The internet was responsible for a big boost in nudism. You could search the internet for clubs and resorts, instead of sneaking an ashamed look at the back pages of naturist magazines. You could safely connect with other nudists without revealing your name or face. Nudists have always been relegated to the fringes of society, but on the internet, everyone is on the fringe.
However, it’s remarkable that nudist communities don’t seem to be very successful, as a rule. There is no single nudist community with a large membership that has stuck around for more than a few years.
There are some great blogs and blogger teams who have cultivated a large and active readership, like Naked Wanderings. There are some Facebook groups that boast membership in the tens of thousands. Active nudist associations, like AANR, TNS, and British Naturism, also seem to work as gathering places for naturists. But those aren’t really the kind of organic online communities that I looked for as a new nudist myself.
Online communities for nudists don’t seem to be successful, as a rule. Much as I would love to see them succeed, they tend to go in one of two directions:
Neither of these directions result in healthy, active nudist communities.
A few nudist communities have found at least partial success - though many are only partially successful, and have been at least affected by the problems described above.
A longtime success story - the site is the chief employment for its founder and his spouse - TrueNudists was set up as a Facebook for nudists. It has very active chat rooms, blogs, forums, and detailed profiles - some users have thousands of photos uploaded on the site. (You have to pay for a membership to see more than a few photos.)
TrueNudists may be the best example of problem #2. Of the hundreds of thousands of user profiles (many of them dormant for years), a significant number are transparently fake. Doing a reverse image search on many female profiles, too often, shows that the images are old and stolen from various porn sites. While the site remains large and active, it is a magnet for photo thieves and trollers, and only a small core membership is really part of the site. And though these fake profiles might be reported frequently, they often don’t seem to be taken down, or at least not quickly. I’ve heard other users speculate that the fake profiles keep the user numbers up, attracting yet more new users.
With a focus on outdoor nudist activity, naktiv is a great example of what a nudist online community should be. It’s true to nudist values, does not emphasize photos (although they are allowed on the site), and has a large worldwide user base. However, they seem to suffer from problem #1: there isn’t much happening on the site. When you log on, you see very little new material.
Unfortunately, while I was writing this post, I learned that naktiv went offline for a while because of technical issues. They’re back now, with a smaller set of functions. They’re still worth checking out, but the more limited content on the site may lead to even less user activity.
Based in England, and boasting a mainly British usership, NaturistCommunity is another nudist Facebook community. Users can post photos and video, there is a small and mainly inactive chat room, and users can post in discussions, as well as on a main thread that shows up to all users when they log in. Although there are a few regulars, the site isn't much use for nudists seeking communities, especially outside the UK.
Nudist sites and forums seem to pop up all the time. Almost all of them follow the same pattern: an initial flurry of activity and growth, then a decline and eventual shuttering of the site. And if they allow photos, they invariably suffer from trolls and fake accounts. It's difficult to find any group that lasts more than a few months as an active concern.
There’s one exception to this rule, an online community that has continued to remain active for multiple years, without the same problems about trolls and gawkers, and with over a hundred thousand unique users every month. I know the community intimately, because I’m one of the moderators - and this is not a plug, because I receive no benefit from the community other than personal satisfaction.
The community is the nudism subreddit, located at https://www.reddit.com/r/nudism. I won’t get into reddit and how it works - you can visit the site and see it for yourself. But the popularity of reddit (one of the five most popular sites on the internet) certainly had something to do with the community’s success and longevity.
There are other reasons as well. There are numerous moderators, all active, all interested in preserving the community and its values. Those values are set forth with a set of rules, available to read in the sidebar, that govern the type of content people can post. And there are no image posts of any kind on the site - only discussion, and higher-value nudist content. It’s also on a free platform, so it’s not going to run into costs for hosting or other needs that will make it untenable to continue.
It’s surprising that the number of “good” nudist communities - active groups with lots of nudists and not dominated by trolls - are so rare. Since nudists can’t necessarily be candid with many people about their interest, you would think that the anonymity of the internet would make online communities more popular.
