Many of my female nudist friends have reported on twitter blocking literally dozens of other users daily.
There are also people who come in to give unwanted and useless opinions. I myself don’t need to see more than one “Y’all are crazy” or “You’re going to hell for immodesty” comment before I hit the block button.
There are also users who will misuse others’ photos - reposting them without attributing them and without permission, often from accounts that are just roundups of nude photos with a single theme. I always block them too.
Finally, there are those with whom I disagree with so fundamentally that I don’t want to have anything to do with them - people who post racist and sexist “jokes” fall into this category. They probably don’t even know I’ve blocked them, but I don’t care - I want no association between my account and theirs.
In general, though, unless a twitter user is being actively harmful, I don’t block them. They might have a feed full of extremely sexually explicit images and videos; they might have political views that are diametrically opposed to my own. But I won’t block them.
I also won’t follow them. Despite being a twitter account primarily about nudism, there are very few nude photos as I scroll down my feed. Most of the photos that appear are the header images for articles and blog posts, too. I just don’t follow photo-centric accounts.
At one time I was much more liberal than I am now. If someone followed me, I followed them back. If someone had an account that seemed connected with nudism, I followed them. But as time went on I’ve become more discerning, and I’ve even gone through my list of follows from time to time and pruned them.
So my policy is: block people who are actively problematic; follow people who are active and positive about nudism; and more or less ignore everyone else.
Not everyone shares my policy approach - which is their right, of course.
Numerous accounts have text in their bio to the effect that “anyone posting, following, or liking porn will be blocked”. It’s nice of them to give a warning! I don’t typically worry about these warnings, because my intentions on twitter are clear. I’m about nudism, not porn.
Something does bother me about this, though: it seems like a purity test for nudism. It’s not that I condone the sexualization of nudity. But it does seem to require that a person - who might have a lot of different reasons for being on twitter - have no impure, non-nudist content in their feed.
That approach also tends to be less inclusive. If you demand that everyone who follows you is well-versed in the principles of nudism, you aren’t going to convince anyone who isn’t already a nudist to give it a try.
One other possibility - what if someone follows an adult performer, erotic photographer, nude model, or exotic dancer specifically to support and empower them? To block the artist’s followers so severely is unfair and judgemental. It can be very difficult to know why anyone follows anyone else.
Not everyone is trying to attract new nudists, of course. But there’s one area where blocking is legitimately concerning: when the blocker is a naturist organization or destination.
This is what made me first start to think about this topic: an AANR regional account blocked me. This came as a surprise: I didn’t know of anything in my twitter history that offended anyone, especially a nudist organization. To make matters worse, they were quite active on twitter, and I would often find replies and retweets in my feed that I couldn’t access.
Eventually I sought out the person who ran the account, and asked why I was blocked; after a brief back-and-forth, I was unblocked. But that person noted that I followed an account that was deemed inappropriate.
I looked up the account, and yes, it wasn’t the kind of account that I normally follow! I unfollowed it immediately, for my own sake, not for AANR’s. (It was probably one of those accounts I followed early on, because they followed me first.) But it left me wondering, why had I been scrutinized so closely and judged too harshly to even follow an AANR account - an organization I’m actually a member of?
I don’t blame the organization, either. They made the judgement they felt they needed to, at that time. The problem is that there’s no public set of rules, no policy, that gives their criteria for followers. In a way, those “Porn followers will be BLOCKED!” accounts are doing a better job of stating their policies.
Two solutions are needed here.
The first is that organizations and businesses need to spend time considering, and writing down, their policies. Social media grew quickly; the preparation and thinking that used to go into communications and messaging were neglected in the rush to keep up with Facebook, Twitter, and the like. But it’s a permanent fixture for many organizations, including naturist organizations, so it’s time to incorporate the social media stance of an organization into its policies.
(Some organization executives might feel they don’t have the knowledge to do this; here’s a great opportunity to involve some younger members, don’t you think?)
The second is that naturists who are interested in bringing new people into the fold - whether they are organizations, businesses, or just private enthusiasts like me - need to have an as-open-as-possible approach to their communications. They don’t need to tolerate abuse and negativity, of course. But the approach of blocking followers because they don’t quite meet one’s high standards has to end.
Social media presents an astounding opportunity for naturists, who once had to hide in heavily-treed lots far from civilization just to enjoy being nude together.
Closing doors and excluding people does not help our movement grow, especially among younger people - the demographic that most naturists recognize as the most important one for our future. Let’s unblock, and join the conversation.
Are you active on social media? Who do you block, and who blocks you? What’s your approach? Tell me in the comments!
One universal truth of nudism is that when you’ve been exposed to naked bodies in a non-sexual context enough, you stop noticing that people are naked.
