I recently got my hands on a copy of N 12.1, from fall 1992. It contains a brilliant opinion article by a relatively unknown author, Gene Caywood, about "Changing Culture". The intro to the article shows a quote from Fred Foldvary in N 9.1:
"It's more important to change the culture than to change the law. Judges and legislators will find ways to bend law to their culture, but once the culture is changed, the law will follow or become mute."
Caywood notes that if this statement is true, then naturists may not have their priorities straight. The highest priority should be to change culture's attitude towards the body. This doesn't mean that we should abandon the legal battles. NAC, and AANR when they poke their noses in, should continue to fight the legal battles. Changing attitudes is a much bigger goal that TNS, NEF, and grassroots naturists (like us) should focus on.
It's interesting how Caywood's article has played out over the years. There were a lot of predictions made, and whether he inspired them or not some have come true.
Prediction 1: Periods of culture change happens, like a pendulum, where gains are partially lost until the next swing. In the last century we had the following swings with repression and body freedom: Victorian era, roaring 20's, World War II, hippy 60's, 80's repression in the arts. (Remember this was written in 1992, so that's it.)
It's fair to say that we may have had a body freedom era in the 90's and early 2000's, and we're swinging back to repression as we speak. Caywood's point to drive home is this: "...when the next wave of repression strikes...how will culture have 'permanently' changed? The answer, I believe, lies in how well prepared we are, in how much we influence culture in the meantime." It's too early to tell what permanent changes from the 90's and early 00's will stick through the next wave of repression.
Prediction 2: Caywood very openly talks about the future: "I don't know what it will be, but some event may happen soon which will cause large numbers of people to consider going nude." Let's see -- the World Naked Bike Ride, Freemont Solstice Parade, Bay to Breakers, Burning Man, Spencer Tunick, and varies nude runs seem to satisfy his prediction on a small scale.
What was his point with this prediction? He continues: "Whatever it is, I believe Naturists ought to be prepared for an onslaught of interest. When it comes, the tendency will be to relax and say: 'Look at all these nude people. We've succeeded!' But we won't have succeeded unless and until they are not just participants, but educated participants. Otherwise, it will just be a passing fad..." In my opinion, TNS and AANR have failed to grab the naked people mentioned in the events above. Although a lot of naturists participate, a vast majority of the participants are not naturists. TNS and AANR have not been targeting these people as well as they could be.
Caywood predicts an "onslaught of interest", which I believe may never happen in the way he hopes. An onslaught is initiated whenever something bad happens in relation (no matter how weak) to a naturist resort, for example the recent FBI investigation of Jasmine Trail. There's also an onslaught of interest from people cruising porn. Both of these work against us. When people strip at the events listed above (2 paragraphs above), they get a taste of the naturist lifestyle but do not make any sort of connection with the naturist communication channels. They are just part of a passing fad.
Prediction 3: Caywood liked the idea of naturists speaking at classes, and recommended: "The Naturist Action Committee should coordinate the establishment of such classes in at least the top 200 metropolitan areas of the country. They should publish materials to train prospective class leaders as well as for distribution to class attendees. Obviously the national NAC cannot go around teaching all these classes...they must organize local NAC's..."
The NAC has branched out in to NACAR's (Area Reps.), the NEF (Naturist Education), and NEFAR's. They haven't quite achieved their 200 metropolitan areas. The NEF provides educational materials, including the often-cited Roper poll. They have a few other projects, publications, and videos. What's usually handed out at classes (the few that representatives speak at) is N magazine. From Caywood's prediction, the NEF still has a long way to go!
Prediction 4: Caywood's next suggestion is to "establish a marketing campaign. This should be done with the ASA [now AANR]. Nudists badly need a nationwide media campaign aimed at changing their public image."
