Skinny dipping

[Washington]

This was originally created to go into a forum thread (HERE) which I now realize--after it was pointed out to me--is off limits to those, like myself, who don't meet its criteria. But, rather than waste an observation of what I think is a moral issue for some, I decided to post it here.


Where I grew up there were a couple lakes within a 20 minute drive. On the end of one of these lakes was a small embayment set apart from the main lake by a sandy bar overgrown by vegetation. It was difficult for those on the lake proper to see into the bay. Known as Bare A_ _ Beach, quite a few of those in my high school class--and in other classes as well-- both males and females, would go skinny dipping together. Misbehavior was never a problem. If some new guy had trouble controlling his reaction to it all he was simply told to go take care of it before rejoining the group. Seldom was there more than a dozen of us at any one time, and surprisingly, fairly well divided between the sexes. In all, I would guess that maybe 30-40 different kids hung out there each summer.

It was a very liberating (we all thought we were kind of cool) and a very innocent pastime (not that a new visitor wasn't given the "once over") and, in an odd way, kind of bonded us together. This never created any kind of clique, nor did any high school clique ever dominate the beach. It was a very strange and almost eclectic mix of kids, some of whom initially came solo and then developed new friendships. Although the water was warm, the late summer algae made it a little repulsive to swim in, so almost all our time was spent either sunbathing or throwing a Frisbee around.

This isn't to say people didn't pair up and occasionally engage in a little kissy-face, but that's all the further it went. The school was well aware of the beach and what went on, as were the local police. The school officially condemned the beach. Each spring we would get a warning that it was off limits--I still don't know how they felt it was within their jurisdiction. And the local police would make an occasional "raid" on it and make everyone put on their clothes and leave. No arrests were ever made.

 

[B'alaam]

Sounds like fun
Unfortunately, too many people are too uncomfortable in their own skin...and they take out their discomfort on other people. Sad really.

 

[cantata]

Sounds fantastic.

I sometimes wish I'd had an experience like that when I was younger. Maybe I wouldn't have so many hangups about my body now. It's tragic, what a misplaced sense of "modesty" can do.

 

[Bombila]

Sounds fantastic.

I sometimes wish I'd had an experience like that when I was younger. Maybe I wouldn't have so many hangups about my body now. It's tragic, what a misplaced sense of "modesty" can do.

I can think of dozens of times I went skinny-dipping with others in my twenties and thirties, and the occasional time since - we have a lot of lonely lakes and empty beaches here, and even a beach or two known for nudity. Nothing untoward ever happened.

Cantata, I hope you can lose those hangups about your body - not so you can necessarily go skinny dipping, but because you are young and there is no good reason for them, and pointless modesty can interfere with a lot of simple activities.

I don't know if your hangups are in any way associated with body image, but in case:

I wasn't satisfied with the way I looked when I was young, and didn't even consider myself attractive, in spite of the way others treated me. When I look at old photos of myself now, I am amazed that I ever felt that way, since I was in fact a typically attractive-faced, pleasantly rounded young woman with beautiful hair.

Almost all young people are attractive, and it is a sad thing that they waste grief on minutiae like a few extra pounds or imperfect skin or what they see as disproportionate shape or odd features. No one but the individual themselves normally notices such things, and generally people react to the whole person, not the shape of a nose or the one blemish or the curve of a hip.

I make a point of casually complimenting young people I know, as in saying an outfit looks good on them, or their hair has a nice style. It may not mean a lot, given I'm way outta their peer group, but it's something.

 

[MsAnne]

I would have never imagined that at 40 years old I would be skinny dipping, or topless swimming in the river with a friend of mine. It was apparently pretty common for her, and before I knew it, I was pretty comfortable as well.

It wasn't until I realized I had to, at some point, climb back onto the boat naked that it got a little dicey.

 

[cantata]

Cantata, I hope you can lose those hangups about your body - not so you can necessarily go skinny dipping, but because you are young and there is no good reason for them, and pointless modesty can interfere with a lot of simple activities.

I don't know if your hangups are in any way associated with body image, but in case:

I wasn't satisfied with the way I looked when I was young, and didn't even consider myself attractive, in spite of the way others treated me. When I look at old photos of myself now, I am amazed that I ever felt that way, since I was in fact a typically attractive-faced, pleasantly rounded young woman with beautiful hair.

