Regarding places to go naked, a lot depends on where you live. To my recollection, Arkansas is the only State that outlaws nudity anywhere in public, but Wisconsin may be coming close. In general, U.S. National Forests don't prohibit nudity, except in developed campgrounds or if local laws apply. The forests are great places for hiking. Get in touch with the closest NF office for details. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may be even less restrictive.
In general, any place on public land not usually visited by the general public is a possibility, especially places with water - hot springs and the shores of lakes, ponds, and rivers - unless local laws apply. In rural areas, you can check with the owners of private land - farms, ranches, etc. - for permission to use their land, although they might be concerned about legal liability. Some owners of private land may even allow camping if they trust your group to behave responsibly. Small, privately owned campgrounds are another possibility for a group of people. There are many books and online resources that list "swimming holes" and may indicate where nudity is tolerated. I'd say you have an excellent chance of finding something if you do enough research.
Southern California is a big place. I'm not very familiar with it, but the trail to Deep Creek Hot Springs and the springs itself is clothing-optional. Fred Heiser, who writes for The Naturism Community, often writes about other places in the area, such as Joshua Tree NP and the Angeles NF. I think that further south in the Anza-Borrego SP there's plenty of space for naked hiking.
The problem in naturism is the gap. A cohort of naturists went through through a particular time period. They were happy with the legal situation. They got to go to their clubs and be naked and that's all they wanted. They were just insecure enough they didn't want to rock the boat. These people were culturally conservative because the larger society looked askance on their "colonies" and wouldn't tolerate anything else.
The children were not always involved because children are the third rail of nudism. More often than not, the kids were kept in the dark, either because parents hadn't fully incorporated the nudist ideal or for security purposes.
There people grew older and didn't do any outreach because they didn't see nudism as a movement. They saw it as a raft in a dangerous sea. Bringing in more people might upset the raft. Then as they continued to age, young people became inherently suspicious. Young people don't share the same values. They play loud obnoxious music, imbibe larger quantities of intoxicants, and (horrors!) flirt. Troublemakers and rebellious anarchists wouldn't be tolerated.
TNS' efforts failed miserably. Today, most nudies are simply too old to outreach to young people. (At best we are old fogies pretending we can think young. We don't.) There is a 30 year gap of failure to be inclusive and do outreach. Twenty somethings don't want to hang out with their parents and grandparents. The next generation of nudies is small.
College campuses are the best place to go and we need young people to go there. (As if there were a "we" to do it. There isn't) It is the only place with high concentrations of young adults with open minds.
My assumption is that the number of "young" people (say between 18 and 39, inclusive) who for some reason are interested in naturist social nudity and willing to put in some effort to promote it is relatively small - but nonzero. Taking meaningful action to promote naturism to other young people is on their shoulders.
If you agree there are such people and some do take action, then if they don't find any other young people who are interested it must be that their efforts are totally ineffective. Only if there are no young people willing and able to take effective action will your assumption be correct.
Do you seriously believe that? If you don't believe that, then for every effective action taken by one of these people there will be x additional young naturists, where x = number of young people persuaded by a young naturist to participate in naturism themselves. Also, if a naturist of any age persuades a young person (a family member for example) to participate in naturism, then there will be more young naturists who may also be persuaders.
I'm saying that there is little effective action taken. Nudist parents did not raise nudist children. For a long time, nudist young people really weren't welcomed because the resorts were - and some still are - dominated by people hostile to "youth" culture. Combined, that created a huge deficit in the proportion of young nudists to the point where TNS couldn't even keep a Young Naturists group alive.
And... there are few persuaders. Ninety+ percent of the nudist population is living in a closet. Most blogs advocating for nudism are only read by nudists. The US has not evolved to the state where being a public nudist to one's friends and family is a low enough risk for most people. We have a lot more evolution to go before that's viable.
"Most blogs advocating for nudism are only read by nudists."
This is true. I'm always surprised when certain bloggers keep listing the good things about naturism. They're usually right, but just preaching to the choir. It would be much more useful to develop new ideas for promoting naturism.
Do you think promoting naturism is worthwhile at all? Just asking.
