![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/couple-3.jpg\")
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Do you consider the picture above to be concerning or problematic in any way? If you’re a naturist, the answer is “no, not at all”. It’s simply a man and a woman enjoying themselves in a natural setting. So what if they’re naked? How could that be objectionable in any way? [If you’re reading this on Facebook, you’ll have to follow the link to see the picture.]<\/p>\n
But for most people who aren’t naturists, the picture could be somewhat or very disturbing, alarming, or even “offensive”. For sure, showing that picture on Facebook or most other social media would not be tolerated and would probably cause the account of whoever posted it to be canceled. And most people (at least in the U.S.) would contend it could be harmful for children (especially younger ones) to see it. What can account for such extreme and ridiculous attitudes? <\/p>\n
If nothing else, wouldn’t such attitudes clearly explain why such a large percentage of the population almost anywhere are deeply skeptical of the practice of naturism?
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Suppose a person is shown a picture of a naked man. What is the person most likely to infer about the man’s intentions in the picture? Possibilities include the man (1) is intending to have sex, (2) is an exhibitionist, (3) is about to take a shower, (4) is uncomfortably hot and wants to stay cool, (5) is uncomfortable wearing restrictive clothes, (6) is a nudist who prefers to be naked. (It would make little difference if the picture is of a woman instead of a man, except for additional possibilities such as a woman who’s a professional stripper or artist’s model.)<\/p>\n
The truth is that it’s unreasonable to decide among these possibilities (or others) without additional clues. If the naked man is shown against a blank background and has a neutral expression on his face, there simply isn’t enough information to make any logical conclusion, except perhaps that the man is relatively comfortable being naked. <\/p>\n
But people are inclined to make inferences about what they see even when there is very little good information. In our society and probably in most others, people who view such an image are likely to be uncomfortable, especially if the man is facing the viewer and his genitals are visible. Even though there’s no actual reason to choose any of the possible interpretations, the most probable inference they make must be one that causes them to feel uncomfortable. Specifically, the inference is (1) or (2), because the other possibilities don’t justify feeling discomfort. <\/p>\n
What this situation indicates is that there’s an irrational bias<\/strong> in society that accounts for the unjustifiable interpretation of the picture. The existence of this situation is what makes naturism so difficult in our society. So the question is: What can naturists do about it?<\/p>\n Young children who see such a picture (or even a live person who’s naked) won’t feel discomfort, because their parents have often seen them naked, and they’re unaware of any reason to consider nudity a problem. It’s only when they’ve learned from their parents or other social influences that nudity is problematical that they start to become uncomfortable when seeing nudity (or being seen naked themselves).<\/p>\n Incidentally, did you notice that both words “problematic” and “problematical” are used above? Both have the exact same meaning and are correctly used in English. But some grammatical purists will insist one or the other is “ungrammatical”. The point here is that opinions about many things can be arbitrary and capricious – merely the result of what a person has been taught to believe.<\/p>\n This raises the question of how a line between what is “acceptable” and what isn’t gets established in the first place. Why is one alternative favored (or is it “favoured”?) over the other? Why are skimpy bathing suits OK (or at least legal) at most beaches, but no suit isn’t OK? Why couldn’t the line fall instead between naturist nudity and salacious nudity? <\/p>\n In fact, the latter possibility is exactly<\/em> what exists at most clothing-optional beaches. I’ve visited many C-O beaches, but at hardly any is only full nudity acceptable. C-O beaches often restrict nudity to certain areas. Yet “textiles” are generally welcome in such areas – and don’t appear to be bothered by the nudity. They may simply enjoy that part of the beach if it happens to be less crowded.<\/p>\n Likewise, in my experience, most naturist parks and resorts these days are clothing-optional and don’t require nudity (except around pools, to deter voyeurs). This sort of arrangement, where naturists and non-naturists freely mingle seems ideal. There’s a benefit to naturists, in fact, since people who start off as “textile” may easily become comfortable going naked themselves.<\/p>\n The only plausible solution to this situation, from a naturist point of view, is to let people see images of nudity, or even live nudity, where there’s no justification for feeling discomfort. Or better yet, allow people who prefer being naked to do so in appropriate public places (like parks and beaches) where others will see them. That’s basically what “normalizing nudity” means. <\/p>\n Of course, even in the U.S., there actually are such places (beaches especially) and occasions where naked and clothed people can intermingle without any problem. In such circumstances, people who remain clothed understand why others are naked and aren’t threatening. The only differences involved are matters of mere habit or personal preference. You say “toe-may-toe” and others say “toe-mah-toe”. But so what?