Nothing more than a few photos I’ve captured of some of the SL naturist community around the grid in recent days. I’ll be trying to get out and around the grid more often in future to capture of naturism within SL, and the breadth of activities amongst like-minded people that are available.

Susie

I’ve previously read that life, in SL, moves on average 7 times faster than it does in RL. I think this was coined to reflect the ‘dating’ process, but it’s fair to say that SL events can and do turn on a sixpence!

Last week, I was so convinced that naturism in SL had come to the end of the road, a few pockets of resistance notwithstanding, that I decided not to re-new our ownership of the .com web space, and I had already prepared a post which would have said that I’d close this blog in November, when our ownership of our .com space ran out. Then Flo (FlowerFairy) messaged me to say that she was equally struggling to be able to contribute meaningfully, or even find the time to  and resigned her position as co-editor. It seemed to me that SLN might well have run its course, and I know for certain that despite her best endeavours, Gigi was and is struggling for things to write about. I was beginning to share that sense of despair. But what a difference,  as Dinah Washington once sang, a day makes.

Firstly, news came in that Elbag Gable has reclaimed the Eden Naturist Estate and the landscaping of it, back to its original wonderfulness, begins on Monday (see a couple of Eden Naturist group messages, in italics, below). Next, Ella messaged me inworld to ask if I’d seen Elbag’s messages. I had.

In life, sometimes you get nothing if you aren’t prepared to lay your balls on the line. So I laid mine out there and, after a bit of catching up with Ella, threw the question out there. ‘Hey…interested in writing for SLN again?’

An eternity later (i.e. the two minutes it took her to think about it and reply), she responded in the affirmative! 🙂 Now, I stress that Ella is not back as editor. She and Gigi will share the duties to give them both a chance to not feel swamped by the need to keep coming up with the goods on a daily and weekly basis. Hopefully they can share the load and encourage one another to keep writing and keep SLN functioning as a source of naturist news in and out of the SL grid! Both ladies deserve to have a life beyond simply writing for SLN, so I’ve stressed the need for them both to focus on themselves first, SLN thereafter. The quantity of posts may not be as before, but I know enough to know that both will deliver quality news about naturism, on and off the SL grid.

I fully intend to relocate the SLN office back to Eden as soon as it’s humanly (pixelly?) possible. Because, mark my words ladies and gentlemen, this news is a HUGE step forward for SL naturism, and hopefully the shot in the arm required to reinvigorate the blog!

I wish to thank Flo for her efforts, and continue to thank Gigi for hers. I was delighted to read, earlier, of her reporting on Tunick’s latest expo in Valencia. Not least because I’m in the photos, somewhere. I’m domiciled in Spain and made the drive to Valencia a couple of days ago. Despite being drivable distance, I’ve never visited it before, so my partner and I (she’s in the photos too!) drove up there on Wednesday evening and spent a couple of days exploring and enjoying a beautiful city.

I wish Elbag and Brenda every success in making Eden the place we knew and loved before, and I hope to reclaim Eden Eagle West, my SL home for many years prior to ‘issues’ that saw Eden change hands a few months ago, in due course.

I also know enough of Elbag and Brenda to know that this will almost inevitably lead to one huge, massive, naturist opening party, or parties, in due course. Welcome back, Eden! We missed you!

Howie

below…messages I received regarding Eden’s imminent phoenix-like return (and hey, Elbag and Brenda, how apt that the Phoenix is a bird too! (all Eden sims are named after birds, for those of you who don’t play SL) Perhaps the next new Eden sim can be called ‘Phoenix’ to reflect this greatly anticipated rising from the ashes!

I am still in negotiations but can tell you all that in a couple of days Eden and The North Sea will be under my ownership; my management team I am sure will all be back too helping me to revitalise and re-establish the Eden Naturist Resort that we all knew and loved previously; we will be re-establshing the North Sea as SL’s premier sailing venue – there is land for sale so come on over and grab your plot before it is all sold!

Hi all
Update time; I think the transfer of Eden and The North Sea to me will be completed sometime Monday. We will start re-landscaping work straight away; rebranding of estate logos is a priority and I hope that the current tier payment method will transfer painlessly to my management quickly as well.
A HUGE thank you to the 10 people who have moved back to Eden over the last 24 hours and I hope to see fewer parcels for sale as more people return home to Eden in the next few days.

Spencer Tunick has just held his latest happening in Valencia, Spain. There is a huge gallery to view at Valencia Plaza. They’ll be subject to copyright, so I won’t go mad republishing them here, but instead show a couple of the less ‘up close’ variety under ‘fair use’.

