Earlier in the week I posted ‘Dear Abby’, a post wherein an adult naturist male’s sister had discovered his naturist lifestyle and wanted to join her brother at the brother’s naturist holiday home. The man was ‘freaked out’ by the thought of his sister seeing him nude (although the correspondent didn’t clarify if he man was ‘freaked out’ by the thought of seeing his sister nude, or the sister’s intentions on whether she was going to nude or remain covered until she decided if she liked the lifestyle -although we do know she wanted to explore it, so presumably had the intention of stripping off.)

I asked if readers had a view on this. They did, and I’m grateful to Danee & Eric for their responses.

I said I’d add my view in due course.

Had the brother and sister been raised in a naturist environment they’d probably have grown up knowing what each other looked like and there would have been no issue. That sounds like a pretty good reason for raising children in a nude-friendly environment, even if the household isn’t naturist per se.

I don’t understand why the man should be disconcerted. His sister probably has never thought of him in terms of being naked, assuming she hasn’t accidentally seen him nude when they shared a home growing up, but it’s safe to say she won’t think he has ownership of anything other than the usual set of male genitals.

Like all of us who weren’t naturist children and accepted the lifestyle as normal from an early age, we will all have had that ‘awkward’ first time in public while naked moment.

‘Everyone will be looking at my penis’

‘Everyone will be looking at my boobs’.

No, they won’t. Many don’t think this is true as they approach their debut, but as experienced naturists come to recognise it as fact. We meet our naturist friends and don’t think of them as a collection of usually unseen parts. We greet them as friends, pure and simple, and in naturism there’s a rapidly approached point where you don’t even consider them as being naked, just people.

‘But my sister may not be naked’, he might wail.

So what? I’ll bet that in his usual naturist experience there are times he’s encountered females who weren’t naked, and didn’t think anything of it.

While he may have reservations, my advice would be that he simply does his usual thing. From what I gather, he’ll be doing some household repairs. Just get on with it, and if his sister’s there, I’m imagining she might have many questions about naturism, its etiquette and practices if she’s exploring the concept of the lifestyle. I’m guessing that type of conversation will ensue.

Were I in this position, with my brother in attendance, I’d get on with doing my own thing and treat my nude form as normal (which it is). My brother knows I’m a naturist. He’s even seen my holiday snaps. I didn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed by the lack of swimwear in the photos. It’s who I am. He’s never expressed any desire to be a naturist, but I don’t feel ‘disadvantaged’ by that. I don’t feel there needs to be a quid pro quo in this.

Personally, I believe he should get on with his nude repairs, answers the questions likely to occur, and any ’embarrassed’ moment will pass in a minute. After that, normal naturist lifestyle will recommence.

Will there be any sense of being ‘disadvantaged’? I suspect not. I suspect that his sister’s interest in naturism means she’s going to the resort to experience the freedom of swimming or sunbathing without clothes, not just to be a curious observer.

I would really love to hear back from the original correspondent on how this situation resolves itself.

Trine

Last week Sweden legalised topless swimming in the country’s swimming baths/pools.

It’s a little bit more complicated than that. This stems from a case where a person wishing to be identified as transgender was ejected from a pool for being female. A court case followed and the law was changed so that there wasn’t any requirement for a female to wear a bikini top.

Of course, this comes at a time when Swedish pools are being simultaneously increasingly segregated by ‘female only’ sessions, due to ‘a risk of collisions with other cultures and religions. There are [Muslim] women swimming fully dressed. Even people without religious or cultural ramifications may be offended by women bathing shirtless’, according to the manager of one Stockholm bathhouse.

The rise in immigrants to Sweden has led to some unpleasant incidents int he recent past, to the extent that some pools are employing ‘groping guards’

I’m in favour of people having the right to seek a better life and relocate elsewhere around the globe, and for them to bring their own traditions with them. What I’m not in favour of is that any culture assumes to imagine it can press its own unpleasant values on the host nation, such as the concept, in some, that women are only there to be treated as sexual objects.

When in Rome…adopt your behaviour to that of your hosts.

Hopefully, though, this legislation regarding the opportunity to dispense with unnecessary items of swimwear on the grounds of equality can now be extended to pools (and parks and anywhere, really) everywhere.

Trine

On the BBC’s ‘Trending’ website, of items of international news interest (sometimes in the quirkier end of international news, I spotted this story.

In the midst of a financial crisis in Byelorussia, the country’s President urged people to ‘get undressed and work until they sweat’.

We do, remember, live in an internet age where not everyone takes everything as seriously as some hope.

Here in the UK, suggestions were made for the naming of an Antarctic exploration vessel, and ‘Boaty McBoatface’ won hands down, to the embarrassment of the organisers.

The words ‘get undressed and work until you sweat’ are tailor made for social media…

Trine