I like making new year’s resolutions.
I think it’s really important for everyone to take time, every once in a while, to take stock of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go. The new year might be an arbitrary time to do this, but it’s as good a time as any.
One of the most important things for me to take stock of is my writing. It’s easy to lose focus on any artistic endeavour, because the world doesn’t much care to make room for your creativity. You have to carve out time and space for it yourself, and you’re probably the only one who will.
So at the new year, I usually take stock of what I’ve completed in the last year, and look forward to the next. This year, I made headway on a few fronts:
However, my top objective was to finish, or at least make significant headway on, my next nudist book. And unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
What about my nudist resolutions - my nude year resolutions list? I didn’t have any specific resolutions last year, but I know I wasn’t able to take advantage of many opportunities to be nude outside the house. Between my schedule and some family medical issues, the nice months didn’t give me many opportunities for social nudism.
That’s enough looking back. Let’s look forward instead!
This year, I have two key goals related to my nudism writing:
Regarding nudism in general, my primary aim is to be nude as much as possible. I’m going to be dealing with some medical issues myself, so I don’t know when or where I’ll be able to partake in social nudity. But I’m going to try (and I won’t let my surgery scars stand in my way, once they’ve healed).
And in support of nudism, I’m going to continue to work to be a good resource for naturists, whether they are looking into nudism or are already committed nudists. Helping collect resources, amplify other nudists’ voices, dispel myths, and normalise nudism are my tasks, every day of this year.
Whatever happens, I’m going to make this a positive and productive new year, and nude year. I hope you will too!
What are your goals and plans for this coming year, personally and creatively? What are you planning to do, experience, and create? Let me know in the comments!
A recent article in Australia’s Central News covered a very private nudist location. Reporter Chloe Arentz was taken to the secret location and spent a day interacting with the few nudists in attendance there. It’s a great example of how not to cover nudism, as a reporter. Even though it’s a serious, intelligent and well-written piece, it has some significant failures as a piece of journalism.
The article’s title, “The Naked Truth About Nudism”, starts things off poorly, with an incredibly tired play on words. (Does any writer use the phrase “naked truth” in any other context any more?) The author starts by describing her amazement upon meeting… a nude man. The sequence of being greeted by a man wearing “a hat, a smile - and nothing else” is treated at surprising length. It does not seem to be Arentz’s first time witnessing male nudity, but it might as well be, with the shock she expresses at the sight.
Arentz does proceed to discuss nudism, and its history in Europe and Australia. She includes the perspective of a couple who are members of the nudist club that she - for reasons never stated - has decided to visit. She does provide a very balanced and positive view of naturism, and gives full attention to why people might find nudism appealing. But her own hangups about nudity remain firmly in place, and they soon become, apparently unintentionally, the dominant theme of the article.
Nudists being nude in a nudist club are “othered” throughout. The two people who led her to the club (the location is not published - though the reason for this secrecy is not discussed or even considered, apparently) remove their clothes when they arrive at the club; this is considered remarkable (“this time they’re both naked”). They encounter a woman who, like the author, is clothed, and Arentz describes the interaction:
Stephen introduces us but she merely gives me a cool once-over and a wry smile before wandering off. She doesn’t change, so one can assume she’s unsettled by my presence – there is a stranger in her territory and one that is significantly over-dressed.
The nude people she encounters are treated like freaks in a sideshow (she “cannot unsee” them, she comments); the people who do not undress seem to her unreasonably unfriendly.
Well - what does Arentz expect? She is the outsider, and she is refusing to make any concessions to the people who are at the club. Why would the members go out of their way to be friendly? (And how much of this is Arentz misreading their reactions because of her own fears and misgivings?)
What's more, she never states why she took the assignment, and it's not clear that she introduced herself as a reporter. The point of the article is at best unclear. It comes off as an attempt at sensationalism - "Look at these people, nude together! Shocking!"
