#naturism as social justice

[nochd]

The only way to do this is to normalize nudity.

Trans women will never be free until people stop having strong emotions about penises. Like we, as a society, have got to stop caring about dicks! Dicks have to stop symbolizing maleness, obviously, but they also have to stop symbolizing power, dominance, sexual agency and aggression, violence, and even sex itself. Like trans women can’t be free if the very conceptual presence of a penis represents an intrusion(!) of unwanted(!) sexuality(!) in public life. Like that’s why trans women are abhorrent to both male chauvinists and radical feminists, because both groups have extremely strong feelings about what a penis *represents*, and find the conceptual and actual presence of a woman with a penis to be simultaneously vile and nonsensical because they’ve loaded so much symbolic baggage onto both women and penises.

Anyway dicks are totally neutral body parts and seeing a dick, or a bulge in a swimsuit, or simply knowing that there’s a dick somewhere in the same bathroom as you isn’t harmful or violent

[nochd]

Naturism as social justice

← Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Part 4: Disability (neurodivergence)

This is where the issue touches me personally. I am autistic, and among other things that means I have sensitivities that other people don't. I feel food moving around inside me, I need more anaesthetic than dentists expect, and I have what's called "tactile defensiveness", where light touches to my skin are irritating and uncomfortable. And that includes clothing. All clothing, with the sole exception of hats.

The problem is mild (but never zero) when it's cool; in the winter, I prefer clothes to the cold. When it gets warmer and I start sweating, the discomfort gets very bad very quickly.

This means I can't stand exercising with clothes on. I know perfectly well what not exercising does to my life expectancy and general health, but the feeling is unbearable.

How bad could it be, you ask? Imagine everything you're wearing next to the skin is made of sewn-together burlap sacks, and you're trapped in a slow-cooker.

Notwithstanding the origin of the word "gymnasium", I doubt that nudity is going to fly in any gym in town for more than about thirty seconds. Any physiotherapist would suggest swimming as a solution; trouble is, wet swimming-togs are worst of all. They cross the pain threshold. They feel like knives.

There's a Catch-22 for neurodivergent people when it comes to talking about sensitivities. If you do it often, you're just a whiner and your complaints are dismissed. If you don't do it often, well, it can't be that bad if you didn't say anything before, can it? -- and your complaints are dismissed.

The trick is to find the middle ground where your complaints are dismissed for both reasons at once.

I have exactly two options for dealing with this sensitivity, which are (1) naturism, and (2) shut up complaining about it no-one cares.

As far as what good it does me, any proposed solution which does not allow me to practise naturism amounts to "shut up complaining about it no-one cares." I'm sure people mean well when they express their sympathy, but it's exactly as much help to me as "shut up complaining about it no-one cares."

(Which doesn't mean I think any the worse of you, if that's your primary concern. "Shut up complaining about it no-one cares" is society's default response to autistic sensory issues. At least it's better than "I'm going to trigger you on purpose to teach you not to be a pussy.")

There's this one particular beach in my home town that I go to for nude walks. (There was a time when I was in a naturist walking group, but that's long past now.) It's not an official nude beach because New Zealand doesn't have any because technically there is no law specifically banning public nudity for them to be exceptions to.

What there is is a law against "offensive behaviour", and where and when nudity counts as "offensive behaviour" is complicatedly context-dependent.

(There's also a law, with more serious penalties, against "indecent exposure", but public nudity alone hasn't been the legal definition of "indecent exposure" in New Zealand for over forty years. Since 1981 it must also be "obscene", i.e. done to harass people. Surprisingly few people know that.)

There are thirty years of legal precedent saying beach nudity is not offensive behaviour -- on a beach where it's common practice or can be expected to occur.

This is one of those. Currently. Occasionally. It's had quite a few naturist visitors while I've been going there, but no regulars except me.

Most people ignore me; some are friendly; there have been a handful that were hostile. There's been one particular guy, recently, who kept hanging around where I was. I don't mean like chilling on the beach, I mean he kept kind of walking around and walking past me, making sure I knew he was there.