The best way to promote nudism is to be a good person who just happens to be a nudist and neither hide the fact nor be evangelical about it. Social conditions in many areas still make this a risky enterprise. My first suggestion is to be somewhere that is at least moderately nude tolerant.
People who promote the "only enemy is your own fear" line of thinking don't get what it is to live in a place where being a public nudist can cost you your job, get your kids ridiculed and put you at risk for a visit from the local children's welfare investigators.
The people one needs to promote nudism to aren't nudists. It is people NOT in nudism who might be curious. Or at least tolerant enough to hear your piece without screaming, "But what about the children!" It occurs to me that the best possible place for organized outreach would be college campuses.
I saw a video about a BN guy whose sole job was to go around campuses during their recruitment week. BN is pretty successful, so I figure it can't be a bad idea. When I was a student at Cal State Northridge, there was a nudist club on campus called "Au Naturel." (It disappeared when the faculty advisor left.) I also note that every college on a beach town in California seems to have a nearby informal nude beach. That cannot be a coincidence.
The places we need to target are places with open minded people. (You could probably pick the places that accept large, fully nude, WNBRs.) Victory isn't a convert to nudism but just someone saying, "Okay. That's cool." Moving from a state of curiosity, ignorance, or confusion, to one of tolerance or acceptance. You'll never win over the naysayers. Do that and the people who have a natural interest in nudism will join.
Open minded people are also going to be open minded to other things like gay and trans issues. These are also things often painted as purely sexual but an open minded person sees as transcending sexuality.
If a blog readership is already nudist or nudist friendly, then it is impossible to promote nudism there. That is indeed preaching to the choir. I have 3 blogs. Substack is the only one specifically dedicated to nudism. Medium and WordPress have very few nudist followers. Medium is just stuff about life in general. WordPress started out as an anime blog and expanded into life in general. Maybe any tenth post is specifically nudist in nature.
I don't shy away from nude images but there is usually a NSFW warning somewhere. Story of a trip I took - and I happened to be nude. The trip is front and center, the nudity is incidental. And I try to make the nudes well composed shots of a nude in a larger environment. Not the sad, "nude from a selfie stick" I see so much of. Nobody complains and I get positive comments from textiles.
I am not presenting myself as a paragon of blogging virtue but just showing that one doesn't have to start with a nudist audience to deliver a nudist message. We do that because most are not really as comfortable with nudity as we often claim, even in an anonymous blog.
I am of the opinion that landed clubs are only going to become less common. The cost of real estate prevents new ones from forming. Old ones will continue to disappear. You will always be able to make more money by going textile than staying nude. Travel clubs and at home nudism are the future.
There's plenty of food for thought in that. It could have been a post by itself. How about putting it on The Naturism Community? I'd like to respond to various points, but burying remarks several levels deep here makes little sense. One problem with Substack (or traditional blogs, Medium, etc.) is that dealing with important issues has to be scattered around by location, not organized by topic.
An online forum for naturists where specific issues could be addressed would be much better. British Naturism does provide a good forum - for BN members (who might in fact live anywhere). It has many thousands of posts in total - no exaggeration - on lots of different topics. AANR had a forum at one time, but it was a total flop, and soon disappeared. I'm defining a forum as a place where discussions can easily be organized by topics and subtopics, such as how to promote naturism. Sadly, I know of almost none like that. The online forum concept is hardly new. I operated such a system 40 (yes, 40) years ago. It was used by many people all around the country. Current relatively popular social media really suck.
Of course, a naturist forum would be used almost exclusively by naturists. But that's fine, since what's needed is a central place where naturists can gather to discuss the issues facing naturism.
Sadly, I think in the USA we may need to first start by convincing men that nudity is OK in a men's locker (I can't comment on the situation in the women's room).
One recent grassroots initiative to help the revitalizing of naturism is of course the Naturist Symbol.
Although it is not designed as promotion of naturism by itself, the goal is that naturists recognize eachother. Once we see we are not the only naturist in town, starting a conversation about naturism will be much easier.
