I spent months in one outfit. The great covid shutdown/shutout allowed me to not dress for about anything I needed to do. So, of course, I just lived nude. For a couple of hours once every week or so, I put on the same shorts and shirt and went shopping for necessities for a couple of hours. Otherwise, there was no need for clothes. The notion of living my life in bare comfort couldn’t have been more apparent or practical.
I used a sit-down towel or two, a shower towel… and once in a while…the above mentioned shopping costume might finally get soiled enough for the laundry.
Not cooped up in clothing, skin free to breath, just a dab of dust collected, I wasn’t in much need of bathing as often… A body performs its tasks remarkably well when not hindered by cloth, but instead covered in air…all naturally.
I wasn’t stuffed into underwear… then stuffed into pants, and then left to stuffy extra heat. That creates discomfort AND a perfect incubation of excessive bacteria.
My body very efficiently aired out in comfort.
YUP, the experience of not dressing has shed a very apparent light on many of the questions of nudity.
While we are away, mostly in a world without internet, telephones, Walmart, or dress codes, I have a few articles caught up with and scheduled to publish, but also, I have this series of shorts. I had planned to make a video of this and perhaps I still will, but I thought that it might be something nice to fill in, until we return with a ton of new tales to tell and show to you.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
I had some clearing out to do, when I found some old papers, printouts from the early internet. From David Icke E Magazine, I’d printed an article out on December 31st, 2000, a year after the millennia computer crash silliness, probably from a Web TV, or something. It was titled “Nudity” by Voltaire.
I had to investigate. Was this real? After a search of “nudity”, I found Voltaires’ Philosophical Dictionary, a treatise of his writings, but only under the title “nakedness.” The famous philosopher actually wrote this back in the 1700’s.
An Image of Voltaire’s Nude Statue
From: Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary
NAKEDNESS
Why should one lock up a man or a woman who walked stark naked in the street? and why is no one shocked by absolutely nude statues, by pictures of the Madonna and of Jesus that may be seen in some churches?
It is probably that the human species lived long without being clothed.
People unacquainted with clothing have been found in more than one island and in the American continent.
The most civilized hide the organs of generation with leaves, woven rushes, feathers.
Whence comes this form of modesty? is it the instinct for lighting desires by hiding what it gives pleasure to discover?
Is it really true that among slightly more civilized nations, such as the Jews and half-Jews, there have been entire sects who would not worship God save by stripping themselves of all their clothes? such were, it is said, the Adamites and the Abelians. They gathered quite naked to sing the praises of God: St. Epiphanius and St. Augustine say so. It is true that they were not contemporary, and that they were very far from these people’s country. But at all events this madness is possible: it is not even more extraordinary, more mad than a hundred other madnesses which have been round the world one after the other.
We have said elsewhere that to-day even the Mohammedans still have saints who are madmen, and who go naked like monkeys. It is very possible that some fanatics thought it was better to present themselves to the Deity in the state in which He formed them, than in the disguise invented by[Pg 223] man. It is possible that they showed everything out of piety. There are so few well-made persons of both sexes, that nakedness might have inspired chastity, or rather disgust, instead of increasing desire.
It is said particularly that the Abelians renounced marriage. If there were any fine lads and pretty lasses among them, they were at least comparable to St. Adhelme and to blessed Robert d’Arbrisselle, who slept with the prettiest persons, that their continence might triumph all the more.
But I avow that it would have been very comic to see a hundred Helens and Parises singing anthems, giving each other the kiss of peace, and making agapæ.
All of which shows that there is no singularity, no extravagance, no superstition which has not passed through the heads of mankind. Happy the day when these superstitions do not trouble society and make of it a scene of disorder, hatred and fury! It is better without doubt to pray God stark naked, than to stain His altars and the public places with human blood.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
“You’ll get used to wearing clothes,” they say. Well yes, I’d probably get used to anything, but is constant clothing actually beneficial? Can it be harmful? Maybe clothing is something that should be done only in moderation? There are of course the superficial differences, but as a longer time nude will show, if one just takes note, the restrictions coming from clothing have far greater negative and even damaging effects.
Examples of Greater Deeper Effects:
Most obviously, just throwing off clothing reveals an immediate release, relief, or liberation, but I’m saying that the effect of clothing is deeper than that.
