First a declaration of non-interest. Some people here may be aware that I was a founding member of the Naturist Lifestyle Party of NSW. Sadly, the decision was recently made to wind up the party, since it was clearly not going to achieve its primary goal, so I'm writing this with no ulterior motive.

Late last year, I addressed the Administrator of Warringah Council in the council's public forum, asking that nude bathing be permitted on parts of Dee Why and Curl Curl beaches. These are mainstream beaches, so my request attracted some attention in the press. The administrator said he was not opposed to the idea in principle, and suggested that I organise a petition of Warringah residents to assess the level of support for the idea.

In the end, I had to do it all myself, so I spent some hours standing around bus stops in the city, talking to people boarding buses headed towards Warringah. This is a really really dull activity. Anyway, I asked about 200 people, and 80 or so signed the petition, providing their names and addresses (street names, but not house numbers).

That means that 40% of the people I asked were actually willing to put their names to a request for nude bathing on mainstream beaches.

In the end, it got us nowhere, of course. The administrator found reasons why it would be unacceptable, notwithstanding the results of the petition. One of the reasons was a concern for the impact on people who walk along the beaches.

If one based ones expectations on media reports and the state of the law, one would think that a willingness to be nude in public was something confined to the nudist fringe group, yet the facts seem to say otherwise.

So just how many people would actually be bothered by seeing nude bathers in places where nude bathing is allowed? And how many people would participate if it didn't involve hiking to some tiny isolated beach with no facilities?

Personally I dont see the problem with nudity as such. Having said that I think a nice bikini or whatever is much more flattering. There are people who frequent these nude beaches that have quite bizarre looks about them (nude). Sorry I just dont see why anyone would want to have nude people walking around a mainstream beach?? We have stopped people smoking in public areas so that it wont offend non smokers. Being a mother of small children I wouldnt want them to be forced to have naked bodies walking all around them. Sorry I think that if you want to go nude then walk to your remote location and go for it.

Deborah,

I'm somewhat puzzled as to why you think your small children would care if there were naked bodies around them. It's not as if a distaste for nudity has been evolved into us. There are even now tribes in the Amazon Jungle where nudity is the norm. One has to assume that their children are not growing up emotionally scarred as a result.

I've seen some young children on nudist beaches. Their attitude towards the nudity around them can only be described as one of complete indifference.

Sylvia.

Dear Sylvia,

Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable walking around naked in public; and I guess most other people think the same, despite the apparent support you have observed. Why? Because if most people believed nudity to be a socially acceptable norm, wouldn’t the government have permitted nudity on beaches long ago? I don’t have a problem with nudity being permitted in especially allocated places, as it is now, but some people may find it offensive on mainstream beaches. Moreover, there are safety reasons, why one should cover at least one’s genital area, which is a particularly fragile part of the body. :)

Rob, think back to what you have read of the introduction of mixed bathing and the various steps since. Each faced similar issues.

At each stage some considered others (un)dress preferences offensive. I fail to see why nudists should be discriminated against in a manner others are not. Somebodies choice to find a certain attire (or lack thereof) should not result in somebody else being forced to dress differently.

I'd be interested to see if any stats have been gathered on the sexual health of people who have grown up exposed nudity compared to their peers who have not. Are kids of nudists more or less likely to be rapists, have unplanned pregnancies etc than those of non nudists?

My gut feel is that they might exhibit healthier attitudes to the human body than some of their peers growing up with the view that their is something indecent or rude about the human body.

R0bert

I'm going to be a fox among the chickens here, but the problem with nudity is that hormonal charged young men may come straight from MTV or whatever and seeing a shapely teenage girl with nothing on...... *think*.

So the problem is not the 'offence' but the open door to perving etc.
I have a simple theory about nakedness, given that reproduction is the 2nd most powerful human motivation.. and that.. shock horror relates rather closely to stimulation by the sight of naked flesh of the opposite gender, it just doesn't sound quite right to be flashing our breasts and bums and privates for all and sundry.

Naturists would be ok with it I guess, but I still don't understand how 15 yr old boys faced with 14 yr old girls totally naked no matter how 'naturist' you might be, would not have a bit of a struggle in the groin.

Sylvia ? do naturists suddenly become holy and pure in all their encounters with the opposite sex ?

I suppose the next step (if it has not already arrived) is for bikini's to have just a thin string between the bum cheeks revealing pretty much all the rump area, perhaps then the front bit will shrink...

of course all simply proving what most of us know, 'titillation' is based on 'being naughty/pushing boundaries' and is incremental in nature. (as stated on the porn thread)
"Many small steps=One long journey"