Her greatest fear, apparently, is that she will be asked to join the nudists at the nudist club in being nude. It’s not clear why she chose to cover this particular story, if this was such a problem for her. It isn’t unreasonable to expect her to experience it a bit of social nudity in this safe, consensual, established environment, with people who have already met her clothed. Arentz admits as much herself:
As a journalist, you want to blend in and immerse yourself in whatever is happening. But today, I choose to remain a “textile” (non-nudist) and neither Stephen or Kathy request I change into uniform, for which I am grateful. While nudism holds no expectations about the shape and size of the human body, the unease of being an outsider is still more appealing than going au-naturel.
This post is not about shaming Arentz, though; I think the article deserves fair criticism, but I’m not calling her out for it. She does present nudism in an objectively positive light, too; it’s only on the subjective level that her own fears and hangups overpower her journalistic standards.
So what’s wrong with covering nudists in your clothes?
Well, would journalists cover a tennis player without ever having watched a match, or hefted a racket themselves? Would they write about a chef without ever tasting her cooking? Would they review a book written in a language they were not themselves fluent in? Of course not. It would serve their audience poorly, and they would be writing without the level of understanding that their readership rightly expects.
If the author is not able - for some legitimate reason - to participate in social nudity, other, more creative approaches could be used. A nudist could be brought on as a co-author, to ensure that a nude perspective is included. The author could also try being nude in a safer environment, such as a spa (where mixed genders are not present).
It’s not as though nudism is inaccessible; we can all be nude when we choose to be, with a little privacy. (Most people are nude a couple of times a day, when changing clothes or bathing.) If a writer wanted to cover nudism, he or she could easily spend a day or even just a couple of hours nude in their home, just to see what it was like. It would provide valuable perspective in reporting the difference between “regular” nudity and nudism, too.
Let me add this: I do not like the idea of demanding that other people take their clothes off, especially women. The power imbalance between the genders makes this very uncomfortable to me; the consent of the person who is getting nude is paramount. But it’s also important that reporters voluntarily cover nudism (just as they should voluntarily cover stories dealing with sexuality, violence, or other topics our society deems sensitive). If nudity is too big a hangup for you, that’s okay. No one is forcing you to cover it, are they?
But it’s not just the quality of the journalism that I take issue with. More important - and disappointing - is the way this kind of journalism exploits nudists.
We know that nudity, especially in public, attracts public attention. It’s compelling; violations of society’s taboos always attracts attention. There’s a certain appeal to prurient interests, of course, but also a sort of “can you imagine!” dynamic that seems to gain an audience’s focus like nothing else.
I don’t object to someone using that dynamic to find a way to tell a compelling story. But there are people involved here, and they’re just living the lives they want to live. It may be unconventional or uncommon to take this attitude towards clothing and nudity, but they’re not doing it for the amusement of journalists, or anyone else.
That’s why it’s exploitative to cover nudists this way. You’re taking for granted the attitudes our society has towards nudity - that it’s wrong, it’s strange, and perhaps most importantly, that it’s a commodity to be consumed by the viewer. To pretend you’re taking the objective stance of a journalist while also putting nudists on display, as it were, is a dishonest way to use them.
This idea of staying clothed at a nudist resort inevitably makes the piece about the journalist, not the subject. The writer’s hangups and fears become the story, with nudists and their “very bare behinds” just window dressing. That’s markedly unfair to the subject matter, and unworthy of serious reporting.
Any nudist club would probably appreciate the attention of a news article or two, especially if it encourages some new visitors and even members. They are, after all, just businesses in the end. But I would recommend that nudists and nudist venues to set some ground rules before agreeing to be a reporter’s subject:
If media outlets would consent to these rules, they would not only serve their subjects and readers better. They would improve the quality of their journalism greatly.
And of course, I’m open to interview requests.
What do you think of these rules and standards? Is there anything else you’d require from a journalist, or am I going too far with these expectations? Let me know what you think in the comments - and whether you think I was fair in assessing the article, too!
Many people are interested in nudism but never give it a try. There are a number of reasons for this - and a number of excuses.
What’s the difference? If it’s a reason, it’s something that is actually preventing you from trying it. Maybe you live too far from a nudist venue. Or the people around you are not accepting of the idea. Or you’re worried about the professional implications if someone found out that you’re a nudist.
