To all fellow nudists?

[floyd]

Do you ever think that our lifestyle will be accepted in our society? Do you ever think that public nudity will be legalized?

Also, what do you think we can do in order to become more accepted in society? I think it's about time we nudists "came out of the closet," so to say.

As a side note, I have created a nudist/naturist page on Facebook. If you are interested in supporting it, the URL is http://www.facebook.com/naturismnudism . I hate to advertise on YA, but it would be great if you could check it out and spread the word.

[Mark]

it is good enough that there are "camps" and resorts it should go no further. (there is a place marker on some building in lower Manhattan in New York marking the place where the 1st nudist colony was in new York city it went back way into the 19th century I guess the pilgrims fled England to escape religious persecution and become nudists too in Canada it is legal?yes? anyway be well be blessed be lucky in your case don't let the bedbugs bite or the mosquitos

[doug b]

As a life long nudist it would be niice,.but I dont think it will happen soon . Other than resorts or beaches we are kind of stuck . I moved to panama because the weather in canada did not work for my lifestyle .but even here one has to br discreat and find quiet beaches,.which is not hard

[Abi]

No the norm is to wear clothes, they'll never accept us bro. The only way we can become accepted is if we wear clothes...and ALL THE TIME. I go nude all the time and get disgusted looks. It saddens me.

[Rick407]

In many places it isn't technically illegal, but it isn't accepted in as often as it should be. I'd be happy if there were clothing optional places people could go proportionate with the number of people who would like to use them. And that others would respect those choices and leave us alone.

[Sky]

It's very difficult to say. While it seems like society is advancing towards equality and mature acceptance of things while antiquated notions of the past keep fading away, there is still an incredibly strong lingering phobia of nudity. It's like as each controversial subject gains acceptance and society stops being so opposed to it, the conservative factions that try to keep that stranglehold on the behaviors and mentalities of society switch their focus onto something else. With nudity, near nudity, implied nudity, and sexuality being used everywhere in entertainment and the media, with swimwear becoming smaller all the time, and more people from each new generation being indifferent or accepting of nudity as no big deal, you'd think society would be getting more and more accepting of nudity to the point that if someone was walking down the street nude or something that nobody would care.

Unfortunately it's just the opposite that's happening. While some parts of society are becoming more tolerant about nudity, other parts are rocketing back to the Victorian era. Women are still struggling to exercise the free right to breastfeed their babies in public without having to hide under a blanket or in a bathroom, let alone go topfree as equally as men do; cities and towns that have never had anti-nudity laws in states that also don't have any anti-nudity laws still have governmental boondoggles where the city council passes an "emergency ordinance" in response to a handful of people exercising their free right to go nude (and that's all it is, just being without clothes, nothing sexual and causing no harm to anyone else); if some tiny bit of "nudity" (whatever body part falls within the definition, such as a nipple) is shown on TV it's the controversy of the decade; if someone is seen nude by kids who they never knew were there, that person can be charged with such a serious crime it can get him/her on the sex offender registry; adults, particularly parents, overall are becoming more and more terrified of the idea of kids seeing nudity, learning about it, or even knowing it exists; and whenever someone wants to establish a new naturist resort, everybody in the surrounding area takes on a "not in my back yard" stance about it despite the fact it would be completely secluded and private and all the other naturist resorts in the country have proven to be a zero-crime economic benefit to the area.

In the past it was common practice for YMCA pools to be skinnydipping only; family or friends would go for a swim in some secluded swimming hole, all nude; the nude baby/toddler photo in the family album was a nationwide tradition; before around 1900, swimwear didn't even exist because everyone followed the common and very practical practice of swimming (aka. bathing) in the nude.

Will public nudity ever be legalized and naturists/nudists accepted as common in our society? No, probably not within our lifetimes. What would help, as with every other controversial issue, is more and more people "coming out" about it and letting the public know that they do it, and that it's no big deal. But they don't because the public overall views nudity as automatically sexual and therefore taboo, and naturists/nudists are reluctant to reveal that part of their lives because they want to avoid being labeled as weird at best, a sexual deviant at worst.. And society continues to see nudity as sexual because entertainment and the media continue to treat nudity as taboo and controversial, something to be shocked about. And each new set of parents teach each new generation to feel that exact same feeling of shock, upset, embarrassment, and shame about nudity while shielding them from ever seeing it as if it's something harmful, even though numerous psychological studies have proven that nudity, the sight of it, and being seen nude are all absolutely harmless to children, as well as adults.