Dear Abby Gives Thumbs Up to Nudism, Thumbs Down to Exhibitionism

Wife shy about nudist resort

Dear Abby

September 18, 2006



Dear Abby: My husband and I are in our late 30s, healthy and in good shape. Our love life is good, and we get along better now than we ever have in our marriage.

Before we get any older, my husband has asked me to visit a nudist beach or resort with him. He also says he would like to spice up our sex life by making love in the forest beside a mountain stream, or even the back seat of our car in a secluded spot.

I am not comfortable with the idea of going nude at a beach in front of a lot of other people, or the thought of being caught having sex in the woods. My husband says that visiting a nudist beach or resort is not about exhibitionism or immorality. He says it is about enjoying nature and feeling the sensation of being free outdoors.

To be honest, these are things I might like to try, but I'm concerned about what others would think if they found out. My husband says what we do is our own business, and the only way anyone we know would find out is if we told them.

Would it be wrong for us to go to a nude beach or resort, just to try it out?

- Wondering Wife in Pennsylvania


Dear Wondering Wife: There is nothing sinful about going to a nude beach with one's husband. Should you run into people you know, I can't imagine anyone gossiping about it, since they would have to explain how they happened to see you.

As to spicing up your sex life by making love in public places: Although some people may enjoy the "danger" of possibly being discovered, I don't recommend it because it leaves couples vulnerable to being exploited by anyone who happens by, or being cited for violating local ordinances against indecent exposure.



Source: http://www.azcentra l.com/arizonarep ublic/arizonaliv ing/articles/ 0918abby0918. html

Has Letterman Been Notified?

From Canadan naturists, we have 15 good reasons...

15 Top Reasons to Be Naked!

The following was written by a young member of the Federation of Canadian Naturists. It is used with their permission.

It's fun! Of course, it's not for everyone, but then, neither is Madonna nor the Red Hot Chili Peppers, NBA basketball nor Batman. But once most young couples and boyfriends/girlfriends try it, they come back. Why? Because it's fun. You probably know people who have vacationed at nude beaches, who skinny-dip in their backyard pool or who lounge around the house nude. Why not?

It's healthy! Besides improved self-esteem, the sun relieves stress, provides you with Vitamin D, a tan with SPF 4 protection and helps clear acne. Naturists don't overdo their time in the sun; they tan safely with a sunscreen.

It feels good! You know how gross those jeans and bra straps feel on a hot sticky day? Or that wet swimsuit when you come out of the water! No more! Trade it in for the feeling of wind on your back and the sun on your body! Cool!

Self-esteem! You'll feel great about yourself! Nudity helps you become more open and accept yourself for whom you are, not whether you measure up to the supermodels you see in ads. Welcome to a place that does not measure value as a human being by body size! It makes you a stronger, more confident person.

Be yourself! You can express your individuality! Everyone accepts you as you are, whether you have a disability, are overweight, dyed your hair purple, or have a great tattoo that your friends hate. People are attracted by your personality! Everybody's different, and that is respected!

So much to do! Volleyball, swimming, basketball, suntanning, golf, tennis, and all sorts of other activities. There is just about anything youd do at any campground or beach. Only more.

You are in full control! You decide when you arrive and leave. You decide what to do when you are there! Just like if you went to the beach. But better! If its your first visit, you decide when or even if you want to disrobe! Its normal to feel apprehensive on your first visit, but since you're in control, you have nothing to lose by checking it out!

You can be you! It's so refreshing to be someplace where nudity is not sex, unlike ads, movies or TV. You don't have to look like an actor or actress from Baywatch! Nobody's staring to see if you have a great body or if you're overweight or too thin! Nobody is checking you out at all! It doesn't matter if your belly button is an inny or an outy! It's OK!

No sex! Everyone in a nudist park is having an orgy? NOT! That is Myth # 1! (People who think nudity is about sex find it a lot more convenient to go to strip bars. Besides, the naturist resort owners don't let those people in anyways.) Lewd behaviour is NOT allowed. Ever!

Safety! You're in a no-jerks zone! People treat you the way you want to be treated. Problems are taken care of right away, especially for women, so they don't feel vulnerable. You won't run into problems like at public beaches where people stare at bathing suits, giving their imaginations free reign.

