It may be a bit of a cliché but it's absolutely true that young children are natural unashamed naturists, and all our collective hangups about being seen naked or seeing others naked are learned as we grow up.  If you raised a bunch of babies on a desert island with a warm climate and never told them that clothes were necessary or desirable, would they ever choose to wear them?  Would they develop some notion of modesty as they got older and went through puberty etc?  It's hard to know.

Whatever the answer to that, in the society that we do live in, feelings about nudity as adults can be very deeply ingrained and hard or impossible to overcome.  I think it's extremely common for people to be put off naturism by feelings of discomfort or disgust about seeing other people naked, rather than the idea of being seen naked themselves.  Comments about "the wrong kind of people" being seen on naturist beaches, suggesting that only beautiful bodies should be exposed in public, are very commonly seen.  It's very sad if one person in a couple is a naturist and the other person is so uncomfortable with nudity that they can't even bear to see their partner naked, let alone others.  I know from people's stories that these attitudes can be overcome, but perhaps it's rare.

Should someone who loves naturism give it up in response to strong opposition from their partner?  I'm not sure they should.  We only get one chance at life and in a hundred years no-one will remember or care what we did, or how we lived our lives.  Sometimes we need to be brave and not just go along with things to avoid confrontation.  You can acknowledge that your partner has genuine feelings about the matter but if it's getting to the point of emotional blackmail to stop you doing something you love, then that's abuse - especially if they're not willing to compromise or even discuss it.

It's very important to keep promoting naturism as healthy, natural, non-seedy and family-friendly.  For many years when the subject of naturist clubs has come up in conversation, I've told people that they're about as sexual as a ladies' knitting club, so it amused me when I went to my club a few days ago and there were indeed several people sitting around knitting and having a lovely time  😃  I do hope there's still a bright future for innocent, family-friendly naturism in the UK and the world in general.

John R said:

 

Should someone who loves naturism give it up in response to strong opposition from their partner?  I'm not sure they should.  We only get one chance at life and in a hundred years no-one will remember or care what we did, or how we lived our lives.  Sometimes we need to be brave and not just go along with things to avoid confrontation.  You can acknowledge that your partner has genuine feelings about the matter but if it's getting to the point of emotional blackmail to stop you doing something you love, then that's abuse - especially if they're not willing to compromise or even discuss it.

 

Unfortunately, I think many people are in relationships for the wrong reasons meaning that they’re not in a “good” relationship with their partner, whether or not they’re married. My desire to be nude certainly wouldn’t have been supported by my first wife , but my wife now is fully supportive even though she doesn’t share my enthusiasm. 

Relationships are complex things. Is the lack of support enough reason to separate? I would argue not. But if you can’t even talk about it and work out a compromise, I think that’s indicative of deeper issues. Now, I’m not advocating that everyone who has a non-supportive partner should separate. That’s entirely up to them to resolve. But I do know that my mental health and life overall improved immensely when I separated from my first wife, and I’m in a much better position with a very supportive wife, even if she doesn’t participate in nudity on the beach with me.

As you say Tony relationships are complex things. Sometimes when I read the messages from people who have partners that are negative about naturism I do wonder if there are bigger issues at play. We have had reports from some people who say for example that their partners do not trust the idea of them being around other naked members of the opposite sex. A lack of trust in a relationship is never a good thing. 

Having been in a very negative and abusive relationship for a period of years, my gut instinct is often one of thinking that some of the stories Anna and I read are signs that a relationship is negative and should end. 

But really only those involved in the relationships can really judge. Maybe the partner is a survivor of some sort of abuse, and has issues with the human body that deserves understanding. Maybe the relationship is wonderful, and this is the only point the couple do not see eye to eye on. Maybe the naturist partner is actually the one being inconsiderate in some way? My one piece of advice that I carry from being in an abusive relationship is that if you have a nagging doubt that it is wrong, then listen, don't make excuses up and hide from it. We all deserve happiness. 

But the best relationship involve balance. Accepting each other and coming to mutual agreement. Ideally you find that most things in life you can agree on, but the things you don't need to be compromised over. Answers can be found. It could be that there are things the partners needs, life choices the partner wants, that can be added into the mix. One of the couple can enjoy naturism while the other enjoys skydiving (for example), and maybe there are times when you can join each other in your individual wants, despite it not being something you particularly wish to do. You may find you both actually like each other's requests.  

I went through some of the content of this topic and all I can say is it's fascinating and very complex, however, IMHO, if a relationship is strong, one should not have to choose between naturism and relationship. My wife is not passionate about naturism as I am. She's sometimes confused about it, as she still sees naturism for some people as exhibitionism and voyeurism (and yes, she had a couple of midly bad experiences on nude beaches where gawkers made her feel uncomfortable). But, naturism has never been a topic that separates us, it's something she understands, as I understand her interest in some other topics I do not have any interest in. Isn't it what makes a relationship rich and interesting? If you marry someone who's you're exact copy, how do you grow?

Now, naturism is suffering these days I do believe. It suffers the blurred line with sex and swinging. For many, naturism and sexuality have no difference. Nudity is something shameful that attracts deviance, hence it should be hidden and kept private. I had numerous discussion about this with many people and came to understand that fear has become so ingrained in their mind, it's impossible to have them take another point of view. When you listen to the news, you are confronted with many pedophile and sex-offenders stories, up to a point that it seems that sex-offenders are everywhere around us. Which they are not, hopefully!

But, our society being more and more risk averse, we now see nudity as something that acts as a bait for sex-offenders and therefore, naturism is bad. full stop! The narrative is very difficult to debunk. Brandolini's law explain that it requires "considerable effort to debunk misinformation to the relative ease of creating it in the first place. The adage states: The amount of energy needed to refute ******** is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."

Now, this should not stop us, naturists, to continue learning and preaching to others what naturism is really and how beneficial it can be to people. I do really love naturism and I will never stop to live it fully, while loving my non-fully-naturist significant other.

There is no easy answer to this problem other than as Anna says, “you might get something from others experiences”.

Personally, naturism is my thing, not my partners so I can easily cross the line in her eyes if I’m not careful, but she has come round to some aspects of it, as she sees that I get benefit from it which is progress.

At first, she seemed sceptical but must have discussed it with others as she seemed more open and did come to the beach with me, although I was the only one naked.

Over time she lost some of her inhibitions and went naked on the beach abroad and finally came naturist camping with me in France which was a big breakthrough.

But she is not spontaneous as I am and needs notice, so I have to plan ahead and suggest things in advance.

I guess the best medicine is time and you just doing what you do as a naturist, making it as much as the norm as possible.

This last couple of weeks has been warm in the UK and I haven’t bothered putting clothes on unless I was going out somewhere, so me walking around the house naked, cooking naked, washing up naked, watching TV naked has been fantastic for me and accepted by my partner.

But if I was to go out into the garden and hang the washing up there would be problems (if she was around.)

Is it ideal, no. Can I put up with it ? yes.

I wanted to join a club and told her about it. I made my application and was invited to visit, she then decided she wanted to come, so we both went and joined as a couple. Another breakthrough perhaps although I am there more than she is, but she knows I can go there and get pleasure from it.

In the end, it is compromise on both sides that allows us to carry on.