Young British Naturism launches new web site.

[Greenbare Woods]

Check it out.

https://www.ybn.org.uk/

[John P]

It's kind of funny. When you hit the "Join" button, it takes you to the British Naturism page, where there is indeed a reduced-price offer aimed at young people. Definitely not a new organization, though! And it's interesting to observe the number of pictures they show of women alone (several) and compare it to the number of pictures of men alone (none). Oh no, sorry, there's one, but he's shown distantly from the rear.

[Davie]

It will take you to the BN page. YBN is the section of BN for younger members. YBN has been in existence forquite a few years now. It pretty much faded away and has now had a resurgence

Davie 

[BlueTrain]

Something like that sort of has a built-in obsolesce. One day you wake up and you aren't young anymore. It's like at church. You start out as a young single, then you're part of the young married and then, well, you're too old for stuff like that. But it's good that efforts were made to attract a younger crowd. Attracting new people is something every organization has to deal with.

[Greenbare Woods]

Yes, youth groups of all kinds from Boy Scouts to Nudists have to keep recruiting the next younger age members or they fade away as member grow old.

[BlueTrain]

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, to be sure, but not necessarily nudists. You're never too old to be a nudist. You aren't, are you? But Scouts and I suppose other youth groups have an up and out arrangement. One "bridges" into the Boy Scouts, then you go off a cliff.

[Davie]

If a Group is fortunate some Scouts will become Leaders for the next generation of young people

Davie 

[jbeegoode]

If they are really fortunate, the scout leaders will be with a casual attitude toward nudity. Unfortunately, I found out the leadership of scouting organizations here in the US are anti-nudist. They teach and preach and enforce that morality. Not just a practical attempt to ward off lawyers, and bad publicity, but a strongly enforced belief system. Kind of similar to their gay thing.

I had to pull my son out, before he got started because the locals were being used to get in-between my belief systems and my legal parenting rights.

Too bad. I was a scout. I understand the positives.
Jbee 

[BlueTrain]

I was a scout, too, in the 1950s. There was never any nudity, although from everything I've read, our group must have been in the tiny minority that stayed dressed all the time. We even met in a Baptist church, the largest church building in town at the time. On the other hand, we never did anything that provided an excuse to get naked. No rivers or swimming holes around there.

My son was also a scout, too, and I was something of an adult leader. We went to a week-long Webelos camp, which was more fun than anything I'd ever done. There was swimming, too, but not nude. There were women and a few girls around. I don't see how nudity would have contributed to anything. Scouting is supposed to have some kind of belief systems, I think, but I never really noticed any. And in spite of the uniforms, there was nothing militaristic about it.

[Greenbare Woods]

If they are really fortunate, the scout leaders will be with a casual attitude toward nudity. Unfortunately, I found out the leadership of scouting organizations here in the US are anti-nudist. They teach and preach and enforce that morality. Not just a practical attempt to ward off lawyers, and bad publicity, but a strongly enforced belief system. Kind of similar to their gay thing. Jbee 

The two dominant sponsors of Scouting in the US has been Mormons and Baptists.  Mormon kids have to be trained to fear bodies and wear sacred underwear.  Baptist kids are trained that any body pleasure is "sin."    The religious beliefs of their two dominant sponsors permeates the organization from the top.

When I was in New Mexico there was one Catholic sponsored troop that had an annual hike to a Clothing Optional warm springs, but that was very rare, and the scouts stayed clothed.

[BlueTrain]

How many Baptists and Mormons are you personally acquainted with? You comment is at odds with all the Baptists and Mormons I have ever known. There is even a Mormon stake one block from where I live and we've known some of the members.

It's the Seventh Day Adventists you have to watch out for. I'd stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses, too, if I were you.

[jbeegoode]

I don't think that Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses have much to do with the scouts. They don't seem to join anything but their church, or marriage it seems. No holidays, no military service, no birthday celebrations. They are of a group that doesn't get along with nudity. DF accidentally left pics of me frolicking in the woods on her camera and showed the Catholic and Jehovah family members. It was more giggling than outrage. DF's body freedom is outed to some extent. The importance of family bonds override the varying outlooks and choices of religion generally in that group.

The Boy Scouts organization that I grew up with reflected the local culture. Go to some church, any church, honor military, tell the truth, be square (there's another influence). There was romance and respect for Native American knowledge and some quasi adaptation of this into nature and the framework. We had projects, fun, we kept busy, belonging for a while.

