naturism: simply another dress code for different communities and lifestyles

I am a naturist. That means people like me believe in the right to dress as one wishes. That can be nude. It can be in normal everyday dress. You can even turn up in a suit of armour if you wish (but don't ask us to fish you out of the pool). In other words, the right to dress and indeed live as you please within reason, i.e. in a manner that does not harm a reasonable person. My preferred naturist activity is naked country walking. My friends and I pass every other weekend hiking through the countryside of southern England .naked. You may think this causes ructions with the "textile" world. Nothing of the sort! In 8 walks this year, passing literally hundreds of other dressed country walkers, we have had only one adverse comment. We never dress if we encounter other walkers. In my opinion, to do so would be tantamount to admitting we are doing something wrong. We are not ..and this is borne out by the near-unanymous public acceptance. The fact is we are no different to all the other country walkers. We have a different dress code (nudity), but then they all have their dress senses, all different in their own ways. Naturism is NOT a lifestyle! My lifestyle is as a country walker. I have thought about this and the stark truth is that I have more in common with clothed hikers than I do with naked people in other activities. There are many lifestyles and communities within the "naturist" spectrum. - Nudist clubs - These are people who cut themselves off from society like a naked Amish (or is that lascivious swingers hiding behind hedges?), doing everything they can to discourage anyone who is not a married WASP. Black, Jewish, gay, disabled and even that noted social pariah, the single male, are emasculated at the gate. - Naked parties - Now do you really think they get together to ascertain whether the St Emilion tastes better in the raw? I have been to many (that I have left early) and I can safely say that celibacy is rarely if ever on the menu! - Beachbums - Most claiming to be nudist do little more than simply lounge comatose on beaches, dozing 16 hours a day like some shaven cat panting in the sun. In fact the majority ONLY get naked on holidays. They are only a few inches of fabric away from being textile beachbums. Is that nudism at all? and what have they in common with............... - Campaigners and protesters - I myself help organise the World Naked Bike Ride (where most partakers are not even naked) and, then, there are all the Spencer Tunick events. How can this be a lifestyle? How can protesting be a valid community? - Randonneurs - Naked walkers, a wholesome acvtivity, you may say, but, sadly, made up largely of those abandoned or disenchanted by the other four main naked groups. They are largely retired males with eons of hours to wile away in endless circles. (What if we have to work?) Now think again! What do I have in common with .....the nouveau-Apartheid of the nudist clubs; .....the prurient domain of the naked male pointing due magnetic north; .....the lazy timewasters on an expanse of sand; .....even the anally-retentive, humourless demeanour of most naked political agitators? Or for that matter, why would they in turn want to associate with a guy who wanders round the wilderness in the altogether, talking to trees? All right, not all the above groups are as starkly saturated as I have painted them, but they do have majority trends in those intransigently diverging directions. In effect, none of these groups have anything to do with each other than dress code! For example, the clubbies want to separate themselves from civilization, the hikers want to integrate! So.. how can we be a community, a lifestyle? How can there be such a thing as matters nudist, when we can't even agree among ourselves? Organizations like AANR and BN get endless criticism, totally unfairly. How can they represent a polyglot of eclectic interests, when their valiant attempts at a one-size-fits-all policy effectively fits none? Their only feasible effective function would be as a legal entity, a protection syndicate. I believe that those organizations need to be diversified so that there are nationwide interest groups, something like (in the UK). GB Nude Campers - Swinging England - British Bare Beaches - UK Naked Rights - and/or Nudehiking UK. The naked walkers should move to coalesce with other (dressed) walkers in a clothes-optional coffee-blender, as it is they who are their soul-brothers. The same with the other interest-based communities above. Then and only then will the fear of nudism just because it dresses differently disappear. We will become just the new "punks", "goths" etc in a society coat of many colours. Nudist? What IS "nudist"? It is simply a physical comfort-zone, a fashion sense, a fashion statement. nothing more! .....