Popularity and confidentiality! You'll be part of the group! Already, thousands of Canadians are nudists. But nudism is totally confidential, so nobody knows. Naturist parks are in discreet, strictly private areas, well back from roads. Those who go accept newcomers anonymity. All naturists respect confidentiality. The only people who know you enjoy nudism are those you tell. And if you meet someone at a resort you know, don't worry about it. They're there for the same reasons as you, to have fun.

Skinny-dipping! All those University of British Columbia students can't be wrong! You've heard about all those great topless and nude beaches elsewhere in the world, Europe, the Caribbean, Florida. But North America's second-largest nude beach is Vancouver's Wreck Beach, just at the base of a cliff on the edge of the University of British Columbia. On a hot summer day you'll find 12,000 nude people (UBC students wouldn't cut class, would they?)! There are smaller nude beaches in every province in Canada.

It doesn't cost a lot! You don't put out the big bucks for a fun time.
It's Natural! If people were meant to go naked, they would have been born that way!!!

No tan lines! BONUS!

Source http://www.fcn.ca/15reasons.html

Famous People And Their Thoughts On Nudity

Although famous people aren't always the brighest people (e.g., Britney Spears, John Murtha, George Clooney, etc.), they are indeed famous. This is from http://vanudist.home.att.net/famous_people_and_their_thoughts.htm.

"Sexual modesty cannot then in any simple way be identified with the use of clothing nor shamelessness with the absence of clothing and total or partial nakedness. There are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest... Nakedness as such is not to be equated with physical shamelessness. Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person... The human body is not in itself shameful, nor for the same reasons are sensual reactions, and human sensuality in general. Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior of a person."
Pope John Paul II (Karol Cardinal Wojtyla) Love & Responsibility, 1981

"Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity - these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing. They are not ashamed."
Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth

"We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins."
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

"Adam and Eve entered the world naked and unashamed - naked and pure-minded. And no descendant of theirs has ever entered it otherwise. All have entered it naked, unashamed, and clean in mind. They entered it modest. They had to acquire immodesty in the soiled mind, there was no other way to get it. ... The convention mis-called "modesty" has no standard, and cannot have one, because it is opposed to nature and reason and is therefore an artificiality and subject to anyone's whim - anyone's diseased caprice."
Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth

"There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. The zoologist now has to start making comparisons. Where else is nudity at a premium."
Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape

"It is so basic. A human being is an innocent part of nature. Our civilization has distorted this universal quality that allows us to feel at home in our skin. Other animals have coats that they accept, but the human race has yet to come to terms with being nude."
Ruth Bernhard

"How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?"
Katherine Mansfield

"This was life! Ah, how he loved it! Civilization held nothing like this in its narrow and circumscribed sphere, hemmed in by restrictions and conventionalities. Even clothes were a hindrance and a nuisance. At last he was free. He had not realized what a prisoner he had been."
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

"For a time Jack was angry; but when he had been without the jacket for a short while he began to realize that being half-clothed is infinitely more uncomfortable than being entirely naked. Soon he did not miss his clothing in the least, and from that he came to revel in the freedom of his unhampered state."
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Son of Tarzan

"Never before did I get so close to Nature; never before did she come so close to me... Nature was naked, and I was also... Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! - ah if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness the indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability, that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent. Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is--nor what faith or art or health really is."
Walt Whitman, A Sun-bathed Nakedness

"The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind."
Mark Twain, Huckelberry Finn

"If anything is sacred the human body is sacred."
Walt Whitman, I Sing The Body Electric

"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful that the garment with which it is clothed?"
Michelangelo

"Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy, you may find in them a harness and a drain. Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your body and less of your raiment."
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

"I come from a country where you don't wear clothes most of the year. Nudity is the most natural state. I was born nude and I hope to be buried nude."
Elle MacPherson

"Sometimes I like to run naked in the moonlight and the wind, on a little trail behind out house, when the honeysuckle blooms. It's a feeling of freedom, so close to God and nature."
Dolly Parton

"It (sunning nude) was a liberating experience. It felt unbelievably crazy to take off all my clothes and play in the sun. I've not had that much fun in so long."
Amy Grant, Ladies Home Journal 12/1985

"Honestly, I walk around my house naked, ... I think the body's a beautiful thing and you should not hide yourself."
Britney Spears, Rolling Stone Magazine 09/2001