What’s noticeable about them is that the Spanish media freely portrays full frontal nudity without any feeling they need to censor, a total contrast with the laced up media (and social attitudes) of the British and American media and public.

Gigi

It has been a steep learning curve to come to grips with blogging, research, fitting in blogging time around real life and such like, but I think I’ve sort of cracked it now. I don’t see the same volume of posts as Ella used to be able to produce, but hopefully we’re now settled into a relaxed, weekly method of posting.

The three of us got together recently at Lake Nekid’s hot tub to discuss strategy as to how to move forward in terms of the editorial content, after which Howie (SLN publisher) dropped by for the financial meeting.

Yes, Howie bankrolls SL Naturist, so he dropped by to see what cash we might need to improve the SL Naturist experience, either in terms of the blog site itself, or items required for use within SL, props, poses and the like.

A productive meeting as we now aim our blog work towards the forthcoming naturist season.

GG

Here’s a post I had prepared for a couple of weeks back, but slipped through the net as a result of real life getting in the way.

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday.

Or, in that restrained, stiff upper lip way we have in the UK, Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday.

Yes, while parts of the world go mad as we race into Lent, from the revealing costumes of Rio to the flashing for beads in New Orleans, we get to eat pancakes!

While not a naturist post, I’m taking a cue from Ella reporting various carnivals previously, and in the current social atmosphere I think it’s important to promote any sort of nudity, such is the prevailing sense of conservatism in the world.

At least in the context of carnival the entire Free The Nipple movement is acceptable.

Within SL there’s a place to get free beads, assuming you want your avatar to ‘flash’ the Mardi Gras crowds. And there’s also a full blown Mardi Gras parade to enjoy.

My guess is that many of the women who do flash their breasts in New Orleans during Mardi Gras aren’t typically the type who would ever contemplate such behaviour at any other time of year, but are caught up in the spirit of it all. Which leads me to ask the question, if women are prepared to do it, and the police (see the last photo) can tolerate it during Mardi Gras, why not at all other times of the year, and in all locations?

GG

I have to say that the hardest thing I’ve found about blogging is how to come up with new topics, particularly as naturism within Second Life is possibly at an all-time low (?). The loss of the Eden Naturopolis sim has not been filled, and from my perspective we’re down to about 3-4 quality naturist sims on the grid (Naked, Su Casa, Lupe’s and Lake Nekid).

So it seems necessary to try to force the naturist ideal in SL right now, and rather than focus on places, focus on the people who identify as naturist within SL. To that end, I’ve been inviting some of the grid’s naturist folk (there will be a parallel series with women, as written by GG, running alongside this one). To kick things off, I’ve sat down with John Thomas (JT) to ask him about his real life and Second Life Naturism. In each of the interviews, we’ll also be doing a little bit of a photoshoot, in order to allow the interviewees to present themselves and talk about their avatars. Continuing kudos to former editor Ella for the sheer volume of stuff she published single-handedly most of the time! There’s two of us doing it now, and we’re struggling to match her output! Naturism will be touched on in these interviews, after all they’ll be with people met in naturist sims, but interview content may stray beyond that of real life or Second Life naturism.

NOTE: These conversations are unlikely to include real life naturist photos. I know some people only read the blog to view the real life photos, but remember that we’re primarily a Second Life naturist blog. Sometimes real life photos capture an essence of what’s possible within SL, so we use them. The thrust of these articles is attitudes to naturism, within SL, as experienced by SL’s naturist community. Any negative comments about a lack of RL naturist photos in these articles will be dismissed out of hand and trashed.

Flo: So what attracted you to SL?

JT: I read something about it on the net and decided to give it a go. I’ve not been disappointed. I’ve met a lot of lovely people from all around the world, in a virtual sense, and made good friends within the game.

Flo: Were you a naturist prior to joining?

JT: Haha, no! I was aware what naturism was, but it wasn’t something I’d ever considered in real life. I think that the whole naked thing, or being overtly sexual, is a bit of the appeal of SL. You know how popular the sex sims are, right? Well I think the entire SL sex thing is many people’s motivation a lot of the time and I’d guess that almost everyone who has joined has maybe explored that aspect of it. I’d guess most people who join have tried SL sex, the whole texting or voicing and using the images on screen of this beautiful avatar to act as some kind of masturbation aid. And if not that, they’ve almost certainly bumped pixels with another avi.

Flo: I’d agree. I know I did within a couple of visits to SL, lol. There’s a lot of lonely people in the world. I just saw it as part of the SL experience to see how it worked. It was a curiosity thing.

JT : Right! Me too. But I quite like the seduction aspect of it too. It’s nice to charm a lady through words or voice.

Flo: So does your avatar reflect your real existence?