That anonymity might be the very problem, though. You can’t create trust in the community without reassuring the participants that everyone involved is an authentic nudist. The way people most often try to establish that trust is by asking members to submit nude photos of themselves. And then the gawkers arrive.
For sites not driven by photos, that authenticity is typically driven by interacting with other users. Their conduct in discussions builds a personality (or persona) online, and that breeds the authenticity that users are looking for. But even with sites that attract a lot of users initially, those discussions soon falter, and the site is left languishing with very little traffic.
Why is that? I think I know why, but I will discuss that in my next post...
What online naturist communities do you frequent? What makes those communities worth visiting? Are there any that you deliberately steer clear from? Why? Let me know in the comments!
Note from Matthew: I’ve been a longtime fan of Fred’s web page, Au Natural. As well as being an advocate for nudism (and a self-proclaimed “nudie”), Fred is a great writer and an accomplished artist. His site is about much more than just nudism - go check it out!
The biggest problem in attempting to normalize nudity is the very secrecy nudists must engage in about their nudist activities.
It is a self-reinforcing cycle. You’re hiding because you fear getting in “trouble” if you are “outed.” At the very same time, hiding reinforces the notion that what you are doing is nefarious. Others will say, “If you really felt the way you say, you wouldn’t be so secretive about it.”
That is bullshit but it is how small-minded people think. It is also a rhetorical technique to get you on the defensive. You can't win from the closet.
My solution was to not keep it a secret. I didn't broadcast it at work but I didn't work anywhere that would care if it got out. From the minute I got out of a suffocating small town 45 years ago, every new friend I made knew that I was a nudist. Just like they learned many other facets of my life.
No, I didn't try to push my nudity onto them. No, I didn't try to coax them out of their clothes. I am uninterested in converting them or scattering nudist literature around for them to happen upon. I don't believe in that kind of nudist evangelism. It just comes off as creepy. If they are interested they will approach me. (I had a nephew and his wife do just that on a trip to visit my family back east.)
I'm a nudie. I'm also an engineer. I'm an outdoorsman and I'm a photographer. I am many other things as well, not a Johnny-one-note. I don't scatter engineering texts around trying to get people interested in engineering. I don't try to convince them to take up photography. If they happen to like hiking, great. If not, who cares? I'll share any aspect of my life if they show an interest. Otherwise it is a non-issue.
If being a nudie is normal, that's how it needs to be handled.
(A nudie is simply someone who likes to be nude as just another fashion option. I use all three terms interchangeably. But when I see the terms nudist or naturist, there always seems to be people cooking up rules. A real nudist does thus. A real naturist believes thus. That isn't the way to normalize something.)
I write a blog. It covers a lot of topics and being a nudie is just one. Most of my readership are not nudists. They are completely accepting of occasional nudie posts about my experiences. (Actually, most of them are into anime.)
Over the years... decades... I've found most people really don't care. That's all I ask for.
If a person is fixated on nudism it just drives people away. It’s not my job to preach or expose. It is just my job to be a good person who models considerate behavior. Those who are bothered by the notion don't raise the issue and never become close to me. Why should I get all evangelical over converting people? My own wife is not a nudist (nor an engineer nor a photographer nor a hiker) and I'm fine with that.
I believe that normalizing the nude means acting normal about it.
Although the twitter account has been active less than four months, @NaturistVintage is already very popular, with over 5,000 followers. NaturistVintage concentrates on posting scans of nudist magazines and photographs, mostly from the 1960s and earlier.
Certainly the parade of naked women, even if they're usually in grainy black and white images, is the reason for much of the account’s popularity. But the owner of the account, who I’ll call NV here, often does more than just put up photos of pretty nude women.
Instead, NV is interested in documenting the modern history of naturism in North America. Often NV will post a series of photos of a single model, or on a certain theme. Many of the personages who shaped the early views of naturism in the public and in the naturist community are highlighted. And NV is actively researching the context around the images as well, often posting new findings in threads as they come to light.
I reached out to NV to ask about the account’s purpose, and to learn more about the person behind the account. My first questions, and NV’s answers, are below.
Tell me about your interest in nudity. Are you yourself a nudist? If so, how long have you been a nudist, and how did you come to adopt the nudist life?