Almost all young people are attractive, and it is a sad thing that they waste grief on minutiae like a few extra pounds or imperfect skin or what they see as disproportionate shape or odd features. No one but the individual themselves normally notices such things, and generally people react to the whole person, not the shape of a nose or the one blemish or the curve of a hip.

I make a point of casually complimenting young people I know, as in saying an outfit looks good on them, or their hair has a nice style. It may not mean a lot, given I'm way outta their peer group, but it's something.

Thank you - it's weird, I know all the sensible things that I ought to think, and the insistence from my parents, friends and boyfriend that I'm really not overweight does help, but somehow I still see fat, fat, fat when I look in the mirror.

I think I will grow out of it - and by the way, I commend your complimenting activities. I can assure you that there's nothing so reassuring as a compliment from someone one likes and respects, especially when one is feeling insecure. I try to regularly compliment my friends for the same reasons.

Thank you so much for your best wishes! again.

 

[Washington]

Cantata, I hope you can lose those hangups about your body - not so you can necessarily go skinny dipping, but because you are young and there is no good reason for them, and pointless modesty can interfere with a lot of simple activities.

Excellent observation.

Indeed, cantata, I encourage you to make an effort to shed this hangup. And you are far from too old to do it. At the beach I went to it was quite obvious no one was concerned how their body looked. Just about every body shape was well represented. One girl, a bit large, played Frisbee with as much abandon as everyone else; not caring one wit about all the bouncing her body did. Thinking back, it now strikes how much well placed self esteem she had. In fact, I think many of us silently congratulated and admired her for it.

Almost all young people are attractive, and it is a sad thing that they waste grief on minutiae like a few extra pounds or imperfect skin or what they see as disproportionate shape or odd features. No one but the individual themselves normally notices such things, and generally people react to the whole person, not the shape of a nose or the one blemish or the curve of a hip.

Boy, isn't that the truth.

 

[cantata]

you are far from too old to do it.

Oh, I don't feel too old to go skinny-dipping - but you have to remember that unless you're a hardcore crazy person who likes swimming in icy temperatures, even clothed outdoor swimming in the UK is a rare treat

 

[Washington]

Oh, I don't feel too old to go skinny-dipping - but you have to remember that unless you're a hardcore crazy person who likes swimming in icy temperatures, even clothed outdoor swimming in the UK is a rare treat

I wasn't thinking of skinny-dipping per se, just the pointless modesty. And I understand the temperature thing. I H-A-T-E cold water, and it needn't be anything close to icy.

 

[sidhe]

Swimming is fun.

Naked is fun.

Swimming naked, therefore, is more fun than being either naked or swimming by itself.

On modesty: when in the University dorms, my hallmates became used to the idea that I might walk in to their rooms completely naked without noticing, because I'd just gotten out of the shower. I've not got that mental catch that says "put clothes on first."

 

[Bombila]

I'll go further with my opinions, because I think it may be important, and that is that despite the amount of moaning we do about societal insistance on a specific and rigid delineation of beauty as it relates to body shape/size/features/fashion, the vast majority of people, both men and women, don't do more than lipservice to such superficialities. It's a fact that most people end up with partners, and most partnerings are for love, which begins with attraction - nobody deliberately goes looking for an 'ugly' partner, or considers (if they are emotionally and intellectually over the age of fifteen) that they are 'settling' because of their own perceived flaws. I see women with thoroughly average looking partners who believe utterly that their man is the handsomest man they know, and men with plump little short-legged women or gawky skinny-Minnies who are bursting with adoration and pride when introducing their beloved to others. We are thoroughly individual in our perception of what is beautiful or admirable, and that, IMO, is a good thing. Young people, as individuals, worry that they don't fit some social requirement as to appearance, yet they themselves don't often expect or desire that their chosen partners fit the same set of conditions.

I was watching a recorded music festival recently, and a lot of the bands were young men in their early twenties, young enough to be my grandsons. Very few of them looked like movie stars; in fact they were a mixed bag of average looking young fellas who had music in common. But this is the thing: to me, they all looked handsome and vital, with their flying messy hair and assorted youthful attempts at growing facial hair and often eccentric choices of clothing.