"The best dress for walking is nakedness."
Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker III

"I'm going to try and be as nude as possible from now on – as soon as I took my clothes off, everyone went: 'That guy is a good actor.' "
Marcus Graham - The Sunday Telegraph (Australia) May 25, 2003

"Everyone can be nude – it's not actually that hard. It's just a matter of relaxing. I feel pretty passé about the whole nude thing. I really couldn't care less."
Marcus Graham - The Sunday Telegraph (Australia) May 25, 2003

"I grew up walking around naked in my house. My mom was like that, and my sisters."
Jennifer Lopez - New York Daily News, July 8, 2003

Battle of the Buck Nekkids

One of the least known but one of the more interesting battles during the Civil War happened at Boon's Mill Pond, North Carolina on July 28, 1863, reports AAA's GO Magazine. The magazine says that a battle in North Carolina, was not unusual, but this particular battle was fought in the nude and called the "Battle of the Buck Nekkids." This small battle saved Robert E. Lee's exhausted Army of Northern Virginia on their way back from Gettysburg.

The Battle of the Buck Nekkids began when the Confederates were skinny-dipping in the pond to escape the sweltering July heat. While swimming, the men heard their commander shout and saw Yankee cavalry bearing down on them. They didn't take the time to put their clothes back on before grabbing their weapons to resist enemy attack. After a few hours, the Yankees retreated after determining that the only way through the swampy area to was to head straight into Confederate fire. Today, the mill pond serves as a commemoration of the skirmish with a Civil War Trails sign describing the action of the day.




From http://www.aanr.com/cyber_bulletin.html

Deutschland Covers Alles

Nein to Nudity: East German Naturists Blame West for Cover-Up

By Claudia Rach

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- It's naked or not at all for Urs Wagner when vacationing on Germany's Baltic Sea coast.

``It's a really intense feeling of nature that everyone should experience,'' the Berlin retiree, 57, said while sunbathing in the altogether on the dunes at Magrafenheide, Germany. ``But who knows for how much longer. We're a dying breed.''

Seventeen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the cultural divide between former East Germans and West Germans is being laid bare at beach resorts. Bikinis, maillots and trunks have become the norm on as many as two-fifths of beaches previously used by nudists since Germany reunified in 1990, the DFK German Naturist Federation estimated.

Naturism was once associated with the communist East, where it was viewed by authorities as a normal extension of socialism and by dissenters as an expression of the freedom enjoyed by their compatriots in the West. Now adherents to the practice known as ``free body culture,'' abbreviated to FKK in German, blame prudish westerners for demanding that they cover up. Some people swim nude year-round.

``We may get scared away one day'' by westerners, said Ursula Kroeger, 35, an engineer who grew up by the Baltic Sea in the city of Rostock. ``If someone doesn't want to do it, that's fine. But they shouldn't try to stop those that do.''

Since communism's collapse in 1989, Baltic resorts have added new hotels and restaurants, renovated boardwalks and cleaned up water pollution.

That led to a surge in western tourists, with visitors to the Baltic coast jumping to 5.06 million last year from 1.98 million in 1992, according to the statistical office for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

No Bodies, Please

Property prices in Germany's Baltic region have risen 25 percent since 1995, more than the national average, according to a study by the GEWOS Institute for Urban, Regional and Housing Research in Hamburg.

``When people with money holiday in freshly renovated resorts, the last thing they want are naked bodies on their doorstep,'' said Wolfgang Weinreich, head of the International Naturist Federation.

As many as 12 million Germans -- almost one in seven in Europe's most populous country -- visit a nudist beach at least once a year, according to Weinreich's organization, which is based in Belgium and has 385,000 members.

Germany's passion for public nakedness can be traced back more than a century. The first known organized club for nudists opened near the western port city of Hamburg in 1903 and gained in prominence in the 1920s.

The Nazis initially put a stop to naturism, though in July 1942, during World War II, SS chief Heinrich Himmler signed into law a regulation that allowed naked swimming if done discreetly.

FKK in DDR

After the war, naturism didn't gain popularity in the capitalist west as it did in East Germany, where it took on more social significance. By the 1960s, it had become a mass movement, said historian Hans Bergemann, who in 2000 organized a touring exhibition in Germany on the FKK movement.

``FKK became so popular that in principle no one noticed whether people were naked or dressed,'' Weinreich said of people's casual attitude toward nudists.

