New NEF (Naturist Education Foundation) Poll is out!

[jbeegoode]

The 2021 results are out. The trends are in favor of more nudity.

https://naturisteducation.org/wp-content/uploads/library/newsletters/2022_0708.pdf

It starts out asking about traditional and official nude beaches, which I know doesn't agree with all of us free rangers. I'd like to see some safe places available to the nearly 50% who would be likely to visit and be nude there. People need to get their feet wet somehow and not feel alone, before they get more free range. Millions are nude around the house, then would try safe nude beaches, etc. Then they can catch on and understand leading to further liberation.

Yup, people were getting naked in their homes during lockdown.
Nearly half of us, over 40% have done nude recreation with others.

I think it is time to get back at keeping Redington Pass liberated. 75% plus people apparently think that offical designation is a good idea.

Millennials have a great attitude. We are not a dying breed.

I like it that a clear majority think that seeing more naked regular bodies makes them feel better about theirs. We are not alone. Lots and lots of people perceive this.

Of course, this is a trendin change about prudish Americans, not Europeans. Has BN done another poll, or are they just sitting safely on their last stunning poll?
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Their poll questions are very slanted toward the nude farm approach to nudism.   Set aside nude beaches, nude resort vacations, etc.   It slants away from nudity as a fundamental human right, and assumes that clothing is normal.  .

[Davie]

BN have commissioned an Ispomori poll. It will be interesting to see the result and compare.

Davie

[jbeegoode]

BN have commissioned an Ispomori poll. It will be interesting to see the result and compare.

Davie

Please, post the results here. The last poll stunned me. we may not get the news otherwise.

[jbeegoode]

Their poll questions are very slanted toward the nude farm approach to nudism.   Set aside nude beaches, nude resort vacations, etc.   It slants away from nudity as a fundamental human right, and assumes that clothing is normal.  .

I don't see the "clothing as normal", or abnormal content fix in the report.
I do see the clothing is usual in this society and we have to be working with what we have. One way is to set aside public lands where newbees can go and feel safe and comfortable, get a good experience and realize then that clothing as mandatory is bunk and naked is wonderful, harmless, natural, not such a big deal and can be comfortable. NEF ain't ANRR.

Further evidence of free range nudity are the questions about being nude around your home where others can see you. This poll is just trying to find where people are at. Then, we can use the info to whittle away at the problem from several fronts.

They even are on yours and my bandwagon about how people need to see nude bodies, regular bodies and out of sexual context. They flat out asked if people were affected in a positive way seeing others nude and they overwhelmingly said yea, seeing others made them feel better about themselves.

Personally, I don't think that it is so much that clothing is normal, but that anti-nudity is weird and needs to be cured. People will dress up, decorate, stay warm, but mere nudity should definitely not be stigmatized, persecuted, criminalized, or seen as anything but normal life. Clothing needs to be seen as what it is and never a mandatory, especially uniform compulsion. There is damaging, sickness involved with clothing culture as it is, now. People hide with it, lie with it, control with it, make wars and separate humanity with it. There are harmful assumptions that are placed on nudity and these generally just projections from people obsessed with clothing.
Jbee

[nuduke]

One way is to set aside public lands where newbees can go and feel safe and comfortable

Wouldn't it be wonderful if more local authorities thought this way.  We recently visited a local lakeside with several miles of shoreline.  An ideal place to allocate CO sections.  Chunks of woodland could be allocated and of course chunks of beach.  Problem is gaining a voice so that local investment is channelled our way, however small.  Other groups are louder but not so numerous.  Trans gender individuals I read, make up somewhere around 1% of the UK population (670,000) and are actively influencing public policy to have gender neutral toilets and what not.  Naturists, it is said by BN, are about 1.2-1.5m souls - double the number but hardly any voice.  We have the wrong PR people!!
John

[jbeegoode]

Perhaps nudity isn't as threatening and unspoken and unusual as it once was. It doesn't grab the headlines, or disrupt society like it used to. Perhaps that is a good sign.

The last BN poll told us that only like 1% of Brits are concerned with public nudity. So the opposition is also small numbered, yet has voice without trying! Opposition is an illusion, so better PR could be the key.
Jbee

[nuduke]

Perhaps nudity isn't as threatening and unspoken and unusual as it once was. It doesn't grab the headlines, or disrupt society like it used to. Perhaps that is a good sign.