Almost everyone who’s new to nudism has this epiphany, often during their first nude experience: you forget that you’re naked, and that everyone else is as well. It might be the first time most people in our modern society realize how useless and limiting clothing can be. It’s one of the most wonderful realizations you can have, as a new nudist.
Many people extend this idea to a very positive conclusion: that any human body, without adornment, without artificial coverings, and without the feelings of shame and fear that society has instilled us, is beautiful.
I disagree.The mere fact of existence, of physical being, is not in itself beautiful - or if it is, then every living thing is also beautiful. And that is enough to render the concept almost meaningless.
From the point of view of physical attractiveness, being clothed might hide aspects that society deems “flaws”, or might accentuate certain characteristics that are conventionally considered attractive. Being naked might reveal parts of the body that fail to conform to society’s standards of beauty, or might show heavily sexualized body parts in an alluring way. Neither clothing nor nakedness have a monopoly on attractiveness.
As a nudist, I think there is only one way to resolve this question of beauty, and that is to ignore it altogether. Because beauty, physical beauty, is irrelevant for those of us who share in the philosophy of social nudity. The very concept of beauty is completely irrelevant to the naturist ethos.
To truly accept the naturist philosophy, I would argue, one needs to reject the concept completely, and recognize that the physical reality of a person’s body is not relevant to the worth of that person. Instead, the naturist must strive to accept each person as they are, regardless of the characteristics they present to the world. It is the whole person, not just the person’s appearance, that is of interest and value.
So are nude bodies beautiful? Are any bodies beautiful?
The naturist answer is: the question is irrelevant. The beauty of a body - whatever that means - does not affect the worth or acceptability of that individual.
Of course, whether or not we judge our own or others’ bodies, society is going to judge, rate, and assign its assessments to bodies, both nude and clothed. It would be naïve to assert that beauty didn’t matter to society, or that some bodies will be judged as more or less beautiful.
Those messages have been sent, overtly and subtly, all our lives. Young girls are complimented on how pretty they look. Advertising all around us is filled with images of attractive people (with their natural features Photoshopped away to make their images conform even more closely with beauty standards). Good-looking people are given higher status in the world, in big and small ways. It’s nearly impossible not to internalize some of those messages after a time.
As naturists, though, we know that we don’t need to buy into that way of thinking. By stripping away the need for clothing, we gain an acceptance of people’s bodies that transcends society’s long outmoded ideas of beauty. This gives us an even more important role: to change the way people think, by being leaders of this new way of thinking.
Part of it is what we say. I’ve written before about not complimenting other nudists, but it goes beyond that. Never complimenting anyone on their appearance might be a bit extreme, but it’s worth expending a little more effort to find something to compliment about the person instead of their body or features. (Those compliments may or may not be welcome, but they are almost certainly less likely to seem creepy.)
But it’s much more than policing our words. It’s about changing the way we think altogether. Stopping ourselves from making judgements about other people - good or bad - is not easy. But neither is being a nudist in a nudity-averse world.
Cultivating this judgement-free way of thinking is perhaps one of our most important tasks as naturists, though. If naturism is to be the truly open, welcoming, and inclusive society that most of its proponents want it to be, then we must start by being truly accepting of every person.
To achieve this approach of radical acceptance, we need to start by committing ourselves to the idea that beauty is not a useful way to judge bodies. Once we stop associating value with the subjective attractiveness of people’s bodies - including our own bodies! - we will be ready to move towards the truly egalitarian, accepting, and positive world that naturism promises to give us.
Have you found naturism has changed how you think of beauty standards? Do you think naturists have the potential to change our society’s thinking for the better?
Many people think that nudism is a risky business.
Trying anything for the first time always has an element of risk. That’s a fact. To many, nudism seems to carry a huge amount of risk with it, often because of society’s many negative messages about nudity, perpetuated through our media for decades. For first-time nudists, it often feels like you’re defying every moral and convention in our society when you think about taking your clothes off with others.
But in large part, the risk is in our heads, and far smaller than we think. Here are some of the biggest risks that nudists perceive, and the reality of the risk that is (or isn’t) there.
Some people work in fields where they handle sensitive information, or people at risk (including children). Others have public positions where any deviation from societal norms is considered problematic. These positions could include jobs where they work with children or other vulnerable people, or where they are in a position of public trust.
The risk is predicated on the association of nudity with sexuality, of course. If you are willingly nude with other people, you are probably a sexual deviant, or at least opening yourself up for blackmail or extortion. You are not, the reasoning seems to be, a trustworthy person if you are a nudist.
In addition, if you do not work in a positive work environment, the revelation that you are a nudist could prompt other workers to make unwelcome comments or insinuations. Because society is often unsympathetic to nudism, you might also feel that you cannot complain about those comments, even if they are egregious. That can seriously degrade the quality of your working life.
