Young Adult Nudist Groups at Odds

No one inside the nudist & naturist community is unaware of the difficulty our culture has in attracting young adults. Much has been written about the "aging" demographics of the nudist culture. A number of theories have been put forth that attempt to explain why young adults, ages18 to 30 do not embrace Nudism in large numbers.

Everyone from the national nudist organizations to individual clubs and resorts have sought ways to attract the younger generations in larger numbers. The assumption is that unless the nudist lifestyle gets a reasonable inflow of new blood, the nudist & naturist lifestyle may eventually disappear altogether and at least as far as the traditional AANR-type nudist clubs go. Given the realities, it stands to reason that all nudists & naturists would applaud a new, vibrant group founded for the very purpose of promoting the benefits of nudist lifestyle to young adults by seeking to raise the general awareness of what Nudism & Naturism have to offer to those between 18 and 30.

Young Naturists and Nudists America Arrives on the Scene

On November 28, 2010, a press release announced the founding of just such a group with the express aim to promote naturism to young adults in the area encompassing New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The stated goal of the group, Young Naturists and Nudists America, was to educate young adults about what naturism & nudism have to offer them and to raise their awareness of the positive benefits of the lifestyle. The organization began by putting up an educational website in October 2010 and then began planning and hosting nudist events in the greater New York - New Jersey area to garner more participation among young Americans in the naturist & nudist lifestyle. The group sought to "show the AANR how its done" when it came to garnering interest in Nudism among the "younger tech savvy community" by creating a fresh, relevant and informative website and by harnessing integrating the powerful social networking tools available with the Internet.

Controversy Erupts

The organization has since enjoyed some rather phenomenal success in attracting young Americans to become registered members of the web-based group, attracting participants to the hosted events and followers on the organization's Facebook page. Yet recently, YNA has come under fire from the founder of another young adult nudist group, Florida Young Naturists. That group's founder, Robbe White, published on the FYN website, a Public Statement regarding YNA (Young Naturists America), dated March 3, 2011, in which he stated, "I do not support YNA." In the statement, White justifies his non-support by explaining that the YNA Facebook page contributes to the linkage between social nudity and sex by seemingly welcoming "self-proclaimed, proud voyeurs, exhibitionists and swingers" to the folds of YNA and thus does a disservice to the naturist community. White went on to say that, "From what I can gather YNA is a lifestyle [swingers] group" that harmed the reputation of respect and wholesomeness that traditional naturists had worked hard to build.

The YNA Response

Understandably, perhaps YNA founders were outraged by White's public statement and a "war of words" began via posts to the YNA website and Facebook page. An entire forum thread on the site titled, "Robbe White of Florida Young Naturists Attacks YNA - Again," was started by one of the YNA founders, J. Blum. Another YNA founder, "Felicity" posted a scathing response to White's statements terming them "ludicrous and unfounded accusations."

While I'm not taking sides in the argument, the truth about YNA is likely somewhere in the middle between the respective positions of White and YNA founders. Reading the forum thread referenced above in its entirety, as it goes along, YNA does not in my opinion seem to distance itself strongly enough from embracing a policy of excluding those who may be attracted to YNA membership and hosted events for reasons other than wholesome, non-sexual nudity. The tone seems to be that the sexuality of others is not their business or the business of White, and that excluding people from participation at YNA or from the nudist lifestyle just because they may also embrace swinging or other non-traditional sexuality is prejudicial and old-fashioned.

In fairness to YNA, I have followed the group since becoming aware of the organization in November 2010. Based on the information presented both on the YNA website and a companion blog owned and published by "Felicity" I have to say I was impressed with the pureness of the motives and intents of YNA in the beginning. I think they sincerely wanted to introduce young adults in greater numbers to traditional, wholesome and non-sexual Nudism & Naturism. In a way perhaps, YNA has simply become a victim of its own success.

The Internet can be a powerful tool for any movement, including Nudism. The problem is that even legitimate nudist & naturist websites that provide social networking attract more than their fair share of perverts and predators, along with a good number of swingers who for some reason feel the need to try and co-opt Nudism to garner credibility. The fact is, Nudism and Naturism is about enjoying nudity for the sake of the joy and freedom of being nude, either alone or with others. Swinging on the other hand is about sex, having sex with a partner or partners other than your own. Nudity within the swinger lifestyle is simply peripheral to the lifestyles true focus. I am not condemning swingers, I just wish that as a nudist they would identify with their own lifestyle instead of trying to be considered a part of non-sexual Nudism & Naturism. Certainly, there are likely many "true" nudists who also participate in swinging but the fact is a nudist engaged in swinging is participating in the swinger lifestyle not in traditional Nudism.

Visiting the YNA website just today, while visiting the community page I saw a number of photographs uploaded to the site that were nothing but crude "crotch shots." I also found on the Facebook page and forums a number of posts by YNA members expressing the opinion that since sexuality was a private and individual matter there was nothing inherently wrong with a person mixing sex with Nudism and Naturism. If YNA wants to be a respected and credible voice for the nudist & naturist culture, they should spend less time on public denouncements of their critics and more time ferreting out the undesirables and swinger lifestylers within their membership. Crotch shots are not appropriate, especially the ones like I observed that sported a disembodied erect penis, have no place on a legitimate nudists & naturists website. No forum posts should go unchallenged by site moderators that proclaim that mixing nudism with sex is an individual decision and there is nothing wrong with it.

I think YNA has accomplished some positive things for nudist culture and has the potential for being a positive force among young adults. Yet if the organization does not take effective steps to address the issues that unfortunately all legitimate nudist websites face, the will simply continue to lose respectability and credibility among real nudists & naturists. If any nudist website is allowed to remain too all-inclusive then soon it becomes just as slimy and lacking in credibility among true nudists as a site like "Pure Nudism" that is nothing more than a garden-variety porn site.