This post was last Updated on June 28, 2020

Although we think that nudists making large steps when it comes to the normalisation of nudism and nudity, we also know that there is still a huge ignorance about our precious lifestyle. Of course we realise that not everyone can be interested in who we are and what we do. This is probably something every minority lifestyle struggles with. We’re pretty sure that punk rockers, Wiccans or amish often run into a wall of misunderstanding as well.

A possible larger difficulty for us, the nudists, is that we don’t really get many chances to show people who nudists really are. The punk rocker with a mohawk and spike necklace can win the sympathy of the villagers by helping a little old lady crossing the street. If we try to do so in our birthday suit, things could get really bad.

We know, it’s a stupid example, but it’s just to make a point. There are some things people don’t know about nudists and we rarely get the chance to explain them. Except when we put them in a 10 point list on a blog post.

1. Nude is not sexual

Let’s start with getting this huge elephant out of the room. The idea that nudism is a sexual lifestyle is still one of the biggest misconceptions. We’re not going to explain the whole background of this again, we did so only recently in our blog post on the truth about nudism and sex. We are also not going to debate whether there is a right and wrong between those who do think that all nudity is sexual and those who don’t. The only important thing is that in the eyes of nudists, nudity and sex are two completely separated things.

We might even take this one step further. When we ask nudists what they find the most attractive, a person in bathing suit or a naked person, the majority will go for the bathing suit. Because not knowing what’s underneath is more tickling to the imagination that seeing it right in front of you. Does this sound like complete baloney to you? No problem. That’s why it’s on our list of things only nudists understand.

2. Life is better without clothes

burden until you try to swim without it. The space you suddenly get, the fabric which is not trying to get into places it’s not supposed to enter and the fact that you’re dry only minutes after you get out of the water. You can only understand this if you’ve tried it. As an example, we’ve been traveling with a “just in case” bathing suit in our luggage for the last two years and have only worn it a handful of times. When all our other clothes were in the laundry. Lots of people have gone skinny dipping at least once in their lives. Most probably around the age of sixteen. Unfortunately many of these people have meanwhile completely forgotten how it felt to swim naked. So here’s a little refresh: It’s F***ING awesome! A bathing suit might not seem like such auntil you try to swim without it. The space you suddenly get, the fabric which is not trying to get into places it’s not supposed to enter and the fact that you’re dry only minutes after you get out of the water. You can only understand this if you’ve tried it. As an example, we’ve been traveling with a “just in case” bathing suit in our luggage for the last two years and have only worn it a handful of times. When all our other clothes were in the laundry.

While swimming is definitely one of the most fun things to do naked, there are lots of other examples. Like sports. Why on earth would you like to wear those sweaty clothes which restrict your movements anyway? Sleeping as well. If you’re one of those “active” sleepers who tends to wake up with pyjama bottoms all the way up to your arm pits, you might want to consider sleeping without them. And there’s more: reading, chilling, hiking, whatever. Even the things you don’t really enjoy like cleaning the shower or the dishes become more fun when done naked. There’s only one reason why “Because life is better without clothes” is the tag line of this website: because it is.

3. Everybody has beautiful imperfections

Does that sound weird? “Beautiful imperfections”. Aren’t we either beautiful or imperfect? Aren’t we buying all those fancy clothes and jewellery and gadgets to hide our imperfections from the outside world?

Edgar Allen Poe wrote “There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion” and although we doubt that he was a nudist, we couldn’t have said it better. While many of us keep striving towards a beauty standard which has been dictated to us by society and the industries, nudists know that the beauty of a person is in the imperfections.

How our body looks is what makes us unique. Wouldn’t it be extremely boring if we all looked alike? Among nudists it’s said that everybody has imperfections and that everybody is beautiful in his or her own way. Hence, beautiful imperfections.

4. Nudism gives you a sense of freedom

nudism gives us freedom, we often receive some resistance. We can’t be free. It’s not because we’re spending the afternoon on the nude beach that suddenly we get rid of our full agenda, the bills we have to pay, the taxes, the law or the list of chores taped to our fridge. People tell us that we’re just kidding ourselves. When we tell people that, we often receive some resistance. We can’t be free. It’s not because we’re spending the afternoon on the nude beach that suddenly we get rid of our full agenda, the bills we have to pay, the taxes, the law or the list of chores taped to our fridge. People tell us that we’re just kidding ourselves.

asked a thousand nudists about the advantages of their nude lifestyle, more than 86% expressed to experience a feeling of freedom. That’s 860 out of 1000. That’s a lot. Are they all kidding themselves? The thing is, we’ve never said that we gain complete freedom. It’s only a momentary experience to shed our sorrows and doubts and memories of those taxes together with our clothes. It’s our chance to live in the moment and not think about anything else. Our hippie friends might say that we enter an alternate reality. Our nudist friends just stick with “a sense of freedom”. Yet when weabout the advantages of their nude lifestyle, more than 86% expressed to experience a. That’s 860 out of 1000. That’s a lot. Are they all kidding themselves? The thing is, we’ve never said that we gain complete freedom. It’s only a momentary experience to shed our sorrows and doubts and memories of those taxes together with our clothes. It’s our chance to live in the moment and not think about anything else. Our hippie friends might say that we enter an alternate reality. Our nudist friends just stick with “a sense of freedom”.