This risk is one of the few perceived risks that is at least partially grounded in reality. People do have negative stereotypes about nudists, and they could make the association between nudism and sexuality. If you work with vulnerable persons, or indeed in any position where you have a “morality clause” or something similar in your employment contract, it would be worth considering whether social nudity is something you can partake in.
You might have to be careful about who you tell about your recreation activities, too. (That can be true for any unconventional hobbies too - video games, sports, and crafts can all seem strange to others sometimes.) Some co-workers can’t be entrusted with this level of personal revelation. And if you have to worry about the reactions of some co-workers, you really have to worry about all of them: sometimes word gets around in any organization, and it always seems to get to the wrong people.
However, the reality is that you’re far less likely to have to worry about this than you may think. While there are occupations that might be sensitive to nude recreation, most are not. Unless they explicitly state the limits on what you can do while you’re employed there, being a nudist outside of working hours should not be a problem.
And that leads to the best way to handle this risk: if you’re worried about professional ramifications of nude recreation, just don’t tell anyone. Your co-workers don’t have to know about what you do with your free time. If they ask what your weekend was like, you can just omit the part about being nude at the time. “I went swimming and read a fantastic book” is enough - you don’t need to include “with a bunch of other nude people” at all.
“What if I run into someone I know?”
Here’s the nightmare scenario: someone you know in your clothed life - a friend, acquaintance, co-worker, even a family member - ends up at the same place as you. Now you’re without clothes in front of someone who’s never seen you nude before!
Imagining the embarrassment and awkwardness is almost too much. Now this person, who has only known you in the controlled environment where you’ve been able to cover up to your own comfort level, is suddenly able to see you - all of you. It’s a level of intimacy and exposure that you might never have wanted with this person. What’s more, they now have some knowledge about you that they can use against you - they know you’re a nudist!
This is one of those problems that might seem huge, but in fact is a minor problem at worst - and a huge opportunity at best.
Running into a friend or family member while you’re both nude can in fact be a very positive experience. Now you have something in common you didn’t know about before! This could lead to having someone new to hang out nude with, or someone to go to nudist venues with in the future. There are so many new possibilities when you know other nudists!
You might have been nude in front of only a very small number of people in the past, and they were probably close to you. It’s natural to think that, if you expose your body to a large number of people, especially people you don’t know, you’ll be judged for all the flaws you perceive about yourself - every part of you that you’ve looked at in the mirror and felt was wrong, inadequate, or unattractive.
In a nudist context, whether at a beach, a resort, a gathering, or any other kind of social nudity venue… no one cares.
That’s right. You are alone in judging your body; no other nudist is going to notice all of these flaws and deficiencies. Because in a nudist space, everyone is exposed. We’ve all got ourselves fully on display, and that’s because we agree, collectively, that none of that matters.
In fact, being around other normal nude people can be quite uplifting. It’s one of the few antidotes to society’s ideas about what we should look like, or even what is acceptable to other people. Spend an hour or two among other nude people, and you’ll quickly see through the myth of how anyone is supposed to look, and what a body is supposed to be. It might be the most affirming and positive experience you’ll ever encounter.
You could agree with all this, and get past all the other fears and hangups that society puts on nudity, and still worry that when you get there… you won’t like being nude. Nudists are definitely a minority in our society, so there are many who don’t enjoy social nudity - maybe it just won’t be for you.
It’s natural to feel some trepidation about something like social nudity, because you’ve been bombarded with negative messages about nude bodies all your life. But let me tell you from experience, all of those messages - without exception - are false.
But sure, there’s a possibility that you won’t actually enjoy it when you try it. Maybe the vibe isn’t right, or maybe you’re unable to really let go and get comfortable. Not everyone tries nudism and becomes a convert.
So you put on your clothes and go home.
Really, it’s that simple. If you don’t like it, you can back out at any time. No one is going to demand to know where you’re going. And if you decide later that you want to try it again, no one is going to hold it against you. This is about as un-risky as it can possibly be. And if it turns out that you just don’t like nudist environments, there’s nothing wrong with being nude at home, in private!
The real calculation that you must make is whether the risk is worth the potential reward. The risks, I hope I’ve been able to demonstrate, are actually minor - all are much easier to handle than they might seem before you try nudism for yourself.
But the rewards can be huge. It’s not simply naturist propaganda to say that many, many people have found their lives irrevocably changed for the better when they started going nude. That’s why there are nudist clubs, and resorts, and beaches - because thousands and thousands of others have tried nudism for themselves, and decided to adopt it as a recreation option - or even as a way of life.