I came back after my beach walk to my stash of stuff to find the messages "No nudists!" and "Cover up cunt" written in the sand nearby.

(I wrote a reply saying "See you in court: Police v. Ceramalus 1991", referring to the court case that proved nudity on a beach is not an offence in New Zealand. But, well, I wasn't getting the vibe that he was threatening legal action.)

There is no other beach that is both clothing-optional by established custom and within reach of public transport from where I live. And I take care to go during school hours so I don't run into kids. And I stay out of people's way and, apart from my walk, I try and stay at the less-populated end where you get about one passer-by per hour on a weekday. And that's apparently not good enough.

Yes, I know. This world has other people in it besides me. I can't ask society to rearrange itself for my sake. I can't expect an entire culture to suddenly overturn all the associations and meanings it puts on the human body, all in a day.

Naturist organizations have to vet new people very carefully to make sure they're not going to behave inappropriately, which just goes to show society at large isn't ready to turn naturist just yet.

All of that is true and none of it is unreasonable. But the consequence of all this reasonableness is that my needs as a neurodivergent person will always come last.

[dopesorority]

every single one of them is willing is to get on their knees and serve this black king. A black king can literally satisfy all of them. Even a white boyfriend of more than 3 years cannot compete with the power of his BBC. a special feeling it is

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Just learned about bioregions??? Insanely cool? You can look up yours on OneEarth.org. Hello from the Celtic Broadleaf Forests!

[nochd]

I agree with the sentiment -- except Free the Nipple hasn't "faded into irrelevancy", it's been actively pushed out of online spaces thanks to reactionary American censorship laws (SESTA and FOSTA). This affects the entire internet because so much of it is hosted in the US. There's worse on the horizon: new legislation called KOSA. If you want online body freedom back, Americans have to fight for it. (We non-Americans can add our voices to the argument, but we can't vote in the US or otherwise directly intervene.)

fr it's so bleak that free the nipple faded into irrelevancy like the fact that as a society the Feminized Nipple is something so taboo to be seen in public is just pathetic. if you personally can't handle a bit of nip I hate you. you are psychically weaker than a baby. grow the fuck up.

[neuroticboyfriend]

I lost my fear of/contempt towards bugs because when I was (involuntarily) in the psych ward, there was a fly in the unit. For anyone who doesn't know, psych ward windows don't open. They're bolted shut, and this unit was on the 3rd floor. The doors are also always locked and unless staff are coming in/out (happens less often than you think).

That fly was trapped in there as much as I was. I felt my heart break a little looking at it. We were stuck together - I wasn't alone even when it came to nonhuman living beings. In that moment, all that weird stigma against bugs vanished in me. I hope that fly found its way out, and I hope one day people don't get imprisoned in these places anymore.

[botaniqueer]

I am at my limit wrt how many people I can follow on Tumblr without feeling anxious, but for other folks looking for people to follow, let’s post our favorite nature blogs in the comments here!

This blog is a medium-large nature blog at this point, so I think we can scrounge up a good amount!

[sanyu-thewitch05]

Me watching the LGBT community who almost never rarely gives black women and girls, asexuals, or aromantics genuine respect, pretend we’re all friends and have always treated us right the minute it’s June 1st and want to use black women(mainly darkskinned) and girls as their little poster girl:

[eldritchshapeshifter]

‏‎Hi, I'm Abeer from Gaza 🍉🇵�� I apologize for what I'm going to ask, my heart is heavy and tired and unfortunately the situation has become difficult after my child's injury. I lost part of my family, my home and everything and now I live in a tent 🥺 Please donate only $20 from each person, $20 will save my family from death in Gaza. I don't know if I will survive or die in this war, but I know that your help will contribute to saving my family from death.‎‏

https://gofund.me/3be0a45c

Unvetted but donation protected

[nochd]

Naturism as social justice

Part 1: Gender

"However we dress, wherever we go, Yes means yes, no means no."

