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Imagine
two young boys.
One has visited a nudist club many times with his
family, the other may have only rarely seen a
parent unclothed, and they may have seemed
embarrassed when that happened.
The non-nudist
boy says to his friend, "Look what I've found!" as
he shows the nudist kid a copy of Playboy or some
similar magazine, which he found somewhere.
As they look at
the pictures of scantily clothed, erotically posed
women, the boy who has seen hundreds of people of
all ages and body types, will probably think,
"I've seen lots of naked people before. Why does
he want to sneak looks at this?" He might also
think, "This isn't even what most people look
like."
Growing up
without shame
Puberty can be a
very difficult time for adolescents; their bodies
are growing rapidly, their genitals are changing,
body hair is developing. Some kids feel clumsy.
Many are embarrassed by the changes that are
taking place. They can become VERY
body-conscious. At that time, a wise parent will
try to keep lines of honest communication open but
still give them privacy and time to be alone in
their room or with their friends. Most
adolescents would rather be ANYWHERE except where
their parents are.
All these things
happen to nudist kids, too. The one big
difference for kids who were lucky enough to grow
up in a nudist environment is that those kids have
literally seen those changes take place, as
their older friends and/or siblings went through
that difficult time. Because of that experience,
they are better prepared for it themselves.
Safety
We read in the
papers almost daily of some teacher, youth leader,
church official or some other trusted individual
who took advantage of a child in a sexual way.
With hundreds of nudist clubs in North America,
that problem almost never takes place at our
facilities.
A family which is
open enough to have experienced nudism, just like
a healthy non-nudist family, is also open enough
to have discussed sex abuse with their children.
These children know that they can tell their
parents immediately if they ever suspect that
something is wrong.
We have been told
by authorities that the reason nudist clubs have a
very low incidence of sex offenders is that we
have the reputation of prosecuting those
individuals, while until recent years, many other
organizations have "swept those problems under a
rug", more concerned with their public image than
with the safety of the people they should have
been protecting.
Historically, sex
abusers have felt much safer committing their
misdeeds within organizations which have tried to
cover up their problems with molesters.
You may find it
encouraging to know that Bare Buns, and many other
nudist clubs, have a very good relationship with
law enforcement agencies. Some of their officers
are members of our club. You can be certain that
if we were doing anything
illegal or
immoral, they wouldn't join. Instead, they would
very quickly close us down!
Another fact to
ponder: Almost all sex offenders are males. At a
nudist club, it would be very easy to tell if a
man were to become sexually excited.
Some other
interesting facts
Surveys show that
overall, adults who were reared as nudists think
of their childhoods as having been stable. They
also find that nudists tend to be very slightly
better educated than their non-nudist peers.
We don't present
this information in an attempt to try to make
ourselves appear to be "better" than our
non-nudist friends; instead, this information
could explain some other interesting observations
about nudists' lives:
The divorce rate
is lower among nudist families, and their children
tend to make better grades than similar children
in non-nudist families. We don't think that this
is BECAUSE the families are nudists; it's more
likely that the marriages are more stable AND
their kids make good grades AND the families are
nudists because the family members tend to
communicate a little more openly with each other
in their daily lives.
Learning to
accept and respect all bodies
In spite of what
Madison Avenue would have us think, human bodies
really do come in all sizes, shapes, and
conditions. Few are "beautiful" using Hollywood's
standards. We think it's helpful for kids to
learn this early on; you may be aware that in
those parts of the world where nudity is
acceptable at places like the beach and public
saunas, there is a much lower rate of eating
disorders and suicides among youth.
In those
cultures, where kids see all types and ages
unclothed, they learn acceptance of the maturing
and aging processes; they don't think they have
to have face lifts, boob jobs and collagen
injections to become socially acceptable; they
don't grow up thinking "You are what you wear".
They've probably
never had a case of a kid being killed for his
tennis shoes or his Eddie Bauer jacket!
We think that
when Americans learn to accept the body as natural
and wholesome, many of our social problems which
stem from body acceptance will decline.
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