Dead Links: What is it with Nudist Sites?

As an amateur writer on nudist topics I do a good bit of research, primarily on the Internet. Actually I had noticed this problem early on but it seems to be getting more pronounced. The problem? Dead links to listed nudist sites. Just this morning I entered a search term on a topic I wanted to research for a future article and links on the Nudist Explorer site were at the top of the list. I went to the site and clicked on the link for the article I was looking to read and the result was “Sorry the page you requested was not found.” I clicked on another link to an article in the same category. The result, “Sorry, the page you were looking for could not be found.” Attempt number three with another link under the same category yielded “There isn't a web page at the address you typed or it may be temporarily unavailable.” Clicking on a fourth link took me not to the article the link advertised but to a totally unrelated commercial search page with links primarily to hardcore pornography, not the article I wanted on family friendly naturism. I won’t continue to beat a dead horse here but will conclude with the results produced with the fifth link I tried, “Sorry, the page you requested was not found.” Before moving on from Nudist Explorer, I began to just randomly click on links to see if any of them worked and beyond a few links to well established sites like: Beachfront USA, Naturist Action Committee, Clothes Free International, and the like, I estimated that at least ninety percent of the links on the Nudist Explorer page were either dead, went to sites other than what the links advertised to be about or were otherwise faulty.

The Clothes Free international site also boasts a comprehensive nudist links page and so I tried that one next. While the results weren’t quite as abysmal, still there were way too many dead, non-working links there as well. What is my point in all of this? While for me as a nudist topics researcher, all of these dead, non-functioning links may just be a minor irritation, but the thought occurred to me that if I was someone curious about learning more on the subject of naturism and nudism and found so many dead ends while searching for authoritative information, I might very well have just given up. This situation also begs another question. What does it say about the people who originally put up nudist sites and then apparently abandoned them in droves so that the sites were taken down by the hosting agencies? Are there really so many naturists and nudists out there who care so little about the lifestyle that they are unwilling to remain committed to keeping a nudists informational site they once put up operational? And what does it say about people who operate nudist link sites and the fact that they obviously don’t give much if any attention to removing dead, non-functioning links?

I sometimes wonder if my personality type is really suited to naturism and nudism. I tend to be the driven type. A border-line activist if you will who seems bound to move further and further across the line. Yet now having had the opportunity to meet a good number of my fellow naturists and nudists and talk with them, I am finding that with a few notable exceptions, by and large they tend to be the most laid-back, live and let live types that I have ever met and rarely do I find anyone who has a similar mind-set to mine. I’m beginning to have serious doubts about the realistic prospects of such a group being successfully organized into a cohesive group to move naturism and nudism from being a fringe element into mainstream culture. I’m not confident that a collective will can be found to do the hard work that would be required to accomplish such a goal. This leaves me feeling a bit melancholy today as I am certain that organization and development of such a collective will is the only way any real change could ever be realized. I simply detest the idea of the naturist and nudist community remaining the backwater, fringe community element that it is perceived to be by general society. As long as present conditions exist, we will continue to languish in an environment where our rights are either denied outright or subjected to severe restrictions. How long will be content to practice our lifestyle behind the walls of expensive resorts and on the barest slivers of public lands that have been doled out to us primarily because they are areas no one else is interested in using anyway?

A History of American Nudism – Part III

For years nudists have been were content to remain behind fences aware that these barriers serve a dual purpose. They protect the non-nudist public from having to view nakedness but they also kept voyeurs and people who were unsympathetic to nudity from harassing them. Today the nudist community is “coming out of the closet” and beginning to speak out for nudism in an attempt to acquaint non-nudists with the importance of body-acceptance and the joy of nude recreation. With these “outreach” efforts, beginning along the Eastern seaboard American naturism began to spread west.

Nudism continues to grow in popularity and acceptance as it has become to be seen as more mainstream. Actively and effectively promoting the ideals that human bodies are good and worthy of acceptance, and that nakedness is not synonymous with sex, there has begun a change in the perspective of mainstream Americans. More and more non-nudists are adopting a more tolerant view of nudists even if they are not themselves interested in participating, as the understanding develops that there is no wholesale debauchery, sex orgies or perversion going on inside the fences of nudist clubs and resorts. Normal people are simply enjoying a game of tennis, a hike, swim, sunbathe sharing a meal in the nude with the same friendliness as other normal people do the same activities while clothed. As the nudist movement goes beyond its early “underground” character and becomes more mainstream and as attitudes and legislation unfriendly to the practice of open nudity become more accepting, nude recreation continues to expand beyond the privacy of fences to include activities such as the expansion of nude beaches and nude cruises.

Change is always a slow process, and to date the establishment of nude beaches has been far more successful in Europe than in America, given the more relaxed attitude that Europeans have towards nudity. Still there are many reasons to feel positive about the fact that public social trends seem finally to be catching up with social nudism. For example, in 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled that “nudity” was not in itself illegal or criminal unless accompanied by acts of lewdness. This ruling opened a crack in the dike of anti-nudity laws and has served as a model for changes in anti-nudity laws in other states. Today there is no ban on nudity while on federal land, although at the discretion of local park superintendents rangers may issue citations under local state and county laws if they so choose.

Nudity outside the confines of the established clubs and resorts still remains far from common even with changes in official policy and laws. But there has been progress. Organized nude river rafting on the Colorado River is now common at the Grand Canyon and nude house boating no longer turns any heads at Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Bed and Breakfast inns and motels catering exclusively to nudist vacationers have sprung up from Palm Springs to Palm Beach. By the end of the 1990’s, Forbes Magazine estimated that the nudist tourist industry was generating over $800 million in business annually. “Hippie Hollow” on Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, has a long tradition of nude recreation with no legal trouble. Despite frequent court victories by nudist supporters there are still enough people in America who consider nudity offensive that the nudist movement still has a long ways to go before gaining the acceptance or at least tolerance of the majority of mainstream America. Yet things are slowly looking better. It is much easier today than ever before for nudists to enjoy backcountry travel, cruises and other travel and recreational opportunities with the advent of travel agencies that specialize in clothing optional recreation. A growing tolerance in society for nudity and awareness of the naturalness and wholesomeness of nudism continues to move forward. Those who practice social nudism/naturism look forward to the day when their chosen lifestyle no longer has to be confined to tall privacy fences or remote beaches.