This had been happening for 18 years already by the time the article was published. TNS established "Nude Recreation Week" (NRW) initially on their own, and AANR eventually joined in (not sure when exactly). The idea was to promote nude recreation with a new theme every year, and offer this to the press. In recent years, AANR started claiming this event as their own, to the extent of modifying the TNS-designed logo (against their wishes) to proudly show AANR instead. AANR broke away from NRW this year [2009], and did their own thing with a Skinny-Dip world record. They did not invite TNS to help out, despite it clearly being TNS's domain. It's often been said that TNS and AANR should work together with their advertising campaigns, and I completely agree. TNS is always open to collaboration -- it's AANR that thinks they are better on their own. They could be right, and they've gotten a lot of success on their own thus far, but I've proven before that if they achieve a monopoly it will be bad for naturism as a whole.
Was NRW the type of nationwide media campaign that Caywood wanted to see? Maybe not. He should've been more specific in his article.
It is my opinion that a simple nationwide media campaign can't solve the problems of naturism. It's well beyond what the organizations can afford. There is a more targeted media campaign that I mention later which should be utilized.
Prediction 5: This is a big one from Caywood: "Hit and run guerrilla tactics. Naturists should realize that we are in a war against our culture. [These tactics] can and should be adopted by Naturists. Under the coordination of NAC, local naturist groups should organize hit and run nude teams." He then details that teams of at least 2 men and 1 woman should do guerrilla warfare weekly. They would engage in brief nudity, looking normal except for their dress. This would desensitize people to nudity, in a way that is too quick (30 seconds to 2 minutes) to call the cops about. The goal is to not be arrested as this would cast negative publicity. Instead the events should desensitize and plant the seed in peoples minds to try it sometime.
The NAC has never gone in this direction. Instead, a man named Mark Storey has attempted to fill the gap. (OK, so he's one of several.) In 1996 he was running through Martin Luther King Jr.'s and John Rawls's checklist on civil disobedience and if it was appropriate for naturism. In 2001, him and others (Daniel Johnson (activist), Shirley Gauthier (from AANR)) formed the Body Freedom Collaborative, which promised things similar to what Caywood was hoping for. They got front page exposure in 2003. He wrote a few essays on the topic, the latest of which is 2004.
In 2004, Mark stated that "The future of naturism is on public lands. To gain naturist freedoms on public lands will require getting naked in public." The BFC site was last updated on August 03, 2007. In Spring of 2008, N (27.3) featured an article from Michael Cooney stating that "The future of naturism may be in the backyard." Mark seemed to second this in his N 28.4 editorial, "Getting Back to the Naturist Future." He describes a future where people safely hide in their backyard, or secure privacy in public venues, or stay far off the beaten path in parks out West (like he does) all the while public beaches are eventually inevitably closed. [UPDATE: I have a published response to this in N 29.2.]
The latest several issues of N lack any serious naturist activism outside of traditional or privatized places. In the latest (29.1), Mark Story is relaxing at a hot spring with just his wife, and Daniel Johnson is seen making compost tea and gardening. They are both also seen at a private skate party, secluded from the public. What happened? When did their primary goal go from changing culture to avoiding it in favor of personal happiness? It seems that the promising activists of the previous decade have turned into softies within the last couple of years.
Correction: Daniel Johnson helps to organize the WNBR in Seattle and other places each year, and is a main contributor to the whole WNBR event. Good for him! He's exempt from being a softie, as long as the event keeps growing and he keeps his page and wiki up-to-date. The event still seems fairly disconnected with naturism, but that might be a good thing.
Modern times have made the activism of yesteryear more risky. Everyone carries a cell phone, with a good camera and always-on connectivity built in. Being naked for 10 second in public is enough time for a picture to be snapped and sent to police. And if you succeed a couple times, the police and news agencies become willing to launch a full-on sting operation to catch you. Caywood's suggestion was under the assumption that activists would not get arrested. Now, it's likely to happen, so the hit-and-run nude teams are increasingly out of the question. We need new tactics!
We're still at war with culture. The big-names had a great thing going initially, but things have fizzled. That leaves us, the grassroots naturists, to do what we can. This is my list of ideas and ideals for cultural warfare.
