Top 5 problems naturism faces in 2021
Naturist influencer Hector Martinez posted this video about what he thinks are the top 5 problems naturism faces in 2021.
In my opinion, these are the top 5 problems naturism faces in 2021. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Early access to #NormalizeNudity videos on https://t.co/MZYr9JYT5T pic.twitter.com/TPeBtAAkIi— Hector Martinez (@_Hector_Mtz) February 4, 2021
Interesting is that many people like and retweet this video. But not many answer to Hector’s question. Maybe because Twitter is not the right medium for writing an opinion of more than one sentence? Well, that certainly applies for me, so I write my thoughts here.
- Nudist vs naturist. What do they really mean?
- Imposed idealism. Being a ‘true’ naturist.
- Outdated naturist organisations. And old mentality. Resistance to change.
- An unknown community. Starting a conversation.
- Censorship on social media.
(True) naturism and/or nudism
Question 1 and 2 are the ever returning questions about definitions of what naturism and nudism are and what not.
Language, culture and personal interpretation apparently make it impossible to find one definition that suits all. Some try to solve this by introducing a new word, like nu gymnosophy. But I think the solution is to keep it as simple as possible can be.
So I say: All who enjoy being naked without getting sexual, call themselves a naturist. Naturism is the word used by the people in Europe who started naturism. The word nudist has already been hijacked by the porn industry, so naturist is the best choice. Voila! That was not too hard, was it? (With a bit of help from the pink elephant).
I know in the native English speaking parts of the world, nudism is more used than naturist. But since the rest of the world is already adapting so much to the English language, it would be kind of you to follow us on this path. (And in the mean time, consider using the metric system as well.)
Outdated naturist organisations
Yes they are. Only a few exceptions. BN seems to be the federation that has discovered the power of social media. And FEN is quite visible as well.
As a Dutch naturist I am of course member of NFN. Although we are a small country (17 million inhabitants) our federation is the largest in Europe. They have good communication with their members, but visibility in the outside world needs improvement.
They do a great job when it comes to defending naturist beaches and other activities like recently naked hiking in the forest. They also proactively address local politics when new recreational developments are planned. Thanks to NFN our voice is heard at this level.
What I miss in NFN and other organisations is speaking out publicly and frequently to promote naturism as a healthy lifestyle for body and mind.
One federation that really does not understand social media is INF-FNI. Their Twitter account is even set to private! Which public organisation has a locked social media account? Three weeks after this tweet, they still had not replied nor accepted my follow request
@WorldNaturism Why is the INF-FNI account private? Is this the way to promote #Naturism???@NatuurlijkNFN @britnaturism pic.twitter.com/cA09RlGihl
— Erik Naturist Amsterdam (@NatAmsNL) January 19, 2021
That brings us automatically to the next point.
An unknown community
Where LGBT people sometimes can’t hide their identity, naturists are masters in covering up. We know how easy it is to hide being a naturist. Only if you have to be naked in a public shower, the missing tan lines will out you!
Since being naked in most parts of the world is illegal and/or not accepted by the general public, we need to find other ways to promote naturism. We can expect the federations (see above) to do that for us. We have to do it ourselves.
We need to use our skills to bring the subject of a conversation to naturism. Sometimes I read coming out stories of naturists that look like the painful stories some LGBT people have when they need to come out of the closet. Then I really think, come on, we are just talking about the freedom of being naked. That’s something completely different than coming in a country where you might be killed for just being gay.
So don’t feel sorry. Be proud that you have found the freedom of naturism and share this with people you live. But don’t become a missionary who wants to convert people. Just telling about the well being you experience should be enough to get things going. It will take time for a hard core textilist will consider exploring naturism.
If you don’t feel confident enough to bring up naturism in a conversation, there is also the Naturist Symbol you can use.
The invisible community
We are not only unknown. We are invisible. And we are very good at being invisible. If we only could see that we are not the only naturist in the village. That’s why I use the Naturist Symbol.
A sticker or a t-shirt with the symbol can be a great conversations starter as well. Why not serve your coffee in a naturist symbol mug?
Censorship on social media
MeWe and Twitter are main stream social networks that allow nudity. Luckily there are some inspiring naturist influencers who encourage others to become more active in promoting naturism. For example Linda Weber initiated #IAmtheFaceofNaturism.
But the other big ones, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are prudish. Since they are commercial organisations with their own rules, I think it is not worth the energy to try to change them. We need to be there to tell our story and become visible. But we need to blur. So we blur. And refer to MeWe and Twitter to share our uncensored footage of naked freedom.
Conclusion
I am probably too fast by declaring naturism the be the word we are going to use. And let’s agree that it will probably be impossible to get one definition that pleases us all.
