Nudeyooper - What an insightful post. There is a lot of truth in what you say here. What is needed is creative ways at drawing attention while at the same time providing realistic ways for participation. Lets find a way for others to want to rediscover what we already have.
Another thought that came to me recently. It could help promote and it could bring the law against us.
Most of us have places where we can be nude though not on official nudist or clothing optional territory. I have a preferred beach on Lake Superior and have gotten away without incident at a couple of others. I was the only one there and have shared the location with nobody. The beach is open to the public, but I've never met another person using while nude.
Do we share information on where these places are and if so how? Do we keep them secret so they do not become over crowded or draw attention to law enforcement? Even though laws may be violated by our nudity, do groups of naked people go free because the community allows it and law enforcement has no interest in it unless people are behaving badly?
Though this is speculation on my part, I am assuming that the beaches that have become clothing optional were made that way simply because groups of people took their clothes off and nobody objected. Then when enough people began to use the space, they petitioned the local government or won a court case to designate the area nude legal.
I dont think there is a single general answer as to how nude beaches became nude beaches. Local and state laws as well as local culture come into play as to how accepted it is for a beach to be designated as a nude beach or even quietly used as one. My understanding is that some beaches are in more secluded areas or more laid back culturally and started being used by hippies and others in the 1960s and have been accepted as being nude beaches. However others have been hard fought for by local nudist organizations trying to get a place where they can go while others probably fall into the middle where they have traditionally been nude but as population density increased they had to be fought for to maintain them as being nude.
I think that FullSon's response pretty much covered what I was going to say. I would advise that you make contact with The Naturist Society, because they have people who are expert on this sort of thing. (And you should join them anyway, because you can get discounts on entry fees to many of the resorts and such.)
They had a great article in one of their recent newsletters about how people in Florida legitimatized Haulover Beach as a clothing-optional beach. The organizers used several approaches: legal venues, public campaigns, and community service (they cleaned up the beach, and have been keeping it clean of litter). I heard something else: when they paid for something like groceries or fast food or gas from local businesses, they paid in two-dollar bills (yes, they're still around). When the banks started collecting a lot of these, the businesses realized how much of an impact these nudist customers had on their bottom line.
Of course, a lot of the businesses weren't happy about having to deal with those bills, because their cash drawers weren't segmented to allow for them. But then I remembered that, once upon a time, you used to see quarters painted with pink nail polish from time to time. I found out that these were used in juke-boxes, and were provided by the owners of the devices. When they installed them in a bar or restaurant or whatever, they would give the managers a bunch of these painted quarters. The idea was that the quarters would be used to "prime the pump," so to speak, and encourage patrons to keep the music going with their own quarters. When the coin boxes were emptied, the owners would separate the painted quarters and give them back to the managers, and keep the rest as their profit.
It occurred to me that painting change with nail polish in a similar way would serve the same purpose as those two-dollar bills. You'd use them when you were patronizing businesses in the area of the nudist beach. When the businesses realized how much of their revenue depended on your patronage, they'd be more likely to be on your side when the serious talk about legalization started.
I think we are all missing something here. Our biggest issue is that people in general still have a negative perception of the nude social movement. People have tolerated isolated instances involving nudity largely because they are not ongoing, not an issue that interferes with their lives on a daily basis. They read a news article or view a newscast with indifference because tomorrow, its going to be like it never happened. More often than not, authorities handle it like a low profile incident and react in a manner that provides enough satisfaction of a response that's designed to limit any controversial aspect. Skinny dippers get warned, sometimes blatant offenses are brought to court but overall nothing happens that change anyone's perceptive values. Its a revolving concept all over these United States!