--Psychological Warfare--
What people think about us is important. It doesn't matter how many laws we can fight, or how many beaches we can designate as clothing-optional, or how many resorts we have. If the general public doesn't like us, we have a tough road ahead. (Currently, they don't like us.) I believe that the primary reason that people don't like us is because they don't understand us, followed by the opinion that we are a rare group. The solution is to educate. We need to show that there are a lot of us, that nudity itself isn't bad, and that we are good people just like them.
Make it an everyday thing. One of the big problems we have is that we try to keep our naturism secret. In general, any secret means you've done something wrong. The mere act of keeping naturism a secret implies that it's wrong. The best thing to do is treat it like an everyday thing. If you treat it like no big deal, others will eventually think that it's no big deal.
Be a tourist. If you're at an information booth, ask if there are any naturist opportunities in the area such as beaches or resorts. You'll probably get an "I don't know", which is a good time to explain the correct answer. (Or you'll get an answer about parks, in which case you describe the difference between naturist and naturalist.)
Make it seem like we are everywhere. The problem right now is that people think nudists stay in little colonies. They think there's maybe a couple hundred of us in the country. If people see one thing related to naturism every day, they'll think it's a common thing. We may be a minority, but if we each hold up a couple dummies we may give the impression that we're not. Be vocal and be everywhere.
Establish new sites. If a piece of public land is great for clothing-optional use, and it's technically legal to use it, make it known. Make it sound like it's been used forever by lots of people for such a purpose. (See Geocache below for an example.)
Be more generous, friendly, and a better person than others. Get people to really like you. They will make a positive connection that naturists are good people.
Make it known that you are a naturist. The easiest way is to wear a naturist-related shirt. There are hundreds to choose from at zazzle (do some searches), and most resorts sell some too. (I like my brown nude beaches style tshirt, and my girlfriend likes her Adam and Eve and Rags shirts.)
Go naked by wearing clothes. What am I talking about? Clearly you've never seen david shorts (please don't get the XXL version). They look fairly real at first glance. For shirts they have a fake chest, hairy chest, and bra top. A better guys one is here. I haven't seen any good tops or bottoms for ladies, so post in the comments if you know of any. There's also the classic naked suit. Either way, you get the idea.
Challenge social norms by wearing less. (This is suggested as part of Caywood's strategy.) It really doesn't take much fabric for men and women to be legally covered. During summer, wear a little bit less than everyone else does. This will slowly adjust what people consider normal. Or, you can just wear the bare minimum. Morley Schloss is great at that -- the most I've ever seen him wear is a pair of shorts. During our week at Eastover, he was nude the entire time. After we left, we saw him at one of the service stations in New York. He was waiting in the parking lot and was only wearing some gold colored underwear. I'm a naturist, and he was even challenging my social norms!
Secure the area. When we freehike, we post very informative signs at the trailheads. This allows us to hike naked safely on trails that may see a few other visitors. After thinking about this, I've considered securing an area but not actually going naked on it. (Call it an experiment.) How would people react if it were a busier trail? Or a secluded park? Would people try the radios to make us get dressed? If not, we may be clear to freehike some much busier trails using this method. No matter if naked people are seen or not, the sign still plants the seed of naturism and makes them consider if they would actually be offended by simple locker-room style nudity.
Geocache -- it's a fun sport! Geocaches are hidden containers all around the world. The website gives the coordinates, and you go find them. Some are in the middle of little-used public lands, so finding them naked is possible if you're safe. We've done this naked, and logged it. If you find a cache naked, make use of it by educating and promoting naturism.
--Propaganda--
Follow the church. Want to know how sailboat racers win the race? They play monkey see monkey do. The wind is always the same between boats, so copying the sail position will ensure that both travel at the same speed. The person in first place almost always copies the person in second place to ensure that the person in second can't get ahead. While naturism isn't quite like sailboat racing, and the church is in first place for influencing culture, copying what the church does will at least ensure that we are not left behind. Their methods have been thriving for centuries, so they must be doing something right.
