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Nudism and Naturism

One of my interests (more accurately, lifestyle choices) is Nudism: the belief that the human body is not obscene and that it is perfectly appropriate not to wear clothes when nudity is more comfortable. It is a belief, backed up by empirical studies, that people achieve greater acceptance of their bodies and of their selves by allowing their bodies to be free and exposed than by forcing them to stay hidden behind clothes. I invite you to explore the information and links here to introduce yourself to nudism and naturism.

How I became a nudist

I’ve preferred being nude to clothed at least since I was 10 and maybe before. It took another 10 years to get away from the notion that I was somehow “bad” for having this preference, so my first public nude experience wasn’t until my second year at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m rather shy and can sometimes get bound up in rules, so I wanted to try outdoor nudity somewhere where it would be legal and where there wouldn’t be lots of people about. I biked out to Hippy Hollow on a fairly grey day in spring break, found an unoccupied section (not too hard given the weather that day), and stripped. It was wonderful to feel the air and water without cloth intervening. By the time others started to arrive, I was comfortable enough that I wasn’t bothered.

That was 26 years ago. Since then I’ve gotten ever more comfortable with my body and with being nude. My wife—who was not a nudist when we met—and I have a clothing optional home (though our daughter is going through body shyness). We like to get to the beach or a resort when possible, but just being nude around the house is great too (although upstate New York weather only allows nudity for a few months a year).

Links

In a perfect world, this paragraph and the next would be unneeded, but this is not a perfect world. We live in a society that fears freedom (at least when others exhibit more of it than we feel comfortable doing ourselves). Moreover, our society also is far more accepting of violence than of nudity, both nonsexual and sexual. One sees this on both the left and the right. Consider Bob Dole’s (Republican) praise on 31 May 1995 for True Lies as family fare and his equating films containing sexuality with those containing graphic violence. Consider James Exon’s (Democrat) leading role in censorship of “indecency” on the Internet. Unfortunately, the laws in this country are made by people who are largely anti-nudity.

Note, then, that some of the links in this section may take you to sites that have pictures of nude people. If nudity offends you, then DO NOT FOLLOW THESE LINKS! If you have no problem with nudity (or wish you had none) and can appreciate that nudity is not the same as sexuality, then please follow these links and learn more about nudism and naturism.

Please send any comments or inquiries to

pschult@verizon.net

Last modified
 Monday, December 22, 2008
 1:07 AM EST
  PDS

Copyright ©1989-2008, Pete and Julie Schult.

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Nudism and naturism by Pete Schult is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

PJ 3 Schults' Home Page PJ3 Times Pete Julie June