You don't have to be young and fit to be naked
'You wouldn't want to look at my naked body after all it's been through'. That comment was posted on social media this week in a discussion about a nude dining evening staged recently at a restaurant in Bristol.
I have a number of friends in Bristol; they are all aware of and tolerant of my naturist tendencies and one of them posted a link in a Facebook group to a story in Bristol's local paper about the event. They asked: ''Would you attend this event?''.
Of course, I said I would and I was pleased by the number of respondents, both male and female, who agreed with me. But one of the respondents, who admitted to being more mature in years, posted the comment above. Someone else said: ''I'm a grandma, for goodness sake!'' But does it matter how old you are?
In fact, from a naturist point of view, the comment at the start of this post is wrong on so many levels. For a start, who's looking? As I have said before, staring at naked bodies in a naturist setting is such a breach of naturist etiquette that anyone caught doing so is likely to be thrown out and permanently banned.
Naturism is not about 'who's looking at me?' It's about enjoying the freedom of life without clothes. I do a lot of talks which aim to educate people about naturism and I often mention something my wife and I will never forget from our early days as naturists.
We were walking hand-in-hand (and naked, obviously), along the shoreline of a naturist beach on one of the smaller Canary Islands off Spain. We noticed coming towards us a couple who we guessed were in their late-50s or early-60s. As we got closer, we heard them speaking German. Both were as naked as we were; both had nut-brown suntans, obviously the result of many years of exposure to the sun.
The husband had a very impressive (by which I mean substantial) stomach; his wife had an enormous mastectomy scar down one side of her chest. I remember saying to my wife as we passed the couple: "I hope we've got the guts to do that when we're their age.'' As we approach their age now, I think we have although we lack the substantial stomach and mastectomy scar.
As I said, naturism is about being comfortable without clothes. I was talking to a friend about this subject earlier today and she told me: ''I walked outside (in her shaded garden) this morning after my shower because I am plagued with itching (a reaction to medical treatment) and it seemed to calm it down. Wasn't bothered about being naked, just about calming down the itchiness.''
Exactly. If you are more comfortable without clothes (and as long as you aren't offending anyone), then go without clothes. My friend added: ''I don't consider myself a naturist, just someone who enjoys the environment interacting with my body''. Which sounds like a pretty good definition of a naturist to me.
In my talks, I often point out that there are seven billion people on this planet with seven billion different body shapes. We all have imperfections. We should be proud of ours, not embarrassed about them. The person who said: 'You wouldn't want to look at my naked body...' completely misunderstands naturism. It's not about what someone else wants, it's what you feel comfortable with (as long as you aren't causing offence).
The lady with the mastectomy scar has been a naturist hero of mine for nearly 30 years. I regularly tell her story; I told it to the person I quoted at the start of this post. In researching this post, I came across a saying: ''Go naked with all your perfect imperfections.''
Precisely.
I have a number of friends in Bristol; they are all aware of and tolerant of my naturist tendencies and one of them posted a link in a Facebook group to a story in Bristol's local paper about the event. They asked: ''Would you attend this event?''.
Of course, I said I would and I was pleased by the number of respondents, both male and female, who agreed with me. But one of the respondents, who admitted to being more mature in years, posted the comment above. Someone else said: ''I'm a grandma, for goodness sake!'' But does it matter how old you are?
In fact, from a naturist point of view, the comment at the start of this post is wrong on so many levels. For a start, who's looking? As I have said before, staring at naked bodies in a naturist setting is such a breach of naturist etiquette that anyone caught doing so is likely to be thrown out and permanently banned.
Naturism is not about 'who's looking at me?' It's about enjoying the freedom of life without clothes. I do a lot of talks which aim to educate people about naturism and I often mention something my wife and I will never forget from our early days as naturists.
We were walking hand-in-hand (and naked, obviously), along the shoreline of a naturist beach on one of the smaller Canary Islands off Spain. We noticed coming towards us a couple who we guessed were in their late-50s or early-60s. As we got closer, we heard them speaking German. Both were as naked as we were; both had nut-brown suntans, obviously the result of many years of exposure to the sun.
The husband had a very impressive (by which I mean substantial) stomach; his wife had an enormous mastectomy scar down one side of her chest. I remember saying to my wife as we passed the couple: "I hope we've got the guts to do that when we're their age.'' As we approach their age now, I think we have although we lack the substantial stomach and mastectomy scar.
As I said, naturism is about being comfortable without clothes. I was talking to a friend about this subject earlier today and she told me: ''I walked outside (in her shaded garden) this morning after my shower because I am plagued with itching (a reaction to medical treatment) and it seemed to calm it down. Wasn't bothered about being naked, just about calming down the itchiness.''
Exactly. If you are more comfortable without clothes (and as long as you aren't offending anyone), then go without clothes. My friend added: ''I don't consider myself a naturist, just someone who enjoys the environment interacting with my body''. Which sounds like a pretty good definition of a naturist to me.
In my talks, I often point out that there are seven billion people on this planet with seven billion different body shapes. We all have imperfections. We should be proud of ours, not embarrassed about them. The person who said: 'You wouldn't want to look at my naked body...' completely misunderstands naturism. It's not about what someone else wants, it's what you feel comfortable with (as long as you aren't causing offence).
The lady with the mastectomy scar has been a naturist hero of mine for nearly 30 years. I regularly tell her story; I told it to the person I quoted at the start of this post. In researching this post, I came across a saying: ''Go naked with all your perfect imperfections.''
Precisely.
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