The Naked Strokie

I was at a literary event this week where a number of published authors, all female, gave readings from some of their books. My wife and I attended to hear one particular speaker who has done a lot to encourage me to adopt a positive attitude to life post-stroke. She knows I'm a naturist and is firmly of the 'it's not for me, but I'm fine with you talking and writing about it and I'm certainly not going to unfriend you over it' school of thought. What gave me the idea for this post, however, was not that lady, but another of the authors, one I had never met until that evening, even though she is a friend of a friend. She had flowers in her hair and was wearing a brown cotton dress. It quickly became obvious that despite the chill of a January evening (and it wasn't exactly warm in the art gallery which was staging the event) that she wasn't wearing any underwear. It became so obvious, in fact, that when she bent down to put a cup of coffee on the f...

When I started writing this blog, I also began one called The Sensual Strokie (thesensualstrokie.blogspot.co.uk, if you fancy looking for it). As the name suggests, it's a blog intended to help stroke survivors deal with some of the sexual issues which can arise as a result of changes in the brain after stroke. It's well-known that sex drive can go up or down drastically after a stroke and there are plenty of websites and Facebook groups designed to talk about the subject. However most, if not all, of them are American-based and I wanted one which would appeal more to survivors in the UK. By necessity, it's explicit - the major stroke charities do discuss sex after stroke but in a very 'doctor's surgery' style. I wanted my blog to be more fun and honest. Like this blog, I'm doing it because I want to do it. If it gets an audience, that's great, but I'm not going to slit my wrists if no-one reads it. Consequently, I haven't been looking at...

I was chatting about naturism this week with one of my strokie friends (it happens a lot, I'm pleased to say) when she raised an issue which is one of the biggest hurdles to the promotion of family social nudity. She said that, at 18, her daughter is completely comfortable about her mother walking in on her while she is in the shower and completely comfortable about walking in on her mother in the same situation. My friend, I'm happy to say, has no problem with any of this. My friend's husband, however, feels 'it's not proper' to see his daughter naked after a certain age. She asked me 'why not?' How has society decided that it's acceptable for us to be naked in front of our own sex, but that to be seen nude by the opposite sex is, as near as dammit, a mortal sin? Well, greater philosophical minds than mine have wrestled with that (and the fact that the Bible never condemns nudity and could, in many places, be seen to approve of social nudity),...