Regarding places to go naked, a lot depends on where you live. To my recollection, Arkansas is the only State that outlaws nudity anywhere in public, but Wisconsin may be coming close. In general, U.S. National Forests don't prohibit nudity, except in developed campgrounds or if local laws apply. The forests are great places for hiking. Get in touch with the closest NF office for details. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may be even less restrictive.
In general, any place on public land not usually visited by the general public is a possibility, especially places with water - hot springs and the shores of lakes, ponds, and rivers - unless local laws apply. In rural areas, you can check with the owners of private land - farms, ranches, etc. - for permission to use their land, although they might be concerned about legal liability. Some owners of private land may even allow camping if they trust your group to behave responsibly. Small, privately owned campgrounds are another possibility for a group of people. There are many books and online resources that list "swimming holes" and may indicate where nudity is tolerated. I'd say you have an excellent chance of finding something if you do enough research.
Southern California is a big place. I'm not very familiar with it, but the trail to Deep Creek Hot Springs and the springs itself is clothing-optional. Fred Heiser, who writes for The Naturism Community, often writes about other places in the area, such as Joshua Tree NP and the Angeles NF. I think that further south in the Anza-Borrego SP there's plenty of space for naked hiking.
A very nice article & it confirms your strong urge for promotion of naturism, especially in younger generations.
The problem in naturism is the gap. A cohort of naturists went through through a particular time period. They were happy with the legal situation. They got to go to their clubs and be naked and that's all they wanted. They were just insecure enough they didn't want to rock the boat. These people were culturally conservative because the larger society looked askance on their "colonies" and wouldn't tolerate anything else.
The children were not always involved because children are the third rail of nudism. More often than not, the kids were kept in the dark, either because parents hadn't fully incorporated the nudist ideal or for security purposes.
There people grew older and didn't do any outreach because they didn't see nudism as a movement. They saw it as a raft in a dangerous sea. Bringing in more people might upset the raft. Then as they continued to age, young people became inherently suspicious. Young people don't share the same values. They play loud obnoxious music, imbibe larger quantities of intoxicants, and (horrors!) flirt. Troublemakers and rebellious anarchists wouldn't be tolerated.
TNS' efforts failed miserably. Today, most nudies are simply too old to outreach to young people. (At best we are old fogies pretending we can think young. We don't.) There is a 30 year gap of failure to be inclusive and do outreach. Twenty somethings don't want to hang out with their parents and grandparents. The next generation of nudies is small.
College campuses are the best place to go and we need young people to go there. (As if there were a "we" to do it. There isn't) It is the only place with high concentrations of young adults with open minds.
My assumption is that the number of "young" people (say between 18 and 39, inclusive) who for some reason are interested in naturist social nudity and willing to put in some effort to promote it is relatively small - but nonzero. Taking meaningful action to promote naturism to other young people is on their shoulders.
If you agree there are such people and some do take action, then if they don't find any other young people who are interested it must be that their efforts are totally ineffective. Only if there are no young people willing and able to take effective action will your assumption be correct.
Do you seriously believe that? If you don't believe that, then for every effective action taken by one of these people there will be x additional young naturists, where x = number of young people persuaded by a young naturist to participate in naturism themselves. Also, if a naturist of any age persuades a young person (a family member for example) to participate in naturism, then there will be more young naturists who may also be persuaders.
I'm saying that there is little effective action taken. Nudist parents did not raise nudist children. For a long time, nudist young people really weren't welcomed because the resorts were - and some still are - dominated by people hostile to "youth" culture. Combined, that created a huge deficit in the proportion of young nudists to the point where TNS couldn't even keep a Young Naturists group alive.
And... there are few persuaders. Ninety+ percent of the nudist population is living in a closet. Most blogs advocating for nudism are only read by nudists. The US has not evolved to the state where being a public nudist to one's friends and family is a low enough risk for most people. We have a lot more evolution to go before that's viable.
"Most blogs advocating for nudism are only read by nudists."
This is true. I'm always surprised when certain bloggers keep listing the good things about naturism. They're usually right, but just preaching to the choir. It would be much more useful to develop new ideas for promoting naturism.