Advertise everywhere. The church is quite good at this. There are a lot of places where businesses and people can advertise. Although most billboards and TV channels are fairly expensive, there are other options. Be creative. Advertising in the middle of the night on lesser known stations is cheap. Billboards in the country are cheap. Radio advertising, depending on the station, can be cheap. Participating in conventions and expos often includes advertising. Sell stuff at flea markets. If your resort has a community garden, sell stuff at farmers markets. Classified ads are cheap and can say just about anything, as long as you blend in with the section your targeting. "Nude resort seeking game coordinator" might raise a few eyebrows, too bad the position was filled already. Advertise events and fundraisers in public places. If you find an opportunity to advertise, do it! By staying quiet, people will think we don't exist. If you see a church advertisement, consider it a challenge to put yours there too.
Follow up on issues. This one is Caywood's suggestion. An example is if top-freedom is legally granted in a state, run an advertisement in that state's paper to make people aware and to let people connect to exercise their right. If the arts challenge some body freedom issue, run a promotion in an arts magazine. Caywood also suggests to target any possible special interest magazine that can be related to naturism. We could do some great advertising during bikini-buying season, and we could promote cheap (or free) nude recreation during the recession.
Leaflets are often used by the church. They hand them out to everyone, and leave them everywhere in public. Driving back from Eastover, several of the service stations had religious leaflets left in every stall. I would do the same thing with TNS leaflets, but they always seem to contain nudity (this year including kids). We need to print leaflets that won't get us in trouble so we can leave them in places where we find religious ones. We can preach naturism without showing naked people.
More custom leaflets, specially crafted to be slightly shorter than normal ones and blend in with the surroundings. Why? So we can slip them randomly into the big tourist information racks. Tourists should learn about all of the area attractions, including naturist ones! The slightly shorter design will make it difficult to remove by workers.
Litter. Most people ignore it, but not all. Dropping a leaflet in a random place will probably be found by someone. Targeting an adopt-a-highway section of road is a better idea since the sign shows who cleans up that section of road. If you think they need to see a leaflet, drop one. It's typical that people in the cleanup crew will show it to the group. Note that littering is illegal in most places, so I'm not advocating it. See the next entry.
Earth-friendly litter. Dropping a leaf can't be illegal, because trees drop them all the time. So stamp a message on them and have fun. If it's winter, you can stamp or write messages in the snow.
Make videos. YouTube and similar sites are in need of videos that promote naturism! If you have a cheap camera and some software for editing, you have all you need to make a good video. Content is the only tricky part, but remember that you can promote naturism without showing actual nudity.
Make the news. It's a free form of advertising, so it's worth trying. However, make SURE that it will be a positive article on naturism otherwise it could be very destructive instead. We put in a plug for naturism recently.
Make a donation. Donating to local projects allow you to "buy a brick" or "buy a step" with a name or message on it. Donating to an event gives you advertising space. Donating to the local nursing home, animal shelter, or other community establishment usually buys permanent recognition of some sort. And what should that recognition say? Make it generic like "area naturists" or a local nudist club name.
--Money--
The church has an advantage. They pressure all members to donate a small amount every week, and it adds up to be quite a bit of money! This is how they can afford all the advertising. There are ways that naturists can raise money. One way is to just ask for it by using a sign explaining where the money is going and a bucket for donations. (I'm amazed at how few places do this.) Another way is to ask to round up payments, with the extra going to the bucket. Internal fundraisers can work, but funding from the outside will be much more rewarding.
Put your clothes on. There aren't many ways to make money naked, unless you are a model. This helps with other forms of public relations as well, and leads me to my next point.
