Are Nudies Exhibitionists?

[Aaron Stern]

A couple of nights in a row I was having this awful dream I explained in a post here on March 17:

I had this dream last night that our little guy (who isn't even born yet) tells me that nudies are "a bunch of confused exhibitionist"  .  I'm taken aback and ask him, "What did you just say?", and he throws his blanket at me and replies, "You heard me!  And next time, before you talk to me, you better cover up!", and I start crying.  It's just awful.  I think I need therapy .  Aaron

Never in real life have I been accused of being an exhibitionist, but this recurring dream made me think of why this topic had entered my brain in the first place.  I realized that I never had any inclination to scare anybody by suddenly showing up naked where they wouldn't expect it (the older guy opening his rain coat comes to mind; the original mainstream definition of the word "exhibitionist, I guess).  However, I must say that, from a very young age, I felt pleasure running around naked (preferably in the presence of other nudies) and showing off my body.  I'm not what you would call a beau, by any stretch, just average, but when people at a nudie resort or a nudie beach would look at me and say, for instance, "Look at you, what a happy fellow!", or, "What a pretty boy!", or something along those lines, that made my day  .  Better than sitting home alone, naked, that's for sure.  So, I'd like to know what my fellow YNAI-nudies think about this:  does for you, personally, being a nudie include (to whatever degree) a streak of exhibitionism (in the "good" sense of a nudie environment [resort/beach], not the "bad" sense of that scare situation [the rain coat guy])?  Is showing your body and feeling good about it, even happy and proud about it, part of a healthy nudie experience?  Once again, just curious  , Aaron

[Brandon]

I do not consider myself an exhibitionist. But seeing and being seen is part of the naturist experience, and contributes to the feeling of freedom and self-confidence I derive from naturism.

I don't particularly appreciate clothed strangers looking at me, although if the occasional clothed person happens to walk by and see me without staring/gawking, I am not bothered. I am not bothered if some people swim wearing swimsuits while I skinny dip.

[jeep]

Brandon covered it pretty well as i feel on the issue. I enjoy the freedom of naturism and being seen and seeing others is a unavoidable side effect of social nudism. I dont want people to see me and i dont not want people to see me, i just dont care if they do. I dont care if they are nude or not and am perfectly happy nude in a room of textiles as in a room of nudies. But with that said it is nice to have others nude as well as it shows there are others who are seeing our bodys for what it is (Just our natural state) and shrugging off the dogmas which trap people into the textile conditioning and does indicate a solidarity or inclusiveness.
   There will be without doubt those men and women who do get a kick out of being seen nude and seeing others nude even though they say they like it for holistic reasons but really as long as they are not outwardly making it obvious or  causing others offence or making people uncomfortable i dont care what thier motivations are.

[ChristineF]

I'm far from being an exhibitionist..... when I'm around like-minded individuals then I'm obviously comfortable with nudity, but would never think of flaunting my body to get some sort of cheap thrill...... (well, there was that one time at the OTL tournament in San Diego, but that's not important    )

To be perfectly honest I did some nude modeling for an art class once and I was surprised at how uncomfortable I actually was. It's a totally different feeling when you have 20 people staring at your nude body.......

[Achmed The Nudist]

I'm far from being an exhibitionist..... when I'm around like-minded individuals then I'm obviously comfortable with nudity, but would never think of flaunting my body to get some sort of cheap thrill...... (well, there was that one time at the OTL tournament in San Diego, but that's not important    )

My thoughts exactly. Exhibitionists get their 'kicks from the shock reaction they get from others when they see a nude person, or not necessarily nude, but outrageous in one way or another. If you are at a nudist beach when every other person is the very least nude or doesn't even look twice when he or she sees a nude person walking around, where's the thrill in that?

[johnnyconfessional]

naturism itself isnt exhibitionism,

i find that when im wearing clothes,
i often try 2 grab attention by what i wear,
and when im nude, there isnt that wish, to
get that attention, or whatever.

[NudistMetalHead]

I do not consider naturism exhibitionism.  They are not the same thing although it wouldn't surprise me if someone (non-naturist) out there was gonna try to put them in the same category.

[grahambell]

Naturism and exhibitionism are not equals. The naturists enjoy to be nude and the balance provoked by the interaction with nature. The exhibitionists have a pervert attitude, they disrobe to provoke a shock on other persons through their imposed and aggressive nakedness. Naturism is healthy, exhibitionism not.

[simonalexander2005]

Against what most people here are saying, I can see Aaron's point of view on this one.
While being naked is not about showing off your body, at the same time it isnt about hiding it away in your house either - it's about being comfortable with who you are - and being happy with other people seeing your body. The "streak of exhibitionism" that Aaron's talking about is about flaunting yourself to scare people, but just enjoying being naked no matter who you're with. Or that's how I see it anyway.

[Brandon]

I think many naturists have exhibitionist tendencies. I don't mean exhibitionist in the legal sense of a flasher -- i.e. someone generally considered a sexual pervert with serious psychological issues. I just mean that many naturists take pride in showing off their body or derive significant satisfaction from the act of displaying their nude body. I don't think that is unhealthy unless the individual  participates in naturism primarily to fulfill his/her need to be seen, especially if the motive is to seek external validation of his/her worth (to compensate for low self esteem.)

[Cooper]

In everyday life, I'm actually very introverted, so perhaps there's that sense of naturism serving as a way of me releasing myself from that iron repression of a series of social norms. Intriguely, I believe that many actors and comedians, who would outwardly appear to be rather extroverted, actually more privately identify as being introverted, and to me there seems to be an affinity between that ethos and that which leads many to naturism - the freedom to just "be", or to clarify that expression, to be self-confident, in the state that humans can be found in at their most "default", and to be seen to be so, as Brandon seems to suggest, as symbolised by the blunt and undeniably conspicuous fact that one is in the nude. Naturism isn't exhibitionism, of course, but to me an overlap can exist, of course, given the exhibitionist desire to be seen and in any way cause a stir, just so long as there's the faintest vestige of that concern residing absolutely anywhere in the mind of a naturist.

[Brandon]

in the state that humans can be found in at their most "default"

I hadn't thought of nudity that way, but it is true: Nudity is our default state. Maybe there's a tagline there... something like "Naturism: Humans in their default state" or "Return to your default state."

[I4Ree]

I hadn't thought of nudity that way, but it is true: Nudity is our default state. Maybe there's a tagline there... something like "Naturism: Humans in their default state" or "Return to your default state."

So is walking.  Thankfully technology has provided cars.   

Be free be naked?

[planepiloter]

Ironically enough, I just finished watching the episode of Seinfeld, "The Chinese Woman."

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/g9dkFhPuPGU&rel=0" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/g9dkFhPuPGU&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/g9dkFhPuPGU&rel=0</a></a>

[Cooper]

So is walking.  Thankfully technology has provided cars.   

Be free be naked?

Not always thankfully, of course. I'd be pretty content to walk much more than I do, to and from work, education etc. if I had the time and energy. That's the ideal of a world ever beautiful and uber-fit that you're buying into with naturism, I suppose... but on the extent to which we can indeed be 'thankful', such as the very saving of time, point taken (even if I could write a thesis on that subject).