Do you think promoting naturism is worthwhile at all? Just asking.
The best way to promote nudism is to be a good person who just happens to be a nudist and neither hide the fact nor be evangelical about it. Social conditions in many areas still make this a risky enterprise. My first suggestion is to be somewhere that is at least moderately nude tolerant.
People who promote the "only enemy is your own fear" line of thinking don't get what it is to live in a place where being a public nudist can cost you your job, get your kids ridiculed and put you at risk for a visit from the local children's welfare investigators.
The people one needs to promote nudism to aren't nudists. It is people NOT in nudism who might be curious. Or at least tolerant enough to hear your piece without screaming, "But what about the children!" It occurs to me that the best possible place for organized outreach would be college campuses.
I saw a video about a BN guy whose sole job was to go around campuses during their recruitment week. BN is pretty successful, so I figure it can't be a bad idea. When I was a student at Cal State Northridge, there was a nudist club on campus called "Au Naturel." (It disappeared when the faculty advisor left.) I also note that every college on a beach town in California seems to have a nearby informal nude beach. That cannot be a coincidence.
The places we need to target are places with open minded people. (You could probably pick the places that accept large, fully nude, WNBRs.) Victory isn't a convert to nudism but just someone saying, "Okay. That's cool." Moving from a state of curiosity, ignorance, or confusion, to one of tolerance or acceptance. You'll never win over the naysayers. Do that and the people who have a natural interest in nudism will join.
Open minded people are also going to be open minded to other things like gay and trans issues. These are also things often painted as purely sexual but an open minded person sees as transcending sexuality.
If a blog readership is already nudist or nudist friendly, then it is impossible to promote nudism there. That is indeed preaching to the choir. I have 3 blogs. Substack is the only one specifically dedicated to nudism. Medium and WordPress have very few nudist followers. Medium is just stuff about life in general. WordPress started out as an anime blog and expanded into life in general. Maybe any tenth post is specifically nudist in nature.
I don't shy away from nude images but there is usually a NSFW warning somewhere. Story of a trip I took - and I happened to be nude. The trip is front and center, the nudity is incidental. And I try to make the nudes well composed shots of a nude in a larger environment. Not the sad, "nude from a selfie stick" I see so much of. Nobody complains and I get positive comments from textiles.
I am not presenting myself as a paragon of blogging virtue but just showing that one doesn't have to start with a nudist audience to deliver a nudist message. We do that because most are not really as comfortable with nudity as we often claim, even in an anonymous blog.
I am of the opinion that landed clubs are only going to become less common. The cost of real estate prevents new ones from forming. Old ones will continue to disappear. You will always be able to make more money by going textile than staying nude. Travel clubs and at home nudism are the future.
There's plenty of food for thought in that. It could have been a post by itself. How about putting it on The Naturism Community? I'd like to respond to various points, but burying remarks several levels deep here makes little sense. One problem with Substack (or traditional blogs, Medium, etc.) is that dealing with important issues has to be scattered around by location, not organized by topic.
An online forum for naturists where specific issues could be addressed would be much better. British Naturism does provide a good forum - for BN members (who might in fact live anywhere). It has many thousands of posts in total - no exaggeration - on lots of different topics. AANR had a forum at one time, but it was a total flop, and soon disappeared. I'm defining a forum as a place where discussions can easily be organized by topics and subtopics, such as how to promote naturism. Sadly, I know of almost none like that. The online forum concept is hardly new. I operated such a system 40 (yes, 40) years ago. It was used by many people all around the country. Current relatively popular social media really suck.
Of course, a naturist forum would be used almost exclusively by naturists. But that's fine, since what's needed is a central place where naturists can gather to discuss the issues facing naturism.
I'll stick it up on Naturist Community and see what happens.
Sadly, I think in the USA we may need to first start by convincing men that nudity is OK in a men's locker (I can't comment on the situation in the women's room).
One recent grassroots initiative to help the revitalizing of naturism is of course the Naturist Symbol.
Although it is not designed as promotion of naturism by itself, the goal is that naturists recognize eachother. Once we see we are not the only naturist in town, starting a conversation about naturism will be much easier.