# How do men in Nudist camps avoid erections? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023 "2002-04-27T23:50:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/21 "2002-04-28T15:19:36Z")
The writer and frequent NPR commentator David Sidaris has a hilarious section in one of his books (I can’t remember which… sorry) about his visit to a nudist camp. I believe he also delivered that section in a monologue on This American Life. From his descriptions of it, unless you have a fetish for very flabby middle-aged people, it isn’t going to be a problem. As far as why go to nudist camps… This may be TMI, but I’m usually naked at home. I think it’s more comfortable to not wear clothes. Now I personally don’t want to see anyone else naked or let them see me so I keep this within the confines of my own home but I could see the pleasure in going outside naked, feeling the comfort of nothing restricting you at all. And if you don’t care about other people seeing you and you seeing other people, great. ---
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/22 "2002-04-28T15:41:14Z")
do get erections now and then and hide behind bushes or trees! Probably lots of them get semi-erections which they don’t bother to hide. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/23 "2002-04-28T16:18:52Z")
- - - A friend’s parents used to do the nudist camp thing years ago. As he reached adulthood, he asked questions about it, stiffies being one. A man having an erection cannot be in any public place in most all nudist camps; if you feel one coming on, you have to get somewhere private fast or conveniently cover yourself with something. If others see it and report it, you get often kicked off the premises. - Most people there are ordinary, middling-and-older-age, definitely-not-models in serious need of thighmasters and ab-crunchers. There’s generally not much to arouse someone used to dreaming about Sports Illustrated models. Now, uh, did somebody mention Janet Reno? - The social context is almost always highly restrictive with respect to sexual subjects. Telling obscene jokes is often prohibited, as are things like wife swapping, or doing anything sexual in public view, even with a spouse, or “being noisy” with anyone in a room or tent. Some places, singles aren’t even allowed to “mix” even in privacy. You get kicked out for it. - There’s lots of child molesters cruising the nudist camps looking for naked kids, and usually finding them. They don’t get arrested when they get caught, because the camp convinces the parents not to, to avoid bringing bad publicity upon the camp (and possibly having the local government shut it down). So the Chesters get “fired with recommendations” and move on to the next camp. My buddy’s parents knew about this, and that was why they completely stopped visiting after they had children. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/24 "2002-04-28T17:32:46Z")
Nudists sound like very sad people then. ---
**Author:** ![GopherGod72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@GopherGod72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GopherGod72)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/25 "2002-04-28T18:10:09Z")
ever wonder why they are always carrying a towel? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/26 "2002-04-28T18:33:39Z")
I thought children weren’t allowed at Nudist Camps-you had to be 18 and over? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/27 "2002-04-28T18:57:29Z")
“ever wonder why they are always carrying a towel?” Oh, I hope they use one, its for sanitary reasons, they have to sit on it. ---
**Author:** ![fighting\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ac8455/32.png) [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/28 "2002-04-28T19:06:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arken \* > \*\*The writer and frequent NPR commentator David Sidaris has a hilarious section in one of his books (I can’t remember which… sorry) … \*\* The book was (unsurprisingly) called [“Naked”](http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0316777730). ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/29 "2002-04-28T20:50:29Z")
I seem to be the first actual, social nudist to Chime in. AndrewL seemed to have it the closest. I can’t imagine a Nudist Camp running someone off for getting an erection. Depending on the context, it might be best to cover it, or wander away. At worst, it would be mildly embarrasing, and if the object of affection were obvious, it would give an opportunity for her to give a signal on whether she was interested, or not. Nudist Camps are not swingers Clubs, but neither have I found them to be as restrictive as DougC described. Perhaps because The social Nudity I’ve experienced has been in Pagan Circles, and Children haven’t been a factor. I’ve never actually run into the problem, even when in Nudist situations with Women I am interested in, and attracted by. The sight is stimulating, but not necessarily novel, and other Social Cues (ie. lots of other people around) seem to keep the ‘Gallant Reflex’ from rearing it’s one eyed head. I was at a Beltain Ritual last night,(It’s a Wicca thing) I stayed clothed for the Ritual, which was clothing optional, but stripped down for the hot-Tubbing afterwards, and even did a little dancing. Interesting Ritual, I wound up bound to the Maypole, face to face with a Lassie who had reached it about the same time as me, because we stayed to help support the pole. She was the one cutting the ribbons, and she gave us both shorter ones, it seems. So, to Sum up. You don’t sport wood, cuz you realize you’re not there to get sex. You’re just there, and Nekkid, and so’s everybody else. Worst thing about nudity is not inadvertent erections, it’s not having anyplace to put your smokes. ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/30 "2002-04-28T20:57:03Z")
Thanks **fighting ignorant**. I’ve read all of his books and they kind of blend together. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/31 "2002-04-29T12:50:00Z")
