Do you call yourself a nudist? A naturist? I hope you’re happy with your choice.

More and more I see how these ‘labels’ are abused by the porn-happy community, and that makes me think.

Is it still a good thing to call myself a naturist when that name, or title, or what have you, is being dragged through the mud so often?

The pros.

Sticking with nudist or naturist name/label is probably the strongest statement that we’re not giving in to what the porn-happy community tries to make of our lifestyle. The problem here, of course, is that we’re up against a giant ‘opposition’, even when that mostly lives online. Since more and more of our lives take place online, that’s something we can see as a battleground.

The cons.

With porn sites abusing the naturist and nudist label, it’s increasingly difficult to convince the textile world that these sites are wrong and we are right. Most certainly considering the rise of the prudes that we can witness. It’s as if the opposite of the sixties is surfacing.

Because of these things, I sometimes wonder if it’s worth sticking to one of those two labels. Perhaps “clothes-free” is a better option. After all, one would think that “clothes-free” would be a neutral enough way of describing who we are and how we would like to be.

Alas, that won’t hold water for long either, I realised, after some more thinking. Nudist was the best word long ago. Then it became naturist , be it mostly in Europe. Why change again? Whatever name we think up, there will be some crowd that finds a way to drag it through their personal kind of mud.

That is what made me decide that nudist and naturist are perfect. Let’s take pride in the history of those words, of the people who paved the way for us to be naturists and nudists.

As usual, I welcome your thoughts on this subject…