Fundraisers, which I've written about before. Having a fundraiser in a community building or public area is a great way for non-naturists to meet you and learn more about what goes on in those secluded acres. Around here, it's common to see small groups with a brat stand. It's also common for fire departments and churches to have spaghetti suppers, chicken-Q's, and pancake breakfasts. Why can't naturists put these on too? (They don't have to be at the resort either.) Once a year, have people donate extra stuff to a garage sale fundraiser. This garage sale can be advertised in the local paper.
--The Mighty Pen--
Help NAC. If they call for naturists to write letters, do it! You can always do this on your own as well, if there is an issue that you are concerned about.
Restrictive covenants. They may not be useful often, but over time they could have an impact. If every naturist puts a restrictive covenant on their property that states that the owner must be OK with neighborhood nudity, we'd eventually weave together legal clothing-optional neighborhoods. At one parcel of land that I looked at, the covenant said I couldn't build a pig farm or have a junkyard. I believe neighbors are able to place restrictive covenants on land if they all agree on the issue, which I think happened in this case.
Snail mail things to key people. Freelance writers, comic authors, and other people in the media are always looking for ideas. Why not spark a few by mailing a naturist magazine or brochure to them? If government officials or reporters don't understand naturism, mail some information to them. If you can think of someone who should really read a piece of naturist material, why not make sure that it happens? I've seen several comics in the paper that deal with nudity, an episode of Monk where he's at a nude beach, a Nude Beach beer, commercials, and a lot of other random nudist-related blurbs in the media. Spark more if you can!
Graffiti. Another illegal item, but less so if you use washable markers or chalk so it doesn't cause damage. Write your favorite quotes along the sidewalk in chalk. Or, write them in washable marker in the bathroom. Both will last until they get washed. The goal for any graffiti is to put out a short message that challenges the common misconceptions. People might be bothered by graffiti, but they'll still ponder the message that it says.
Reverse-graffiti. Also known as cleaning. This works very well in dirty places, and I can't see how it would be illegal.
Steganograffiti. A term that only I seem to be using (since around 2002). It means to do graffiti in a steganographic way, where the message is hidden in plain sight. One classic MIT prank was done this way, and the police didn't spot it. My hometown has a pedestrian road sign where the person is walking a snail -- it's been there for years, and people I asked who drive by regularly have never noticed it. Related to naturism, a brilliant idea that was implemented during election time was the Nude Beaches Yes! campaign. They put out political-poster-lookalikes that blended in well but still managed to catch attention. The goal for this method is to not be noticed for the most part, because then it'll last for a long time. Some people will eventually find it and admire the cleverness of it.
--Armchair Warfare--
For those nudists who avoid clothing at all costs, or that want to stay anonymous. These things can be done from the comfort of your armchair.
Contribute to wikis. Do you know something that wikipedia doesn't? Add it. There are some sites for how-to's, add how to do things as a naturist. (For example, "How to cook bacon as a naturist" would be a good one.) Some sites are question and answer, go in and answer things as a naturist (body issue questions, bathing suit questions, etc.) Some travel wiki's are popular too, so add your favorite naturist destinations. Here's a big list of wikis, many of which are severely lacking in the naturist department.
Make naturism known on the social webs. Add events to facebook and myspace, join groups related to naturism, post your wonderful travel to clothing-optional destinations. OK, so this one isn't for the people who want to stay anonymous, unless they create a new anonymous account to do this with. (I'm an active member in a few different community forums.)
Leave comments. Post feedback to articles that are bad for naturism, and praise good ones. Reporters don't often get it right. If you correct them, there is a chance that they will get it right next time.
Leave unexpected comments. If you can wedge in a reference to naturism, do it! I'm guilty of doing this on occasion. Recently, the Worldchanging blog asked for lurkers to introduce themselves. I did, and included that the naturist lifestyle is very green and that we're talking about it at the gatherings. (I also recently posted here, and put in a suggestion for Cap d'Agde.) News stories about bathing suits, swimming, body issues, hot weather, public lands, and anything else we can relate to are fair game.
