I've notice, even at a nudist resort, that one person clothed quickly leads to two, then to three, etc., until most of the group becomes self-conscious, and gets dressed.
Because textilism causes this reaction, I think Clothing Optional just doesn't work.
People innocently introducee cothing optional policies thinking this will help newbies be more comfortable until they get nude. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. The more common reaction is for others to get clothed. It's much better for newbies to just join in - taking off their clothes.
How do you feel about clothing optional policies?
Here's an interesting article that illustrates the power of textilism:
HAMILTON: My naked truth about Niagara’s YMCA
“Hearing of the news . . . made me think back to what we believed to be the innocent days of our own youth; back to the days when boys swam naked in school and social organization’s pools and didn’t feel threatened by so doing. . . I will start by talking about my personal embarrassments and one of my favorite places — the Niagara YMCA. . . the Young “Men’s” Christian Association. . . in those days, because it was an all-male organization, most of us swam in the nude. . . I’d shower and enter the pool for my laps. But then, something slightly unusual occurred. While in the shower, a man and his young son came out of the pool wearing swim trunks. Sometimes, some of the more modest guys would wear trunks. I dismissed the two as that being the case. . . My routine was to run into the mostly empty pool room and immediately dive from the diving board and into the pool to immediately overcome the shock of the temperature change. Then I would do my laps. Thusly, I raced in to do what I always did on that particular Wednesday . . . I opened the door and ran out onto the diving board. Despite the rough surface of the diving board, I slid nearly to the end of it before coming to a complete stop, nearly falling into the water before I turned, horrified, and raced back into the sanctity of the men’s shower room. There was a different atmosphere in the pool that day. Usually there were just a couple of nude swimmers taking their laps or lounging in the Jacuzzi; but this time, the room was unusually filled with both color and noise. There were blues, yellows, greens, reds, pinks and purple one-piece and two-piece bathing suits, both in and out of the water. The underlying noise consisted of the bass laughter of men and boys - while the shrilling voices of soprano mothers, and the alto shrieks of their little girls echoed and amplified off the room’s tiled walls. It was Family Night at the “Y,” and there I had stood on the diving board, as the saying goes, as naked as a jay bird. . . That was the most embarrassing moment of my life and it took me months before I returned to the Y. But I did return, and always with a pair of swimming trucks.” – Ken Hamilton, Niagara Gazette
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I think you're onto something there. I see it in other activities and situations too. If someone is new to nudism, the best thing for them to do is just get naked. They'll quickly realize it wasn't so hard and they'll wonder why they didn't do it sooner. If not, they probably weren't meant to be nudists.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first visit to a naturist campground. I parked, stripped off what little I had been wearing and whatever nervousness or embarrassment I might have felt dissipated almost immediately.
Clothing-optional policies may be OK for certain niche markets but for the traditional nudist resort, park or campground, nudity should certainly be strongly encouraged, if not required. This idea of easing into nudism gradually doesn't make sense. Jump in and enjoy it!