Managers of the Appalachian Trail Just Say “No” to Nude Hiking

What does Father’s Day and nudity have in common? Usually nothing, but this year summer solstice happened to fall on Father’s Day so dad’s special day shared June 21, 2009 with the annual observance of Naked Hiking Day. It should come as no surprise that nude hiking is a European tradition where the American aversion to the natural state of the human body is less keenly felt.

For an article published by the Associated Press, a reporter interviewed Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Brian’s take about hiking in the buff? “It's just rude.” “People are out there hiking with their kids and families, and there are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.” Yes, by all means, we shouldn’t deny our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts their inalienable American right to grow up sexually repressed with life-long body image hang ups. God forbid that they might become privy to the closely guarded, deep dark secret that beneath the clothing, everyone is naked and males have penises while females have vaginas.

In the same article Ranger Tammy McCorkle, of the state-managed South Mountain Recreation Area in western Maryland, acknowledged that rangers were on the job and responded quickly to reports of a group of naked men spotted hiking along the AT. Although all were clothed by the time a ranger reached them, eight received disorderly conduct warnings after admitting they had been nude. According to Ranger McCorkle, they got off lucky since full-frontal violations could have resulted in indecent exposure charges. In a way it is comical how seriously and negatively so many people take something as harmless as nude hiking. One also has to wonder why authorities can’t simply solve the issue for the benefit of non-nudists by declaring one or two days out of the week as clothing optional. I mean how much trouble would it be to post a few signs along the Appalachian Trail, “Warning! On Mondays and Wednesdays you may encounter nude hikers.” I guess it is just easier to deny nudists their personal rights to enjoy nature in the natural.

For those interested who might have missed it, my most recent nudist related article published at Associated Content, Modern Nudity, explains the practice of modern nudity and includes historical underpinnings.

Couple Faces Eviction for “Nearly” Nude Gardening

Today on the Internet I came across a United Press International story about a Boulder, Colorado couple who are facing eviction on the grounds that they are in the opinion of their landlord, creating a nuisance. According to the report, the married couple, Catharine Pierce, 51, and Robert Pierce, 58, enjoy gardening in the front yard of their Boulder home wearing only thongs and pasties. Since the two are not exposing their genitals, their activities are not a violation of any local laws or ordinances. Still, their “nearly” nude gardening obviously is an irritation and affront to their apparently prudish landlord who has taken legal action to put an end to things by having the pair evicted for creating a nuisance.

Their landlord is Boulder Housing Partners, which administers an affordable housing program for the City of Boulder. In an interview with the local Boulder newspaper, Executive Director Betsy Martens was quoted to say, “Defining the word ‘nuisance’ is tough.” “This is not a legal issue, it's a community issue. We try and balance the needs of the whole community.” The implication apparently being that the nude gardening activities by the Pierce’s violates community mores as they relate to modesty.

The couple however begs to differ with Ms. Martens, asserting that Boulder Housing Partners is infringing on their basic rights. “We want our freedom,” Robert Pierce told the same Boulder newspaper, adding, “We want exactly what the law gives you, and we don't want to be harassed about it.”

Boulder was recently the center of nude behavior controversy over the annual “Nude Pumpkin” run where a number of college students engaging in an annual prank were arrested and prosecuted under indecency laws for appearing nude in public. The ACLU intervened in that situation and it will be interesting to see whether they come to the aid of the Pierces.

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Associated Content Update

As an update, I have had three more “nudist” articles accepted for publication by Associated Content and the links are provided below. I appreciate those who have taken time to view the first article I mentioned several days ago and hope you will click on the links and check out these new articles. Thus far the folks at Associated Content have been quite accepting of my nudist articles and I have a couple of more in queue.

A First Nudist Experience

Have You Ever Considered a Nude Cruise?

The Skinny on Skinny-Dipping

A New Direction

Recently I decided to expand into another venue by becoming a contributing writer on the Associated Content web site. While I still intend to post regular content here on my blog, I thought this might be a good way to more effectively conduct outreach among non-nudists by having positive articles on naturism and nudism published in a more mainstream venue. Happily, Associated Content accepted my first nudism article, The Emerging Nudist and I even received a few bucks for my trouble. While I will be submitting articles on a variety of topics there under the pen name, Jon Stall, I intend to concentrate on naturism and nudism and in fact have already submitted two more articles on that topic and am awaiting the decision of the site editors on publication. It would be much appreciated if the readers here would follow the links I will be providing to my Associated Content articles. The more the articles are accessed I think the better the chances that similar articles will be accepted by the editors for publication on AC and the more non-nudists I can reach with my message.