5. Nudism is great within the family



We’ve talked extensively about family naturism in other blog posts, so we’ll stick to the main points here. First of all, the only reason why your children could have any interest in genitals is because you’ve told them that they’re something to be hidden. Something secret. Like the drawer they’re not supposed to open. Guess what happens the moment you’re gone… Being naked yourself, fine. Being naked together with your partner, great. But with the kids? Do you really want your eight year old to see grown up breasts and penises and vaginas?We’ve talked extensively aboutin other blog posts, so we’ll stick to the main points here. First of all, the only reason why your children could have any interest in genitals is because you’ve told them that they’re something to be hidden. Something secret. Like the drawer they’re not supposed to open. Guess what happens the moment you’re gone…

Research has shown that children who are used to nudity generally have less body issues when they grow up. Because they know what a real body looks like and that the majority of people don’t look anything like what they find on the internet.

But what about that scary news you get everyday about child molesters? Won’t they go after your naked children? When was the last time you read such a thing about a nudist place? Probably never. Nudist places in general are very protected and are not the most favourite hunting ground of people with the wrong intentions.

6. Nudists don’t live in nudist colonies

We think it’s such an awful term: “nudist colony”. When we started searching for other usages of the word “colony” it only got worse. Around the world people have been living in colonies under oppression by foreign rulers. Ants, termites and bacteria live in colonies. All things with which we don’t really like to be compared. Because the term “colony” is also used for a group of people with a shared interest living together, the “nudist colony” became an accepted name.

The days that nudists lived in their colonies are long gone. Some might still do but the large majority of nudists just live in a house or apartment, in a neighbourhood in a village, town or city. They go to work everyday and drive a car or take public transport and go shopping. They do those things clothed. Which brings us to point 6.

7. Nudists can be everybody

We regularly see the question “who are those nudists?” passing by on the internet. We always find this very curious because it’s pretty impossible to recognise nudists based on how they look, what they say or how they act. Well, let’s rephrase that. Obviously, you can recognise a nudist when he or she is actually nude. But most nudists are not nude all the time.

It’s said that about 5 to 10 percent of the world population enjoys social nudity in a way. That’s a lot of people. You’ve probably seen 10 nudists in the supermarket today. Maybe another 10 at work. And who knows with how many nudists you’ve been stuck with in traffic jam this morning. But you don’t know. Because it’s not actually written on our face. From our experience, nudists can be really everyone: Your baker, your butcher, your lawyer, your neighbour, your sister, your boss or that friendly stranger who said “hi” to you today.

8. There are many different kinds of nudism

Naked in Motion yoga class in New York. After the class we asked the instructor how long she had been a nudist. She replied “Oh no, I’m not a nudist, I go to nude beaches once in a while but I’m not a nudist”. We had no idea what we had just heard. This woman goes to nude beaches and spends her Tuesday evenings doing naked yoga in front of a bunch of naked people, but she doesn’t consider herself a nudist? We had a real eye opener when we attended ayoga class in New York. After the class we asked the instructor how long she had been a nudist. She replied “Oh no, I’m not a nudist, I go to nude beaches once in a while but I’m not a nudist”. We had no idea what we had just heard. This woman goes to nude beaches and spends her Tuesday evenings doing naked yoga in front of a bunch of naked people, but she doesn’t consider herself a nudist?

home nudists, vacation nudists, nudists for the natural aspect, nudists for the comfort aspect and whatever kind of nudist you prefer to be. It didn’t take long to find out that people have really different ideas about what it means to be a nudist. Ideas that often came from nudist groups or federations saying that in order to be a nudist you need to be a member. Have your own nudist card. This is not our experience of nudism, we don’t believe that someone has the right to approve whether we can be a nudist or not. And we think that nudism comes in many different forms. There are 24/7 nudists, occasional nudists,, vacation nudists, nudists for the natural aspect,and whatever kind of nudist you prefer to be.

9. Nudism brings people together

One of the things we noticed during our first nude experiences was how friendly nudists are. While we live in a world where it’s everyone for themselves, at nudist places we could actually greet strangers without them thinking that we were lunatics. And strangers came over to greet us all the time. Often within minutes we would engage in conversations with naked people we hadn’t really met yet.

One of the reasons for this is because we’re a minority and somehow get the feeling that we have to stick together. Nudism creates a bond between us and it’s a shared interested which can be used as an ice breaker to start a conversation. But there’s more to it. While in the outside world we’re putting a lot of effort into making a certain impression, we don’t really feel the need to do so at a nudist place. By being naked, we’re exposing ourselves completely. This is who we are, there is no hiding. We put ourselves in a vulnerable position and the others do so as well. This acceptance of physical vulnerability also makes us accept our mental vulnerabilities. Which removes a lot of artificial boundaries.

10. Nudism is just so much fun

What’s so great about being naked anyway?

Besides how we already told you about the joys of skinny dipping, the social atmosphere and the comfort of not wearing any clothes, being nude also just a lot of fun. It reminds us of the time when we were three years old and could run careless in the nude through the sprinklers in the garden. It reminds us of that skinny dip when we were sixteen.

One of the main reasons why we started with nudism was out of curiosity. It was a step out of our comfort zone, it was a scary and exciting new experience. After almost ten years of being nudists and two years of continuously traveling to nudist places around the world, we still love the nudist lifestyle. Maybe even more than ever. We meet great people, go to great places and do cool things. And we know that all of this would never have happened if we had never taken the plunge into nudism.