Absolutely Peter. Here at ANW we try to remove any opportunities that are not true to naturism and advice from yourself and others helps us remove such offenders.
We cannot control the decisions they make but we can distance ourselves from them and not give them our patronage and if enough people do that they may change their mind, but at least we can conscentrate on the genuine opportunities.
Rating and Reviewing all these genuine opportnuities on ANW will also help inspire others to visit. Ideally they would also all want to represent themsleves here to connect with the members and help grow and encourage genuine naturism.
We really loath vague marketing. Like Cap's attitude towards selling to naturists and swingers, families and adults looking for connections. It is cowardly and confusing and does naturism great harm. There should be clear defining lines. This is a naturist venue and this is a libertine venue. Blurring is unfair and weak. If there is "no shame" in being a libertine venue then they should announce it with pride, not try to hide behind the safer and more acceptabl;e world of naturism. And if there is shame then why are they doing it? Just for money! That makes the whole thing even more sordid. They are not convinced by their motives.
ANW is a naturist venture and we are honest and proud of that. We wouldn't try to sell it as anything different and we wouldn't try to trick people into using it through vague marketing.
If we were a swinging site, we would have decided to do that with a belief in the idea of swinging, and we would be proud to promote it as such. It isn't so we don't, but if it was, and we believed in it then why be vague? No one should create a business without be proud of that business and the product they are promoting. The money is important (and we cannot pretend it isn't - ANW is a costly and time consuming venture) but making money out of something you are ashamed of, that is just wrong. Maybe the vague approach says an awful lot about why they are doing this, and also shows a lack of comitment to their customers, and very happy to have naturists tricked into visiting too.
In the past few years we have seen a growth of "naturist" venues move into using words like "clothing optional" or "clothes free" even national bodies are doing it! It is partly a fear of labelling - ironic considering the world is more obsessed with labelling that ever before, and it starts the moment children are born. Schools are segregating pupils into maore and more labels - emotionally dividing them. When our son joined a school in Cornwall he was told that there would be pupils he would never ever see - such was the level of segregation due to labelling needs.
Yet it seems uncool to use the label naturist? The big problem I see here, which is why I think all venues and natioanl bodies need to get their act together, is that without using the right definition we lose the understanding of intention. We also stop promoting the idea of naturism as existing.
Swingers and libertine venues are clothing optional. Take it to extreme limits....Flashers choose to be clothing free at times. Doctors surgeries ask us to remove our clothes. People taken into controlled environments in war have their clothes removed to humiliate and degrade them. A national body presenting an event without using the word "naturism" leaves the event open to misrepresentations.
Leading to the questions: are they happy for naturism to be blurred just as long as they sell tickets?
and Have they lost their confidence in naturism?
It can feel that those who make decisions on behalf of "naturism" have lost their confidence in promoting to and welcoming families.
And this only adds to the confusion. What does a social eveny that allows people to be naked if they want entail?
At a music festival it is just part of that "letting your hair down" vibe - it may be simply loving music, it may be taking drugs, getting drunk, making sexual connections, being covered in mud, urinating in a cup, chucking off your top, going naked or any number of many choices. Maybe you just love trying lots of different take away foods.
Bike rides and other such statement, campaign and charity events use nudity to create attention. Yes some naturists will go for the opportunity to be naked, others care more about the issues involved and some will see it as an excuse to be an exhibitionist.
At a libertine venue this is part of the sexual connection. Nudity in this arean really does equal sex. Yet nudity is not demanded. Just part of the whole - anything goes idea.
Naturism has another separate view on being naked. Identified as: Naturism is a way of life in harmony with nature characterised by the practice of communal nudity with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and for the environment. It can be found being enjoyed by minorities at music festivals, a good percentage of people at bike rides and other such campaigns will be naturists too, but if something is classified as naturist then it has an understanding of expectation. It will be social, it will be non-sexual, it will be safe, and even if famiklies cannot go it will be family friendly in nature.
Being vague allow vague usage of nudity. If we cannot get national bodies and venues and event orgainsers to recognise the importance of that, then how we expect random people in dunes to recognise it, and people who are not naturists to recognise it?
Fear of conviction from within naturism is leading to a blurring, which in turn leads to greater fear! It becomes harder and harder for a national body or a venue to say "welcome to every one" if there is a hint of blurring.
Naturism needs to distance itself from the vague, and it needs to start with the INF and national bodies recommitting themselves to proudly stepping up for naturism for all and distancing themselves from blurred and vague behaviour and an immediate stop on allowing blurred marketing to cloud reality. Use "Naturism" with pride and place the core values of naturism front and centre in campaigns and stop allowing "naturism" to be hidden with a want to appear cool, trendy and profitable. Tell people that "naturism" is cool, trendy and profitable. We will get the life choice we deserve and at the moment that life choice is not being proud of naturism because it is not being true to naturism.
If we imagine naturism as a religion - what we curently have is a loss of faith, some naturist venues, website and bodies have become naturist atheists or agnostics. They no longer act like they believe in naturism or they are not sure whether naturism still exists or not. They are forgetting that we are the proof. Naturists have been true to the INF definition for decades, we are still there! Naturist organisers need to stop looking into the stars wanting the universe to decide what being naked is all about. They need to look at the millions of naturists young and old who still have faith in naturism and get back in the pulpit and start fighting for "naturism" again. They cannot please everyone, but they can please naturists - and that is their purpose. And the more they make naturists happy, the more they promote genyine naturism and the more they inspire others to become naturists - and then the more they sell their tickets/holidays/pitches/websites etc. It is a win win situation but there has to be commitment and conviction.
Anna, I see two topics in your post.
The best we can do is to do what we can to push the world in the right direction and recognise when we're beating our head against a brick wall.
