About Nudism
BEACHES
Europeans have had a long-time appreciation for the many benefits of nude activities. On most beaches in Europe seeing bare breasts is a common site. This is just starting to be seen in the States. Miami’s South Beach, in Dade County, Florida, is one place where the European style is prevalent. There are nude beaches all along the west coast, and several major nude beaches on the east coast. Haulover Beach in North Dade County is known world-wide and averages thousands of visitors daily.
Many Americans seem to have had a deep-seated aversion to nudity, but Nude Recreation seems to be becoming more and more accepted as time passes, as the Media portrays it realistically, and as the option is discovered by more people. In Europe, the nude beaches are common, and special designation of beaches is often found when clothing is required.
RESORTS
Nudist resorts are in all areas of the world. If you live in Florida, California, or almost any state east of the Mississippi River, chances are very good there is a nudist resort within a few hours drive. Florida has four clubs with memberships in the thousands, and there clubs all over who have as many as several hundred members and guests on a sunny weekend. Many clubs have all the facilities of any resort destination, including restaurants, lounges & bars, entertainment, and other leisure activities. Every nudist resort or club will have swimming facilities, and usually a hot tub or sauna.
There is something available for every interest. Many clubs feature Karaoke, Dances, Live Music, Bingo, Pool, Volleyball, Tennis, Golf, and many other similar activities. You can stay busy all the time or just laze around the pool, perfecting your all-over tan. The best way to find a club near you in the United States or Canada is to visit the American Association for Nude Recreation website and look at the club listings for your area.
For those who are not near the “landed clubs”, those with their own real estate, there are “Travel Clubs”. These clubs allow people without a local landed club to meet at a mutually agreed location with other like-minded people to pursue nude recreation activities. Often, they will travel as a group to one of the landed clubs for a weekend outing. An very well known example of this type of club is Travelites, a club based in the Carolinas that provides nude recreation outings and get-togethers for it’s members from over a multi-state area.
Worldwide, there are all variations from simple camping facilities to a complete Naturist Island off the coast of France, to All-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, to Cap d’Agde, a naturist city of 40,000 residents in France.
RELIGION
Many Christian groups are against nudity, even though nothing in the Bible seems to forbid or condemn it. It appears that today’s religious objections to nudity are a recent development, and are more culturally driven than based on the teachings of the religion. In the early Christian era, nudity was common. Baptisms were nude and the prophets often went nude to show their devotion.
If you look at the biblical story of creation, Adam and Eve lived in a paradise.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. - Genesis 2:25
They were happy, and God was happy with them. Not until they disobeyed God did they have the knowledge of evil.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.- Genesis 3:7
Nudists are in many ways reaching back to the innocence of that time in the Garden of Eden. Walking in the sunshine and warm breezes caressing your skin is as close as a person can get to that feeling.
“Sexual modesty cannot then in any simple way be identified with the use of clothing, nor shamelessness with the absence of clothing and total or partial nakedness… There are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest… Nakedness as such is not to be equated with physical shamelessness. Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person… The human body is not in itself shameful, nor for the same reasons are sensual reactions, and human sensuality in general. Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior of a person…”
Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla)
Love & Responsibility, 1981
There are many groups for the Christian Nudists that have reached a satisfactory blend of their religious beliefs and their nudist lifestyle. There is no reason the two lifestyles must be exclusive of each other. The Nudist lifestyle shares many of the beliefs and behaviors common to mainstream religions.
Pagan religions are much more tolerant of nudity, and most practitioners feel no fear of being nude. Many of the rituals, rites, and ceremonies are performed while “skyclad“. Being much older than Christian religion, Pagan beliefs and rituals served as the source of many of the positive aspects of the early Christian religions.
HEALTH BENEFITS
The health benefits of nude recreation have been long known to the medical profession. In the 19th century, physicians prescribed nude sunbathing for treatment for many ailments. A whole industry of “magic lantern” treatments were popular, where patients were treated by ultraviolet light, nude, in the privacy of the clinic rooms. This could be a factor in why there are so many medical professionals involved in nudism.
Spas have long been a scene of public nude bathing, and almost everyone has heard of the Japanese bathhouses. In St. Petersburg, Florida, from the 1930’s until the 1960’s there was a Solarium and Spa in the middle of downtown that had nude sunning areas for it’s patrons.
An additional bit of information that has recently been discovered is that there is a seaborne parasite that can be trapped inside swimsuits and cause severe infections. This parasite, called Sea Lice was recently documented in a major national medical journal, where the reviewers commented that maybe the correct prevention of the problem was to swim nude.