I still 'walk like a warrior" silent, damaging as little life as possible with each step. I still think camping is cool and nature is important. I still like to learn and grow and do hands on and be of service, and have a spirit of adventure. Scouts reinforced all of that.

Nudity wasn't part of the program, other than wearing those breach cloths as a part of something for some reason one week. That was pretty naked and fun to do. It felt wild and bodily. Some of us wore shorts, some didn't in a more authentic fashion.

I suppose that there is local culture influencing what may be taught overtly or subtly. Our adult leadership and culture had military and military wives influencing it. A church membership might dominate in another place. I've still got the old book to look back onto. That's what it is about. It has deep roots in an older society that hasn't been keeping up with change. Being a good guy has been having a change in definition for many. It is about traditions, too.

These guys here in Tucson were weird people and pushed into my life where they weren't supposed to be. I was shocked.
Jbee

   

[Greenbare Woods]

How many Baptists and Mormons are you personally acquainted with? You comment is at odds with all the Baptists and Mormons I have ever known. There is even a Mormon stake one block from where I live and we've known some of the members.

I've known a few.  My brother joined the Mormons.  He finally quit trying to recruit me.    My former GF got kicked out after a torrid affair with their leading theologian, which created a scandal for their Quorum of 12.  She was escorted out of Utah and told never to come back.  Boy Scouts has been the official Mormon Youth Program and every Mormon Stake sponsors a troop. I knew several Mormon Scout Leaders while I was a Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster trainer.  Like everything else they do their sponsored Troop is tightly controlled and teaches Mormon doctrine to their youth.  They have now said they will end their Scouting sponsorship and start their own youth program beginning in 2020.  The new BSA gays and girls policies didn't fit their dogma.   I've also known numerous Baptists.

Its not about being "nice" people, its about their religious based dogma of sin and shame over bodies, body functions, and being seen. 

It's the Seventh Day Adventists you have to watch out for. I'd stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses, too, if I were you.

I have also known a few Adventists and Witnesses.  I have friends who are recovering drop out former members.   

One also ought to be careful of Scientologists too, although I don't know what their policy or dogma is about naked bodies.   My SIL is a Scientologist.

Bob

[BlueTrain]

Don't take my comments about those "other religions." As Rev. Lovejoy says, "They're pretty much all the same."

Curiously, it could be said that the scouting movement was part of the original naturist movement, although not nudist, you understand. The movement actually have slightly different beginnings in different places and still functions quite differently. In America, it was largely an effort to recapture the frontier spirit, which ironically included a lot of Indian lore. I don't know if Indians were ever interested in scouting. It was a period in history when there was a general feeling that there were no other frontiers to conquer. It also occurred during the period sometimes referred to the Golden Age of Camping. I also believe it would be correctly described as a middle-class movement. Working class boys were already holding down jobs. Some of the founders seemed to have an odd idea of boyhood as something special.

The idea to create a similar organization for girls resulted in the Camp Fire Girls, which has been co-ed for over 30 years. The Girl Scouts had an independent origin. Some of these groups were quite similar to the summer camps for the more affluent. One of my wife's relatives owned and operated a girl's summer camp near Lewisburg, West Virginia and was also active in a local boy's prep school. True to the movies, there was a boy's summer camp near the girl's camp.

I think I mentioned before that the one and only nudist club in Virginia held a summer camp for boys and girls (co-ed!) for a few years until it became too publicized. An issue of "N" a few years ago had an article about other nudist camps for teens and kids. Few lasted very long but there were some.

[John P]

I suppose about 20 years ago I was invited to go on an overnight Scout trip with my nephew's troop, because they were going canoeing in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey (from their home base near Philadelphia) and I had experience in a boat, unlike my brother, and they wanted a certain number of adults. This group met in a local Presbyterian church, but as far as I could tell, there was nothing very religious about their meetings. Their policy for camping was that there was an "adults' camp" and a "boys' camp" and we were supposed to let the kids do things for themselves--I'm sure it wasn't a system designed to protect the boys from the adults. I was slow to get the idea, and they had to restrain me from going over and showing them how to do one or two basic things! It was all "No, let the Scouts figure it out". I'd been to the Pine Barrens before, with the naturist canoeing group the Paddling Bares, but I was a good boy and held back on any naturist activities. Anyway, as I recall, the weather didn't encourage it.

Picture scanned from a slide, showing my intrepid nephew. Others fell in, but we didn't.