There are lots of opinions about the where and when of the coronavirus lately. But nobody knows what’s really going to happen. Meanwhile, we’ve figured out that it is not something seasonal that the first warm April winds will blow away. More and more we realize that the virus is here to stay for quite some time to come. Can we live together with the virus? Preferably a life in which we can visit our friends and family, in which we can leave the house to go see a concert or a movie.
Can we have a life in which we can still travel to naturist places?
And if we can’t, how will we practice naturism? Will the coronacrisis be the end of naturism? Will we all learn that it’s not so hard to wear clothes instead of nothing? Or will corona be the trigger that the naturist world was waiting for?
And if we can’t, how will we practice naturism? Will the coronacrisis be the end of naturism? Will we all learn that it’s not so hard to wear clothes instead of nothing? Or will corona be the trigger that the naturist world was waiting for?
Some scientists predict that when the lockdowns are behind us, we will all get divorced or have babies. Is there a chance that we’ll all walk into this new reality without clothes instead?
Everybody nude at home
One of the predictions we hear in naturist circles is that social nudity might suddenly be much more accepted once these lockdowns are over. Think about it, a large part of the world population is currently stuck in their homes. People have little to no places to go to. They have no office or parties that require them to dress up. Nobody will ring their doorbells. Many don’t even bother to go to the shop and just have everything delivered. Why on earth would they wear any clothes?
Definitely a reasonable way of thinking, but we shouldn’t forget that this theory was born in the head of the naturist. The naturist who has, maybe for the first time ever, been able to spend days in a row without having to wear a single piece of textile. Similarly, the comic book enthusiast could predict that after this crisis, everyone will be reading comic books. It’s pretty obvious, we all have huge amounts of time and comic books can easily be ordered from Amazon. Yet, how many of you have gained an interest in comic books lately?
Nude on social media
During the last months, we all have spent huge amounts of time on the internet and most of our social life has moved to video chats. Zoom, a company of which few had ever heard at the beginning of this year has now become one of the top searched terms on Google. Our new online presence resulted in several videos of Zoom calls in which someone forgets that he is not wearing pants. No doubt that these things can happen and have happened. But how many of those are real? If we look at the video in which the unfortunate husband in tight undies “accidentally” walks by, we can’t think much else than that they would better spend their time taking acting classes.
Something similar can be found on TikTok with the #nakedchallenge. When we first saw that hashtag passing by, we thought that maybe some naturist association had been able to go viral. It sounded like an excellent opportunity to make people try to do something nude around the house, in the hope that they’ll enjoy it. AANR has already been able to make World Naked Gardening Day a worldwide event… Maybe they did it again.
That’s not what happened. Instead, the goal of the #nakedchallenge is for women to surprise their husbands or boyfriends by suddenly appearing nude in front of them and then film their reaction. What we conclude from the reactions is that in most of those households, normalizing nudity has never been high on the agenda. The majority of the men look as if they have never seen a naked woman in real life.
The sunny side of naturism during COVID-19
There’s no doubt that if there is going to be a change in mentality around naturism and nudity, it will come from the naturists themselves. In our blog post about nude online meetups we already mentioned some interesting new ideas for social nudity in times when the word “social” is unavoidably linked to “distancing”. Not only do these meetups manage to keep the social aspect of naturism alive during the lockdowns, but they’ve also become safe spaces for home naturists who do want to share their lifestyle but don’t have a resort or club to do so.
Another interesting prospect could be found in several European newspapers a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly they all started reporting on the local laws about nude sunbathing in your own garden. Europe was seeing some wonderful spring days. Typical days when the naturists would probably spend their weekend at a nude beach or naturist resort if some virus wasn’t keeping their front door locked. The patch of grass at the back of their house becomes the only alternative.
No doubt that many naturists who used to keep their lifestyle secretly hidden for the outside world thought “Screw it. I’m allowed to be nude in my garden and nude I will be”. Many European neighbors might be shocked those days. But definitely some must have thought “Look at Betty all equally tanned. If she can do it, so can I”.
Promote naturism by normalizing nudity
We’re pretty sure that semi-nude video calls or naked challenges won’t be of much help when it comes to promoting naturism. Betty, getting a tan in her garden, is likely to achieve much more. Many naturists have no problems with being nude among hundreds, if not thousands, of strangers. Yet the biggest fear of most is to run into someone they know. Therefore, they spend many hours in cars and planes to get naked on the other side of the country. If not on the other side of the world.
