A Comfort of Naturists.

Welcome to the first edition of A Comfort of Naturists.

Hopefully, this will develop into a series of articles exploring ideas around non-sexual nudity and the problems society has with accepting it.

Before we get into the thoughtful musings of a middle-aged naturist living in the South Pacific, I had better give background behind the title to this series of articles

A comfort of naturists is my response to a question that I asked a group of my Twitter friends recently, and that was, what is the collective noun for a group of naturists?

There were many interesting and amusing answers including a “Pride” of naturists, a “Reveal” of naturists, an “Exposure” of naturists and even a “Dangle” of naturists.

Although I really like a “Pride” of naturists, this is already taken for a group of lions, and the word Pride is proudly associated with the gay rights movement.

My issue with the rest of these suggestions is that they are either mildly or blatantly sexualised, and mirror the attitude that the general media tend to take when reporting on naturist events.  Often double entendre and sly innuendo are used in media articles and news items to try and make light of the subject. 

“We sent our reporter along to hang out and to get to the bottom of what’s going on”.

Without adding to the general tittering that naturism often faces from the public, and lacking a label that we could all own, I felt we needed a term that would encapsulate the experience.  Something that most naturists could agree on was common to the practice, something that didn’t demean or ridicule naturists as a group, and something that textiles (non-naturists) might consider a positive trait.

Amongst my Twitter world, there is a hashtag #NormalisingNaturism, used by a group of people trying to demystify and normalise non-sexual nudity.  There is a line sometimes used, and I have borrowed it myself, which reads “Normalising naturism, it’s just plain comfortable”.  Also, a common comment used by many naturists and those new to the lifestyle is that they learn to feel comfortable in their skin and their bodies.  Issues of body shame tend to disappear and general confidence is improved.  With that in mind, I thought that a comfort of naturists was an appropriately positive term.

I have a day job, that keeps me busy, but as part of that job, I drive long distances.  Often on these journeys, the mind has time to reflect and contemplate.

Inspiration for these writings comes from many places.  Often it will start with an idea or a statement, which usually becomes the article headline, and then the writing flows from that.  Sometimes I will get an idea for another piece while I am writing, so I will park that idea and revisit it later.  That happened while composing this piece.  The mention of the way the media often portray their coverage of naturist events will be the subject of a later article, so watch out for it in the future.  Sometimes the inspiration for an article comes from discussions or conversations with a connection or friend on other social media platforms.  There is one such piece in the pipeline, so again lookout for that one as well.

I write these articles as I feel inspired to, rather than as a source of income or out of a sense of duty, so new articles may not turn up at regular intervals, although I hope to keep posting new material as often as I can.

Feel free to comment or send me a message as feedback is important to help me refine my work.  If your comments are negative or critical, please keep them about the specific issue you have rather than making them personal.  The world of social media has become a toxic place where it is easy to throw personal insults around, something the world needs less of, in my opinion.

Hopefully, my contributions from here are a little more coherent and less disjointed.  I don’t expect to change the world, but even if one person who reads my work, thinks a little more positively about non-sexual nudity and naturism, then I will feel that it has been worth the effort.

Thank you for taking the time to read my musings.

Have a comfortable day.