I'm not sure what the solution is in changing the perceptions of nudity, just that what we have been doing is not working. I've been looking at a similar lifestyle phenomenon that's made a drastic change of the publics perception and acceptance: The Gay movement. Remember back in the 80's it was a common belief that Gays are what caused AIDS? In the beginning, you would have been crazy to admit you were gay due to the vile negative judgements that were perpetuated from virtually every other culture or lifestyle out there. But today, it has attained more attention and positive inclusivity than expected. They have hopped aboard the LBGTQ movement and today if you dared treat them like they were back in the 80's, you'd be chastised for it. And now we have all these new types of "gender" labels that's supposed to be respected. Personally I don't understand most of it, but my point here is the Gay movement was able to dig out of a big hole and has at least made enough of a comeback to be considered eligible for the respect of a valid lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of people out there that do not accept Gays in any way, shape, or form. There's still a lot for them to overcome and feel more accepted to the point of feeling safer in general society. So my question here is what happened? When did the tide start to bring about the changes required to carry through the evolving perceptive values among society?
If a concentrated movement like the gay lifestyle, which had a very high negative associative value among the established norms of society, can have a rebirth like this, what's stopping us? At the very least, I think nudism had greater stature in society back in the 80's, and for the most part it still does today. But the lifestyles exist based on different foundational values that society looks at in different ways. Both lifestyles have endured similar struggles relating to sexual perceptions - which neither of them has been able to conquer yet.
We shouldn't be afraid to be who we are. We know that all the fears associated with our lifestyle are not based on truth. In fact all anti-nude laws are reflections of people with a misconstrued understanding of what our own nudity is all about. Its what they "perceive" in their own minds that truly reflect the evil of what it is that they truly fear. Its not us, its them for thinking the way that they do. Does any of this make sense to you?
Yes, it does.
The gay acceptance phenomenon happened because of legal challenges, but I think that the real impetus was seeing people in all walks of life coming out as gay, and gay people being portrayed in the media as being the same as anybody else in their interest in steady relationships and in their not intruding on other people's lives.
And there's the fact that there's a high percentage of gay or bi people around. Estimates are all over the map, but I've heard that 10% is not unrealistic. On the other hand, "public" nudists form a tiny fraction of 1%, and the precise figure is still a mystery since nobody has done a real survey of them, AFAIK. (I'm saying "public" to differentiate them from a greater number of people who go nude in their own homes or with close friends, but don't patronize public beaches or resorts.)
So we don't have a very loud voice in the marketplace of ideas. But, as the Haulover Beach experience showed, maybe there are enough of us to make an economic difference, and to convince people that turning over areas for nudism isn't going to turn their communities into hotbeds of perversion. That's really all we're asking.
Yes, it does.The gay acceptance phenomenon happened because of legal challenges, but I think that the real impetus was seeing people in all walks of life coming out as gay, and gay people being portrayed in the media as being the same as anybody else in their interest in steady relationships and in their not intruding on other people's lives.And there's the fact that there's a high percentage of gay or bi people around. Estimates are all over the map, but I've heard that 10% is not unrealistic. On the other hand, "public" nudists form a tiny fraction of 1%, and the precise figure is still a mystery since nobody has done a real survey of them, AFAIK. (I'm saying "public" to differentiate them from a greater number of people who go nude in their own homes or with close friends, but don't patronize public beaches or resorts.)So we don't have a very loud voice in the marketplace of ideas. But, as the Haulover Beach experience showed, maybe there are enough of us to make an economic difference, and to convince people that turning over areas for nudism isn't going to turn their communities into hotbeds of perversion. That's really all we're asking.
That's is was I was getting at too. The big question is then how do we get enough of us concentrated in one place to make the voice heard? I live in a community of about five thousand with only twenty thousand in the county. We have beaches and national forest land, but I've never come across another who was using them clothes free. The law is not on our side and that may be a factor too.
I have had the same experience you talk of. I like your way of looking for things to promote nudism and hope that your sons will see growth in this area. Being in Florida, I know of no WNBR event. I would love to be in one and enjoy the excitement to not be afraid, but proud. I love riding with no shirt with the air flow and wish I could also remove my shorts.
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