It won’t solve all your problems, it’s not a cure-all, it might not even change the world. But it definitely isn’t the big, scary, risky thing you have probably led yourself to believe it was. And the rewards could stay with you for the rest of your new, nude life.
If you’re a naturist already, what did you think the biggest risks were before you tried nudism for the first time, and how did they work out? If you haven’t tried it yet, what are the big risks that are preventing you from going nude for your first time? Let me know in the comments!
When you’re a nudist, it sometimes feels like 90% of the world is porn.
This isn’t about when you’re actually nude, or when you’re nude with other people. It’s one of life’s ironies that social nudity can be among the least sexualized situations imaginable. There’s no leering, no peeking, and (obviously) no mentally undressing each other. The shared vulnerability of nudity makes it innocent in a way that is surprising to most people.
That’s not what pornographers are after, though.
They know that to non-nudists, nudity is intrinsically sexual, so more nudity is more sexy. And situations where multiple people of mixed genders are nude together are very rare in general society, so they must be taboo. Finally, the idea of nudists being real, regular people is set aside, and mostly athletic young women (and a few slim, muscular men) are the focus.
We’re not going to eradicate pornography from the internet any time soon. But if you're looking for nudist information or communities and not images of young nude people, what do you do?
The word “nudism” has been forever corrupted by the online porn industry. Even sites that present as non-pornography sites are trading on exploitation of nudists - often minors, and usually female minors. The fact that they are engaging in (apparently) nudist activities is simply a cover for a business that sells titillating images of naked women.
And apparently it’s good business, because these sites tend to dominate the search results when you use a term like “nudist” or “nudism” on most search engines. You’ll find perhaps some ads for legitimate nudist resorts, and maybe a wikipedia link, but mostly it will be TABOO FAMILY NUDIST PHOTOS NUDE GIRLS sites, fake “nudist” dating sites(link to community post), and the like.
So you’ll have to refine your search terms significantly to get anything usable. If you’re searching for places you can go nude, you’ll want to be more detailed, like “nudist resorts near toronto”. If you’re looking for nudist online groups, try “naturist forums”.
The words you use are important too. The worst word to use is “nudism”, which is a keyword that is dominated by porn sites. Try “nudist” instead - the results are far more legitimate. Even better, use “naturist” or “naturism”, because these words are apparently less erotic, and thus not primary keywords for porn sites.
Even better, unless you’re not looking for some particular site or topic, is to avoid search engines altogether. and go to more authoritative sources of nudist information.
Start with sites of naturist organizations that are already established. You can go to your national association and check their web page out - most national associations list their affiliated clubs and regional groups, and might also provide information on other locations where nudism is allowed or tolerated. (Many of their sites also have a robust privacy and ethics policy - definitely a good thing for nudist content!)
You can also find sites with naturist communities (though I’ve written about why online naturist communities seldom work, so be warned). If you find an active community that truly shares in naturist values - that is, one that isn’t just a trading post for nude photos - they might have some information you can use. Or if you are looking for something specific, you can search the forum’s history, or even just ask. (And you can read my book too, if you want some suggestions on getting started!)
While social media is largely unfriendly to nudism - and nudity in general - there are still some vibrant communities growing on some platforms.
You can find a number of nudist groups on Facebook, often focused on geographical areas - if you’re looking for information or discussion, that would be a good place to start. And if you consider reddit a social media site, their nudist subreddit has won praise as a well-moderated and very active community, and they don’t allow photos either. It’s a great place to search for useful posts or ask your questions. (Full disclosure: I’m a moderator of r/nudism, though I receive no compensation of any kind for it. I’m just a strong proponent of the community, and love to help build quality spaces for naturists!)
Above all, there’s Twitter, which has a loose but surprisingly large community of nudists. While some hashtags might lead you only to porn, #normalizingnudity and #naturism appears to filter better results. Using these hashtags, you can find tweets or accounts that are run by real nudists. You can even get involved and connect with others in the naturist community by tweeting yourself.
While I’ve provided some strategies for finding valid nudist content on the internet, consider how much time you’re spending searching, reading blogs (like this one!) and forums and articles… and how much time you’re spending just experiencing nudism. After all, you can browse all that content while practicing nudism in your own home.
The internet should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. Even in the midst of the COVID pandemic, it’s far better to spend your time finding real nudists to interact with. That doesn’t have to be in person - there are an unprecedented number of nudist gatherings these days, whether through informal Zoom chats or organized events (check out British Naturism’s events!). There are even some nudist resorts and informal meetups going on - respecting social distancing guidelines of course.
Searching for legitimate and valuable nudist content isn’t easy. But the best part is that you can close the search engine any time you want, drop your clothes, and join an incredibly freeing and supportive community.
Are there any online resources for nudists that you prefer? Where do you go for real nudist content? Drop your recommendations in the comments below!