Nudity Equals Sex

Socialization is a learning process that begins shortly after birth. Early childhood is the period of the most intense and the most crucial socialization. It is then that we acquire language and learn the fundamentals of our culture. Unfortunately, a part of the socialization process in this country includes people learning from childhood to equate nudism with sex and sexuality and to be conditioned in general to maintain a very juvenile attitude about sex; it's either locker room naughty or the ultimate evil. This is the kind of thing that makes Europeans snicker about us uptight Americans. There are ways to teach children healthy boundaries about their bodies without making them feel uptight about their body or about nudity in general.

Discerning the difference between nudity and sex is difficult for those who have grown up in a society like ours. If you have only been naked to get in the shower or to have sex it is understandable that you would assume that if you are naked around someone else it implies a desire to have sex and would make the same assumption about others. Having been raised in a very religious household, it took me almost four decades of my life to get over the shame that I felt about my own body and about sexuality. Those were some wasted years that I would not want wish on anyone. Much of the American stigma concerning sex and nudity has to do with “traditional Christian values.” America has a lot of those old Puritan influences as well as the biblical view from Genesis 3 that people should be ashamed of their bodies. It is no surprise that the more fundamentally religious people are the more sexually repressed and uptight especially in relation to nudity and sexuality.

In a society that equates nudism with sex and sexuality it is a given that stereotypes will develop and be promoted such as: people who follow the nudism lifestyle are sexually promiscuous and nudists or naturists will have sex with anyone at anytime. Stereotypes predictably lead to prejudice. Whenever society views a group of people that doesn't follow what it feels is the norm in the society than prejudice is always quickly attracted that particular group. No matter how often we naturists and nudists tell people that social nudity is not sexual, they remain unconvinced believing that there is overt sexual conduct in the nudist/naturist environment. Many believe that while we might talk a good non-sexual game, behind closed doors it's all orgies, all the time.

Even when we do our best to overcome the “nude is lewd” idea, there are still too many people who maintain these ideas. This hinders the naturism community. Since the United States is very conservative, there are only a few designated clothing optional beaches and most public lands are simply off limits to naturists and nudists. Naturism can only be practiced in very few private places. Extremely restrictive legislation is another issue that nudists face today.

Our knee jerk reaction has in the past when faced with accusations that sex and nudity are inextricably inter-related and thus going naked amongst other naked people must inevitably be sexually stimulating and arousing is to immediately deny that there is any connection whatsoever between traditional naturism and nudism and sex. The problem with this is we shall never get people to understand that sex and nudity do not normally go hand-in-hand if we continue to deny the obvious truth that sometimes, it does. A better approach might be to say that while nudity does not equal sex, sex is nothing to be ashamed of either.

While American society today is in some ways overly sexual and sex obsessed, in other ways we are a very prudish and sexually repressed society. While pornography is rampant, it is still looked down upon and thus most usually viewed in secret. Millions of Americans don’t talk about sex openly and sex education is America is in most cases very poor and insufficient. These conditions produce as a result a situation where many Americans tend to be more offended by something like Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction than they are about the violence portrayed on the average nightly news.

A general lack of understanding by society in general of what naturism is about is very apparent and it is a given that ignorance of the general population towards naturism affects the naturist community in negative ways. Many non-nudists simply believe that taking your clothing off is sinful and immoral, and teach this to their children. It's from this type of thinking that misconceptions are formed that equates nudism with sex, a corrupt mind and loose morals. Equating loose moral character with nudity is preposterous to naturists but makes sense to those who equate nudity with sex. Education is the only method that can be used to counterbalance these misconceptions among non-naturist people.

