As rightly said child abuse has always been around. Steve's mother had a cousin come and stay with them to escape her abusive father in the 1940's. What has always been a problem is that these offenders do not get punished - family may step in and protect the youngster but they also protect the abuser.

Like teenage pregnancies in by gone decades it was dealt with in a hidden and secrective way. This may have ended happily ever after for some girls - with their daughters being merrily brought up by their parents as their sisters. But for others there were horrors involved such as covered in Philomena and still coming to light today.

The world is different now. About 17 years ago a girl around 14/15 who lived opposite Steve became pregnant and left school with great celebration and then started a blog following every aspect of her pregancy - scans, weight etc. Gain local fame and applause for what years ago would have been a secret shame and even today  should maybe be considered as a waste of youth and learning and adventure to be replaced by a life of parenting before actually living. The fact that her pregancy obviously involved underage sex and another party was involved in this illeagal act that could have resulted in being placed on the sex offenders list seemed to go unquestioned.

I remember around 20 years ago wondering what was happening when 10 year old girls would walk around with t-shirts with writing like "Total Bitch" on the front. Clothing and fashion has a lot to answer for.

My own abuse was very much hidden and abusers were never punished - guilt placed on the abusee has a big part to play and the fear of causing trouble. It will damage and shame the family. The abuse by my grandmother's husband was known by family and my grandmother saw it as a way of stopping him pestering her. That attitude made me even more resigned to the idea that there was little I could do but accept it. Though when my father started my experience led me to pull the plug pretty sharpish - but although I never spoke about it to any one for almost two decades - the harm was done and our relationship destroyed despite family life continuing.

Would I handle my abuse differently today if I was a child again in the internet age. Probably not. The emotional issues of guilt and secrecy would remain, the power of grooming and control would remain, the need for families to hide their dirty secrets would remain. So what is different today? Paranoia is rampant because those cases that do get media coverage encourage it  and also the internet has opened up the ease of finding child porn. So the idea is so much more high profile. The crime is trendy but the victims probably remain as quetly suffering as ever.

High profile cases are from people 10, 15, 20, 30... years on making claims against old men - some dead! And some of the claims are ficticious - leading to a destruction of innocent lives - simply for attention. Or to hurt. When Woody Allen was first claimed against by Mia Farrow 90% of all Manhatten seperations made such claims - and in all probability the Woody claim like the vast majority of others were false ways of hurting a partner when love had ended. There is so much sensible evidence that points to Woody being totally innocent - yet the accusation alone does all the damage needed. No guilt in court is necessary.

The tragedy is that those that are abused get lost in the hype and real cases are confused among the lies and the liklihood of victims wanting to come forward to talk about such high profile crimes  is increasingly less likely. If it was tough thirty years ago when the crime was rather discreet - imagine how tough it is now that the crime would enter you into a circus show. The majority ofyoungsterswho would want to get involved would be performers. Those after attention. An ever growing trait on the internet and echoing into life.

To understand reality on the internet we have to see past the exhibitionists and seekers of fame. That can be child abuse victims, those that self harm, those who speak about their sexuality, those that talk about depression, those that speak about racism or sexism.

Even those that speak about naturism.  Some are simply exhibitionists, some are seeking fame, some seeking financial gain without staying true to concepts of naturism, some fearing non- pc attitudes or acting overly woke - leading to a lack of encouragement of families in naturism and a fake obsessions with inclusion that doesn't quite ring true - naturism is for everyone and that is all we need to remember. So how are non-naturists supposed to understand naturism? We fear talking about families but insist on talking about the young, women, ethnicity and sexual preference. We have bloggers who hide their bodies and worse still charge people money to see their bodies, we have sexual exhibitionists stating incorrectly that they are doing it for naturism and body acceptance, we have genuine confusion - how do non-naturists ever consider nudity as normal when naturists seem to act so abnormal - well meant publicity will often be seen by non-naturists as exhibitionism - can the non naturist see the difference between a naked person in a TV studio surrounded by clothed individuals as any different from a streaker on a football pitch - I think sadly not. When a naturist posts a picture of themselves on social nudity with the caption normalise nudity most non - naturists will see this as complete abnormal. I cannot help but wonder if it does more harm than good. This isn't saying read and understand naturism - this is saying - look I am naked are you not surprised? There is a fine line between encouraging and discouraging an understanding of naturism and mostly I would say we fail. Simply because we are doing unnatural things in an attempt to make something appear natural. 

It is that attitude that naturism appears to be unnatural that confuses many and allows the idea of "not in front of the children" to flourish. Natursm isn't about wearing our breasts and genitals like trophies or charity wrist bands, decorate them like your are lighting them up for Christmas or hide them Golem-like as if they are precious treasures - and while we continue to do these things we will continue to confuse the non-naturist into seeing naturists as acting unnaturally. And while it is considered unnatural it will be considered something the average person doesn't want to consider. 