Link warfare. Search engines are all different, and it's everyone's goal to be at the top of the rankings. Google uses a PangeRank technology. A page's rank is calculated by how many other sites link to it, and the rank of the other sites. To get a good rank, you should link to yourself from popular site (like wikipedia) and have all of your friends linking to you as well. It's best to put all of your favorite links on every page of your site. Bing, Microsoft's answer to Google, uses a RankNet technology. People enter a search term, and click on what they are looking for. These two actions train a neural net that bumps those results to the top. (details) To get a good ranking, keep searching for yourself and clicking on your site.
Add naturist places to maps. There are plenty of map mashups out there, including adding things to google's own maps. People should know where they can go for clothing-optional recreation, right?
Any site with user-submitted content can advertise naturism for us. The more we add, the better.
--The Goal--
If we can bend culture, then culture will bend the laws in our favor. We can't change culture by staying quiet. We need to be vocal, visible, and maybe even a little pushy. But, we need to be careful -- we can't get arrested or cast naturism in a negative light. The activists of yesteryear are slowing, and it seems to be our turn to lead the fight. We're all in this together. What will you do to help out?
22 comments:
Great article! You brought up plenty of good points and presented a lot of good ideas.
I agree about changing the culture. Cultural change will bring about legal changes.
Have you read Sun Tzu, by any chance?
Wow! I just read the entire post, but it needs to re-read over and over again until my brain absorbs it all and I start acting on it's advice. I expect that, over the coming days and months, this piece will be cited as a must-read combination of treaty, suggestions, and manifesto. Well written! I'd love to read the original article in it's entirety.
This is the best article I've read in a long time... on ANY subject. A lot of people are good at pointing out problems in the world, but seldom give any solutions. This article states the problem and gives plenty of methods for solutions!
Exactly right - great article! Thanks.
Ken
(See my blog as well at http://kenfreehiker.blogspot.com/ )
Brilliant post! I would have left out graffiti and littering, but otherwise you have pretty comprehensively listed out options. I'm going to try to direct traffic to this post.
Excellent article. Though we don't have the exact same legal situation regarding nudity here in Sweden I will definitely keep these things in mind when trying to promote naturism. Thanks!
My future projects so far is to design some swedish pro-nude T-shirts on Spreadshirt.com and to arrange a try-nude-thing at an annual event in my town. My idea is to set up a tent, or something else barring direct public view, and setting up a portable sauna and wooden hot-tub there. The event is well organized but the feel is spontanous so hopefully people will try it. A bit like the Citizen Janes did when FNC celebrated 90 year (http://www.citizenjanesproductions.com/2009/08/13/kaitlin-goes-buck-for-all-us-canucks/), just a bit less solitary.
Anyway, well done!
Encouraging graffiti and litter is irresponsible, and undermines your whole point about improving public attitudes toward naturists.
Besides, as naturists, shouldn't we be showing respect for nature?
Wow!! I really didn't expect that much feedback so quickly!
I'm always a little nervous when I post edgy stuff, so it's quite a relief that I'm getting good feedback from this one!
@Rick - Not personally, but I've had the "executive summary" from someone who has. There are some great concepts that I probably should've included.
@DocBrown - Thanks! Ask around, I'm sure some older TNS members would still have it.
@Logan - That's my belief. If you don't have a solution, then what's the point? When is pointing out a problem ever useful, especially when everyone already knows?
@Anders - Lucky... Wish I could live in Sweden... What Citizen Janes did was brilliant, and I wish you luck with what you're doing also!
@Delfin, Andere -
Graffiti is an option, though I'm sure most won't do it. It seems to have an impact, given that there are some websites devoted to it (graffitiproject.com, thewritingsonthestall.com) and even a book (see itsallinthehead.com).
As for littering... Statistically, it's one of the smallest environmental issues out there. People make a huge deal out of it. Think of how much fuel is burned to transport garbage to a landfill, and to transport people to pick up litter. What's best for the environment is to have a trash heap in our backyard. The Native American Indians do this on land they don't consider sacred (roadways, for example), and they have a much higher regard for the environment than most people.