Yes, I am a nudist, though I’m still getting used to saying that out loud. I’ve only been exploring social nudity for less than one year. I am a cottontail by the standards of some nudists, although I’m proud to say I have lost the tan lines.
I discovered nudism through research, naturally. In fact, this whole Twitter documentary project started first as a search into my own ancestry. My great great grandfather was a prominent American nudist in the 1940s and 50s named Rudolph Johnson. He started a group on his own land in rural Washington state in 1946 called the Cobblestone Suntanners, then went on to co-found the Northwest Sunbathing Association a year later. In 1950 he became president of the American Sunbathing Association (the ASA—now known as AANR), during a very tumultuous time in that association’s history.
I grew up with photo albums and tall tales of “Rudy the Nudie” all my life. When I was about thirteen, I spent a summer living on his land (which at the time was still owned by my grandmother) along with a cousin who was about my age. This cousin and I spent the summer fishing, catching frogs, and skinny dipping in the river that ran through the property. Looking back, it was easily one of the happiest summers of my young life, and since then I have always had a fascination with my great great grandfather, and a curiosity about nudism as a result. Growing up, I proudly told others of Rudolph and his nudist legacy, often to strange looks and mixed commentary.
It wasn’t until I became a father last year, and my own father survived a major heart attack a few months later, that suddenly collecting and preserving this heritage took on a new personal urgency and importance for me. I began seeking out any information on Rudolph that I could find, and subsequently discovered that he frequently contributed to old nudist magazines such as Sunshine & Health and American Nudist Leader. Many of these magazines contained photos of him, and some even had his writing. Reading these old magazines, it wasn’t long before my fascination with Rudolph blossomed into a fascination with the nudist movement of the mid 20th century.
Rabidly consuming this history, I eventually found the Western Nudist Research Library on the grounds of Glen Eden Sun Club, about an hour from where I live. I made the drive down and met the late Richard Hirst, a founder of the WNRL. He gave me a full tour of Glen Eden on his golf cart. Incidentally, it was the day of one of their biggest annual summer events, “Nudestock”. There were families and people of all ages jamming out naked to a live band. With that my interest was sufficiently piqued. I came back just one week later with my wife and son and we stayed two days and nights without putting clothes on once. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Your posts of vintage naturist magazine scans get a lot of attention on twitter. Tell me about the collection of magazines you’re scanning. Do you own these? How long have you been collecting them? How do you go about acquiring them? Do you also find vintage photos online, or are these all scanned?
My approach has always been to document and educate (hopefully). I try to share what I learn, and include sources wherever possible. I’ve scanned a good portion of what I share myself. I find some of the content online. I’ve also bought dozens of magazines, books, and films through sites like Abe Books, Ebay, Amazon, or boutique sellers like Alta Glamour or Something Weird (two personal favorites out of Seattle). Nearly all of the content I share has been previously published in some form, and much of the physical material I've acquired gets ultimately donated to a research library.
I would not be able to do my research without the four American nudist libraries. These libraries are doing important work to preserve nudism’s history, which is in some danger of being lost to time otherwise. Since discovering the Western Nudist Research Library, I have become involved as a volunteer and now sit on the board. I have yet to visit the American Nudist Research Library in Florida in person, but they’ve been extremely helpful to my research remotely. They’re also an excellent resource for old nudist magazines; they sell their surplus copies for a reasonable donation.
In addition to these two entities, there’s also the Naturist Education Foundation Research Library in OshKosh, WI, and the AANR-NW Library Archive at Willamettans in Eugene, OR. These four separate libraries are even collaborating, on a voluntary basis, to digitize and share their collections together on the cloud, both for preservation and to make the material available to researchers of the future. It’s an impressive and ambitious effort, and it is very much in need of support.
How do you choose the themes you post? For example, you recently had a series on Diane Webber. How do you decide on your themes, and what are you hoping to achieve with them?