These are all potentially legitimate reasons you can’t participate in nudism, or at least some aspect of it. (You can always try it at home when everyone else is gone, or you can go somewhere secluded…) But in this post I’m talking about excuses, not legitimate reasons. Excuses are just as likely to keep someone from trying out nudism, especially social nudism - in fact, they might be even more likely to stop someone than legitimate reasons are.
There are many fears associated with nudism that fall into this category. Heck, that’s the reason I wrote my first book on nudism! I recognized that if a wannabe nudist were armed with a little more knowledge, they could probably get past many of their misgivings.
People’s fears about nudity and nudism aren’t really surprising. Our society’s attitudes turn into negative messages that we hear every single day.
Nudity is sexualized. Bodies are commodified. Seeing nude people is morally wrong. Nude people is disgusting. No one wants to see that!
The modern world is a pretty unfriendly place for nudists, in many ways. It’s not surprising that we internalize those messages, and turn them into reasons not to be who we want to be.
I hope it’s clear that I don’t blame people for the excuses they make for not being nudists. But I think that addressing the most common fears directly, and examining these most common excuses, is a step towards people embracing the nudist self they want to be. We’ve all been there, but there’s a light at the end of the nudist beach for those who embrace the freedom in experiencing a more clothes-free life.
There’s one very common reason I hear from people who want to try nudism but don’t. It’s this:
I don’t look good enough to be nude in front of other people.
You’ll hear this from people of every size and shape. Young people with bodies that are objectively beautiful in every way pick out invisible flaws in their bodies. Women are terrified about revealing the stretch marks on their breasts, and buttocks. Men are worried about their proportions and body hair. Everyone worried that they’re overweight.
Weight is the most common flaw people see in themselves. It’s not just people who are obese. Some people see a tiny amount of fat on their belly, and they can’t imagine letting it out from behind its protective covering of clothing. Others will talk about the supposedly awful shape their body fat gives them: they talk about their paunch or hip dips or bingo wings or big butt. They have saggy parts and scars and blemishes of every kind.
The fear often manifests as a kind of promise. “I’d love to try a nude beach - I’d just have to lose twenty pounds before I can try it.”
What these people are really saying is that they have completely know what bodies are supposed to look like. They know because society tells them constantly: the only people who should be seen without clothes (or minimal clothes) are slim, muscular, unblemished young people.
If this is how you feel about yourself, I have good news for you.
Nudism is the answer to your problem.
First, let’s get one major misconception out of the way. If you’ve never been in a nudist venue before, you probably imagine it like this:
You take your clothes off, every head turning towards your nude body, every eye on you. You fold up your clothes, and everyone murmurs quietly as they discuss the many flaws they see in your body. You straighten up and walk through the gathered crowd, and the murmuring grows louder. There’s some tittering and people are exchanging looks.
That never, ever happens.
Here’s what really goes down: you take your clothes off. No one notices. You fold your clothes and straighten up. No one notices. You walk through the crowd of people and find a chair to sit on. The people around you smile and say hello.
That’s it.
Our society has given us every reason to be critical of our bodies, and the treatment of nudity in our media suggests that those criticisms are going to come from all sides. It’s not surprising that many new nudists expect that other nudists will watch them closely and judge them harshly for all the flaws that are so obviously on display.
Nudism really is the answer. In seconds, I promise, you’ll realize that all your fears and misgivings and self-criticisms were misplaced. It’s safe to be with nudists with an imperfect body.
Really, one of the things that makes social nudity so enjoyable is that we’re all mutually trusting each other with our vulnerability. Because we’re all naked, all our flaws are on display. And because we’re trusting each other that much, we automatically seem to be able to look past the physical bodies - flaws or beauty or any other way you might judge a body - and we look only at the person as they really are.
The best way to stop worrying about what you perceive to be your physical flaws is to get nude with a bunch of other people who are just as perfectly imperfect as you are.
You don’t need to lose any weight at all before you participate in nudism. The only thing you need to lose are your preconceptions about your body and others’ bodies.
It doesn’t matter how you look - nudism is for you!
