The Emerging Activist?

ac • tiv • ist

- noun

1. an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause, esp. a political cause.

Recently, in comments as well as in a very eloquent, well written email packed with cogent and compelling arguments, a reader made the very valid point that I have begun not only to sound like an activist with respect to the rights of the naturist and nudist community but should just admit that I have become one. Candidly, I can’t deny the validity of that observation. Frankly no one is more surprised by this development than me as I have never thought of myself as having an activist bent. In fact, if you have followed this blog for very long, you may recall that I have in the past stated that I did not identify myself as an activist. I meant those words when they were written, but as time has passed, I have felt myself inexorably drawn towards the very thing I never perceived myself as becoming. Why the change?

Part of it is the fact that as I examine the history of naturism and nudism in this country, and consider that after almost 80 years have passed since the first real nudist outing was held on American soil and after Kurt Barthel formed the first American naturist club, The American League for Physical Culture, the naturist and nudist culture still languishes as a misunderstood fringe culture that suffers ridicule, isolation, discrimination and the denial of certain rights that I believe are basic to all in a free society. Another part of it is that almost daily I find new articles reporting that groups, politicians and government agencies are proposing to either step up enforcement of current laws or pass new ones to further restrict the few liberties that the naturist and nudist community now enjoy. I have never been tolerant of injustice and injustice is what I see when it comes to the current state of naturism and nudism in this country. I simply find it more and more difficult as I contemplate the current state of affairs to understand why we should willingly continue on the same path we have followed to date, when at least to me it could not be clearer that that path yielded nothing but dismal failure.

The reader observes that in my recent series, “Shock and Awe” that I brought up "extremists", those who conduct public nude protests and that I attempted to “distance” myself from them. He also stated that he felt such an attempt was in vain because the very substance of my arguments was an extremist point of view. This point I can’t find agreement with because I do think it quite possible to be an activist without being an extremist. Isn’t it true that one can be very passionate about a particular thought, ideal or practice and yet not be fanatical about it? At least in my understanding, when one speaks of social change, an extremist is so passionate and consumed with his cause that he is often so blinded by his own myopic view of the thing that he cannot trouble himself with the fact that he attempts to further his own agenda at the exclusion of all others. He is more than willing to trample the rights of others in order to secure his own. This is not what I am about at all. Clearly within our society there are large numbers of people who are not tolerant of nudity and will never be. There are those who find nudity offensive and their opinions will never be changed by any amount of rational, logical argument. Their beliefs, values and moral standards are sincerely and deeply held and I neither deny their right to have them nor condemn them for having them. It is not agreement I seek from people like that, but merely tolerance of an idea, a concept, a practice and a culture that they don’t personally embrace. Whether I agree with their views or not, which I don’t, I still owe it to them as a member of civilized society to show sensitivity for their opinions which includes refraining from forcing them to become non-consensual observers of my nudity when clearly they find nudity offensive and objectionable. This is the point where I depart from the “extremist” view.

In calling for organization, for change and for more proactive action on the part of naturists and nudists, I am not calling for the legalization of public nudity in the sense of the right to appear nude in every public place at any time we choose which would be unrealistic and frankly, irrational. It has never been a part of our movement to disregard the rights of others in seeking to exercise our own. To do so would serve no purpose other than to further stiffen the resolve of those who are already intolerant of nudity and who are not accepting of the practice of naturists and nudists. I am also not calling for the abolishment of the current system of landed clubs and resorts because I see them continuing to provide a valid means and venue for the practice of social nudity just as they always have. Some of us will always prefer those types of facilities to more public venues of enjoying the practice of social nudity and there is of course nothing wrong with that.