We aren’t any different. When we planned to have our first social nude experience in a spa, we actually picked the one the farthest away from where we lived. Knowing that there was an equally good nude spa at less than a 15-minute drive. We feared to be misunderstood or to be shamed.
Today, the farthest spa is not an option and neither are foreign naturist resorts. Every day, someone tells us to think locally. Shop local, eat local, support our locals. Are we going to spend our nude moments in our living room, having nude meetups during the weekend? Or are we going to take our naturism local as well? Are we going to step into Betty’s footsteps and let the neighbors think whatever they want to think?
Let’s all go to the local naturist resort for once, let’s go to the local spa or the local nude beach. And if you still fear to run into someone you know, here’s a good tip to get over it: Just take someone you know. Bring a friend. You’ll soon realize that being nude in front of a nude friend isn’t much different than with a nude stranger.
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I’m Zack from Melacca (Malaysia).
I think the public acceptance of the culture of living naked will increase slightly from the time before because in the time of the movement’s control, many people surf the internet.
They are likely to find nudist information. Therefore, they can find out the true information about nudist culture and positive things when people practice nudity.
Like me, I have embraced this culture about two years ago and being member of True Nudist website with a certified. I often get naked in front a chalet near the beach in the morning on vacation. I also tried to walk naked from the bedroom to the bathroom while in a lodge in the city of Malacca, while there was business there.
Hey Nick and Lins,
I’m with you. I think backyard Betty will be the hero here!
And I’m glad you called out the “OMG, our colleague forgot he doesn’t have pants on! John! JOOHNNNN!! You don’t have pants on!” (Then John runs out of the room.) If we’re going to freak out about a dude in his boxer shorts, we have a LONG way to go to accepting social nudity.
But back to Betty. I presume you’re referring to ordinances in Great Britain that essentially permit people to be naked in their own yards. Sadly, I think the US is moving quite swiftly in the other direction on that one, other than arrangements like we’ve been able to navigate with OUR neighbors where they simply know they may encounter nude humans beyond a certain point. But that would be quite different if we lived in a tightly packed subdivision where they couldn’t help but see our backyard from their second floor window. Privacy is the key for home nudity here in suburban America.
So I guess the REAL question is, will there be enough people that get desperate enough to have that conversation with their neighbors about being naked at home. That could win a few converts along the way. Who knows, maybe Americans will even start to get past the “heinous act” of breast-feeding in public. At least if everyone’s wearing face-masks, it’ll be more difficult to identify and turn in your offending neighbor.
We always wonder: How bad can it be?
The first 2-3 years when we were naturists, we didn’t tell anyone. We expected that people wouldn’t understand, would joke about it, or would think that we’re perverts. Once we started telling people, we didn’t get a single negative response. Most people just didn’t care, some told us that they were not surprised, some had questions and some welcomed us to the club.
Thinking that your neighbors will be disgusted and call the authorities is an easy excuse and so is waiting for the government to change the rules. But just asking them goes a bit quicker 🙂
Of course, this is also very situation dependent. If there are 50 windows looking into your garden, chances are higher that one of them might not like what he/she sees…
I think it wil grow after the lockdowns.
Nude vacation in Holland on the Frisian Lakes in a Tiny Houseboat for example. https://genietenophetwater.nl/en/zeilboot-verhuur-friesland/
A comment on the last point about fearing to find yourself naked in front of someone you know at the local naturist spa or pool or camp. Simply consider that if this person is there as well, it means he/she is also someone who likes being naked. So, going at the local nudist place is the best way to identify those people from your community who, like you, like being naked. 🙂
That’s absolutely true!
Well I’ve had to find outlets to be naked. As a model I’m usually nude at some point on photoshoots, especially the outdoors ones, but haven’t had an outlet recently as we can’t do shoots due to lockdown
. I’ve managed to set up an area in my garden that now gets sun in the late afternoon, with some screening, so that I can be naked. I’ve also been walking in a local wood as part of my permitted daily exercise. I started off going topless recently for a while, whilst walking, and today I decided was the day to walk naked. I had a blissful 80 minutes fully nude , even walking back to my car before putting a loose dress on.
I’m going on my first naked walk this weekend.
Lockdown has given me an overwhelming desire to be free outdoors!
Awesome! we hope that you’ll have a great time!
Apparently it has: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2020/08/12/getting-naked-during-coronavirus-what-about-masks/#12d95ff14ede