What fears and misconceptions are keeping you from trying nudism? If you’re already a nudist, can you remember what held you back when you first thought about trying it? How did you get past those fears?
"Don’t cook bacon naked!”
It’s among the most tired (and tiresome) cliches about nudism. Non-nudists apparently think it’s hilarious - it's often the first thing they say in response to learning someone enjoys being nude. Actual nudists mostly think it’s obvious. But it does raise an interesting question: if you’re a nudist, do you cook nude?
I do. I was a cook long before I was a nudist. I worked as a line cook in my father’s restaurant for four years in university. After it closed, I continued working in kitchens until I found my first job.
Now, cooking at home is very different from cooking in a professional kitchen. You’re cooking less food and the intensity is much lower; there are far fewer dangers to cooking nude at home. (I would never cook naked in a professional kitchen like the ones I used to work in - I received enough cuts and burns as it was!)
At home, though, why not cook nude?
Well, there are some of the reasons you may want to cover up in the kitchen.
First, grease spatter is a real danger. Your belly and thighs are more sensitive to heat than your arms and hands. Even the tops of your bare feet might feel more pain than you expect if a flying gob of heat happens to land on them.
Boiling pots and hot ovens can also give off more heat than you expect. It's most likely you'll feel that heat on your face more than your body, and no one worries about covering their face when cooking. But you do want to take care that an errant blast of steam doesn't burn your exposed skin.
Cooking often requires extreme temperatures, whirling blades. The more experienced you are in the kitchen, the more gadgets and tools - many with sharp parts - you'll accumulate.
But think about how often you catch your shirt or pants on something sharp when you're cooking with clothes on. It's pretty rare, isn't it? Just because your skin is exposed, you're not in a great deal of additional danger.
Cooking nude does have a major advantage: you can't stain your body. A splash of olive oil or a mishandled blackberry might ruin a light-colored top, but if you're naked it wipes up without any problem at all.
If you really are worried about something going awry, though, an apron is always a valid choice. As in any other situation, if a covering is warranted, then by all means wear it. This isn’t a contest to be as nude as possible. It’s more important that you’re comfortable - and safe.
One of my favourite things to cook is hand-made pasta. I love spending an hour or two making an army of orecchiette at my kitchen table. Other time-consuming kitchen tasks, like chopping vegetables and portioning raw meat, put me into an almost zen-like state as I do them.
This is the bulk of the work you'll do in the kitchen, and there is no risk and no danger in doing them naked. In fact, I find that the extra freedom - my body's freedom to move, and my unbound mental state as well - makes the cooking experience that much more enjoyable.
When Jamie Oliver started his naked chef cooking show some years ago, he used to stress that it was the food that was naked. Plain, simple, honest cooking was what he was all about, and audiences definitely responded to his approach.
But my feeling is, if the food benefits from this stripped-down approach, won't the cook benefit from the same bare approach? I know that my feeling of satisfaction and peace from cooking and eating good food nude is always greater than it is when clothed.
As our world continues to modernize, digitize, and mechanize, nude food has more benefits than ever.
Many are concerned with the modern food system, especially in North America. Highly processed foods make up more and more of the general public’s diet. As consumers - both in the economic sense and as eaters - we are moving further and further away from the reality of food. Where and how it’s grown, harvested,
and delivered to us has become completely divorced from our cooking and eating.
For me, cooking nude is a way to re-establish that very human connection with the food I eat. Just as I feel more connected and present in nature when I’m nude, I feel like cooking nude helps me connect to what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.
(...Oh, and one more thing. Cook your bacon in the oven. Lay the strips of bacon in a single layer on a baking sheet, preferably on a piece of baking parchment, and cook it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes - a few minutes more or less depending how crispy you like it. Perfectly nude-safe!)
Do you cook? What kinds of foods do you like to cook the most? Have you ever tried cooking nude? Let me know in the comments!
Winter is, as they say, coming.
For many nudists, that means earlier nightfall and a break from the stultifying heat of summer sunshine. Residents of the many nudist resorts and communities in Florida, California, Texas, Spain, and other warm areas might be looking forward to a bit of temperate weather.
