The print copies of my poetry books have arrived. This is as good as it can get for a writer. A few have been sold to neighbours, and copies for my three adult children have been signed. They will get them, as well as physical copies of my other books.
It is evident to most who come to read the posts here, that I am a nudist/naturist/naked-when-I-can-be human being. It might be less obvious that I am a spiritual person who thinks too much, a quasi-philosopher, and a poet. Some don’t get past the exposed skin, with some hoping that genitals are showing for their personal enjoyment.
Thankfully, as far as I can see by the amount of traffic on this site, there are not many coming for sexual gratification reasons. I live as much of my life as I can without wearing clothing. In the modern western world, this means I sleep nude, and enjoy private nudity in my home with rare outdoor experiences. I wish, like every other person who feels best when they are naked, I could go without clothing even more often. I wish I had the “right” to be bare in my corner of the universe. And that, is where I branch off into today’s topic about “rights.”
Does a person such as myself have the right to nudity? Should I have the right to go bare anywhere? What would make my “rights” supersede the rights of others to be protected from the nudity of others? There are quite a few groups taking on the role of activists promoting the “cause” demanding that society changes the laws surrounding the exposure of the naked human body. It doesn’t take long for activism to become confrontational as not many in this modern western world are comfortable with seeing others, let alone themselves, naked.
When one looks at this simple example, one can begin to understand that where one group has a right, the opposing group by necessity doesn’t have a right. The only way to solve the problem is to avoid contact with opposing groups and live behind barriers that afford both groups some semblance of enjoying their “rights.” But even that gives us problems. Simply knowing that one group is doing/being in a different manner is enough to incite more confrontation. In the end, it never is about who is right or wrong, it is about which group is the most numerous and/or who is in control.
If that isn’t enough of a problem, nudists become their own worst enemy as they find ways, to split their own supporters into opposing camps. The attempt to define “true nudists” as those who live naked twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, defies common sense. Walking to the post office to get the mail on a day such as today on the Canadian prairies requires clothing because of the elements, not because of societal taboos. Does this make me “less” of a nudist, perhaps even nullify my “right” to understand myself as a nudist? Fundamentalism creeps in because there is an us versus them mentality, an attempt to perhaps survive as a deviant grouping – yes, if one doesn’t follow the collective, one is a deviant by definition.
Those embracing a clothing-free lifestyle or partial lifestyle begin to have a sense of their “rights” within the lifestyle, rights such as access to public spaces while nude. Another right surrounds photography. Can I, should I be allowed to post images of myself that depict me nude whether or not genitals are evident? Should others have the right to download my images or images of others which feature nudity? Whose rights supersede? What about the rights of people in media such as photo journalists? Do they have the right to capture/take images and publish them as news stories? Do police and other surveillance authorized officials have the right to film naturists whether in person or by the use of drones or even satellite photo imaging? It all gets complicated. Even more complicated when we see that authorized (commercial – think porn industry) publishing of nude images of people are ignored by the public at large while considerable energy and anger is directed to small groups and individuals who engage in simple nudity with no ulterior motivation other than it feels good.