In constant clothing, health, psychological and spiritual benefits, all three, are lost in an artificial norm. There is a disassociation from our essence, the base, our very foundation. One needs to be in touch with one’s grounded essence to function better. As examples, a short meditation, or a deep breath during the day, being and in the moment are known health aides. Try taking a Ben Franklin air bath. It is certain, clothing disassociates us.
One may ask me, “Why are you so obsessed with being naked?” My usual response is “Ask yourself why you are clothed. Could that be an obsession?” Nude is the default position. Clothing is an additive. This justifies my lifestyle, but why is it such an important issue to me?
After spending several days acceptably nude, it is most common to notice that putting on clothing, just to be socially acceptable, is physically confining, bunched up, hot, evidently unnatural and often, actually uncomfortable.
Unless I get overwhelmed by cold, I don’t need anything to supplement my natural bodily ability for homeostasis. The body, the mind, the whole system adjusts as a complete system. It is quite complex, an ancient natural gift adapted to adept. It is honed and amazing. The freer that it is to do its job, the better it works.
I am my body and also, there is more. Something essential is lost in clothing. The joy of nudity is lost, but something more than clothing is taken away. In my skin, I’m in touch with the world around me, all senses are more aware and I’m more integrated. This aligns with and supports a more natural place, or sense of being. It opens the pathways to other senses in a unified natural activity of awareness and body.
Other senses are felt about the body, such as, I have a greater sense of well-being. I have a deeper sense of being a part of something quite amazing, even oneness. If one just tries free range naturism and is simply being aware; there is a generally obvious observation, which can expand into more in time.
This is another short post, something that I wrote a while back. There simply isn’t enough time these couple of weeks to sit down, take a complete day and finish the complex continuation, or the finale of either of the two story directions that we are flowing toward. Please, give time time as it unfolds.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
I once had a conversation with an ex-forest Service member that I was dating. She told me how back in the day, when working in groups in the wilderness for days at a time, she and her cohorts, had had a skinnydip. They had become less formal, had developed trust. She related how she and others had ended up walking for miles and days, happily and practically, attired nude. No problem was seen, by this.
I have also had conversations with passing forest workers, when myself and companion were nude. It happens. It is natural. Many apparently innately understand nature and naturism’s bonds.
They go hand in hand. It’s natural. Edward Abbey relates. Here is an excerpt form his book, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness: A Celebration of the Beauty of Living in a Harsh and Hostile Land.
He has a day off from the Forest Service and has climbed from the Utah desert into the high snowcaps:
“The wind stops, completely, as I finish my lunch. I strip and lie back in the sun, high on Tukuhnkivats, with nothing between me and the universe but my thoughts. Deliberately I compose my mind, quieting the febrile buzzing of the cells and circuits, and strive to open my consciousness directly, nakedly to the cosmos. Under the influence of cosmic rays I try for cosmic intuitions—and end up earthbound as always, with a vision not of the universal but of a small and mortal particular, unique and disparate. . . her smile, her eyes in firelight, her touch.
Well, let it be. You’ll find no deep thinkers at 13,000 ft. anyway. The wind comes up again, I get to my feet and dance along the cornice of a snowbank that hangs above the void. Down there in the forest, somewhere, my camp, my old truck, my fireplace—home. I look for a quick and easy way to return,
The climb up from timberline had taken about two hours. Looking down at the graceful curve of the thousand-foot snowfield it seems that the descent should not require more than five minutes. I put on my clothes, shoulder the rucksack and work down over the rock to the couloir and the upper end of the slide.”
We naked people are not alone. Everyone is a naturist, they just don’t all know it…yet.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
Some people might die of embarrassment, shrink in humiliation, or feel violated by the exposure of their bodies. DF and I don’t have that anymore. The hesitation so many feel when disrobing, with its connotation of striptease, is buried under healthy natural behaviors and practices. What was uncomfortable is now simply what it is, removing clothing.
Mooning and flashing have had a varied and useful history!