Separating sex from nudity honestly isn't the biggest issue. I think we should instead be stressing that communal nudity as practiced is naturism and nudism provide a more modern approach to sex education, destroying the secrecy and mystery of sex, elevating women to equal status with men, and thus abolishing sexual shame, perversion, and repression. We should stress that nudism is not a new phenomenon but has been around for centuries; that being nude is fun and healthy; that after all we are all born nudists and that nudism promotes body acceptance, self-confidence, and freedom. It is also very important that we communicate the fact that nudists are very cognizant that within society it is respectful to take the feelings of your fellow citizens into account and thus we do not advocate the right to be nude in public at any place or time. We also need to communicate that nudity cannot equal sex because of the reality that sexual arousal is much more complex than simply looking at a naked human body. We need to encourage people to learn about naturism and nudism before they condemn it out of hand.

Too often I hear other naturists and nudists say it is a waste of time to try to educate non-nudists and that the “clothes-minded” are in fact close minded, have their minds made up and will never be convinced to see naturism and nudism in favorable terms. I know this is not reality because once I myself only saw nudism in the common stereotypical ways and harbored that same misconception that nudity equals sex. Unless you were raised in a nudist family, you likely could tell a similar story to mine. But at some point, I became open to understanding what naturism and nudism were really about and as a result not only became tolerant of the idea but actually embraced it with a passion. Nudity is not something to be ashamed of, it's something to enjoy. Nudity does not equal sex although sex is nothing to be ashamed of, either. We can hide our bodies, turn them into taboos, try to ignore them, mistreat them, obsess about them, or accept them and even be happy with them. I know which I'd rather do.

Examining the “Sexting” Hysteria

Sex•ting

Slang for the act of sending sexually explicit or suggestive content between mobile devices using SMS. A genre of texting that contains text, images or video that is intended to be sexually arousing.

About the only topic that I’m wearier of hearing about these days than Carrie Prejean and her nude photographs “controversy” is the current hysteria revolving around “sexting” the fad predominantly popular among 10 – 14 year olds that involves sharing nude pictures and suggestive language through cell phone text messaging.

Candidly, I’m dumbfounded by the number of state legislators scrambling to enact new legislation or add to existing laws to combat this phenomenon that they apparently fear will end civilization as we know it. Couple that with the number of prosecutors around the country advocating the criminal prosecution of children who either send or receive “sexting” messages “to the fullest extent of the law” and I find a situation that is, well just disturbing and more than a little frightening. One Florida prosecutor, prosecuting an 18 year old for distributing nude images of his former 16 year old girlfriend, went so far as to say about sexting, “It's not ok. It's very illegal. A child under 18 years of age can not consent to taking these pictures, and that's child pornography, it's a felony. And that's mandatory jail time.”

I’m not intimately familiar with the whole sexting issue beyond being bombarded almost daily by news articles and radio talk show hosts who feel compelled to raise the issue ad nauseam but it appears this much ado about nothing is primarily over 10 – 14 year girls sending nude or partially nude images of themselves by text messaging to their boyfriends or other boys they are acquainted with. Is it a good idea for youngsters in this age group to take and distribute nude images of themselves? No of course not. As many people have observed, at that tender age children do not have the maturity to understand all the ramifications of doing this. A good illustration of this was the highly publicized suicide of a girl in Ohio last July that was alleged to have resulted from extreme emotional distress after she learned that nude pictures of her she intended for one person were distributed among neighboring schools. It would appear to be a no brainer in this age of the Internet and camera phones that taking and sending nude photographs of yourself to anyone could quite predictably end up being circulated among lots of other people you never wished or intended to see them but kids just don’t always take the time to fully think through all of the possible consequences of their actions. Yet this texting issue does have deeper ramifications I think. Does any sane person really advocate that 10 - 14 children should be convicted of a sex offense if found guilty of sexting and then listed for life on sex offender lists next to people who commit rape, molest kids and things like that?

First of all, it is nothing short of a myth that images of even a completely nude 10 -14 year old are de facto child pornography. Images transmitted by text message would have to be ruled obscene and thus pornographic in order for the act to even be considered unlawful in terms of possession or distribution of child pornography or obscenity. For a good many years now, the three part Miller test has been used to determine whether something is obscene and considered pornography:

Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law.

Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

While I admit I cannot think of any wholesome or redeeming justification for an adult to possess or distribute images of nude children not members of their family, clearly images depicting nothing more than mere nudity on the part of anyone including children do not meet the Miller test and by definition are neither obscene nor pornographic. The photographic image must depict a child engaged in some sexual conduct to be considered child pornography: actual or simulated sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse, sexual bestiality, masturbation, sado-masochistic abuse, or other “lewd” exhibition of the genitals, the anus, or any portion of the female breast below the top of the areola. I have not read in any of the reams of articles on sexting that any such conduct has been alleged. The controversy seems to center on images depicting only complete nudity of exposure of the breasts and/or genitals.