I'm not talking about filling the streets with graffiti and litter. I recommend temporary (washable) methods of graffiti, and targeted litter that will eventually be picked up. Or biodegradable litter, in the case of stamping leaves. I list friendly solutions too.
I see your point, but I think it's a small concern in comparison. Remember what the title of the post is.
If I get enough flak, I'll seriously consider removing those sections, or at least push more towards the friendly solutions.
Great article, I am starting to get active in promoting body acceptance again and just revived http://shamebreakers.com still need to get a few things active on it including the petition and t-shirts. On my site I'm really emphasizing our beliefs about the body and sexuality over just nudity per say. For me beliefs about the body are FAR more important than nudity, of course if beliefs about the body are accepting, positive, and healthy nudity will be accepted as well.
I agree with much much of what you say, it is culture and cultural beliefs about the body that need to change, and beliefs are formed when we are very young. Thus one of my goals with my site is to hopefully start networking with and getting support from professionals such as family therapists, child psychologists and others. I believe that Holland went from conservative to progressive rather quickly largely due to the leading of respected professionals speaking out and I wish I had a degree myself.
I also believe much more needs to be done to promote body acceptance in the media. What if instead of having people on Capital Hill AANR and TNS had people in Hollywood? I think working online can be very effective.
Very intrigued by the concept of guerrilla naturism. I suppose I have actually practiced this I have done numerous nude hikes in national forests and other public lands and also did Bare to Breakers in San Fran. I once belonged to a group known as The Camping Bares of San Diego and as a member went with this group to many clothing optional camp outs on public lands as well as nude canoe outings, canuding we called it. Anyway is this dead? I still hike nude on public lands and now that I have moved to a more remote area I no longer encounter many other hikers though in the past I did. I used to enjoy reading the postings of Mark Storey on hiking in the Cascades and thought that I was entering the meca of nude hiking but in my part of the state I have seen very little other nude hikers. Perhaps it is becoming too risky for others. I belong to a club out in the woods surrounded by forest and some of the members have taken to carrying clothes while hiking the trails outside the boundarys of the club I still refuse to do this as I feel the only way to get a good nue hike in is to carry nothing at all. Oh well maybe I am just too old to care. Any how keep up the good work I truely enjoyed the article and it got me thinking of ways to demonstrate my love of nudism. I have the T-shirts need towear tehm more often and get a nude bumper sticker or license plate cover.
Lot's of good ideas there, if it works for the gay rights movement then why not for Naturists!
I'm a bit late posting this comment, I know.
I have just taken up the post of Public Relations Officer for British Naturism and can only say thanks for writing an operating manual for me!
I might avoid some of the more extreme techniques, but you have given me so much to think about...
Thank you.
@Brian -- Congrats on the new position! And good luck swaying the public towards naturism -- I'm delighted that I've been an inspiration!
Close to being graffitti, I might suggest the use of computer screen savers. I have one that is a slideshow of naked adults in artistic poses or activities. No sexuality, no kids, no direct genital shots, no social nudity. Photos just celebrating the beauty of the human form. Its just "beautiful" pictures of naked humans. Nothing to take offense at, but makes nudity "OK" They're beautiful arn't they?
Its a conversation starter that you can take as far or as little as the situation warrents. Its all very neutral. God made the human form beautiful, don't you think.
If you see a religious leaflet left somewhere, remove it if its an anti-nudity religion!
After reading I trash the Jehovah's Witnesses pamphlets I find because their religion seems anti-nudity.
Your leaf idea is great. I will now put a marker in my pocket & write stuff such as www.tera.ca on some leafs.
Here's another idea:
Buy cheap flash drives and put mostly normal stuff on them and some quality nudist or topfree material.
Sometimes I don't name the file correctly because if the person who finds the flash drive is against body freedom or uninterested they won't open the file. Also keep nude photos minimal/discreet because this could alienate the finder (have to get them curious about the subject first).