JT: God, no! I do have tattoos in real life, but I’m not inked up as much as my avatar is. That’s part of the fun, living an alternative existence and doing things you wouldn’t do in real life. Even if that’s jumping out of an airplane and parachuting to the ground. There’s a little bit of doing things you wouldn’t in real life.

Flo: So your piercings aren’t reflective of the real you?

JT: They weren’t, hahaha. I got nipple piercings in SL and then that fed back into my real life so I got my nips pierced in real life recently. Just for the experience, you know? I decided if I didn’t like them, I could remove them. I actually like them in real life.

Flo : You wear a Prince Albert in SL. I’m guessing that’s next on the SL to RL crossover, hahaha.

JT: Absolutely not, lol! The glans ring, yeah, I might try one of those.

Flo: So is the SL naturist experience part of a wider ‘sexual’ thing in SL for you?

JT: No. I see naturism as a wholly separate thing, and very non-sexual, in SL as I’ve also read it is in RL. RL naturism isn’t a sexual or exhibitionist thing, just normal people doing normal things without clothes. And I don’t do the SL sex thing at all any more. It was interesting to experience it, but I don’t log in planning to have sex with another avatar. I moved away from that quite quickly after I joined. What captivated me after that was avatar self-improvement. Trying to create the best look I could. Which is what a lot of us do in real life too, right? We don’t go out looking like a bag of rags.

Flo: Yes, that parallels my SL experience. Have a few experiences within the game, find some of them to be worth repeating, some not worth the time, and then I tried to create an avatar that reflected my real self. It takes time and effort to create something you feel is a reflection of yourself. Not that all avatars do that. The number of unrealistic huge assed female avatars out there is unreal!

JT: I try to keep it as real as I can, volume of tattoos apart. I certainly tried to make my…um…manhood realistically sized.

Flo: Hahaha! Yes, that was the thing I found when I was initially, as you put it, bumping pixels. The number of cocks that would protrude through my spine was insane. It wasn’t realistic, and it spoiled the sex thing for me, looking at the screen while trying to speak seductively. I have to confess that I’m often intrigued by an avatar and will get a little cuddly with him just to extend the interaction. But then I find some good looking avatars are incapable of proper writing or voicing. They seem ill equipped for the whole social interaction thing and you kinda understand exactly why they’re home, alone, on a Saturday night.

JT: Can I ask you a question? Have you found a lot of married men hitting you up, and being open about them being married? I know that I’ve got chatting to a lot of female avatars who openly admit they’re in a dull marriage.

Flo: Yeah. That’s my experience. If not for the terminally lonely, sometimes SL is for those whose marriages have fizzled out to nothing. What do you think about the emotional adultery, as some people would have it, in relation to them texting/voicing and ultimately sleeping with people in SL?

JT: It depends. I’m partnered in SL to the avi who happens to be my RL wife. We both have slept around in SL, but totally secure within our RL marriage. Neither of us would see it as any kind of adultery. Actually, it has probably spiced up our RL sex life. But I know and have read that some people do become committed to others in SL and the break up in SL is as hard as a real life break ups might be. And many do see SL sex as being as bad as RL adultery.

Flo: Yes. There has been a lot of research on this, and what’s called inter-reality. In the context of SL, would you say that, getting back to naturism, there’s a gentility amongst its players? A different vibe to those who inhabit sex sims?

JT: Yes. The sex sims are full of predatory people, I think. I don’t really know real life naturism at all. I’ve read a bit about it since becoming a SL naturist and I think that maybe reflects RL naturism. They do seem to be genuine, gentle people with a specific kind of lifestyle. It comes across as much more wholesome than some other lifestyles.

Flo: I wouldn’t identify as ‘naturist’. I grew up in communes where causal nudity was commonplace, but also equally wholesome. So I’m comfortable on a naturist beach or location, but I’m not sure I would still call myself naturist. But yes, it’s wholesome and kind of nice. The SL naturist players have a sweet gentility lacking in some other locations. Finally, JT, would you think your experience of SL naturism would lead you to try the real thing?

JT : My wife/SL partner have discussed this. It wasn’t something we’d thought about before, but we’ve got a hot tub in our back yard, and it never occurred to us before to go naked in there, lol. Since we’ve become SL players and SL naturists we’ve certainly altered our mindsets to be much more casually naked in the back yard together. Not only for the tub, but also around the BBQ. So yeah, we’ve already discussed maybe taking a weekend sometime in the summer and visiting a nude beach together. And that’ll be down to what we learned about naturism within SL!

