Part 1: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement

Credit: Abernathy Family Photos | Wikimedia Commons
American Civil Rights Movement

While doing the research for my recent eBook I noticed something that I wanted to revisit after the book was published. I began writing this on Monday evening and before I knew it, the piece was nearing 1,800 words! So, out of compassion for my readers, I decided to break this discussion down into three, more easily digestible parts.

Usually I don't use Wikimedia articles as sources for the things I write, even when writing a blog post, but today I'm making an exception.

It isn't that I have the kind of disdain for Wikimedia that's common in academic circles. Quite the contrary I have read some excellent, scholarly Wikimedia articles where the quality of the research and references were impeccable by any standards. But since everyone from public school teachers to college professors to editors forbid the use of Wikimedia as a source, as a writer who writes sometimes for pay, I'm just not in the habit of citing from there myself.

The citation from Wikimedia that is pertinent to my topic today is, "Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practicing, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public." It is the opening sentence in the article, "Naturism" last modified on April 23, 2011. I chose to use it because even though I have read the exact sentence elsewhere in the past from a source that even the pickiest professor or editor would consider credible, I have been unable to find it again.

Whichever collaborator that supplied the sentence cited the 2002-2003 World Naturist Handbook, published by the International Naturist Federation as the source. If memory serves, I do believe that it was the International Naturist Federation website where I originally read it. But that isn't really material to the points of discussion today.

What I wanted to weigh in on was the question, "Is naturism and nudism a cultural and political movement?" While I completed fifteen semester hours of undergraduate Sociology courses that of course doesn't come close to qualifying me as an expert on the study of human social behavior. Yet human social behavior has always fascinated me and so I like to research it, read about it, and discuss it, especially when it comes to trying to define naturism and nudism within the framework of social behavior.

At various times, in various places I have seen naturism and nudism categorized in sociological terms as a lifestyle, a subculture, a deviant subculture, a counter-culture, a social movement and as a social, political movement. There is an argument I think for all of those classifications save cultural movement and cultural-political movement. And on Wednesday, I'll tell you why in Part 2: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement.

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Book Notes

Just a short note on American Nudist Culture. It is now on sale at Amazon in the Kindle edition. I'm heartened that in just a few days since publication several copies have already been sold and even more people have viewed the sample available at Smashwords. Since this was the first forum in which I shared information on the book I assume that the kind readers of TEN are responsible for the early sales and I am very grateful for that. I am eager to hear your opinions on the book be they good, bad, or indifferent.