FKK wasn't officially allowed in East Germany but was tolerated, said Kurt Fischer, head of the DFK German Naturist Federation. Nudism was an expression of the desire for freedom, he said.

``In the West, going naked was a personal decision,'' Fischer said. ``But in the East, it was a way of life.''

Museum Curiosity

So much so that the six-week-old DDR Museum in Berlin, which documents life in the former East Germany, has two displays on FKK, something that leaves many westerners scratching their heads.

``It's a mystery to me what people find so great about FKK,'' said Anne-Katrin Bauer, 30, a bank clerk from western Berlin vacationing in Rostock. ``I find it more of a disturbance.''

Hans-Juergen Walther, 56, a builder from the western city of Karlsruhe, said he finds it ``out of order'' when people lounge nude by the beach promenade.

``If they want to go naked, they should go where there's no one else,'' Walther said as he strolled along the seafront at Warnemuende, also in Rostock.

And that, according to easterners, is paradoxical coming from people who used to embody the idea of freedom.

Gudrun Krah, 63, donning a bathing suit under protest, bemoaned the loss of a beach life that was more liberal in the communist era, saying today's mixture of nude and clothed bathers on a beach ``robs it of some of the panache.''

While Krah said West Germans are responsible, Wagner is less willing to assign blame, even as his cherished pastime goes the way of East German entitlements such as cheap housing and full employment that have been lost.

``I just want to continue to go naked into the sunset,'' said Wagner, before wading into the Baltic and disappearing under the dappled surface.

To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Rach in Berlin at crach1@bloomberg.net .

Young? An Advantage at Living Waters

Living Waters Spa Offers a "Next Generation" Discount


Traditionally discounts are offered to Senior citizens. Here is a discount for the Next Generation (ages 18-29) - the opposite of a Senior discount.

Desert Hot Springs, CA, August 29, 2006 --(PR.COM)-- We all know of a “Senior Discount” but now we have the opposite: a “Next Generation” discount.

Such a discount is now being offered by the top rated spa hotel, Living Waters Spa. Owner Jeff Bowman explains: “Most of our guests fall into the 30 to 65 year old category. This is natural given our upper end price point and the availability of this age group to afford our spa. After doing research it was determined that those between the ages of 18-29 would love to experience our European-style clothing optional spa, but just could not afford it. So, we created what we are calling a Next Generation discount.”

The room rates at Living Waters Spa are from $140.00 per night during the week and up to $225.00 on weekends (with a 2 night minimum). So they are offering a “Next Generation” discount of 25%. The Next Generation is also a wired generation so Living Waters Spa has free wireless broadband internet – but no TV’s – at the spa and condos.

Living Waters Spa is an elite natural hot water spa resort that offers its guests a chance to get away, get in touch with life, and rejuvenate mind, body, and spirit. There, you'll discover an enhanced level of the small resort / hotel / bed and breakfast experience. Hot mineral water has been sought out by health enthusiasts the world over. Europeans have gone to the hot baths since ancient days. Traditionally these waters have been used to treat many physical ailments. The mineral water found at Living Waters is odorless, tasteless, and colorless.

“Our facility is completely private and "European style" clothing-optional.” Bowman says. So you are allowed (encouraged!) to soak in their healing mineral waters au naturel and enjoy a total immersion in nature. It is true that for generations Europeans have visited the spas and have sunbathed nude. Finally we Americans are now realizing how relaxing this nude recreation can be. Clothing-optional vacations are now becoming common for us and we are discovering what our European friends have known all along -- such simple nudity is total freedom. Bowman adds: “We've designed our place to give "first timers" the best clothes free experience possible. At Living Waters Spa we provide you the coolest vacation souvenir of all: no tan-lines!” In other words, you don’t have to be a nudist or naturist to enjoy the spa.

Massage therapy is a focal point at Living Waters Spa. They have a dedicated massage studio as part of their facility and can also provide in-room massage. The owners, Jeff and Judy, are highly trained licensed massage therapists and massage is their passion. Judy says: “We constantly hear from our guests that ours was the best massage they've ever had. It is our goal to make your massage one of the top 5 massages you'll ever experience, if not the very best!”

