“Full frontage nudists are not exhibitionists but are showing their body acceptance without shame.”

It was something I had been thinking about recently, after seeing numerous full-frontal photos on social media shared by naturists. Many of them were posing, like any tourist would, in front of various attractions. One, for example, was standing in front of a giant cactus in Arizona.

The only difference between them and your average tourist is that the naturists were, quite naturally, naked.

Were they exhibitionists? No, I reasoned. At least, not any more so than clothed tourists who post photos of themselves. So, the issue was quickly resolved in my mind, and pretty much laid to rest . . . until my friend SoCalNaturist posted the quote above along with some full-frontal photos on Twitter (as many naturists do there).

The four pictures are grouped together in a gallery of sorts: one shows a woman proudly naked in a living room, another shows a man naked outdoors in a green setting, another shows a group of happy women young and older posing for a photo on a beach, and the final photo shows six happy 30somethingish men and women running along a beach. (See below, but you might have to click on them in Twitter to see full images)

Full frontage nudists are not exhibitionists but are showing their body acceptance without shame.https://t.co/NgXrCPg6iR pic.twitter.com/Wz4pJN32vC — SoCalNaturist (@socalnaturist) December 30, 2016

They are all scenes similar to ones I have seen shared by naturists before.

I liked the tweet. And I liked the message SoCalNaturist was spreading. I didn’t see the people in the photos as exhibitionists. I saw them as happy people — just as I would have seen them if they were dressed in bathing suits or whatever.

So, I shared the tweet with my followers on Twitter, many of whom are naturists.

I was a little surprised when one of my naturist followers accused me later of sharing images from a porn site, and of hurting the image of naturism. And then he unfriended me.

Excuse me, but I know the difference between porn and other types of photos, and there is absolutely nothing pornographic about those photos — even if they might have been copied from a porn site (which I doubt). The images themselves are innocent enough.

But I wondered why this individual — and other naturists, no doubt — would see them in such a negative light. Was it because all of the people in the photos are pretty good-looking? Would the individual have approved of, say, the photo of the naked woman in the living room if she had weighed 250 pounds and was 20 years older? Would he have approved if the same young woman in the photo was wearing a dress?

Sure, maybe the pictures are of people who are attractive and in good shape and aren’t exactly a cross-section of the whole naturism community. But, hey, those good-looking people are allowed to be naturists, too. And if those photos were posted with the intent of raising awareness about naturism — which is one of the missions of SoCalNaturist — what is the problem? I am a member of a very reputable naturism group in Ottawa, and there are some individuals there who look something like the people in the photos. But truth be told, we naturists don’t actually look at each other that way. We don’t really see each other’s nudity because we take it for granted now. That’s what naturism is all about. And that’s how I saw the photos: nothing sexual about them for me.

But I do know that some naturists (and I am not talking about the aforementioned former Twitter follower, who I respect) disapprove of some forms of nudity — at least, in pictures, anyway. They’re comfortable with photos from behind, or from the side, or that conceal certain body parts. But they are squeamish about certain types of full-frontal nudity being put on display for the world to see. Different naturists have different parameters of body acceptance. There seems to be a shame factor for some, as if some people should hide their frontal nudity. Which, to me, betrays the philosophy of social nudism/naturism.

Of course, as I have stated before, we live in a diverse world. To each their own. I am not criticizing anyone in particular. Indeed, this is a post about body acceptance and how even naturists have different views of it. I didn’t have a problem with the photos, but my former Twitter follower did. Who is right? Who is wrong?

Well, there is no right or wrong in cases like this. It’s about personal comfort levels, I suppose. And I guess that I am far more liberal than even I knew because, as mentioned, I had been thinking about the issue before, but had reconciled it by the time SoCalNaturist posted the tweet shown above. No, my friends on Twitter and Facebook who have been posting full-frontal images of themselves weren’t being exhibitionists. That was out of the question. And there was nothing wrong with SoCalNaturist’s photos in my view.

But as we Theosophists are fond of saying, there are no coincidences in life. SoCalNaturist’s tweet along with that from the follower who unfriended me inspired this post, and whatever discussion among readers that follows below. So, I thank both for their input, even if they never read this post.

What say you?

With respect to all

— Jillian

Photo credit: Naturist on the beach. (Source: Montse aka Supermons on Flickr/via Wikimedia Commons)