Daily Archives: November 9, 2014

Single males

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Single males have, not unjustifiably sometimes, a bit of a negative reputation in naturism.

They’re sometimes the voyeur types hiding in the dunes with camera (or penis) in hand. They’re the sad, ugly guys who can’t get themselves a girl. They’re the gay men using nude beaches as a pick-up location. And naturism, without ever being homophobic, we’re too laid back to pass judgement on others’ sexuality, but well prepared to criticise displays of sexual activity on naturist beaches, be that of the gay or heterosexual variety-the last link targets doggers and swingers performing sex acts on a naturist beach- does carry a patina of anti-single men attitudes. This is particularly apparent when single men might try to join a naturist club. There’s good, logical thinking for disbarring single males, and that’s to keep a balance of the sexes in place. Men are, by nature, more likely to happily strip off in public than women, and so there’s a constant fight to ensure that a balance between the sexes remains.

Of course there’s no bar on ‘single’ (i.e. unaccompanied) males going to a naturist beach, and it’s a familiar sight to see a male arrive alone, lay out his towel, and then sunbathe without bothering anyone. Gay? Straight? It hardly matters, as he won’t be indulging in any sexual behaviour, of any type, to irritate and annoy others. He sunbathes, he swims, and he goes home.

Single females, too, are often apparent in real life naturist settings. Work ends, and they head to the beach to squeeze in a couple of hours tanning before the evening meal. Wives, widows, single women, schoolgirls reluctantly heading home to do homework, you’ll encounter them all sunning solo, without annoying anyone, without being harassed by anyone.

It’s slightly different, I have to say, in SL. Pop yourself down on a towel in world and wait for the 2-3 minutes before a ‘hi!’ IM pops up from an avatar you can’t see…and can’t even see if you pull up a mini-map to try and identify their location.

It can rapidly go downhill from there. ‘Nice tits’.

It doesn’t happen like that in RL naturism. Women will be left well alone, not subjected to sexual harassment. Which is, quite often, the behaviour all too apparent from some male avatars whether they’re clothed or not!

Me? I’ll talk to anyone, but if the conversation has ‘nice tits’ or similar in it, you can bet your bottom dollar you’re muted instantly without response.

 

 

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A rare sight in SL (in clothed or unclothed settings) is friendship between male avatars.

In RL naturism we’ll also see gaggles of people arrive for a bit of tanning, often after school gets out. A mum with her children. A teacher just finished for the day? An elderly woman with her middle-aged daughter and sometimes teenage grand-daughter turn up. A couple of guys might arrive on a moped to grab a quick swim before homework, a night out, football training, an evening job.

They, too, are ‘single’ males, except there are two of them together, but they never seem ‘seedy’ or suspect in their behaviour. The naturist beach is a means to an end. Here, we see another difference between behaviour in real and virtual settings. A couple of naturist men can turn up on the beach. Gay? Hetero? Who cares? Their behaviour is not likely to be sexual and even if there is a display of gay love, two of them kissing for example, no one will bat an eyelid any more than they would kissing between a male and female. A bit of petting…gay or straight…would be a different matter.men together4_001b

A couple of male avatars sitting together practically anywhere in SL is much less likely to occur. Male avatars rarely make friends with male avatars. It just looks ‘too gay’. Not that anyone has said as much to me, but my observations suggest that  male avatars aren’t likely to strike up ‘hi’ conversations from distance in the likelihood that the other guy is an interesting kind of guy, judging by his profile.

Fellas, I’m saying to you, don’t be afraid to start up conversations with other male avatars.

Pookes

 

Messenger Bag (a Naturist and non-naturist accessory)

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Over at Fab Free Headquarters you can find this free messenger bag, ideal for naturists and non naturists alike. I’ve identified it as a naturist accessory simply because this is exactly the type of bag I use for the beach. A small purse with a few Euros inside for beach bar coffees or lemonade. Our apartment key. A pareo. An iPod. Sun tan oil. Sunglasses. I’m good to go! Mr. Keng uses a similar style bag for his bits and bobs.

 Ella

Naturists for real

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We follow a number of genuine naturist tumblr sites, and Naturistsforreal is one of them. I’m not particularly drawn to a need to see a lot of naturist photographs, but they do often prove to be a source of inspiration for the various blog posts we do here (and I’ve said this before). Naturists for Real is excellent in that it doesn’t limit itself to photographs of naturists, but answers questions on the lifestyle, links to pieces of journalism that may be of interest to naturists (example: it’s healthier to sleep nude) and includes photos such as the one above, which demonstrates an implicit understanding of the wider naturist lifestyle.

It’s a communing with nature itself. The bare body is a natural state. Eating healthily is a natural state -fresh produce over processed (which would certainly explain a wide range of excellent seafood restaurants that seem to populate the Mediterranean coastline). And attitude is also important (see the photo below)

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Yep, we need to care for our environment. And naturists’ love of nature ensures that naturist beaches are some of the cleanest you’ll find. We, as a lifestyle group, implicitly understand a need to take away empty bottles, food wrappings and so on to ensure that the animal and bird life near the beaches don’t suffer (choking hazards, etc) that man often carelessly leaves behind, their rubbish being someone else’s problems.

I was particularly taken with the photo and the message that Naturists For Real posted (top of page) which very much demonstrates the author’s love of genuine naturist values.

We do very much need to invigorate our souls in places not rearranged by man.

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Pookes is found at the Amazon River sims, marvelling at a sim which in turn shows the marvels of nature.

This is equally true of SL’s virtual naturism too, because one can get an incredible sense of how much more attractive the world is in a natural setting. Honourable mentions must go to Lupe’s Magical Forest and the Amazon sims, which are marvellous examples of imaginative builders where SL’s virtual naturism can be enjoyed. There are also a huge number of non-naturist sims where the object of the exercise is imaginative building, a project that isn’t predicated by commerce, and pixellated brushed aluminium and smoked glass, as soulless an experience undertaken virtually as it is in real life. To this end, I’d also recommend the Ad Vitam Aeternam blog, whose sole purpose is to bring you a collection of links to sims where the marvel of SL’s builds are the key element. I have to say that, while they’re probably all non-naturist sims, we do utilise the links provided by Ad Vitam Aeternam to the max, tp’ing in to do photo shoots from the various links they provide.

Even if you’re not a SL naturist the blog will provide hours of in world enjoyment that another shopping mall will never achieve. For me, there’s a bit of a failure in Linden Labs economics wherein tier costs are such that people often focus on commerce rather than a build for its own sake, an exercise in invention and imagination. For me, SL’s economics should be structured in such a way that sims that have no economic potential, no effective revenue stream, should be tier costed at a much lower monthly rate, to encourage sim owners to build a sim for its own sake. As a world in which politics are minimised, as a world in which people can display great generosity towards their fellow avatars (and we’ve personally benefitted from the largesse of Brenda Hoisin and Gray Muricastle in permitting us to hold office space in the Eden Naturist Estate & Su Casa naturist sims respectively), shouldn’t we in SL be encouraging a world where we can focus on the important things in life? The nature of the world around us. The marvel of nature’s diversity?

In this, I’d also pay tribute to Tess’s ‘Naked Dreams’ sim, part of the Eden Naturist Estate, wherein she has imaginatively provided a scuba diving experience complete with shoals of fish in evidence, an SL experience where you can simply marvel at the imagination of the builder, and a total understanding of the beautiful natural world in which we live.

 

Ella.