Ten questions, nine failures, and the one thing underneath all of them. We use a lot of words to define the things we do, switching between terms and labels like nudism and naturism, or living clothes-free. But the vocabulary doesn’t actually matter. Somewhere along the way, after chasing the boundaries and philosophies in circles, you…
“Being comfortable with my body does not mean that my body becomes available to other people.” When we published Part 1 of our conversation with Gabby Quinn, we said we could not have asked for a better conversation to open the Women of Naturism series. We truly meant it. The response from readers confirmed what…
My follow up to Corin’s article and the comments that followed Corin wrote about how men can help women feel welcome in clothes-free spaces. When I read the draft, I knew what potentially would come in comments. I thought about the reactions from some men, and started writing this in advance. Corin finished the article…
Corin put clothes on. It was read as more sexual than being naked ever did. We get asked some version of this question sometimes: “Is that naturism, or is that something else?” Usually it’s asked kindly, out of genuine curiosity. Sometimes it’s asked as a challenge, a way of testing whether we actually believe what…
Why it gets heavier the longer you wear it. Many of us spend a big portion of our lives collecting armor. We don’t really do it on purpose. It just sort of happens as we try to navigate the world without getting hurt. Every time someone gives us a weird look, every time we feel…
A couple from small-town Manitoba… four pages in a 102 year old publication. We don’t actually know how many people will read it. H&E doesn’t publish subscriber numbers, and we didn’t ask. What we do know is that it’s an audience we didn’t naturally write for. We don’t know if those who read it would…
Attention isn’t the problem. What you do with it is. There’s a phrase that comes up almost every time we talk about naturism with someone who’s new to it or abusing it: “Well… humans are visual animals.” It’s delivered with this little nod of finality, like it’s settled the matter. Like four words just explained…
Internal Shame, External Blame There is a very specific, heavy feeling that comes from sitting in the quiet of your own home and reading a few hundred strangers express absolute contempt for something you truly enjoy in life like social naturism. It isn’t quite anger, and it isn’t quite sadness either. It feels a lot…
Maybe they are actually getting clothes free living right! For the better part of two decades, the prevailing anxiety around resort campfires and committee tables has been that clothes-free living is a dying art. It’s treated like a generational relic bound to fade away into the sunset with the Baby Boomers, and if you look…
Understanding Naturism Means Recognizing Something You’ve Already Felt Someone messaged us recently from Kuala Lumpur. They were struggling to help the people around them with understanding naturism, and wanted to know if we had any tips, something logical, something that might actually help others comprehend without causing an immediate panic. It’s a question we’ve heard…