Materialism

Some folks get wrapped up in words and dupe themselves or others into thinking that nudism/naturism is something difficult to defend. Sometimes language simply gets in the way, traps us, or fails to cut through opponents' frame of mind. We naturists/nudistswho haven't done so alreadymight try shaking off the conditioning imposed on us through language and adopt language that helps us regain the upper hand.

In my mind and experience, it's not nudism v textilism, it's nudism v materialism. I see those addicted to clothes (closet nudists) not as threats but those who simply need (and usually appreciate) a little illumination and freedom to celebrate themselves and not have others dictate how they should hide. Textiles is a polarizing term; while materialism, which includes but is not limited to clothing, is something that many nudists, many of those in communities of faith, and a majority of folks in general society reject at least in theory.

We naturists have also been conditioned to daemonize sex, which even people of faith celebrate as the only means to produce progeny. Most people of faith just get hysterical about sex when not practised responsibly and soberly or engaged in reckless and unhealthy ways (producing unwanted children or in ways that cause physical/emotional/psychological/spiritual harm. We should embrace the natural beauty and attraction that nudism offers us without all the superficial materialism some are conditioned into thinking is sexy (clothes and other objects that usually falsely represent wealth, social status) what makes folks attractive: healthy bodies and minds.

The health benefits of nudism/naturism also get marginalized in many societies in which we get conditioned by mass media screaming at us from all directions that we're simply consumers who must ingest a lot of artificial things substances of ways of thinking to be healthy, normal, happy and to best express ourselves and connect with others.

Naturism reconnects us with the natural world and allows us to experience great joy and happiness. Materialistic folks try in vain to find happiness in matrial thing devoid of life and feeling.

When I tell folks that as a naturist/nudist I'm just extremely non-materialistic, I usually take the upper hand in conversations and put them in position of having to question for themselves obsessions with clothing that's not used for protection. It's long passed time that we retake the upper hand in these conversations if we're going to have a clothing optional society where the corporatisns that profit from clothing get to dominate the conversations and use consumers money to lobby for laws that destroy our freedoms.

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