Second, this whole situation is focusing on the wrong thing. The problem isn’t children taking and distributing nude images it is parents who are giving their sons and daughters cell phones when they're 10 or 11 years old, without any restrictions and who are not setting any limits. It's just, “Happy birthday, here is your cell phone.” Sexting is the result of parental irresponsibility and it is the responsibility of parents, not law enforcement, not school officials and certainly not the courts who need to address the issue.

Thirdly, the very term “sexting” is just further evidence of the absurd and unhealthy perspective that general society in this country holds with regards to nudity. Perhaps if the majority of non-nudists did not adhere to the frankly sick and perverted notion that “nudity equals sex” and didn’t condition their offspring to see nudity as a taboo and something that is wrong, then perhaps the thought would never occur to children to take and distribute nude images of themselves in the first place.

Finally, can any rational person actually blame the children when the television and movie industry as well as advertisers and main stream media insist on sexualizing the naked human body to the extreme and for the most part parents won’t or in some cases can’t do anything to shield their children from the onslaught?

I for one am really sick and tired of parents who either abdicate their parental responsibilities to the government because they can’t be bothered with supervising and raising their own children as well as those who stand idly by and do nothing but wring their hands when government decides to make unwarranted intrusions into areas that should be parental and not governmental business.

The Relevancy of National Nudist Organizations

North America is served by two naturist or nudist organizations; the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and The Naturist Society (TNS). While it seems that many nudists and naturists have a rather apathetic attitude towards membership in those organizations, I make no apology for the fact that I am a staunch supporter and member of both. In fact I at every opportunity encourage others to join one or both organizations. While I allow that it isn’t likely necessary to be a member of both, I choose to be because I think there are some differences between the two organizations that cause membership in both to have value for me and others who enjoy social nudity. Another thing is that both offer excellent periodicals and I wouldn’t want to forgo receiving either of them. AANR publishes a monthly newspaper, The Bulletin and TNS publishes quarterly, a full color magazine, Nude & Natural, often simply referred to by naturists as N.

What do these organizations do besides collect dues from their members? In a nutshell, AANR is primarily responsible for the oversight of nudist clubs and resorts. They have core values such as associated organizations must provide an environment that is family friendly and free of any sexual atmosphere. They promote positive body acceptance. AANR also by committee does become involved in issues where governments or other entities attempt to infringe on the rights of people to engage in responsible social nudity.

You could say that AANR is the “nudist” organization and is most concerned about the more urban practice of social nudity. TNS on the other hand, has the more naturist type philosophy and is primarily concerned with the preservation and expansion of the rights of naturists to responsibly utilize public beaches and other public lands for nude recreational purposes. I think it fair to say that TNS is the “green” organization as they promote responsibility in interaction with nature and the environment. TNS is also active in protecting nudists and naturists from those unfriendly to social nudity. They have a legal adjunct called the Naturist Action Committee which regularly intercedes when federal, state or local governments raise issues designed to restrict the use of public lands by naturists.

Recently I submitted an article to the editors of Nude & Natural for their consideration. In part that article encourages all naturists and nudists to unite under the umbrella of a national coalition by becoming active and participating members of AANR, TNS or both. In the article I drew a comparison between naturists and nudists and gun activists, citing the effectiveness of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in shaping legislation that affects a citizen’s rights to own firearms. I see some compelling similarities in mission between the NRA and the national nudist organizations. While it is the mission of the NRA to protect and preserve what they view as the rights granted under the Second Amendment, both AANR and TNS seek to protect and preserve nudist rights from a First Amendment issues perspective.

While I’m not going to give away the whole of my proposed Nude & Natural article since that wouldn’t be fair to TNS until they make a decision about whether they will publish the article, I would just like to expound a bit more on the idea of how naturists could benefit from following a model similar to that of the NRA. The NRA is consistently rated by members of Congress as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country. NRA members are noted for registering to vote, showing up at the polls, calling their congressmen and holding their representatives accountable for the kind of legislation they introduce or support. NRA members support their organization through dues, donations and active participation in volunteer activities and recruitment. In 2004, the annual revenues of the NRA were about $240 million. Yet no matter how large NRA becomes (estimated now to have more than 4 million members), they remain true to their heritage as a grassroots organization that very effectively serves the interests of their membership.

