Getting to Know You
Once upon a time I was reading an article about nudity. The author stated one doesnt really know a person until seeing them nude. Being one of my favorite topics, it has stayed with me.
Recently, a nudist asked me what the author meant. Its been years since I read it, so I dont remember the context. Nonetheless, I can come up with two different meanings.
One, when you see a person nude, you get the whole package (not that package). You see may scars and tattoos which you may not have known about. And each has a story. Also, a person's body image issues are exposed, which impact their personality.
Two, a nude person cant hide behind their clothes. In our society a tremendous portion of ones identity is based upon the clothing or uniform they wear. When nude, a person sheds much of the symbolism attached to the clothing or uniform they often wear.
Shedding our clothes does not mean that we automatically become like open books. There is still a lot of mystery to unravel when two strangers are getting to know each other. But if both are naked - they start from a common base. And chances are - through the increased openness that often goes hand-in-hand with nudism - that the efforts of getting to know reaches deeper into the inner soul than it would with the clothes kept on ...
When naked I feel open, exposed, vulnerable, uninhibited and free. I think those feelings make us open in so many ways. To me a nudist has nothing to hide. We are more likely to see the real person. And, without the need for pretence, we are more relaxed.
A person who is willing to show you his naked body is ALREADY more open than one who has not achieved that freedom yet. Nudists are on a different plane of openness than textiles. Not just physically but also emotionally. The person who has already accepted his and others' outer selves is more receptive to accepting his and others inner selves. Those who are more accepting feel the freesom to be more sharing.
It's all a matter of culture to me, culture being the knowledge and practice of adapting to the environment to the extent that is necessary--no more, no less. When it comes to clothing then, there's the notion of being overdressed or underdressed in a particular situation, and to me both would be wrong. Like, I don't see why one should wear any clothes at all at the beach, given that the same culture again would tell us that one should not let loose one's sexual urges in public, while the natural environment at the beach does not call for any cover--so, being nude there is both socially and naturally the exact level of adaptation required. Anything else would be paying tribute to fashion or art or some other kind of public agenda--and that may be regarded as insincere or at least as indirect. On the other hand, going naked to work is still largely considered to be a case of underdressed, and arguably, there are some good natural and social reasons for that. Even though, a company in California has recently questioned this common wisdom:https://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/7154-what-our-office-learned-working-naked-for-one-month-ironically-nsfw- The thing is a level of non-openness or insincerity or even hypocrisy is a necessary element of social adaptation. We can't be telling everybody left, right and centre what we think, as we can't be showing our private parts in much the same way--there are, after all the feelings of others to consider. But given a sufficiently common understanding that a certain level of honesty, down to nudity, is acceptable to all parties concerned, any established thought or dress code can be abandoned. Thus, we do not become open with one another because we've discarded our clothes, rather we have agreed that the level of openness this implies is mutually acceptable and have therefore decided to go bare.
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