It is not about getting naturism in the public eye no matter what - it is about ensuring that when we do we present it properly. Quality of quantity. Understanding over celerbrity. Get naturist not noticed - act natural and not nude.  

As it's getting to Christmas, I will use Santa's lists as the metaphor...



I fully understand that some people really don't like children.  That's perfectly okay as a personal choice and I respect that.  However, to project a personal choice onto the level of morality so that their personal choice can be sustained and indoctrinated, is just disrespectful of other people's choices.

Some people don't see this as a violation of others, but they will retract if made aware.  However, some people just really love to impose their views on others, and see real joy and achievement in doing so.

Wars have been waged over competing idealogies.  We thought over thousands of years of civilisation, human beings would have overcome this.  Sadly we are still on that journey.

I am not morally superior in any way.  I just want everyone to the freedom and space to be let be, as long as they do not do physical harm on others.  That day, unfortunately, is yet to come.

Growing up, I remember dealing with feelings of guilt about being a naturist. Granted, I didn't know what naturism was, I just knew I had fun being nude. It was always a challenge dealing with societal norms vs what seemed natural. I had a blast skinny dipping with my best friend. Or if we stayed over at one of our houses, we would have a blast sneaking out of the house and running around the backyard naked :) It seemed totally normal to us, but then I always had a nagging feeling that we were being "bad". 

And I'm not sure if anyone else had this situation, but my parents had very different ideas on nudity. Although not a naturist herself,  our mother was far more tolerant of her kids playing naked as opposed to our father. Ultimately, it led to confusion for us as we grew up. We had great parents, don't get me wrong, but it was just confusing. For example, Mom would throw us into the shower together all the time, but we would get into trouble if we did something like that if dad was at home.   

You might have a point there, Anna. I think some of it also came down to personal views, which is fine.

https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/130/are-promotions-for-naturism-failing-to-encourage-families

https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/115/are-we-naturists-by-design-or-default

https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/65/naturist-schools



Moving forward from last nights topic and using seeds that I have sown in recent articles like 

https://www.anaturistworld.com/article/46166/promoting-naturism-to-women

https://www.anaturistworld.com/article/46171/survival

Steve and I would like to be really proactive about ensuring that naturism is seen as a family friendly life choice. That is not to say that it is only about families, that only families are welcome and single people, couples without children or couples/individuals whose children have left home are very much a part of naturism and as individuals we are all equally important and welcomed to naturism. 

Our point is primarily two fold:
1 That by describing and promoting naturism as family friendly it keeps naturism safe and suitable for all. Something that not only keeps naturism on target but also helps those new to naturism understand what they can expect and this encourages more people to trust and try naturism. 
2 By ensuring that families are aware that naturism is suitable for them we are basically promoting to the largest group of people in the world. If I was running a doughnut shop I would welcome all minorities with equal respect. My intention would be to sell doughnuts. Now I could in my marketing promote to the LGQT market, the black market, the female market, the single market, the 18-30 market etc and these campaigns may be very worthwhile but if I ignored the family market I would be ignoring a huge potential for sales. The biggest potential for shifting doughnuts from my shelves. Steve and I do not for one minute believe that naturism should not welcome all and be promoted to all BUT currently it seems that is not happening. All means everyone and no matter how we look at it and no matter how well intended the campaigns may be the naturist community as a whole is ignoring the biggest market out there, the majority group and the uptake in naturism across the globe will reflect that. 

Our want is to encourage all aspects of society to naturism - right across the board - and at the moment we need to think about the short fall. There is a logic that dictates that the more people we can get to try naturism today the more we will see others try it tomorrow. It is a number game. There is no point in me expecting to sell my doughnuts if no one knows of my shop. If I get 400 people to visit my shop today then tomorrow it will be 410 and the next day 425 and will escalate each day as word and knowledge spreads. The percentage of minority groups will escalate in ratio as that number rises. Heightened awareness is the key. Then there is trust in the product - if I sell my product as suitable to all - then no one feels it is not for them. I would for example wish to consider dietary needs. Removing certain ingredients that would not put off anyone but would encourage a wider market.

Naturism needs to clearly look at the bigger picture of humanity and promote itself as safe, suitable and welcoming to all and not just consider certain parts of our society. Promote to everyone first and foremost - then look at aspects of the market that you are failing to attract and look for ways of enticing that part of society too. 

Have a look through the topics above and share your thoughts on them and here. 


Then I would like you to consider the reasons why we should be promoting naturism as family friendly and for children. Share facts, research, statistics, information and ideas about how it is positive, safe and suitable for children and families. How it can help nurture children, nurture families and in the long run nurture our whole society. 

I look forward to you thoughts