I frequent Vancouver’s Wreck Beach [http://www.wreckbeach.org](http://www.wreckbeach.org) The first thing I do to prevent an erection is use self-control. At the beginning of the season this is a little \ stiff, but it gets better with practice. Second, you can always go run into the water-- it tends to be a little cold, and one of the few times that you want to encourage shrinkage. Third, you can always roll over onto your stomach for a while. Fourth, if you’re incredibly horny, DON’T GO TO THE BEACH. Because there will be some hotties there to catch your eye. Fifth-- well, people know it happens, eh? As long as you’re not doing anything with it, the collective will ignore it. As for why I go, well, I hate picking sand out of my bathing suit. and **Guin** , there’s no age restrictions where I go. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/32 "2002-04-29T13:33:14Z")
I’ve been to nudist resorts and beaches and, as has been pointed out, it isn’t a particularly erotic experience. Imagine being in any other social situation you can name (grocery store, your office, school, anywhere). Now, imagine that everyone is naked. There are people of every shape, size, age, and description there and it is, as I said, very unerotic (imagine your high school prinicipal naked). Of course, the sun does feel awfully good on your bare skin and if you happen to get an erection you don’t pay any attention to it and it will go away. No one else is paying any attention to you and won’t make a big deal out of it. It is a natural response, so, what the hell. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/33 "2002-04-29T13:39:39Z")
\*\*How do men in Nudist camps avoid erections? \*\* Basically, I’m pretty quick on my feet. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/34 "2002-04-29T13:40:48Z")
Until I read Sedaris’ book, I had never thought about how having “toilet seat ass” is probably much more of a worry that an unexpected salute. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/35 "2002-04-30T17:57:40Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by The Griffin_ > **I’d be walking about with a constant stiffy I think.** I believe we’ve already covered the “Janet Reno” aspect here. You’d get usd to the flesh display and it would go away. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Surreal_ > **Why should they try to avoid sporting wood?** Because it’s rude, that’s why. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GopherGod72 \* > \*\*ever wonder why they are always carrying a towel? \*\* The _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ has a few things to say on the subject of towels: > [@](#): > > \*\*A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal; you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. > > More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (a non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with. > > Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” \*\* Do you know where your towel is? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nonny\_Mouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@Nonny\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonny_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/36 "2002-04-30T18:40:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by psiekier \* > \*\* Do you know where your towel is? \*\* In a soggy heap on the bathroom floor, where it belongs. Nonny ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/37 "2002-04-30T18:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by psiekier \* > \*\*The _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ has a few things to say on the subject of towels: > […] > wrap it round your head to ward off the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal; \*\* Which is such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/38 "2002-04-30T19:42:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Interesting Ritual, I wound up bound to the Maypole, face to face with a Lassie who had reached it about the same time as me, because we stayed to help support the pole. She was the one cutting the ribbons, and she gave us both shorter ones, it seems. So _that’s_ where she was. Meanwhile, Timmy’s still stuck in the well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/39 "2002-04-30T21:41:37Z")
Well, every summer during my vacation I make a point to go to the nude beach at Oka, Québec, at least once or twice. The beach there is basically divided (albeit in a blurry way) between “textile,” “straight,” and “gay.” I usually make the trek to the gay area. I have no problems with getting an erection, though. I’ve seen a lot of semis, and I’ve seen cruising in the bushes. I’m used to gang showers and the like, so I learned a long time ago how to be around a bunch of naked guys without getting a hard-on, even if I find them hot. If I were to get a stiffy, I’d just turn over on my towel, or put my bathing suit on. - s.e. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023/40 "2002-04-30T22:26:52Z")
My total nudist experience is about three weeks’ worth, but I can honestly say that, even for my horny younger self, it wasn’t a problem. Nudity in and of itself isn’t seductive. The breaking of taboos is seductive; seeing someone naked in a context where it’s not allowed is seductive. But naked people wandering around, swimming, sunbathing, making lunch… not seductive. Now, had one of the more attractive ones whispered something suggestive in my ear, that’d be arousing. But when you’ve seen enough people naked, it’s not an immediate _sproing_. As a side note, most people there, of course, were average-looking. With a few at either end of the spectrum as well; dazzlingly beautiful, or scary enough to make Stephen King scream like a girl and cower under a picnic table until it got dark enough not to see. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-in-nudist-camps-avoid-erections/106023.md?page=3)