Flo

I’m going to open up here a bit. I broke up with my boyfriend a few weeks ago. I won’t go into details…ah, to hell with it, I will…he was serial cheating on me. I have to say that, in the past, I’ve been in open relationships where anything goes as far as ‘dating others’ is concerned. And that was OK with me because we -myself and one or two past lovers- went into it with eyes open and a verbal contract regarding it. And where either he -the guys I engaged in open relationships with- or I slept with someone else an essential part of the ‘contract’ was the use of condoms, to limit exposure to STI’s.

This time, the arrangement was that were exclusive to one another. Yes, I know affairs happen all the time in marriages where the couple are meant to be exclusive to one another, so I’m not being naive in that regard. Not only was my former BF serial cheating on me, but it would rather appear that he didn’t use condoms. At least part of the time. How do I know? One of his conquests has become pregnant, and he admitted the child-to-be is his. Not only was I betrayed on an emotional level, but I was equally betrayed in terms of my own health. How did he know that one of the women (he broke down and admitted serial womanising when he had to confess this other lady’s pregnancy) didn’t have some STI? Which he could have passed to me. For me, this was a greater betrayal than sleeping with others.

In an open relationship, there’s ground rules.  There’s always ground rules of all manner of areas. For me, ‘condoms’ for the purposes of limiting exposure to venereal diseases was the number one. I never, during my two open relationships, had sex without a condom being used. And I didn’t think it was up to me to pre-plan and supply said items. If a fella wanted to sleep with me, he needed to have made some planning. No condom? No sex, fella! Oh, I would freely make love without condoms with the main man, but when we stepped beyond that core relationships, condoms were essential.

The break up of any relationship is hard. Having had a check up to ensure I hadn’t had anything unpleasant passed on to me (all clear, thank goodness), I decided that in order to salve my soul, I would head off to the Mediterranean, to a naturist location, and work on myself. I’ve just returned after three weeks yoga, in a south facing apartment that guaranteed that naked yoga was possible most afternoons, even if the evenings were still chilly.

Hence my recent absence from the blog.

I’m back now. Not entirely healed from the emotional pain, but back, and ready to get some stuff written for SLN

Flo

I got a comment (which required ‘approval’ prior to publication, and which I’ve not approved and have in fact deleted) following the publication of the Skagen Vinterbad post earlier today. This was along the lines that the people in the photograph weren’t young or beautiful.

I disagree on the beautiful part of it. All of us, regardless of age, are beautiful and old age is something to aspire to. Do you really want to be dead at 30, or 40, still looking ‘attractive’ (whatever the hell that is) or still be alive, full of beauty, memories and the like at 80 or 85? I know which I’d prefer! Not everyone is that fortunate, are they?

Although most people don’t, some avatars choose to wear older skins, and I wish more people would, if only to accurately reflect our society which is ageing rapidly.

The idea that we should stop taking our clothes off when we’re 50, 60 or 70 is an appalling attitude to have and the author of the comment should be ashamed of himself. While I have no machinery by which to stop him viewing the site, I’ve blocked him from making other comments in future. We really do not need that ageist attitude spoiling this, or any other, website.

GG

The Skagen Vinterbad festival takes place at the end of January each year in Skagen, Denmark, centred around a clothing optional, but generally nude, swim in the icy waters off the very northern tip of the country.

The festival has its own website, and you can find out other information at the Danish Tourist Board’s own website too.

GG

Sorry about the gap in blog posts, I’ve had all manner of lousy internet connections which eventually required me taking a day off work to await the engineer (who didn’t come) and then take another day off for him to actually arrive and fix the problem. As this has coincided with Flo on holiday in the Mediterranean area…no posts from either of us!

More frustratingly, I can get internet in work, could browse during my lunch break, and saw several stories that were prime for SLN.

This is the first of them.

For readers beyond the UK, ‘GCSE’, General Certificate of Secondary Education, is the set of exams in numerous topics that pupils undertake at age 16. Im not sure how that coincides with your part of the world. International Baccalaureate in Europe? High School diploma in the US?

It appears that the current GCSE biology exams sport a section on pregnancy, and the accompanying photograph suggests the lady in question (who looks to be near full term) is sporting a Brazilian style pubic hair.

Which has vexed some people.

I can understand, in one sense, the laughable nature of the thing. What woman, days away from giving birth, has the time or interest in her pubic grooming? On the other hand, how empty are people’s lives that they get ‘angry’ about this stuff?

Not strictly a naturist post, but it goes to show the type of dogmatic views regarding pubic hair that have spilled over into naturist circles. Within naturism, there might be the occasional remark that ‘pubic hair isn’t natural’ (insert ‘rolls eyes’ and ‘snigger’ emojis of your choice here).

GG