Still I think there are areas that organizing our community could produce needed change. To summarize the areas I personally feel need to undergo change are;

• Naturists and Nudists should have the right to hold our system of values and beliefs without suffering discrimination and without the interference by others and government.
• Naturists and Nudists should have the right to responsibly enjoy nudity within our homes and property. As long as reasonable precautions are taken we should not have to fear intervention of law enforcement and unwarranted intrusion of the government based on frivolous complaints of neighbors or passersby who observe us nude because they violated our privacy by peering over or through cracks in privacy fences and then assert that they were offended.
• Naturists and Nudists should have the right to be parents, and to exercise reasonable decision-making in the upbringing of their families in a manner consistent with their beliefs without interference by others or government.
• Naturists and Nudists should have the right to responsibly enjoy being nude on public lands, within appropriate locations. Here again, not at the exclusion of the rights of those who are offended by nudity. It would be quite simple to accommodate both nudists and non-nudists by providing equal but separate access to all public lands. Clothing-optional access could be set either geographically or by decreeing certain days or times when public areas could be enjoyed clothes-free so that those offended by nudity would not have to suffer exposure to it.
• Naturists and Nudists have a right to be free from adverse or retaliatory actions by their employers as a result of their lawful enjoyment of nudity when away from work. Simply working for someone who is either intolerant or hostile to the idea of social nudity should not be justification for discriminatory retaliation. Employers are already prohibited from taking adverse or retaliatory actions against employees on the basis of religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, race and the like. So why should naturists and nudists have to fear losing their jobs if their employers were to discover that they practiced social nudity when away from the workplace?
• Naturists and Nudists have a right to be treated as law-abiding citizens rather than as criminals. We have a legitimate expectation that our local, state and federal governments should limit law enforcement activities to laws that prohibit lewdness not nudeness. The nude human body is natural and more important it is neutral. It should neither be vilified nor deified. In its constitutional accepted role as regulators of morality, government’s role is to prohibit objectionable behavior and acts not natural states of being.

Are there potential dangers and uncertainties in departing from the old ways and trying something new and innovative? Of course there are. There will be some in society who already dismiss us as “a bunch of whacked-out nut jobs” who would brand us “confrontational nut jobs” if we organized, became more readily visible and more openly lobbied for our rights. But when the old ways have not worked, perhaps it is time to change strategies and tactics and find means and methods that do work toward securing expansion of important rights. Comparison between our movement and the activities of the NRA is an admitted favorite of mine and so I draw the comparison once again. There are many in our society that consider NRA members and others who are passionate advocates of gun ownership rights to be whacked-out nut jobs, wild-eyed extremists and such, but there is no denying how effective the NRA has been in supporting and opposing politicians and legislation that they consider either positive or negative with respect to their agenda. Visibility and organization are the two principle ingredients to their enjoyment of political power and the ability to influence the political process.

Perhaps the sentiments contained in this article and others I have written are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure general favor among naturists and nudists. I have no illusions that every naturists and nudist will see the urgency of organization. It is a simple fact that within any human organization there is a linear relationship with extremists occupying the far left, conservatives occupying the far right and moderates somewhere in the middle. There are many naturists and nudists who are simply by personality non-confrontational and are never going to be drawn into a confrontation. But convincing all naturists and nudists to join in a proactive organization isn’t a requirement for success as we need only an effective number to do so. History shows us that when it comes to a catalyst for social change, sometimes a vocal minority accomplishes a good deal more than a silent majority. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But I think often, time makes more converts than reason. We have endured a long winter of discontent as naturists and nudists and I simply think the time is now to enter into the bright sunlight of spring. For almost 80 years the life of the naturist and nudist has been crippled by the manacles of prohibition and the chains of discrimination. The naturist and the nudist live on a lonely island of private clubs and slivers of remote public lands in the midst of a vast ocean of public lands prosperity, languishing in the corners of American society and finding themselves exiles in their own land. I do not think it overly dramatic to state that it would be fatal for our cause to overlook the urgency of the moment. This is no time to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to explore a synthesis of thought, innovative ideas and strategies to achieve the advances required in order to ensure the sustainability of our culture. Inaction by the naturist and nudist community as a policy is no longer acceptable.