Naturism needs to spread its message more effectively, conference concludes

An international conference on the theme Challenges to Naturism concluded that individual naturists, national federations and the INF-FNI need to do more to spread positive messages about naturism. Some 40 people took part in the conference, which took place in Bonn alongside the annual meeting of EuNat, the European arm of the INF-FNI, during the weekend of 11th -12th March. A number of others joined by videoconference. Soenke Reise, chair of the organisation GetNakedGermany, made the keynote presentation, identifying no less than 13 principal challenges, including cultural and social attitudes, body shaming, false perceptions of an overlap between nudity and sex. During discussion, participants especially abhorred the practice of some pornographic websites and swingers establishments to misuse the word naturist. Social media presented other problems, including the discriminatory approach towards the female nipple. In its conclusions, the conference stressed the importance of naturists, clubs, federations and the INF-FNI speaking prominently to press, politicians and the public to explain naturism and its benefits. Better marketing, and a more coherent message by the federations and the INF-FNI was important, as was reaching beyond the established naturist community to demonstrate naturism in its diverse forms including the wow factor of unusual naturist events. And the INF-FNI itself should be more proactive in its public communications and grasp obvious opportunities for positive messages. The meeting in Bonn took place at the invitation of the Deutscher Verband fuer Freikoerperkultur (DfK), the German naturist federation, and its president, the EuNat Secretary, Wilfried Blaschke. The conference is a series of events of this kind to be held every two years. You can read more about this, including the Conference conclusions, on the website: www.inf-fni.org, then click News.