Nudity and Me

This blog is an outlet for me to explore the concept of nudity by reblogging pictures and relating them to my personal life and outlook. For more information on this blog, please click on the "Read More" link to the right.

[nudityandme]

Greetings!I am an older nudist M to F trans woman. I have spent a bit of time combing through your blog. I must say that the sensuality and thoughtfulness that you bring to many of your posts is refreshing and beautiful. Thank you for your thoughts - especially on poly relationships. They buoyed me. May peace and happiness fill you and your soon to be wife.

Thanks, that makes me smile. Just one thing - I'm already married, and it's been great. We're over half a year into our marriage, and I couldn't have dreamed my life would work out this well. Now I just need to find more time to return to this blog. But in the meantime, I'm glad that the content I've already posted is still touching people's lives. That's what matters most.

[haamsap-revived]

[nudityandme]

That couple that owns the hardware shop down the road, that pumps the gas, that distributes veggies at the farmer's market, that walks their dog by your apartment every evening, that teaches at the middle school, that you pass every day thinking they are as normal and typical as anyone. At home, this is who they are. Nudity, it turns out, is pretty normal and typical. It's talking about it that catches us by surprise. 

[nudityandme]

Hey there , first of all a very nice post and I luv the pictures but what I luv most is the way u provide the description . just like you I was struggling with my sexuality.

Thanks! I've never struggled with my sexuality, though. I've always been pretty straight, I just came to accept over time that being straight didn't mean I couldn't appreciate a man's body. I've never been with a man before, and I don't spend much time wanting to be with a man, but I wouldn't turn it down if a guy I trusted wanted to get to know me better.

[ambiguos]

[nudityandme]

In high school I would have been highly disturbed by this picture. I would have viewed it as some weird sexual fetish at best. Now I simply view this person as transgender and know that being transgender doesn't require getting genitalia changed. This woman's choice to keep her penis does not make her any less feminine, and it definitely doesn't make her a freak. Sometimes there is innocence in youth. Other times it is harmful ignorance that I am just thankful I didn't actively perpetuate among others.

[naturisttravel]

[nudityandme]

You know, I've never really wanted a private pool. But it could have its perks.

[nudecouples]

[nudityandme]

I can't begin to describe how happy this picture makes me. I perked up with excitement in disbelief that I stumbled across such a tender pose and precious moment. I would adore a picture of my fiancee and I in this same position, such a fitting representation of our physical and emotional closeness with one another.

[elenasiddal]

People have such strange reactions to nakedness - and one of my least favorite is the concept that by revealing your body, you are somehow ‘giving too much away’ or ‘not leaving enough to the imagination’. Along with those phrases comes the implication that by letting others see your body, you...

[nudityandme]

Agreed. Please take the time to give this a read.

[camdamage]

[nudityandme]

My fiancee and I haven't sucked each other's toes in a while, but I remember that early in our relationship when we were doing it for the first time, it felt like such an intimate experience; and though we were doing it in the midst of a sexual act, its intimacy was all its own.

[lonelycoast]

[nudityandme]

Your body is a wonderland.

[bednota-blog]

[nudityandme]

Soon I will have a wedding band on my finger (yes, I can't wait!), but I am sure it doesn't mean to me what it means to most people. It has little to do with commitment and love; my time with my fiancee has already hardened that promise. It doesn't signal unavailability, because as a poly person in a pretty open relation, my emotions and my body remain as available to friends as they have been in recent years and are likely to only become more so. Why, then, am I excited? Well, it's more about what the ring signals to others than it does to me. I like people knowing that my fiancee is the woman I have chosen to share my life with (or, even more meaningful, the one who has chosen to spend her life with me). I like the assumption changing from our being virgins (through the lens of traditional idealism) to being sexually active, and with each other. I like the idea of family, friends, and strangers knowing precisely the person I'm having sex with (not that I particularly need them to know everyone I've had sex with, or under what circumstances, it's more about this aspect of our relationship going from practiced in secret to practiced openly). In an ideal world, a wedding band would come with zero assumptions about a person's sex life, but that is not our world, so I embrace the sexual connotation that comes with the ring I will soon wear for the rest of my days.

[shirtlessboys]

[nudityandme]

I've been living with my parents these past few months as I prepare for my wedding, and I cannot put into words how much I miss being able to do this.

[nudityandme]

Great idea for your page. I bless your exploration!