The biggest successes I find in the NRA model are there ability to grow and retain their membership base through active and aggressive recruitment and their ability to attract additional revenues in the form of donations, allowing them to finance court challenges when necessary and support the bills and politicians that they believe are most aligned with their member’s interests. Big money and a large membership of individuals standing together, ready and willing to engage in the political process are the secrets of the NRA’s success.

In comparison, the two largest nudist organizations combined have an estimated dues paying membership of less than 100,000. While I have no figures on their annual revenues, certainly it would pale in comparison to the NRA simply by virtue of the huge difference in numbers of members. This is not to say that there are only 100,000 or so naturists in North America, as I am certain the number would easily surpass a million or more, yet that doesn’t count for much when they haven’t banded together to present a united front. 4 million members and about $240 million in annual revenues get people’s attention on Capitol Hill and in the various statehouses. That to me is a lesson that naturists must not only learn but emulate if we are ever to win the battle for respect and legitimacy that we have been fighting for since 1929. Since that time it seems we have vacillated between trying to “fly beneath the radar” and escape the notice of non-nudists or else we have been engaged in a war for the hearts and minds of clothed society through diplomacy. Neither of those strategies has brought us much success. My personal belief is that we are never going to enjoy becoming a part of mainstream society and gain at least tolerance from non-nudists until we become, to borrow a phrase from Al Gore, an “inconvenient truth” that the political forces in this country are forced to reckon with. Individual naturists need to look deep inside and find the will to become participating parts of a vital and effective united group and our nudist organizations need to discard the old ideas that haven’t worked and look to new and innovative ways to attract broad support from those who embrace naturist principles. If we could learn to shape public policy and legislation in the manner the NRA does so effectively, I think we would then be light years ahead of where we are now.

Much of the hostility and depreciative attitudes we get from a large segment of society is because we are viewed as being a fringe group of questionable morals, character and I suppose intelligence. Those kinds of opinions must be dispelled along with all the ridiculous misconceptions that many people harbor about who nudists are and what we are about. Our culture, our philosophies and our practices are good and noble and demand the same respect as those of any other alternative lifestyle. Gaining that respect is an achievable goal if only we will take a united stand. Instead of being perceived as a group of weirdoes who are always fighting city hall, let’s plug into the system and learn to use it effectively to achieve our purposes and secure the rights that are due us. As Confucius reportedly stated, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We may be facing a proverbial thousand mile journey but we can and should start taking those steps now. If the “almost” 100,000 members of the AANR and TNS would individually commit themselves to convincing just one other confirmed nudist they know over the next 12 months of the importance of membership and help to encourage them to join, one year from now the memberships of those organizations would be double their present size. Yes, 200,000 is still a far cry from 4 million but it’s a start, a first step on that thousand mile journey; a step towards the expansion of rights and access; a step towards respectability and viability of our lifestyle, beliefs and practices.

Nudity in the News

Annie's Mailbox: Hot-tubbing at home not public nudity [1]

By Kathy Mitchell & Marcy Sugar
For The Norwich Bulletin

Posted May 18, 2009 @ 11:04 PM


DEAR ANNIE: I am 23 years old and a virgin. I have never seen a naked man in my life because I believe virginity should be kept until marriage. The other day, I went with my sister to watch my nephew’s baseball game. He plays on a field that is uphill, so you can see the backyards of some of the houses across the street. My nephew had heard from his friends that one of the men in those yards sits naked in his hot tub. I always assumed this wasn’t true.

When I got to the game, I instantly remembered those rumors. I didn’t intend to be a Peeping Tom, but I looked around and saw a man in a hot tub. I assumed this was the guy, so I kept watching. Five minutes later, he got out of the hot tub and really was naked. I instantly got a headache and my eyes burned. I want to do something to prevent children from seeing him. I know he was in his own backyard, but you could see him clearly from the field. Would that count as public nudity? Do you think I should report him?

