Nude Camping, It's not just for adults anymore

USA News and Views ^ | 07/26/03 | Paul Walfield

[westgirl123]

The Times points out that parents who enroll their pre-teen and teen age kids to the nation’s growing number of nudist camps geared for that age group aren’t very concerned about it and in fact find it a wholesome and safe environment. Actually, according to the Times, “‘The Nudist Association, the larger of two nationwide, sees this as a place to train ‘youth ambassadors’ to what nudists call the ‘textile’ world.”’ Apparently, there is a movement to convert or at least desensitize us all to nudity. Perhaps they even want us all to be so desensitized that we also stop seeing the connection between nudity and sex.

[CindyDawg]

If your two year old run outside naked while you are trying to dress her ,SS is called though.

[elfman2]

"More from the I-hate-the-body crowd...creating neuroses for the past 2000 years."

Yea, and look how successful all those nudist tribes are.

Look at and all the wonderful contributions to mankind they've made while being free to "love-the-body" at any moment. If anything, I think clothes give men a break from their sexual nature to accomplish something greater than that directed by their instinct for the next babe or the next release.

[eno_]

Riyahd good, Tahiti bad? Where would you rather have your desk next week?

[garbanzo]

Look at and all the wonderful contributions to mankind they've made while being free to "love-the-body" at any moment.

While I don't have any hard data to back it up, I would suspect that people in many of those tribes are actually happier and have fewer psychological disorders than many moderns. I think we are a more comfortable society but that comfort comes at a very high emotional price. Even among Western nations, the US has a high level of emotional discomfort which is actually hindering our progress I think.

[Bluntpoint]

Sometimes, when I am really feeling too good about myself, I look at myself naked in the mirror.

I then slink away, put my stretch pants back on and buy a quart of Cherry Cordial Ice Cream... and cry.

[Publius6961]

If your two year old run outside naked while you are trying to dress her ,SS is called though.

You raise a great point.

Nutcases from both extremes are tedious.
The thing I've noticed most about these threads is that merely having a discussion about the subject is slapped down by the neurotics.

Those I fear the most. I loathe the thought police.

[elfman2]

"While I don't have any hard data to back it up, I would suspect that people in many of those tribes are actually happier and have fewer psychological disorders than many moderns."

I don't doubt what you suspect. And I don't have any hard data, but I suspect that without our help, they die at exceptionally high rates from illnesses we cure. I also suspect that they clash and war over resources that would be sufficient to maintain more than 10 times their numbers in modern societies, with all our neurosis producing stresses. Additionally, I suspect that the time of many primitive people that where at one time potentially brilliant is taken up by tedious, unrewarding and unchallenging tasks needed to survive, however therapeutic they may be.

[sheik yerbouty]

What about poison ivy?

[cricket]

. . .Nudism. . .is 'first level' Communism and exercise in denial! (all persons NOT created equal. . .will play on the 'equal/level playing field. . .)

By their 'gifts' they will not be known/acknowledged. :^)

[jws3sticks]

Love it!

Play volleyball.

Get lucky!

Play volleyball.

Go for it...

[elfman2]

"Riyahd good, Tahiti bad? Where would you rather have your desk next week?"

Didn't Gogan die at an early age of syphilis? Paradise doesn't last. Papaete's an overcrowded, commercialized and polluted city not far from any 3rd world capital. I live in Key Largo, best of both worlds.

[jetson]

You got that right. Just went to the wifes company picnic at a swim club and saw enough blubber to fill a dumpster. It is horrifying how FAT alot of parents and kids are these days. The thought of them nude is mind altering.

[Bluntpoint]

Mind altering and winky deadening.

[jetson]

A roger to that.

[ModelBreaker]

I would suspect that people in many of those tribes are actually happier and have fewer psychological disorders than many moderns. I think we are a more comfortable society but that comfort comes at a very high emotional price. Even among Western nations, the US has a high level of emotional discomfort which is actually hindering our progress I think.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, most of mankind's great achievements were accomplished by folks who were distinctly uncomfortable at the time.

Prancing around naked and happy on the beaches--to the extent that image correctly portrays any human society in history--is a dead end, a result of too much comfort and abundance. Eventually, reality will intervene and such a society will have to don their 'textiles' and deal with it--or face extinction. Face-to-face with reality will almost always be uncomfortable.

My suspicion is that the Western notion that such societies actually existed is about as valid as the notion that the plains indians lived in harmony with nature and respected all men and women, no matter how diverse. That is, these notions are unexamined fantasies of the 60's. These memes will live at least until every baby-boomer has gone to the grave.

No matter how much the boomers insist that discomfort (sexual or otherwise) is a social construct, they are wrong. Over time, it is part of the warp and woof of human nature.

[garbanzo]

I'm not one of these back-to-nature luddite types - we bring some good things like medicine and electricity. At the same time we bring a lot of bad things as well and after modernization, a lot of the primitives end up as poor drunks living in a cinder block apartment somewhere. My hope would be to combine modern technology and development with the sort of holistic approach that leads to a greater degree of happiness. What's the point of producing all of this stuff if we can never enjoy it?

[garbanzo]

Some degree of discomfort is necessary. Even in primitive tribes you do have to gather food. But the process is usually not onerous and in many places pretty easy and doesn't take up most of the day. The question is the degree of discomfort and the price we pay and who pays it. Perhaps insanity is the price you pay for modernity. I'm just asking if it's altogether worth it.

[Bluntpoint]

My hope is to some day have a great big house and an expensive car and never have time to enjoy either.

[mewzilla]

Mr. Deer Tick, meet the nice nude campers. Nude campers, meet hungry Mr. Deer Tick.

[inquest]

You're equating modernity with clothes? In my observation, our society has been getting nuder over the past few decades, and more neurotic over the past few decades. I can't think of too many problems today that can be solved by encouraging people to run around naked, but I can think of plenty of problems that can be solved, or greatly alleviated, by teaching kids that self-"expression" (either bodily or in some other in-your-face nonverbal manner) is not the way to make healthy contributions to society.