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Kevin O's avatar

Thank you for sharing your insights. Like Dave’s (above) I, too, have been thinking about this societal trend and how popularity of social nudity has waned.

Two additional considerations I’d like to share:

1) I think there a confluence of trends. Go with me here for a moment…for a couple decades now, the notion that nudity equates to or leads to sexual deviation has become accepted by a critical mass of the general public. (Thinking about the justifications by zealous politicians who propose and support laws and ordinances banning nudity on public lands). Not only is the acceptance of this notion that nudity and sex are inherently linked very telling in itself (i.e. impact of narratives on social media; an overall rightward drift toward a moralism that harkens back to previous times), but this acceptance engenders a fear akin to “stranger danger.” Seeing a naked person must imply perverse or at least suspicious intentions. Additionally, we begin to swirl in a cycle as people of influence (politicians, “influencers”) make hay for their own ambitions by continually promoting these notions.

2) the pandemic has accelerated antisocial attitudes, suspicions and behaviors. The trends discussed in the post as well as the Atlantic article seem to have not only accelerated by have spawned deep roots.

These are some additional thoughts I wanted to share. Thanks.

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N Workshop Studio's avatar

I'm delighted this article pointed out this 21st-century phenomenon. It's not just social naturism declining; it's all social interaction. I had this same theory a while back. To test the hypothesis, I looked into other organized social activities unrelated to naturism to see if they had similar problems. It seems like it's true. Everything from church membership to bowling leagues to Boy Scout membership is down. So the question is now, why are people not interacting in person like they used to do? I have theories on this, which I'm also currently investigating. Social interaction began trending around 1990, so I'm looking into what was happening then for clues.

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