In general, I share what I’m learning. The primary condition is that it must be related to the history of nudism in some way, beyond just nudity or nakedness. I love the shared humanity of the people participating in this weird, social lifestyle together. There’s something both vulnerable and strong about a person who chooses to go as they are without cover. I believe that one of the best things that nudism has to offer society is a stronger sense of body acceptance and self love. I think it can have effective therapeutic results. I try to share bodies of all ages and sizes for that reason, not just pinup models.
Diane Webber is a great example of an exception that proves the rule. She, obviously, was literally a pinup model. She was also easily one of the most famous nudists ever. Plainly, she was an icon and a sex symbol.
What I tried to emphasize by sharing the wide variety of her work in one thread, was how prolific she also was as an artist and human. She was in films and television, featured on the covers of magazines and advertisements, and worked with acclaimed photographers and directors. I’ve seen her called the most photographed person in the world. I personally question the truth of that, but she was easily the most photographed nudist in the world. Everyone knows the hits; not as many people know the b-sides. So my goal was just to connect some of those dots.
Part Two of my discussion with NaturistVintage is now published! Check it out here!
Wow, you look amazing nude.
Your boyfriend better look out!
You’re a really beautiful young woman.
You’re just the kind of young person we love to see become a nudist!
All of these are compliments. They’re all positive, all saying something nice about the person they’re directed at.
And they’re the wrong thing to say.
Time and again, nudists express frustration with trying to convince others that social nudity is something they should try. The demographics that are the most coveted, too, are women and young people. More women are needed to help balance the gender ratio, which tips very far to the male side. And young people - wherever you set the bar, but it’s usually somewhere under middle age - are the future of the naturist movement, and essential to the health of any movement or club.
Compliments like these are absolutely guaranteed to drive women and young people away, or at least make their experience more negative than it should be.
But they’re nice things to say, right? Why would they cause problems?
The first issue with these compliments is that they are a message to the recipient about where others’ attention is directed. The intended message may be positive, welcoming, and encouraging. The more subtle message, though, is exactly the opposite.
Because the underlying message is “I’m judging your body in a sexual way.”
First, let’s get the objections out of the way. You’re a good person, you aren’t judging anyone, there’s nothing sexual in saying any of that.
All of these protests focus on the person making the remark, and their intent. That’s irrelevant to the person receiving it.
What you’re doing to the person you’re talking to is making them immediately aware that everything people say about nudists - nothing sexual, no body shaming, no judgement - is false. Because someone is definitely judging their body.
Not saying anything bad? Doesn’t matter. You’ve made a judgement. That tells the object of your judgement that they’re being measured. Maybe everyone is measuring them. Maybe others will make a different judgement.
There’s another layer to it as well. When you judge someone on their appearance - even subtly - you’re sending a message that is exactly in line with how non-nudist society views bodies, especially those of certain ages, and body types. The message is, “We’re evaluating sexual partners,” and the entire pretense of nudity being safe and open and equal comes crashing down.
And again, I understand that this is not the intent of the person making the compliment - certainly not consciously. It could be that there is an unconscious bias at play, and by definition we are usually not aware of unconscious biases! It’s definitely important for all of us to consider whether what we say and do are driven by prejudices that we possess (because of our upbringing, the people and society around us, and so on).
But whatever the motivation of the compliment, it still plays into the dynamics of clothed society in exactly the ways that nudism seeks to be different from it. The subtext of the things you say aren’t entirely within our control, and for any nudist - especially someone new to the venue, or new to nudism in general - the subtext may be speaking much more loudly than you realize.
There’s more to this, though. This is about power, and balance.
One of the most appealing aspects of naturism is how it puts us on the same plane. The societal trappings are gone. We are forced to put our flaws and deficiencies on display. We assert that what others see, and what we see of others, doesn’t matter. And most of all, we have established a shared trust by all of us adopting that vulnerability together.
Those compliments destroy all of that.
It’s not just the fact that you’ve taken away that shared trust by overtly evaluating someone else. You’ve also tipped the balance of power away from the person you’re complimenting, and towards yourself. You’ve put yourself in the position of a judge, and them in the position of the judged. You have given yourself - or at least stated your belief that you have - authority over that other person.
The relative positions of you and the other person can also be exacerbated if you have some perceived real-world authority as well. For better or worse, society gives a more prominent voice to men than to women, and to older people than to younger people.
