Nudism / Naturism in the US: hopeless cause?

Looking for some opinions here.

Is it just me or the whole idea of naturism is a lost cause in this country at least?

I've been to a couple nude/CO beaches and camps. They are mostly populated with aging hippies, swingers and deviants. Don't have anything against any of 'em (except deviants, that is). But I'm getting a distinct feeling that my generation and the generations around it (25-30 years old) find the idea of social nudity stupid at best and repugnant at worst.

Lost cause?

 

I think this society in general is seeming against nudity. we are raised to believe that being naked is a crime, a sin against nature. I dont' think it's just this generation. It's this society.

 

The real question is whether twenty-five years ago you still would have found the same age distribution at resorts - in other words, has anything changed?

I don't know from personal experience because I'm too young, but I doubt that all the hippies in the late sixties and early seventies were hanging around nudist camps. From what I've heard from their descriptions, they were not too hung up about nudity but spent much more of their time going to concerts and getting high.

 

Social nudity = in-human = a crime => must be stopped!

 

I'm guessing you're trying to be funny.

 

Seeing as how this country was started by Puritans, and America's philosophy on nudity seems to stem from that, so I'd say no to anything significant in the near future.

 

Yep. I've seen this before!

 

American society is so screwed up, and I guess that most haven't realised by now that it is puritanical upbringings which breed sexual deviants in the first place. The circle needs to be broken somehow.

 

I like puritanism actualy.
It feels so civilized! ^^

 

It is a continuing struggle to gain freedom from the Puritanical mindset. After hundreds of years it seems futile but bit by bit we will prevail someday somehow.

We have a nude beach here in Miami-Dade county which is one of the few that is sanctioned by the local government. It is a county beach with signs designating it. It took arrests and a legal battle of the local naturist club to make the officials see the light, that under Florida law nudity is legal in "A Place Set Apart."

Prudes have a problem with that - don't go there. However, the Puritan mindset is the fear that someone, somewhere may be enjoying themselves, so it is still contantly under potential closing. But it has been there for almost two decades and very popular (making money for the county by parking revenue alone).

Hopefully, Haulover Clothing Optional Beach will serve as an example for other states to make their own free beaches.

 

It seems like a lost cause here in the UK too sometimes, though thankfully France and Germany are a short train ride or flight away so at least a holiday with sauna and/or sunbathing naked is an option.

 

I've only visited the US a couple of times, and my only nude experience was at Baker Beach near San Francisco. Seemed a pretty relaxed place to me with quite a mixed crowd. Great view of the Golden Gate as well. I realise of course that one can't generalise from California to the US as a whole.

 

Since when was this confined to the USA? It is also a major problem here in Australia. Resorts are failing nudists with high costs, demands, restrictions and varied imposts. Nudists are predominantly now mature-age with almost non-existent young blood coming in. The whole movement has gone pear-shaped since the halcyon days of the 1970s and 1980s. It seems "aging hippies" et al are the only ones keeping it going but buried deep in suburbia a nudist underworld is flourishing.

 

Once nudist societies and resorts become perceived as dominated by older folk, it becomes self-perpetuating. Personally though I don't have much time for officious self-appointed busybodies like British Naturism, I'm more for general acceptance of the human form in our parks and beaches, which is slowly coming about in parts of the UK and is quite established in Germany and the Netherlands for example. It's evident from events like the World Naked Bike Ride and PETA protests that plenty of young folk are happy to strip off in public, they just don't want to do it within the framework set up by previous generations.

 

I have to agree about bodies such as British Naturism, which to me seems more like a trade organisation than a campaigning one. I would like the opportunity to swim or sunbathe without clothes in an atmosphere with as little organisation and politics as possible.

 

Some people say that there in Merrie Olde England you already have the right to "swim or sunbathe without clothes" on account of the Sexual Offences Act, which says that to be illegal, nudity has to have the intention of offending people, not just being careless about it. And Steve Gough pretty much proved it, by walking through England nude, and although the police stopped him a few times, they always let him go again. I'm not talking about Scotland!

On other discussion boards I've seen some people say that they've been nude on beaches in England in sight of textile users, and they never got hassled for it. But then others say, if "indecent exposure" doesn't exist any more, they'll go after you for "causing a public nuisance" or something.

But it looks as if nudity without fences and gates, and without organizations, is getting easier in England. Not Scotland.

In America we're in the dark ages, except in Oregon and Vermont.

 

A couch session with a shrink is in order.

 

Well I went nude on the regular beach at Brighton quite a few times without any bother, and on hot summer days when it was pretty busy. But one time a couple of kids decided to complain to Plod for a laff; so this young copper gave me a stern ticking off, though I didn't get charged with anything. Of course I've no doubt they can always find something to charge you with if they have a mind to.

 

Bringing back an old subject. Things have not changed much, except restrictions from covid.
But there are younger groups starting in some cities.
World Naked Bike Rides seem to be introducing people to some casual non-sexual nudity.
There have been a few people with land out away from the cities that have invited nudist groups out.
I had people come about 100 to 300 miles away when I had one of those out in country invites.