The last BN poll told us that only like 1% of Brits are concerned with public nudity. So the opposition is also small numbered, yet has voice without trying! Opposition is an illusion, so better PR could be the key.
Jbee

In a UK context, I'd argue strongly with some of both those musings.  Whilst I'd agree that nudity isn't as threatening and unspoken and unusual as it once was, thanks to the media and their hypocrisy in providing much nudity or semi nudity in advertising and articles yet treating nudity as sometimes a source of amused ridicule (lots of illustrated articles about the joys or otherwise of naturism) and other times as a source of prurient outrage (such as the naked gardener that hit the national press & TV because a neighbour complained about it, a similar one for a naked DIY man, the treatment of Steve Gough etc etc.).  But I would argue that it never 'disrupted society' or 'grabbed the headlines' much.  Nudity in society is a very quiet phenomenon.  Very few articles deal with it other than calmly factually or at most amusingly sardonic.  No, Jbee, we remain pretty invisible.  But yes, I think things are getting a little better - series on TV like 'Naked Attraction'and people like Spencer Tunic and the  WNBR have done good work to emphasise to the public that nakedness is a choice and it's quite good in some contexts.
I don't recognise the statistic on the BN poll.  Sure, these polls show that the people who responded to such a survey are, on balance accepting of naturism and have increasingly over time shown more emancipated and tolerant attitudes.  But not all surveys are properly objectively constructed. This apparent tolerance goes against my observation of people and societal attitudes to nudism/nakedness which are as bigoted and prejudiced as ever.  Not in a nasty or evil way but at the mere suggestion of nakedness, with 99.9% of the people I know or observe, their reaction is to titter and push the idea away.  To be British it seems is to treat nakedness as something to be slightly 'allergic' to and avoid, like a bad smell or a tramp (bum) in the street.   I think it's a bit like swinging - lots of people fantasise about it but confronted with an opportunity to participate, will avoid it like the plague!
John

[Peter S]

Reaction to UK nudity (in real life as opposed to TV or media) generally falls into one of two camps - outrage and threats to call the police, and polite indifference.

The outraged usually announce their outrage on someone else’s behalf - children, old people, etc; trying to debate with them is a waste of time because they know they’re right. Smile and walk away.

The politely indifferent, who are the majority, are demonstrating British reserve - they don’t know how to react and they don’t want to get involved. That person’s naked, is that allowed? If it is I shouldn’t say anything, just say good morning and move on. If it isn’t allowed I’ll have to do something about it, but then I’ll be involved and I’d rather not. I’ll just say good morning and move on.

When we go out naked we fear meeting the outraged so try to avoid encounters. In fact we’ll most often encounter the indifferent and needn’t be concerned.

[Greenbare Woods]

Reaction to UK nudity (in real life as opposed to TV or media) generally falls into one of two camps - outrage and threats to call the police, and polite indifference.

I have also encountered a surprising percentage of supportive people.   Sometimes they want me to stop and chat so they could tell me how much they admire my courage to be out naked, or even ask to take a picture to show their friends.  Often they just say something encouraging as we pass. 

I encounter outrage less than 1%, probably closer to 0.1%.  Sometimes they say something negative.  I don't know that anyone has ever called the police about me. 

[jbeegoode]

I'll repeat my findings from anecdotal testimony of about thirty nude hiker/campers in several areas across the USA. It was pretty consistent. 2 to four out of 100 might state an objection of some kind. No known further actions taken.  Then, approx. 20% will demonstrate discomfort or confusion with the unfamiliar social interaction of bumping into someone nude, no harm done. The vast majority will not object. It isn't recognized as a problem for them to encounter someone nude.

Bob your 1% or .01% would be unusual, but it certainly states what is obvious to all of us, that hiking nude out on trails away from trailheads, particularly away from parents with children, is not a problem for anyone but a tiny number of odd balls.

I like Peter S's comment that so many of those that might comment an objection, do so for someone other than themselves, like children, which is an unfounded fallacious hoax. Very much untrue.

n the state of Arizona, one must be "reckless" to offend a "reasonable person." The evidence shows that a reasonable person, or a person showing common sense, would not object. If you are only a tiny number that objects/gites offended, there is probably something weird about you, or at least your perception of social propriety. I wouldn't take this as a defense to court, but I'd say that it is a fact that a reasonable person will not object to another's nudity and an unreasonable person would object. A strenuous objection is just plain goofy.
Jbee