So if you, as a middle-aged-or-older, tell a woman in her early twenties that she’s good-looking, it’s making your assumption of power over her apparent and overt.
If you were her, nude in a non-sexual environment for the first time, hearing this compliment - what would you think?
I’m pretty sure I’d think that everything I’d heard about nudism was nonsense. And I wouldn’t be back.
But that’s not -
I was only trying to -
But men aren’t always -
No.
Stop with it.
If the only thing you can think of to say to someone else is to compliment their appearance, learn not to speak at all.
The first thing you can do when encountering a stranger who you’d like to compliment in a nudist venue is ask whether you need to speak with them at all. What is your reason for talking to them, and why are you the person who needs to talk? If you can’t think of any good reason to talk to a stranger, a simple smile, “Hello,” and maybe “Nice day today, isn’t it?” is enough. After that, unless the stranger says something more substantial in return, you can move on without another word.
If a stranger is clearly needing directions - for example, walking around with garbage in his hand, in search of a receptacle - be helpful and guide them towards what they’re more likely looking for. After that, unless the stranger says something more substantial in return, you can move on without another word.
If a stranger is nearby and hesitating - for example, if they seem a little nervous about approaching a group of nudists and selecting a deck chair near them - it’s perfectly fine to say, “These chairs over here aren’t occupied. Feel free to take any of them.” After that, unless the stranger says something more substantial in return, you can move on without another word.
See the pattern? The interaction is limited to the benefit of the other person. And unless they choose to engage with you further, the next step - where you would tell them how good-looking they are, or how well-defined their muscles are, or anything like that - is one you need not take.
I know that I’m going to alienate some readers with this piece. Some will feel a little bit insulted, because they don’t feel like they need a primer in basic human interaction. Others will feel like I’m being prejudiced against them, just because they’re men, or because they want to be nice to other people, or because because because.
Well, sorry about that.
But I really want to help stop this dynamic of people being (supposedly) complimentary, and other people (actually) being made uncomfortable, and pushed away from nudism.
I’d prefer that we concentrate on what, for me, is a key value that naturists share: that social nudity brings us closer together. And in that context, we should avoid doing anything that pushes us - any of us - apart.
What do you think? What can you do to make nudism more comfortable for new nudists? When you first began as a nudist, was there anything that others did that made it more comfortable and approachable? Tell me in the comments!
Most people who are new to nudism are keenly aware that they haven’t yet had many of the nudist experiences that others talk about and enjoy. They wonder, what makes someone a nudist? What do I have to do before I can call myself that?
It would be easier, maybe, if there was a checklist - if you’ve done six of the following ten things, you might already be a nudist! But that’s not the way it works.
As a new nudist, you might never have been nude in public, in front of others. Or you might have been to a nude beach, completely anonymously, or you might have been to a resort, but just once or twice, and on your own.
Even more commonly for new and curious nudists, you might never have been out of your house nude. Maybe you just hang out in your own bedroom nude, with the door locked and a robe close to hand if someone knocks. Or perhaps you lurk around nude late at night, when no one else is around.
You might have been outside nude. Perhaps you know a secret, secluded bit of nature where you can be confident no one will find you naked. Or maybe you quietly slip out the back door at night, stash your clothes near the step, and go for a little nude walk.
But maybe you have been out there. You’ve skinny-dipped with some friends (and want to do it some more). You’ve visited a local nude beach once or twice. You might have even gone to a local nudist club or event (though you aren’t a member yet).
So what do you have to do to become a real, live nudist? How do you unlock that one, all-important achievement?
It’s easy.
It isn’t whether you like being nude all the time. It isn’t whether you like being nude with others. There are no barriers get over, no nudity high score you have to beat, no qualifications, no checklist to complete.
If you like being nude, you’re a nudist.
Are you really a nudist?
Yes. You are if you want to be.
Now go be nude!
Do you consider yourself a “real” nudist? What made you get to this point? If you don’t consider yourself to be a nudist, but want to be, what’s holding you back? Let me know in the comments!
"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!
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!