Thanks! When I started this blog over a year ago, I had no idea the effect it would have on my life. I am so glad I did.

[soldierholdfastnow-deactivated2]

[nudityandme]

Wait for it... wait for it... Freedom!

[nudiarist]

[nudityandme]

One thing about being nude outdoors is that this man could piss right now, shake it a few times, and keep going about his day just fine. No reason to find a room, to try to hide what "shouldn't be seen," or be ashamed of a universal bodily function.

[nudityandme]

Hi! I just wanting you to know that I love your blog. Nudity has always been portrayed in the wrong light. I appreciate your love and admiration for the human body. It's inspirational. Keep up the good work. Oh! Also, I believe I'm becoming a home-nudist (I don't have a lick of courage to walk outside in my birthday suit).

I've mellowed out in my views on nudity since starting the blog, so I don't care about seeing open nudity in public as much as I used to or actively strive to maximize how much time I spend nude anymore. With that said, I've found that I still remain nude at home nearly all the time. It's so much more comfortable that I see little reason to lounge around with clothes on. And while I also don't care as much about wanting to be nude when friends come over, I have found that the apprehension that usually precedes getting naked in front of someone new is largely gone for me. I strip in front of my fiancee, a friend who is already used to seeing me nude, and a friend seeing me nude for the first time without concern or hesitation (once I have their consent, of course).Ahem, this is all just a drawn out way of me saying that I'm excited that you may be becoming a home nudist, and I think it will do great things for you!

[nudityandme]

Why do you think American culture is so hung up on nudity as opposed to other cultures? Is it a way to keep people under control through shame?

I apologize for taking so long to answer this question. I've recently begun a new internship that has taken up the bulk of my time, and I didn't want to give you a rushed answer. This is a serious question with a pretty complex answer.You are right, America is relatively conservative compared to other Western nations regarding nudity. There are many potential reasons for this. First, America didn't begin this way. In the beginning, colonists had a relatively lax view of sex, including the Puritans, who largely expected and condoned sex as long as a pregnant woman was married off before a child was born. It wasn't until the Victorian age in the 1800s that woman were encouraged to be sexless and "pure," the moral compass that is tasked with controlling man's primal lust.

Race is a strong factor, for as the 1800s gave way to the 1900s, white women were held up as "pure" contrasts to Jezebel black women considered as lustful and primal as men, if not more so. Black women's bodies were not regarded as "pure" like their white sisters, so their nudity was permissible and expected. This view of white and black female bodies grew throughout the Jim Crow era, and it persists in a diminished form to this day.

Without the racial dynamics that have permeated all of America's history, the impetus to shield our bodies from one another would not have been as strong, for as bad as it was for a white man to see a white woman's body, it was heinous for a black man to do so. America's racial legacy is unique in the world, and it has been a large factor in much of why the nation is the way it is, even (or perhaps especially) in areas where the impact is less than obvious.Religion has been used to justify the need for us to shield our bodies, but I would consider this more an appropriation of religion than something born from it. The Bible suggests that we were born nude and that clothing ourselves was a desire born only after Adam and Eve had disobeyed their god. As views on nudity change, people will just as easily be able to find religious justification for it as they do with anything else they want to justify.The idea that this is a "way to keep under control through shame" is something more sinister sounding than it really is. Controlling people through shame is not the intention, but the result. Traditional and conservative minded individuals do keep people under control through shame, but that is not their intention. They genuinely believe that the body is something to be "respected" by being kept covered, and as harmful as perpetuating such a belief is, I wouldn't impose such sinister intentions on the people who perpetuate this belief. Their goal really is similar to my own, to see people build their self-esteem by respecting their bodies. Just like with pretty much any ideology, two people can believe polar opposite things in pursuit of similar goals.

And since much of what I've said in this answer deals with historical interpretation, I encourage you to further research this issue yourself. Since I haven't provided sources, feel free to take everything I have said with a grain of salt, though you can rest assured that I do believe what I have said, and I hope it helps.

[nudityandme]

i've been following you for quite some time, but i just wanted to express my appreciation for this blog. it's wonderfully insightful<3

Thanks, that means the world to me! I hope you've been inspired to allow a little more nudity into your life (or continue to be nude, if you're already doing so). Not that you need to be a nudist or anything, because I'm not one either (though lets imagine for a second that we both were -- okay, go!).