SCARRED FOR LIFE

DEAR SCARRED: We’re sure glad you didn’t go blind. For someone claiming not to be a Peeping Tom, you certainly expended a lot of energy trying to catch a glimpse of this naked man. If he is hot-tubbing on his own property and taking appropriate precautions to be discreet, it is not public nudity. Unless, of course, he does the hot-tub routine only during games, in which case there is some exhibitionism going on. If you think this is traumatizing the Little Leaguers, you can mention it to one of the parents.

[1] Mitchell, Kathy & Sugar, Marcy. Annie’s Mailbox: Hot-tubbing at home not public nudity. The Norwich Bulletin, May 18, 2009 (accessed May 20, 2009). http://www.norwichbulletin.com/lifestyles/x342404240/Annies-Mailbox-Hot-tubbing-at-home-not-public-nudity

The re-printed article above is the latest example of nudist related news I came across from crawling non-nudist news sites. The original writer to this “Dear Abby” type column goes far beyond being ridiculous and yet I found the article another sterling example of the equally ridiculous perspectives of non-nudists when it comes to the nude human body.

First, since she thought it necessary to inform everyone that she was “a virgin” who “[had] never seen a naked man…because [she] believes virginity should be kept until marriage” it is evident that this person clearly associates nudity with sex, a most common misconception among Textiles. Second, she goes out of her way to become a common voyeur and spy on a man who within the privacy of his own backyard, enjoys a refreshing dip in his hot tub sans clothing and then has the unmitigated gall to complain that she was so offended that she signed herself “Scarred for Life.” She attempts to justify her “Peeping Tom” behavior by rationalizing that she was only concerned about the welfare of children who might be exposed to seeing a naked man which was nothing short of hypocritical. I did enjoy the dramatic flair she exhibited by stating that after she observed the naked man whose privacy she was brazenly violating, “I instantly got a headache and my eyes burned.” There is no way of knowing of course whether the man involved was an actual nudist or just one of likely millions of Americans who finds hot tubbing most meaningful when enjoyed in the nude. My girlfriend, who does not at all have an attraction for naturism per se, does enjoy both nude hot-tubbing and skinny-dipping on occasion when we have the opportunity. But the article does bring to light many issues related to nudity.

First, why should nudists and others who like to be nude on their own property, in the privacy of their own backyard and who have taken the reasonable precaution to avoid offending the prudish community by erecting a reasonable privacy fence, have to fear repercussions resulting from complaints by the likes of Miss Virginal Prude? I think this lady needs grow up, don her big girl panties and accept the fact that every male on the planet has a penis and every female has a vagina and breasts and both have butts, and then she needs to get over it. The simple fact that she happened to be occupying an elevated site that permitted her to be able to violate someone’s privacy by looking over their fence into their backyard does not all serve to condone the fact that she took advantage of the circumstances to do so and then became “offended.” After a span roughly 5,000 years of recorded human civilization, it is mind boggling to me that the majority of humans are so plagued by an unhealthy view of their own nudity and that of others. Doesn’t it make you wonder how we ever progressed as far as we have? In some respects I find myself wondering whether as a society we are becoming more civilized or less so.

I did for the most part find myself in agreement with “Annie’s” reply. She not only flatly informed the writer that what she described was not public nudity but also called her out on the fact that she was the person in the wrong by engaging in voyeuristic behavior and then crying foul! I also enjoyed the little jab, “We’re sure glad you didn’t go blind.” The only disagreement I found with the article was the final “Unless, of course, he does the hot-tub routine only during games, in which case there is some exhibitionism going on. If you think this is traumatizing the Little Leaguers, you can mention it to one of the parents.” While I agree if someone was exposing their nakedness for exhibitionist purposes, they cross that invisible line between mere nudity and lewdness but of course someone like the writer who has already revealed their agenda would of course skip over the “if” and go directly to the “then" "mention it to the parents” part.

Personally, I think erecting a privacy fence around one’s backyard is all the reasonable precaution a person should be expected to take with regard to taking appropriate action to preclude offending someone who finds nudity offensive. Once they have done that, if others choose to build an elevated baseball field or a two story home for that matter that provides people the facility for peering over a privacy fence and observing what is going on in someone else’s backyard, then they cannot then claim to be offended if they happen to observe someone sunbathing or hot-tubbing in the nude. This madness has to stop!