My experience, although not quite on a par with Grahame's, is that acceptance is more readily found than we might expect. Two examples; when good friends offered me the use of their garden to sunbathe nude, they asked neighbours who used a path beside the garden if they would mind seeing a naked man there from time to time. The reply; not a problem. The second example; I opened our front door, naked, to our friends. Our next door neighbour was walking past and looked at me. Ever since, he has been just as pleasant as he was before.
Moral; there's much more acceptance of us than we might have expected.
I totally agree with you Philip, people are generally more accepting than we give them credit for
I wrote an article for the last issue of Naturist Life about my experience of telling my neighbours, The wife of one of my neighbours who is probably late 60’s is so supportive of my lifestyle, she was the one who helped me write the article and choose which pictures to include, she will chat to me her fully clothed and me naked like it’s a completely normal thing to do, which it has now become for us
We as naturist need and should always respect others naturists or non-naturists, the same as we should regardless of race, colour or sexuality
We all live in this world and in the grand scale of things we are only here for a short period of time
I love to be nude, Mrs Neighbours loves to be clothed so we are all exactly the same in our own different ways
My personal experience is also that nudity is more accepted than we think (or fear). All my neighbours know that I'm a naturist, but I did not "impose" my nudity, all I had to do was informing them I was a naturist and asking if they're Ok if I wander around casually naked. All I received was shrugs and okays. Now, when they come home unexpected, they of course expect me being fully naked, and life continues. None of them is naturist. Same happens when encountering hikers. I had in few instances a very weird or disgusted look, but overall, shrugs and okays. I truly believe the difference lies in the behavior. Be friendly, smily and confident, people will smile and be okay. Overall, just ask, respectfully if you can be naked, and expect to receive more yeses than nos.
I concur with Marc that it is generally way more accepted than we think. Mostly we were raised with idea that it would not be accepted accordingly that is probably the undertone we beleive will apply. However reality is different. As I have said, i do not hide my lifestyle and will usually advised people up front if I get the opportunity. Regardless people talk and even if I haven't told someone directly usually if they are local they will know.
That means I get acceptance or at worst ambivalence. In fact I'm not convinced that some people don't specifically drive past just to see if it's true, lol. Although why the sight of a naked body should draw that level of attention I'm unsure.
So is the fact that people wont accept us in our minds. I'm certain there would be the odd extremely vocal opponent who regards our natural form as a threat to civilization but I suspect they are quite rare.
i dont care if im nude but i do care that others may see so keep my curtains / blinds drawn so im not seen, silly but i dont upset them and cause myself any legal bother.
if im warm enough to be nude, where it is appropriate, then i will be. I spent christmas day nude, left the heat on all day, shut the blinds and enjoyed the day setting up my new lap top i'd bought for christmas.
Ok it wasn't was good as having a nude day in the summer when it's 25-28c and i dont need the heat on as the afternoon sun is blazing through the blinds making it really comfy in here but it was good.
but as for normalising nudity find it so odd as a guy in his mid 50s, who has seen so much social change and acceptance with regard to race, gender, disability, sexuality etc that society world wide seems unable to accept the very basic thing we all are, irrespective of race, gender, disability or sexuality, naked humans covered in clothes