As a Canadian nudist, though, the rapidly advancing autumn chill brings with it dread for the coming ice and snow. (It's also a time for lamenting the missed opportunities to be nude in the past summer.)
So what are we snowbound Canucks, iced-in Minnesotans, and frozen New York nudists to do? Is the only strategy to light a fire, turn up the heat, and hibernate until the last frost melts?
Luckily, no. Here are some tips to being a winter nudist.
The thing nudists tend to miss most when they're clothed is the feeling of freedom that being nude can bring us. But clothes aren't the only covering you can take advantage of.
You'll tend to be coldest when you're sitting still - working on your laptop or lounging in front of the TV, for example. If your house is cold or drafty, this is when you'll feel it the most. And when this happens, a blanket is your first line of defence. Being nude under a blanket is nude and comfy, and you don't have the restrictions that clothing usually makes you feel.
If you're moving around so much that a blanket is impractical, invest in a quality terrycloth or chenille robe. You can wrap it close around you when you feel chilly and wear it loose and open when you're warming up.
Robe or not, keeping yourself moving is the best way to keep yourself warm. While you're cooking [link to cooking blog post], doing laundry, and other household chores are active enough that even if you're wearing a robe, you'll probably want to shuck it off before too long. (Moving around is good for you, too - check out Amanda Sterczyk's books [link] for more about why you should stay in motion anyway.)
While you're sitting still, you can also keep the cold at bay with a nice warm drink. A herbal tea is a perfect sipper any time of day, but a delicious hot toddy can also be a lovely treat for a chilly night.
One school of thought for some naturists is that being bottomless is the best approach for nudists in cold weather. The thinking behind this is that the need to cover one's genitals is the primary difference between larger society and we nudists. If we are going to cover up, staying bare below the waist asserts that we are still nudists.
I understand the philosophy behind this but I'm not sure it matters. I also find that wearing only, say, a sweatshirt is more effective for keeping me warm than wearing only sweat pants. And it definitely feels more nude, which is when I feel best, too.
In the end, the question is what is best for you. No one should be uncomfortable for the sake of being a nudist, so if you need to dress for the weather, then do so. (As many naturists point out, We're nudists, not idiots.
It would be nice if we lived somewhere the temperature never dipped below the freezing mark. For many of us, there's no other option: winter is a fact of life. It's expensive (and environmentally irresponsible) to crank the heat in the house. Being a nudist in winter just isn't an easy prospect.
But if nudism is an important part of your life, you're going to want to practice it even when the mercury falls out of sight. I hope some of the tips here give you some new strategies for staying nude whatever the weather.
What have you done in the past to stay nude and warm in the winter? Tell me in the comments!
Halloween is coming! For those who like to dress up, it’s a fun time to put on some crazy costumes. During this holiday, nudists are sometimes depicted in rather funny ways; some people wear strategically positioned cardboard with pixellated “flesh” on it to cover up what would otherwise be nude flesh. And a shirt with “nudist on strike” is not uncommon (which makes you wonder how much they thought that one through…)
But it’s a bit difficult for nudists, who, well, don’t really like to dress up. What can a nudist do for Halloween? Here are some options.
One of the most common costume choices for nudists is body paint. It’s fun and eye-catching, it comes in every possible size, and it lets the wearer be both covered up and revealed at the same time. Animal colourings and superhero costumes are very common, for example.
The wonderful thing about body paint is that it works as a costume even if it isn’t anything in particular. Paint on some flowers, or a geometric pattern, or even a set of clothes. Don’t worry about how accurate it is - a bit of colour goes a long way!
Some nudists take the approach that a few significant features get the idea of the costume across; it doesn’t matter that the rest is just a nude person. A leather vest and a cowboy hat makes you an old west sheriff, for example. A cap and a Louisville Slugger; gossamer wings and a wand; there are endless minimalist costumes. If you wore them to any other venue, you’d be a nude baseball player or a nude fairy; when you’re among nudists, though, the nudity is unremarkable, and the costumes are fine.
