How did you discover The Naked Strokie - and why?
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 the audience statistics for either blog. Then earlier this week, after I sent the link for one of my posts to a close friend who is a stroke-survivor and trained therapist, she asked me if I knew what the audience was because she thought the blog was very good and deserved a wider audience.
So I looked. I won't tell you the exact figures but I can say that this blog is getting an audience ten times bigger than the other one. Why is that? Are people more interested in naturism than sex? (Probably not); is the content of the other one putting people off (I don't think so)?
My theory is that the bigger audience for this blog can be put down to something as simple and straightforward as the presence of the word 'naked' in the title. Nudity sells. The way in which the internet has made pornography much more accessible has been one of the biggest reasons for the significant rise in the use of porn among young people.
As I have noted here previously, back in the 1970s an over-excited teenager had to go into a shop and have a difficult conversation with the lady behind the counter, or raid his dad's porn-stash hidden in the wardrobe. Now, that over-excited teenager just has to get their smartphone and search Google for the word 'naked'. I've just done it. The number of results could keep me trawling Google for days.
In some ways, this is bad, obviously. Internet porn offers teenagers an unrealistic view of sex; one which says that certain acts are routine and normal when they are not. But it also helps demystify nudity - to make it, as I wrote here last time, 'boring.' Which, of course, is what naturists want. We want an end to the attitude which is shocked by the sight of a naked body. We want it replaced by one which would see it as completely normal for someone to swim or sunbathe nude alongside people wearing swimming costumes, or to use a steam room or sauna or hot tub nude alongside clothed people. We want it to be seen as completely normal for 'wellness' activities to be done nude. We're getting there. I know places both in the US and UK which offer naked gym sessions.
There will inevitably be people who find this blog after Googling 'naked' for the wrong reasons. If some of them take the trouble to read my thoughts and decide that naturism is a good idea, I'm achieving my aim. But there will also be those Googling 'naked' for the right reasons - to find out more about the naked lifestyle. Of course, I want them to be in the majority and the more I write, hopefully the more of them there will be.
However you've found this blog, I'm glad you have. Tell others about it, share the links to it. You never know - one day, I might go viral.....
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 the audience statistics for either blog. Then earlier this week, after I sent the link for one of my posts to a close friend who is a stroke-survivor and trained therapist, she asked me if I knew what the audience was because she thought the blog was very good and deserved a wider audience.
So I looked. I won't tell you the exact figures but I can say that this blog is getting an audience ten times bigger than the other one. Why is that? Are people more interested in naturism than sex? (Probably not); is the content of the other one putting people off (I don't think so)?
My theory is that the bigger audience for this blog can be put down to something as simple and straightforward as the presence of the word 'naked' in the title. Nudity sells. The way in which the internet has made pornography much more accessible has been one of the biggest reasons for the significant rise in the use of porn among young people.
As I have noted here previously, back in the 1970s an over-excited teenager had to go into a shop and have a difficult conversation with the lady behind the counter, or raid his dad's porn-stash hidden in the wardrobe. Now, that over-excited teenager just has to get their smartphone and search Google for the word 'naked'. I've just done it. The number of results could keep me trawling Google for days.
In some ways, this is bad, obviously. Internet porn offers teenagers an unrealistic view of sex; one which says that certain acts are routine and normal when they are not. But it also helps demystify nudity - to make it, as I wrote here last time, 'boring.' Which, of course, is what naturists want. We want an end to the attitude which is shocked by the sight of a naked body. We want it replaced by one which would see it as completely normal for someone to swim or sunbathe nude alongside people wearing swimming costumes, or to use a steam room or sauna or hot tub nude alongside clothed people. We want it to be seen as completely normal for 'wellness' activities to be done nude. We're getting there. I know places both in the US and UK which offer naked gym sessions.
There will inevitably be people who find this blog after Googling 'naked' for the wrong reasons. If some of them take the trouble to read my thoughts and decide that naturism is a good idea, I'm achieving my aim. But there will also be those Googling 'naked' for the right reasons - to find out more about the naked lifestyle. Of course, I want them to be in the majority and the more I write, hopefully the more of them there will be.
However you've found this blog, I'm glad you have. Tell others about it, share the links to it. You never know - one day, I might go viral.....
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