Let’s encourage the modern federations to keep up their good work. And let’s forget the old ones. It’s not worth to try to educate them. Soon they will cease to exist, because all members passed away.
It is up to us to promote naturism. By recognizing each other. And have conversations about naturism with people who are new to it. Share your experiences in having these conversations in the many naturist groups on MeWe and other social media.
What do you think? Share your thoughts below, or in the orginal tweet from Hector.
The use of the phrase nu Gymnosophy is not designed to replace the word naturism or it’s classical definition. No more than the naturist symbol is designed to replace all previous symbols of naturism. Rather the intention behind the phrase is to reframe the concepts values and ideals of naturism in 21st century collectivist idiom.
I find the individualistic lowest common denominator approach you describe uninspiring and believe we might fair better if the focus wasn’t on individual “I am ” but movement “We are” An more intersectional, ethical non moralistic approach that reframes the values of historic naturism rather than discard them. That is what I call nu Gymnosophy drawing on the roots of the word Gymnosophy a naked wisdom observed by Alexander among the nagna sadhus of India. Time will certainly tell which approach will actually meet the challenges of naturism.
Your video link and comments address many key issues. I see nudism as a dying movement in the US, at least on a general level. Where I live in the Midwest, I am not welcome as a single dad to nudist resorts without bringing birth certificates and signed papers from my ex-wife. It’s easier to get a passport and nudist organizations don’t respect my parental rights. That means my sons are more likely to consider nudism an uptight form of discrimination vs. a sense of freedom. The European naturism is on the other hand more about having a casual on/off relationship with clothes.
The irony with Hector Martinez is that whereas he’s critical of the private nature of nudism in organizations, he demands you subscribe to him on Patreon to hear his views. He’s in it for the money.
Thank Anders for your comments.
I was not aware that discrimination of single men was so intense in the US. Is this approved by AANR?
Regarding Hector Martinez, I don’t believe he is in it to make a fortune. I understand his frustration about YouTube deleting his successful channel and the struggle he has had ever since to gain back his audience.
“So I say: All who enjoy being naked without getting sexual, call themselves a naturist”.
We are big fans of that idea, but it just doesn’t seem to work. We’ve tried this (and are still trying) on Naked Wanderings as well. The main problem seems to be that naturism used to be such a strict and defined philosophy and that the long term naturists are just not willing to compromise. On Facebook, there’s this Dutch guy who keeps saying that we are hedonists and should not call ourselves naturists. Mostly because we often visit commercial naturist centers and take airplanes to get there. We understand his point, from the original “living in harmony with nature” idea, what we do isn’t very naturist…
Another example is the president of the INF-FNI, who said in her speech on the international naturist congress of 2018 and then again on the online naturist forum in 2020 that naturists and “nude swimmers” can live next to each other, but never together.
We wonder if this will ever change. If we can move towards something like vegetarianism. Vegetarians don’t eat meat for many different reasons and yet, they all share the same term. But who knows, maybe they also have internal struggles…
I really like the words “without getting sexual”. It does not deny that naturists like sex. After all we are just normal human beings.
It is good to remember where naturism came from and what it used to stand for. The meaning of words can change through time. At this moment I am more concerned about the abuse of the words naturist and nudist in a sexual context.
Erik,
You wrote: “The word nudist has already been hijacked by the porn industry”. Really? Would you care to document that assertion? I don’t think that, at least in the US, even the word “stripper” would automatically be taken to mean “porn worker”.
On a related subject: In Mexico, “naturista” has been co-opted by “natural medicine” and “natural food” peddlers, so we who like to be nude have no option but to call ourselves “nudistas”, and no one would infer a connection to pornography.
Saludos,
Gerardo
Thanks for you message Gerardo!
The reason I say “nudist” is hijacked by the porn industry is based on the massive use of the word “naturist” as a word to promote their merchandise. Just google for “nudist meeting” or “nudist video”. The search results from Google are obviously very different in different parts of the world. And there is the huge amount of Twitter porn accounts that use #naturist. Less use #naturism.
Regarding the Mexican “naturista” you do have a point. Unless we all speak Esperanto I guess this issue with one word having different meanings will always exist. If we want to choose one single word for the entire planet, there will always be people who have to adopt something new.
There is definitely some truth in that. Google has been doing a massive cleanup in 2020, but before that, if you Googled “nudist family” you ended up with lots of sites selling pictures of naked children. A search for “nudist beach” then again showed you images that you wouldn’t even find at Cap d’Agde…
With “naturism”, this was slightly better. The main reason for this is that those websites aimed mostly at the public from the USA, where nudist is the most accepted term.