If you take the "However we dress" part of that completely seriously, and follow it to its natural conclusion, you have the founding premise of naturism.

No amount of exposed skin constitutes a sexual invitation. That's what the rhyme means. But if it's not a sexual invitation, why does it carry legal and social penalties?

I know there's an instinctive reaction that says "Ewww, I don't want to see most people naked." I want you to have a think about why that's your response. I put it to you that it's because, at some level, you don't believe me about it not being a sexual invitation.

I do know that when I was first getting into naturism, the moment I properly accepted that the nudity really truly wasn't sexual was the moment the "Ewww" response vanished away like evaporating steam. Obviously it's unpleasant to receive sexual attention from someone you're not attracted to; but if it turns out it's not sexual, there's nothing left to feel "Ewww" about.

Now that I think about it -- there exist some men who loudly express their revulsion over various women's appearance, especially online. Could this be because, in these men's heads, existing in public while female constitutes a sexual invitation? And whenever they see a woman they're not attracted to, that makes them feel "Ewww"?

The application of this surmise to homophobia and transphobia I leave as an exercise for the reader.

Whenever you hear of a man overstepping a woman's boundaries, there always seems to be someone somewhere saying "Look what she was wearing -- she was asking for it." Society agrees that exposing some parts of our skin is "asking for it", because that's why those parts of our skin are forbidden. Once you've agreed to that, you're just haggling over where to draw the dotted line.

Part of the fallout is that people with breasts are required to keep them covered at all times, including on social media, culminating in the absurdity of breastfeeding becoming taboo.

I mean, we can keep on haggling for as long as we want, but I can't see this problem going away until we chuck out the entire concept of any body part being inherently a sexual signal.

Another social injustice that falls disproportionately on women is body judgement. Women are systematically valued more for their appearance than their competence; I believe we've made progress over recent decades, but the problem remains. A small fraction of women are held up as having the right kind of bodies, from which it follows that everyone else's must be the wrong kind of bodies. If we actually got to see each other's bodies, we'd see what nonsense this is.

Speaking of bodies society deems to be the wrong kind, consider the issues faced by trans and nonbinary people, and in particular the public toilet issue.

The main justification for keeping trans people out of public toilets for their true gender is apparently that other toilet users might see the kind of body parts they are not allowed to see. If there were no body parts we were not allowed to see, the problem would disappear, and the transphobes would have to find something else to exclude trans people from instead. Which, sadly, probably wouldn't take them long.

Naturism stands against all forms of body judgement. There are no wrong bodies.

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 →

[kaijukiki]

I happened upon this book much the way anyone would happen upon a body in the woods, a finger in the dirt, or fragment left where it lie shorn cut at the ankle or wrist…it surprised me. But for Alexa Hagerty, forensic anthropologist finding such evidence of “La violencia” was every bit intentional. And integral to the mystery and the justice of a people who’s story is brought to light, by hands in dirt. Shovels, spades, and toothbrushes. Following a carefully and responsibly constructed narrative that details the process of work that puts people together, but also shreds them to the core. Part linguistic a anthropological triumph and scientific data of accounts, Hagerty writes like a poet in the dirt but also a scientist in a field lab. Truly one of the most uncommon and moving #nonfictionNovember reads I couldn’t put down.

[dopesorority]

getting BBC, riding BBC, loving BBC, serving BBC

[darrinjoakley]

From a different perspective

Explanation, this was a small photo experiment I did a few years ago. The idea/concept is the view from being held pinned to the ground from authority. A view most would never see.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Literally can’t watch nature documentaries without crying. The miracle of life y’know? We are so far from being alone

[rosecrystal]

thought for suree mr. flirty assassin was going to be a libra or an aquarius i feel fooled

TBH when I saw he engraved the bullets it was immediate earth sign (or earth dominant) for me. And the monopoly money left behind was further confirmation.