I came across this unfamiliar word, anasyrma, while looking into ways to solve my conflict with the censorship of mere nudity on the internet. If nudity is tossed into the realms of porn by the corporate powers that bought the internet, it is teaching and reinforcement of the ideas that the sight of our bodies is improper, immodest, indecent, or even evil and dangerous…Anyway, one thing led to another and I discovered anasyrma. A lovely term about lifting a skirt, or kilt.
I looked it up. Here’s Wikipedia for starters:
“Many historical references suggest that anasyrma had dramatic or supernatural effect—positive or negative. Pliny the Elder wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. If she strips naked and walks around a field of wheat, caterpillars, worms and beetles fall off the heads. Even when not menstruating, she can lull a storm out at sea by stripping.
According to folklore, women lifted their skirts to chase off enemies in Ireland and China. A story from The Irish Times (September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, which was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers.”
Wiki continues, “According to Balkan folklore, when it rained too much, women would run into the fields and lift their skirts to scare the gods and end the rain. Maimonides also mentions this ritual to ward off the rain while expressing his disapproval. Stripping away clothing was perceived as creating a “raw” state closer to nature than society, facilitating interaction with supernatural entities. In Jean de La Fontaine’s Nouveaux Contes (1674), a demon is repulsed by the sight of a woman lifting her skirt. Associated carvings, called sheela na gigs, were common on medieval churches in northern Europe and the British Isles.
In some nations of Africa, a woman stripping naked and displaying herself is still considered a curse and a means to ward off evil.
In Nigeria, during mass protests against the petroleum industry, women displayed themselves in anasyrma. Leymah Gbowee used anasyrma when trying to bring peace during the Second Liberian Civil War.”
So, there is power perceived in nakedness.
I think back to Mel Gibson, “Braveheart.” It was disarming, disconcerting and of course insulting to someone trying to be serious about soldiering, to see the dropping of the dress up that symbolizes and legitimates the socio-cultural game (yea war). It can make a joke out of someone’s serious imposition. I’m sure that has been a driving force in the repression of nudity. Naked has been taken as an affront to the status quo and its controls, from hippies dancing naked, to irreverent kids sticking their butts out of car windows as they pass. It is defiant against repression. It undermines authority in its free expression. It is liberating. It can even be revolutionary, but not televised!
What strikes me as absurd is that in this state, Arizona’s statute law, it is legal to use nudity in any protest, but not to protest about the laws that are anti-nudity. I can playfully cavort nude on a bicycle to protest fossil fuel use, or walk the oppressed helpless naked to show my sincerity about any injustice. I’ll be arrested and lose in court for carrying a sign protesting anti-nudity laws, without dressing up first.
Anasyrma, a beautiful word, just seems like it should be about a beautiful thing, not the act of a teenager standing up on the seat of a moving car and shoving a bare butt out of the window, just to upset the cart of the status quo.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
Is common bodily modesty sexist, or even misogynistic? I’d say so. Can a woman not be truly free of patriarchy, until she is free of the traps of clothing? I’d say so.
But, who am I to speak for women? Can I really understand? Shouldn’t this be written by a woman? I think that I can speak to this because as a man, I also can’t be free, until I’m free of our societal situation. That being okay, still, I’ll extensively quote some women throughout this article, as I make my case.
Let’s look at the inside first, body shame. We are pressured into living up to unreasonable bodily ideals. From young to aging, people are subjected to fashionable impositions. It changes, but our body types won’t always agree with those changes. People starve, suffer social insecurities, and lie to themselves and others. We are told that we are flawed. We are manipulated into clothing that will make us look something other than what we are.
We are sexualized, something that has its place, but this overused imposition confines the identity to within limits, and with that, it limits personal potential. We are reduced, corralled and channeled into living life as someone else’s object. People get dressed to support that fantasy. People also dress to diminish objectification. Our other abilities, our other humanity, our inter-relationships are constantly tainted with this. People tease, fish, manipulate and game within this context. We are more than that. We can’t be equal, if we have to be so separated by sexual concerns and inhibitions.
The trap of gender roles is rampant. Dress, the uniform of conformity, plays a big part. Be it power garb, masculine superiority, a female’s place, or inequality, gender determines “who wears the pants,” a term that comes directly from this kind of culture.
Things have changed. Here’s evidence, but still, what remains?
The Free Range Naturist 