<\/p>\n The main problem is that in general people are usually most comfortable in a lifestyle they grew up in. It’s hardly surprising that “different” lifestyles can be scary – probably more so for women than for men. So it’s good for non-naturists to have opportunities to interact with naturists and get a better understanding of them. Of course, some lifestyles are “safer” than others, and certain lifestyles that aren’t uncommon (e. g. drug users) are definitely not safe. A lifestyle enjoyed by “real” naturists, however, genuinely is safe (except for factors unrelated to nudity). People just need opportunities to learn that.<\/p>\n But our society (like most others) goes to great lengths to prevent exactly such things.<\/strong> It doesn’t even matter at all if the nudity isn’t physically present. No physical presence means no direct possibility of physical harm. Yet almost all online social media, for example, very adamantly prevent anyone (including children especially) from seeing photos containing full nudity or even just visible genitals or female nipples. (Yet, quite illogically, artworks – either pictorial or in sculpture – are much more often allowed, even if they are just as “explicit” as photos.) The reason for such measures (however inconsistent) isn’t to keep people “safe”. The reason is to enforce particular beliefs – beliefs that are widely held exactly because contrary beliefs are strongly suppressed.<\/strong><\/p>\n Naturism seemingly has almost no chance of success in promoting itself as long as this situation prevails. So what can naturists realistically do to change how their lifestyle is perceived by most of society?<\/p>\n A few enlightened societies, such as those in some Nordic countries, have taken steps to ameliorate the problem. For instance, “sex education” (a misnomer to begin with, since nudity and sexuality are different though related topics) includes allowing children to see what normal people of all ages look like naked<\/a>. Some cultural features, such as the sauna, encourage communal nudity. Even in England, children have been encouraged to participate in art classes involving nude models<\/a>. (Almost a hundred years ago, there were efforts to establish schools (e. g. Summerhill<\/a>) where some nudity was allowed and considered “normal”.)<\/p>\n Even in the U.S. – up until about 50 years ago – children and adolescents often experienced swimming pools and communal showering where open nudity was actually required. (Albeit, without mixing of the sexes.)<\/p>\n One has to wonder why open-minded (and “libertarian”) billionaires don’t provide endowments for the establishment of places where naturist (nonsexual) nudity is permitted or even encouraged. Such people very likely have few if any reservations about nudity in their private lives and on their private yachts. What’s stopping them from establishing schools, parks, recreational facilities, and even entire communities where nonsexual nudity is allowed or even encouraged as entirely “normal”?<\/p>\n Of course, there will always be parts of the country where such things are strictly illegal. But everywhere? Why is it so hard to establish places that welcome a naturist lifestyle? The answer, perhaps, is that people with sufficient wealth can enjoy whatever lifestyle suits them and have no interest in whether that’s available to anyone else. Although they could easily fund political candidates who have favorable attitudes toward naturism, the general feeling must be that would be a waste of some small part of their wealth.<\/p>\n I don’t really know what conclusion there is here for naturists to draw, except that we’re facing a massive wall of ignorance. It’s up to naturists themselves to do something about this, if at all possible. A good place to start would be much more cooperation among naturists, their organizations, and their preferred venues. At present, at least in the U.S., disorganization and learned helplessness seem to rule the day for naturists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you consider the picture above to be concerning or problematic in any way? If you’re a naturist, the answer is “no, not at all”. It’s simply a man and a woman enjoying themselves in a natural setting. So what if they’re naked? How could that be objectionable in any way? [If you’re reading this … Continue reading “How and why most people misinterpret nudity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33,53,23,73,58,30,18],"tags":[78,276,147],"class_list":["post-9939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-naturism","category-naked-lifestyle","category-naturism-and-the-internet","category-normalizing-nudity","category-online-naturism","category-promoting-naturism","category-psychology-of-nudity","tag-children-and-nudity","tag-clothing-optional-beaches","tag-misconceptions-of-nudity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPVNi-2Aj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9939"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10030,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939\/revisions\/10030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.naturistplace.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/wnbr-5.jpg\")
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