I'm not ageist about beauty, but it is less of a consideration as one ages, since unless you are very superficial, one's ability to define beauty becomes more inclusive and also broader. My seventy-three year old neighbour is beautiful. She is plump and wrinkled and possessed of a great pile of unruly grey hair; she is always smiling and lively; she is witty and smart. I admire her and think she looks great, not 'for her age', but as herself, as she is. The thing is, young people as young people are for the most part beautiful by nature, in a sense that anyone can see. With maturity, one's capacity for seeing humans in general, in all their variety, as beautiful, normally becomes natural. We should stop worrying so much about our physical appearance. If you are clean, relatively whole, and healthy, you have beauty.

 

[Darkhorse]

What an emotionally-healthy country we would have if all school-age kids could enjoy a nude swimming/tanning/frisbee area!

I didn't get started with skinny-dipping until I was 19 - but I've been at it ever since. My kids have enjoyed it all their lives - they're off to a good start!

 

[tulc]

well the dipping may be fun, but it's been never since I was skinny.
tulc(doesn't even like take baths, just showers)

 

[quatona]

This was originally created to go into a forum thread (HERE) which I now realize--after it was pointed out to me--is off limits to those, like myself, who don't meet its criteria. But, rather than waste an observation of what I think is a moral issue for some, I decided to post it here.


Where I grew up there were a couple lakes within a 20 minute drive. On the end of one of these lakes was a small embayment set apart from the main lake by a sandy bar overgrown by vegetation. It was difficult for those on the lake proper to see into the bay. Known as Bare A_ _ Beach, quite a few of those in my high school class--and in other classes as well-- both males and females, would go skinny dipping together. Misbehavior was never a problem. If some new guy had trouble controlling his reaction to it all he was simply told to go take care of it before rejoining the group. Seldom was there more than a dozen of us at any one time, and surprisingly, fairly well divided between the sexes. In all, I would guess that maybe 30-40 different kids hung out there each summer.

It was a very liberating (we all thought we were kind of cool) and a very innocent pastime (not that a new visitor wasn't given the "once over") and, in an odd way, kind of bonded us together. This never created any kind of clique, nor did any high school clique ever dominate the beach. It was a very strange and almost eclectic mix of kids, some of whom initially came solo and then developed new friendships. Although the water was warm, the late summer algae made it a little repulsive to swim in, so almost all our time was spent either sunbathing or throwing a Frisbee around.

This isn't to say people didn't pair up and occasionally engage in a little kissy-face, but that's all the further it went. The school was well aware of the beach and what went on, as were the local police. The school officially condemned the beach. Each spring we would get a warning that it was off limits--I still don't know how they felt it was within their jurisdiction. And the local police would make an occasional "raid" on it and make everyone put on their clothes and leave. No arrests were ever made.

I´m not sure I know what to do with this post, Washington. I don´t seem to get the point.
You seem to describe what juveniles do all the time all over the world, but you emphasize that these people were naked.
Do you think that being naked is of significance in these situations, or is your point (somewhat contrary to the impression that you emphasize it) the opposite: that it is of no significance?

 

[stan1980]

Just reading through this thread... while we're talking about compliments, here is an observation I've made about myself. Looking back when I was growing up, I never did get too many compliments from my parents or my friends (still don't ). Anyway, putting the violins away, to cope or compensate I used to compliment myself aloud at every opportunity I'd get. Now that must have made me either look extremely deluded or extremely big headed and cocky, or a mixture of both, it's hard to tell now. I've tried to cut it out now, as I noticed I find it an unattractive quality in others, but the moral is, when you come across such people, who act like the love themselves, try to be nice, as underneath it all, they are probably more fragile than the rest of us.

 

[Washington]

I´m not sure I know what to do with this post, Washington. I don´t seem to get the point.
You seem to describe what juveniles do all the time all over the world, but you emphasize that these people were naked.
Do you think that being naked is of significance in these situations, or is your point (somewhat contrary to the impression that you emphasize it) the opposite: that it is of no significance?

I don't know if you missed my opening remark or not, but it explains that my OP was originally created to answer an OP question made by explodingboy in another forum [a link is provided in my OP]. To wit:

"Is it possible to be nude in a non sexual way, where does the Christian opinion fall about naturists and nudist beaches/colonies. (I'll take any non Christian opinions too though)
Can you be around someone in the buff without freaking out and is it a case for religion or the culture you are raised in."
​

After having created it I found I was ineligible to post it in that forum, (Christian Forums > Ministry > Life Stages > Christian Teens > Guys) and rather than waste my account of my experience---I figured it might be of interest to some, which it obviously has been---I simply decided to share it and see what others thought of my rather unorthodox experience and the morality that attaches to it. No biggie.