Additional to a Next Generation discount, Living Waters Spa has a Military discount for active military personnel. “We are here for a passion to help people” says Jeff, “and our military personnel need to take a brake, reconnect with their partner, and restore their soul. We’d like to think that having a 25% Military discount will help them do just that.”

Please feel free to contact them if you have any questions about having a clothing optional experience or want to take advantage of the Next Generation or Military discount. Living Waters Spa can be reached at 760-329-9988 / 866-329-9988 or www.LivingWatersSpa.com.

Banned South of Boston

Aquinnah to crack down on nude beachgoers

Clothing no longer optional in Aquinnah.

August 31, 2006

An informal policy of don't look, don't fine is about to end under the Gay Head Cliffs. Aquinnah police will no longer look the other way at beachgoers who violate a town rule by sunbathing in the buff.

Aquinnah officials expect to erect newly ordered signs soon at the entrance to town beaches. The signs will announce the selectmen's intention to enforce a longstanding bylaw that prohibits public nudity. Violators will face a fine of as much as $50, less than the cost of a designer bathing suit.

The town-owned beach is adjacent to the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank's Moshup Beach. For years, the informality of town affairs in Aquinnah, formerly known as Gay Head, extended to the water line along the magnificent stretch of sand that wraps around the multi-hued cliffs at the westernmost end of the Island. Beachgoers, influenced by the relative seclusion and laissez faire atmosphere, felt free to take their clothes off.

But times have changed, Aquinnah Police Chief Rhandi Belain said this week. Incidences of what he described as inappropriate behavior have increased in number, as have complaints from the public. Together, they led the chief to raise the issue of illegal public nudity with the selectmen.

At a selectmen's meeting on July 20, under the agenda item public lewdness, selectmen agreed with Chief Belain that the time has come to begin enforcing the town bylaw before the problem becomes more serious. The board agreed to order three signs.

The durable aluminum signs declare: Aquinnah bylaws prohibit public nudity. $50 fine per violation per order of the board of selectmen.

Chief Belain told The Times that, contrary to what people might think, it is not a nude beach. "It's time," said Mr. Belain, son of the former Gay Head police chief. "Things are not what they used to be."

Public nudity has not been an issue at the staffed Land Bank beach, said James Lengyel, Land Bank executive director. He said nudity is prohibited.

"We haven't changed our policy," Mr. Lengyel said. "This is a family beach."

Celebrity Nudity, Again

Nudity works wonders if you expose an artful sense of humour

Laura Potter
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer


We know there was a heatwave this summer, but even now the temperature's cooled, celebs can't seem to keep their clothes on. Shakira is backing the naturist cause: 'If I could, I'd live nude the whole time - nakedness is so sensual.' Eva Longoria's taken to spicing up those household chores by doing the dishes in her undies - 'If it's a really warm day I like to walk around the house naked and tease Tony [her basketball-star boyfriend]. It sometimes drives him a little crazy.' Blimey! Christina Ricci tried a similar tactic to stir up interest. When casting calls ran dry, she swamped director Craig Brewer with sexually explicit shots of herself, and lo and behold she landed a role in Black Snake Moan.
Daniel Radcliffe is also prepared to go naked for his art. To avoid being typecast as a bespectacled wizard, he's shedding everything in his theatrical debut in Equus, while Tom Fletcher took the term 'birthday suit' a little too literally when he and his McFly bandmates celebrated his 21st at G-A-Y. They stripped down to perform 'Don't Stop Me Now'. If only we could.

And the award for most amusing nearly nude has to go to Sacha Baron Cohen, who entertained beachgoers in Cannes with his oh-so-attractive lime-green thong. A spot of nudity can work wonders: not only does it show how fabulously sexy you are, it livens up the hoovering, brightens a birthday and even snares the odd film role. Disrobe and reap the rewards.

Why We Had Two Wedding Receptions...

3 September 2006

WEDDING BUFF-ETS

BRIDE Kathy Lynch and groom Martin Payton held two wedding receptions on the same day - one dressed and the other starkers.

Naturist Kathy, 46, said: "We have a good circle of friends, clothed and nudist. We never mix the two."

Martin, 54, said: "Everyone knows we're nudists. No one has a problem with it. It's not a sex thing, more being at one with nature. We had 38 family members at the first reception. The other was held at a club in Brighton."

Kathy, from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, added: "We're planning two anniversary receptions so we can do it every year."