HISTORY
Until the 1970’s most Boy’s Clubs, YMCA’s, and many schools allowed and expected nude swimming. Most people, sometime during their youth, went skinny-dipping, and if they could, still would. Just about everyone has gone skinny-dipping at sometime in their life. Swimsuits are an invention of the 20th century that would have been laughed at a few generations ago. Most places in the world still haven’t discovered the misery of wet, sandy swimsuits, fortunately for the lucky ones. It seems strange that something so basic and natural as swimming naturally without clothes has meta morphed into an industry where the product sells for many dollars per square inch. In a 2006 Roper Poll, 74% of those polled said they believed people who enjoy nude sunbathing should be able to do so without interference from local officials as long as they do so at a beach that is accepted for that purpose. The poll also found that 25% of all people had been skinny-dipping.
SEX
Many uninformed people believe that nudism equals sex. Nude Recreation is about as non-sexual as could be imagined. Today’s nude recreation areas are not sexually oriented at all, and in most cases, public sexual activity is a quick way to be escorted out or arrested. Many men worry about the inability to control erections when looking at nude women. The plain truth is that after you’ve been among nudists for a few minutes, they are no longer nude in your mind. You find yourself unable to remember if the person you were just talking to had on clothes or was nude. Nudist men are as sexual as other men, but erections are caused by sexual situations, and those situations usually don’t happen in a nudist environment, and if they do, with the simple act of covering with a towel or rolling onto your stomach, the problem usually disappears quickly. With the lack of forbidden nakedness, also goes the stimulus for erections.
BENEFITS
The benefits of nude living are many, but one of the most important is the honesty among nudists. Without clothes, you are judged entirely on personality, not outer appearance. Nudists as a group are some of the friendliest people ever found. Nudism brings people together as a family, and many nudists feel a bond of friendship closer than in any outside relationship. The honesty extends also to the surroundings. Thefts and other crimes are almost non-existent in nudist clubs and parks. Locking doors is not a major concern for most nudist residents. Belongings lost or left at clubs are usually found by the owners exactly where they were left. One of the major benefits for adults is the total relaxation level obtained from being nude. The sun shining, and the breeze caressing the skin are some of the feelings that lead to a stress-free life.
WOMEN
Women are often afraid they are too fat or too wrinkled or their breasts are too small or their breasts are too large or any number of other paranoias caused by modern advertising’s emphasis on the feminine form as a sex object. In reality, women usually take longer to try nudism, but are the most thoroughly meshed into the lifestyle after they do join it. After a visit to a nudist facility it’s revealed to them that they are not that different from the rest of the women after all the camouflage of supports and squeezers that modern fashion has dictated that women must wear has been left in the car. Body acceptance seems to be a major factor in keeping a lot of women away from Nudism. If they only learn that the “Barbie image” is unrealistic, and not attractive to most normal men, they soon can be more secure and happy.
A classic story of this is a young, very pregnant woman, who was visiting her relatives who live in a nudist resort in Florida. The temperature was in the 90’s and after suffering a week of this weather, sitting by the pool fully dressed, she decided on the last day of her visit to take a swim. She went to the bathroom, took off her clothes and came shyly back to the pool, wrapped in a towel. At the edge of the pool, she stood as close and low as she could while throwing her towel aside and diving in. When her head cleared the water, her first words were “I love it! I want to live here!” For women who are concerned about the first visit, read this brochure for a little insight.
NUDIST CHILDREN
Due to the number of hits received from search engines looking for “Nudist Children” and “Teen Nudists”, I can only surmise that there are some really sick people on the Internet. If you are one of those who got here by that route I hope you will take the time to learn more about nudism. I believe the information on this site and others like it will give you some understanding about what nudism is really about and how valuable a child’s well-being is to most nudists.
Nudist children are safe and protected in a nudist environment. Instead of having one or two parents watching over them, they are suddenly under the protective eye of all the adults. Nudist children are much better prepared for the changes of puberty. Nudist children grow up with a knowledge of human anatomy that prevents their having to experiment with sexual behavior that the typical non-nudist child usually goes through to learn about the other gender. Nudist children have less incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancies, and criminal behavior than non-nudist children. I’d recommend that any parent wanting to insure the normal emotional development of their child investigate the nudist lifestyle and share it with the whole family.
In 1993, Lake Como Club in Lutz, Florida, in conjunction with the Florida Association for Nude Recreation (FANR), began a summer camp program for nudist children. Participants in this camp are treated to the normal summer camp fare of games and activities, but are also taught nudist etiquette, abuse awareness, and lessons in leadership. Camp Counselors are mostly nudist parents who understand the concerns of nudist children. Staff to Camper ratios are well balanced and the safety and security of the children is always a prime concern. Older campers are often invited to continue on as counselors after their 18th birthday. One of the first of these received an appointment to West Point. These camps developed into a program that was adopted in other areas of the country. The camps have been held in several clubs over the years, but the high quality, motivated staff continue to produce impressive results.