 

[cantata]

[a link is provided in my OP]

Apparently I'm ineligible to even follow the link.

 

[quatona]

I don't know if you missed my opening remark or not, but it explains that my OP was originally created to answer an OP question made by explodingboy in another forum [a link is provided in my OP]. To wit:

"Is it possible to be nude in a non sexual way, where does the Christian opinion fall about naturists and nudist beaches/colonies. (I'll take any non Christian opinions too though)
Can you be around someone in the buff without freaking out and is it a case for religion or the culture you are raised in."​

Ah, I see. I didn´t click the link.
Sorry, and thanks for explaining!

Having been to nudist beaches and public saunas countless times, I´d submit that they are about as sexual as, say, a digital alarm clock.
When it comes to nudist colonies, people there tend to be even particularly prudish, in my experience.

 

[Washington]

Apparently I'm ineligible to even follow the link.

Well that sure ain't fair!!

Here's where the thread stands as of now.

Nudity
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right this is going to be an odd one but I've been curious about this one.
Is it possible to be nude in a non sexual way, where does the Christian opinion fall about naturists and nudist beaches/colonies. (I'll take any non Christian opinions too though)
Can you be around someone in the buff without freaking out and is it a case for religion or the culture you are raised in.
I'm sticking it here just to see what the blokes think to start with especially as we always get the bad rep of not being able to control are hormones at the slightest hint of a bare shoulder (Mormon fashion mag for that lovely fact)

Well yes it certainly is possible, for example skinny-dipping amongst a single sex group can easily be innocent. Nudity in and of itself isn't sinful since God made us naked, it's only when sin entered the world that we became ashamed of our bodies. However another sin that we have is lust (not that we're in any danger of forgetting it here in the guy's forum ), and especially at our age being naked with those of the opposite sex would just be asking for trouble even if your motives are innocent. So basically I think that although it's not inherently sinful, it's generally a bad idea.

Originally Posted by Melchett
Well yes it certainly is possible, for example skinny-dipping amongst a single sex group can easily be innocent.
Why not in a mixed group?

it's only when sin entered the world that we became ashamed of our bodies.
What about the people who aren't ashamed of there bodies?
Surely the naturists who embrace there bodies and nakedness aren't just doing it for the sexy aspect.
Personally I see it more that were taught to be ashamed of our bodies.

However another sin that we have is lust and especially at our age being naked with those of the opposite sex would just be asking for trouble even if your motives are innocent.
Is it really that big of a problem or are we just so used to being told that it is we accept our feebleness without a second thought?

So basically I think that although it's not inherently sinful, it's generally a bad idea.
thanks for the reply.

Man put nudity in the Bible, not God!!!!!11111

Opinions on nudity are going to be culturally, not religiously, derived. There is no Christian opinion on nudity as there is no Christian opinion on urination. It's there, whether or not it's acceptable in public is a matter for the local governments to decide.
Nudity is not inherently sexual. Are the sexual organs being emphasized? If not, it's not sexual.

If you dont look at it in a sexual way, it is fine, it is the way God made us, it is only natural, we were naked as babies, so yeah.

What he said.

However youve got to remember some people may not be able to control their urges seeing females naked even if it isnt intentional...its just how us guys are wired I guess.

However youve got to remember some people may not be able to control their urges seeing females naked even if it isnt intentional...its just how us guys are wired I guess.

Then the question falls on to where these uncontrollable urges are coming from is it purely biological or does the taboo subject add to the otherwise normal.
Or is this just me putting to much thought into a subject.

Then the question falls on to where these uncontrollable urges are coming from is it purely biological or does the taboo subject add to the otherwise normal.
Or is this just me putting to much thought into a subject.

Well humans have always had a taboo on the subject I would say. When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit, they realized they were naked and tried to hide from God. Maybe its because clothing is something that separates us from the animals, maybe we just associate it with sex thats all we see nudity as, Im not sure. All I know is that as a society, weve gotten into the habit of thinking nudity=sex which is why its not a very good idea to walk around naked nowadays.

I'd say that the nudity=sex is something that certain cultures have taken to an extreme
America being a very good example when compared to the rest of the developed west.(seriously just how much of a fit can you people throw over a tit (superbowl if noone is following)

 

[Caitlin.ann]

Skinny dipping is great fun.