Hey Marlowe,
You made some excellent points on your post which deserves more to comment on.
I think it's unfair that it's acceptable for men to walk around topless, but women can't. Obvious 'double' standard.
I see nothing wrong with nudity. If you like it, do it. If you don't like it, don't do it! It is commonplace for people to think that something sexual is involved if people are naked. Mix men with women and people will suspect an orgy, even if there isn't one. Involve children and now you are now considered a pedophile, even if nothing sexual is happening.
These are people who have never experienced a naturist or nudist gathering to know what it's like. I've had it happen to me on some forums when I used to advertise family nudist swim parties and invited the members to check it out.
1. Christian couples, concerned for personal holiness, whose only knowledge about nude recreation is from negative sources, look at the idea of nude recreation as nothing more than a sex party. Wives don't want their husbands to have any more invitations to lust than they have already. Our Western culture provides us with enough of those kind of invitations.
This is indeed true, not just for Christian couples but non-Christian couples as well. I know some couples who are not religious in the slightest but are extremely prudish about nudity.
2. Personal body shame will result in women constantly comparing themselves to young and "perfect" models, which only results in anxiety. This also creates a problem with husbands, who like everybody else, will notice other women. An insecure wife will only think that her husband is looking for a way to gawk at other nude women or is out shopping for a new wife. If you are already having marriage problems, please settle those problems before introducing social nudism to your spouse.
Agreed. But it should be pointed out that in many European nudist clubs and resorts they have beauty pageants at them which feature females of all ages taking part. The American clubs used to have them up until around the late 70's when the feminist movement decided they were demeaning to women and the clubs caved in to them. However, nudist or not, female nature does involve scrutinising and sizing up. Maybe the women at nude events scare each other off, even if it is not intentional.
3. Many women feel like the only motivation a husband may have for engaging in social nudism is to gawk at other women. This would result in anger with most wives. Many women who are nudists testify to the opposite. This is an expected attitude in the West because of the association of sex with nudity.
Not in all Western cultures. In the UK, public and social nudity is becoming a lot more commonplace than it was back in the 60's and 70's. Many British women are a lot more at ease with nudity than American and Australian women.
4. Many people, men included, feel that if you are a Christian, you ought to be modest. This is probably the strongest reason most people use as an objection to participation in social nudism. What really is modesty all about? Is modesty about "morality", or are we confusing the issue? It is equating nudity with sex that creates this problem. If a person DOES associate sex with nudity, then being nude is not modest. Ask people who have participated in social nudism and see if the primary reason is sex or recreation. You just might be surprised. "Modest" really means "appropriate for the situation", or "neat and orderly". Can you be completely nude and modest? You can if your motivation and purpose is not sexual.
Again, you are absolutely correct about this. I only wish more Christians understood this.
Most objections about 'modesty' are really objections about personal insecurity - how the man/woman feels about him/herself. It may look like an objection over 'modesty' when it is really a deep, emotional fear about comparing oneself to others.
Very true. But looking at it from the other side of the coin: the body acceptance mantra of nudists can get too PC to the extreme that they neglect their health, personal pride and appearance. Many nudist magazines feature fat, hirsute old hippies, hillbillies and rednecks sucking on a bottle of beer or a cigarette with their arms around an equally overweight woman or a young nubile woman. It's gone from being associaited with health, spirituality and discipline to hedonism. "If it feels good, do it".
5. Let's face it. We all know what we look like nude. All men know what nude women look like and all women know what nude men look like. Boys and girls are smaller version of adults.
But we don't all look the same nude, and that's what makes us special and interesting. We are tall, short, thin, fat, hairy, smooth, have small penises, large penises, small breasts, floppy breasts, large breasts. There is no 'one body shape fits all'. Nudism is about celebrating your physical individuality as much as your mental/emtional individuality.
Most little girls know that boys and men have penises and what they are used for. So why the big fuss that 'nudity harms kids'?
To view the opposite sex nude does not automatically imply that lust will soon follow. "Lust" is active with clothes on as well as off. Mostly nude (or partly revealed) is more seductive than totally nude. It's the 'hidden' part that tempts us. And we all know what is underneath anyway. It doesn't take any imagination to fill in the hidden parts on a body that a wet bathing suit is plastered on to. Removal of the bathing suit also removes the seductive thrill of those bathing suits. If you think about it, bathing suits actually ACCENT the parts of the body they try to cover up!
That's EXACTLY what I've been trying to tell people who say 'nudism is a sin' or 'it's not my bag', or 'it's all to do with sex'. Yet some of these are people who think nothing of wearing suggestive and skimpy swimmers on beaches, and are sexually reckless with others (I've been a nudist for nearly 20 years and I am still a virgin, so they can go stick that in their pipes and smoke it!)
The biggest benefit to social nudism is the relief from cultural stress. Once you see that it is about recreation, you will have opened up a new world to explore. You will also be able to overcome cultural stress about body shame, comparing yourself to 'perfect' models.
For some people it can be a stressful thing, but only the first 30 minutes of their first time in a nude environment. In Europe where nudity is more accepted, the fashion and porn industry is just as prevalent as it is in America, UK and Australia. The difference is that European women know how to differentiate nudity from being a sexual experience and when it isn't.
6. If nudity were common, and there were no 'forbidden zones' to view with either sex, what would happen to the pornography market? Wouldn't you think that it would dry up? By reinforcing cultural problems with nudity being equal to sex - that is, parents teaching children that nudity is evil and making it equal to "sin" - haven't parents actually FUELED the pornography market?
Disagreed. Pornography is rampant in Europe, you can even buy XXX magazines on the front stands of your local grocer's shop. Many porn sites come from Europe, and sadly ones that deal with the more darker side of it like kiddie porn, incest porn and bestiality (most of it coming from Russia).
If naturism was more common, the porn industry wouldn't dry up as much as lose some of its appeal. I actually started reading soft porn mags as a teen as a means of rebelling against authoritarians who said "you shouldn't be reading those mags!" Never turned me into a sex offender or a rapist by a long shot.
It comes down to the values your parents give you in the first place. I was told as a teenager that the worst thing that you can do to a woman is rape her, and I've always held close to it regardless.
Finally, when we are young we are told to avoid temptation, but when we get older temptation goes out of its way to avoid us. Probably explains why most naturists in our cultures are menopausal and post menopausal people - they lost interest in sex long ago.