Despite the negative view that many have towards nudism in mainstream society, there are actually a few possibilities in popular culture that you could consider using as a costume. There’s the reality show Naked and Afraid, for example. They blur out the actual nudity, of course, but you can hold a walking stick and a roughly-constructed canvas bag and get the general idea across.
You can look to myth for other possibilities too: Lady Godiva and many Greek gods are commonly depicted nude. Mermaids are at least partially nude - the parts that aren’t covered in fish scales, anyhow. Usually it only takes a few small markers to indicate what character you represent; the nudity takes the costume the rest of the way.
There really isn’t much to a nudist Halloween costume. In the end, you’re just trying to be someone you’re not, while still being who you are. Like almost everything else about nudism, it’s far more simple than it seems… it just takes a bit of imagination and a sense of fun. Enjoy your nude Halloween party!
Have you ever been to a nudist Halloween party? What was your costume? If you had a party coming up this month, what would you be?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: journalism about nudism is, in general, terrible.
News sites know that nudity is compelling. It invites clicks, whether because people are generally interested in possibly getting a glimpse of skin, or because they're outraged and want to vent their disgust.
But for some reason, news sites often add a stupid, childish slant to the content as well. Puns about body parts are common (how often do you see the word "abreast" or "cheeky" in other news articles?) as well as wordplay about nudity with terms like "exposure" and "bare".
More problematic are the narratives that these articles play into. The general public tends to think nudity is inherently weird or silly; the extension of that idea is that nudists are weird, ridiculous people (and thus not deserving of journalistic objectivity or respect). And of course the association of nudity with sex means that nudists are secretly perverts and exhibitionists.
All nonsense, of course, but you'd be hard pressed to find an article about nudists that doesn't take at least some of these tired, cliched jokes and mistruths and stick them in. Sometimes it’s just an editor adding a stupid title, and sometimes the journalist peppers idiotic jokes throughout the piece.
And that’s why I created the Nudism Journalism Bingo Card - so that you can see just how enthusiastically an article on a nudist topic embraces these features!
Okay, we’re not seriously playing bingo here. But it is rare for an article about nudists not to check at least a few of these squares off.
As I’ve said before, journalism about nudism is terrible. Let’s keep up the pressure on newspapers and news sites to cover nudity fairly, ethically, and positively.
What squares did I miss on my bingo card? Are there any cliches that drive you especially crazy when journalists write about nudism? Tell me in the comments - I might even update my bingo card with your suggestions!
Earlier this month I had a great conversation with Chef Martin, host of the ToTheNudeLife podcast. It's available here if you want to give it a listen.
I've appeared on two naturist podcasts to date, and they were both great experiences. The real shame is that there are very few naturist podcasts out there! That might be, of course, because the ones that exist already are all high quality and get a lot of positive attention. Here are the naturist podcasts I listen to:
The granddaddy of all the naturist podcasts out there, Stéphane has been publishing episodes regularly for over a decade. He's the owner of Bare Oaks and covers a breathtaking array of different topics in naturism. He's also a personal inspiration for me, and a great person to talk to about naturist topics.
Two women, Jenny Eells and Kat Harbourne, do their regular podcast on BBC Radio Sheffield naked. They aren't nudists, but they recognize the difference that non-sexual nudity can make in how we relate to other people. Women's issues are given appropriate attention on their podcast but they have a lot of great guests and topics.
Martin is a full-time naturist (when he's not deployed overseas, of course) and is a true enthusiast for the nude life. He's also a chef and has had a lot of unique life experiences. His podcast is casual and comfortable, but based on a strong understanding of nudist ethics.
A podcast that is the brainchild of a new but highly successful nudist organization based in New York City. Host Adam Schweitert delves deep into the nudist lifestyle and the many emotional, social, and ethical questions that surround it. (I'm interviewed in episode 5 - one of my best interviews ever!)
A newer and more casual podcast, but one with a unique perspective from a transgender person of colour. A wide range of topics are discussed, but most importantly issues of race and naturism - something that doesn't get discussed enough.
Have I missed anyone? Tell me your favourite naturist and nudist podcasts in the comments - and link to a specific episode you liked, too!
