Act Naturally

Have you ever noticed how quickly and organically trends seem to catch on? Initially there are only a handful of people doing something. The next thing you know, everyone seems to be following suit. Trends can just as rapidly die out if nobody is seen participating. Clandestine behaviour is only going to cause naturism to further fade into oblivion.

Growing up in NZ during the seventies, it wasn’t uncommon to see people skinny dipping in streams, or sun baking sans bathers at the far end of a beach. Even on many of the great tracks in more recent times, it isn’t completely out of the ordinary to see people skinny dipping in a lake or stream.

Despite it not being illegal to be naked in NZ, you don’t commonly see people exercising this right even though they could be. Like a handful of similar jurisdictions, so long as you’re not performing a lewd or offensive act, you’re unlikely to be pursued by the law.

Skinny dipping is a highly relatable activity that rarely draws anyone’s attention when done respectfully. IE: Away from the main throng of people or an unoccupied part of a stream. My lived experience over the last few years is that people fail to notice or simply leave you to it and mind their own business.

It’s on this basis that I do take full advantage of this situation and skinny dip at public beaches when I can. In a lot of instances, during work days, early evenings when the tide is right, it’s even possible to have the whole beach to yourself. An unoccupied beach is essentially a clothing-optional beach when you genuinely don’t have anything to hide.

My personal perception is that over the years, naturism has tended to be a somewhat clandestine activity, that hasn’t exactly done much for its reputation. I’ve seen a great deal of commentary about how acceptable it should be; how accepting the general public should be of it. In spite of this, it’s always been something done in far-flung places often behind closed gates and high fences. It’s not overly surprising that uninformed people have their suspicions about what goes on.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that a big mind shift needs to take place. We all need to stop assuming that others find nudity offensive. Even if there are laws asserting so.

As a society if we truly believed the human form was offensive, we sure have a bizarre way of practising this, given popular swimwear fashions are increasingly covering less. Similarly statues throughout our metropolitan areas often depict the naked human form.

I think irrespective of this, if we who support body freedom don’t act naturally in environments where nudity should be perfectly reasonable, there’s little hope that it will ever continue to catch on in any meaningful way.

If we truly haven’t got anything to hide, let’s start acting more naturally where and when we can. If people can’t see others redefining boundaries, the boundaries never get redefined.