The reason to put mostly normal stuff on the flash drive is because if there is too much nudist stuff they will know someone left it on purpose to advance their agenda. This is also the reason to leave it at a place where it looks like it was left by accident.
2 more ideas:
Write in the dirt stuff like aanr.com or www.tera.ca
Someone might come by & see it; perhaps they will be curious enough to type it into their computer when they get home!
Also write these same things on $.
Since writing on $ is sort of bad I make sure & have a sharp pencil or pen so I can write it really small.
I write these web addresses by the design part of the dollars & real small so it won't "stick out"
It needs to be kept SMALL otherwise it would be like defacing the money (and i don't want to make nudists & topfree equality look bad)
Eventually someone with the dollar will be curious enough to type the URL into a computer.
ALL nudists should be doing these ideas!
More advice is support groups who tend to support exposed skin & oppose groups who tend to not like nudity. In America the groups who usually oppose nudity are Christians. The groups that tend to support nudity are atheists and gays.
An often overlooked way of promoting clothes-freedom is through MUSIC. Some songs encourage lack of clothes. All I know is Hot in Herre & Drop It Like It's Hot but theres a lot more. If you own a store or some place where the public comes, play songs that say stuff about lack of clothes. Some songs are rap so depending on the place you might want to have several speakers throughout the area & only have it on 1 or 2 speakers.
Maybe on a nudist site somewhere there is a list of songs that encourage nudity
Another song that encourages nudity is Take It Off by Kesha. Like many songs the video part should NOT be shown since they don't remove their underclothes, implying that people should just get mostly naked.
One way to raise awareness in densely populated areas is by giving free wireless internet! Get high speed internet and buy a fast LONG-range wireless router. Keep it unlocked so everyone for a long way around can use it. The thing is when people connect to your wireless router make sure a convincing nudist webpage shows up on their screen first. 2 convincing pages are the equality petition (more convincing if they would get rid of Raelian reference) and tera. (I can't think of any more.) A lot of places that have Wi-Fi direct the user to their page first & make them log in; we can direct them to a page about nudism or topfree equality & then from there they can go to whatever site they want for free. Free internet also tells the user that this person whose connection i'm using is courteous & so therefore nudists or topfree equality people must be caring people.
Please tell other like-minded people who have super fast internet about this idea. Even if they're not experienced enough to make a webpage show up when someone connects, they can still rename their connection to a nudist-related name or site. This is a time-sensitive idea—as more people like me get 3G 4G combos or buy it built-in they won't use public wi-fi as much.
One thing I do is write web addresses on rocks. When i'm out hiking I have a permanent marker & when no ones around I pick up a rock & write www.tera.ca on it & put it in an offset spot spaced maybe 160 yards apart depending on the wilderness & terrain. Since I don't want people to associate graffiti with nudists or topfree advocates I choose rocks that are only up to several inches big. Also, besides dropping a leaf every so often I write on living leafs sometimes, especially if its a weed since people would not mind if there's size 15 font on weed leafs.
Another way to gradually convince Americans that naked is ok is through movies. Americans love movies! This method works best if you have access to a screen where there's lots of people traffic. A lot of movies have nudity, but unfortunately many are like American Pie & associate nudity with sex. Two movies that say about swimming naked are Alice in Wonderland (2010) & Transformers 2. Avatar probably helps, but it implies that women need to cover their breasts, so I wouldn’t show it much.
One thing I always keep in mind is just be an activist at the right place & time, don't be an extremist. An extremist makes a bad impression towards nudism &/or topfreedom.
My final idea is to make prints of all the ideas on this page & give a copy to activist-type people the next time you visit a nudist resort.
Great article. Would you grant me the permission to translate the 2nd half in French, for my naturist web magazine? The first part is too US specific, but the rest is excellent inspirational material.
@Philippe - Go for it.
Thanks!
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