What kinds of people are Nudists? Another nudist definition.

According to Liz and James Egger, authors of the "Complete Guide to Nudism and Naturism" (2006), nudists are "normal, morally responsible respectable citizens - singles, couples and families - who just happen to share a passion for wholesome social nudity."

The book is a great introductory resource to the modern situation of nudism. I'm sure I'll refer to the book again.

The authors also provide a concise definition of naturism/nudism:

"Naturism is the enjoyment of getting as naked as possible, wherever appropriate, alone or with others, just for its own sake"

It's a nice definition. Clear and to the point.

The book is available here.

South African Nude Safari to open in March 2007

Nudist Day had an interesting post about a new South African nude safari and this should be very exciting news for nudist travelers!

At 95 sq. miles, Kudumanzi Nudist EcoPark is the largest nudist resort in the world! To walk across the property would take weeks. In reality, the accommodations are limited - only room enough for 16 or so people, but who can complain on nude safari.

The wilderness here is really wild. According to the Kudumanzi Nudist EcoPark website, wildlife includes the animals you'd only see in zoos in the United States: giraffes, kudus, rooiboks, zebras, crocodiles and all kinds of exotic birds. Visitors may even see cheetahs, but don't let the cheetah see you!

As stated on the website: "The area is also completely malaria free!" Nice! Nobody wants to catch malaria while naked on a safari.

More about the park:

"The NudistEcoPark™ is located in a protected Game Farm and Ecosystem and provides a perfect backdrop for Naturist and Nudist activities. It is also totally secluded and private, and will allow you unfettered nude roaming of a large Game Farm type environment." (Source: Kudumanzi Nudist EcoPark website)

The park offers a lot of fun, one-of-a-kind activities:

- Guided nude game drives
- Nude walking trails and hiking
- Nude quad riding via rentable quads
- Nude eco hunting (groups only) which doesn't appear to be real kill-the-animal hunting, but more of a safari experience, but I could be wrong.
- Nude personalized picnics at various waterfall sites in the park.

This sounds like a great experience! I wouldn't recommend this for a first-time experience for north american residents. I'd recommend trying an American Association for Nude Recreation affiliated nudist resort which provide an ideal first-time environment. Get some experience first before making an investment.

Nudist Travel Guide Blog temporarily blocked

Unfortunately, for some weird reason, my other blog about naturist travel is temporarily not allowing posts, so I'll have to post some travel news here until that can be fixed.

The error I get is "This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots." However, the blog is anything but spam. All posts are original and it usually takes several hours to do the research and writing required to do a post.

I must thank Blogger for providing a free tool to create blogs. I hope others will use Blogger to share their nudist experiences. Blogger is a great tool.

I respect Blogger's desire to prevent junk blogs, but their spam-prevention robots made a mistake. I hope they can fix this soon. It has been blocked for 2 weeks now.

Nudist Rights Organizations: Naturist Action Committee

The Naturist Action Committee (NAC) is a non-profit political adjunct to The Naturist Society (TNS).

NAC is one of the organizations that works hard to preserve nudist freedom. NAC's mission:

"NAC exists to advance and protect the rights of naturists throughout North America. NAC supports the responsible recreational nude use of public lands."

One great tool NAC provides online is a guide to laws concerning naturist rights.

Local lawmakers, trying to do the best they can for the community, sometimes create ordinances in their towns in an effort to keep sexually-oriented adult entertainment clubs out of town or away from residential areas.  

Sometimes these laws have a negative impact on  non-sexually oriented naturist rights.   NAC is among the organizations that try to create awareness about how naturism is completely different and how lawmakers can be more accommodating.

Do nudists have a word for people who wear clothes?

Yes, anyone who is not a nudist is called a "textile". The word textile refers to the non-nude person being clothed with textile materials (i.e., cloth is a textile).

As I understand it, textile is not a derogatory word in any way. Nudists are the most accepting groups of people on the planet.  The nudist may even have remorse when using the word.  "Those poor textiles, they do not know what they are missing."

Sometimes, when nudists are not nude, they may call themselves "textile" as in "While at work, I am a textile, but at home I an a nudist."   Or, "When the weather is too chilly to be nude, I am happy to be a warm textile."

Make sense?

"Nudism" is a world-wide phenomenom

In english, nudism may be called naturism or clothes-free.

The word "nudism" is common to many languages, reflecting its importance to those communities:

• Dutch: nudisme
  
• French: nudisme
  
• German: Usually called FKK for Freikörperkultur, also called Nudismus, Naturismus
  
• Greek: γυμνισμός (gymnismós)
  
• Italian: nudismo
  
• Latin: nudismus, gymnismus
• Spanish: naturismo
• Portuguese: naturismo
• Simplified Chinese - 裸体主义
• Traditional Chinese - 裸體主義  
  
  
  

What is "naturism"?

"Naturism" is considered to be the same as "nudism" by most people in the US and Canada. Some regions and countries tend to use "naturism" more than the word "nudism". The nature part of the word reflects the "harmony with nature" aspect of being nude.

The MSN Encarta definition of naturism is this:

wearing no clothes as custom: the practice of going without clothes, usually in a communal setting or in designated areas, in the belief that nudity is a healthy natural state

The Encarta definition mentions the social setting aspects of naturism. However, solitary nudist hiking qualifies as naturism just as much as riding a bike in the nude with nudists for a cause.

Nudism not so strange after all

According to a 2006 study by the Naturist Education Foundation/Roper Poll, 54% of Americans support having public land set aside for nude sunbathing. (View nudist research here)

The American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) has over 50,000 members.

The AANR has 270 affiliated clubs and resorts where you can take your clothes off.

As I wrote in Nudist Travel Guide Blog, there are a lot of good fun activities at these types of clubs and resorts including:

1. Lounging on the beach or by a pool

2. Swimming / skinny-dipping

3. Picnics at nudist campgrounds and dining at resort restaurants

4. Hiking naked

5. Camping au naturel

6. Nude petanque

7. Nude volleyball

8. Nude ping-pong

9. Nude tennis

10. Dancing at dance night at a nudist campground

Welcome to Nudist Beginnings

Nudist Beginnings is a blog full of resources for people considering nudism.

This blog will help you understand what being a nudist is all about. A good first step is the definition currently on Wikipedia:

The meanings of naturism and nudism are very similar, and refer to a cultural and political movement practicing, advocating and defending social nudity in private and public spaces. Several other terms ("social nudity", and recently: "clothes-free") have been proposed as a replacement of these terms, but none has yet found the same wide-spread acceptance as the older terms naturism and nudism.

Nudist Beginnings

This is the new Nudist Beginnings website.