# I am curious about naturism... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023 "2015-01-27T17:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/21 "2015-01-29T06:41:31Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Basically, sometimes clothing is a very good idea from a standpoint of protection. _A condom at the very least!_ ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/22 "2015-01-29T13:43:29Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Worse, it isn’t just sweat. The anal sphincter is not a perfect hermetic seal. Well, yeah, and women have additional bodily fluid issues. Basically, you want a napkin of some sort under your butt. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/23 "2015-01-29T23:11:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Well, yeah, and women have additional bodily fluid issues. > > Basically, you want a napkin of some sort under your butt. It’s common courtesy/decency. The “Naked Man” who used to go around Berkeley was kind enough to carry a towel for this purpose. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/24 "2015-01-31T08:21:07Z")
For college, attend U.C. Berkeley. For nudism with people below age 50, nudist beaches on summer weekends will give you better results than nudist resorts. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/25 "2015-01-31T10:06:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Worse, it isn’t just sweat. The anal sphincter is not a perfect hermetic seal. True for most, maybe, put I’ll put mine up against anyone’s. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/26 "2015-01-31T12:10:57Z")
Only if both you and your putative opponent are severely emaciated in the gluteal regions, I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/27 "2015-02-01T01:38:03Z")
I guess its still “naturism” even though the body is tattooed, pierced, shaved, breast-implanted, and its shape owes much to a lifelong diet of unnatural foods. Anyway, I really like the Britishisms for it: “starkers,” or “stark bollock naked.” ETA to add honorable mention to the African American contribution of morphing “buck naked” into “butt naked.” ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/28 "2015-02-01T05:18:06Z")
Unless I missed something, where did the OP state a gender? Would it make a difference to the parents if they are dealing with a son versus a daughter? As a male, I’d suggest “bedclothes (whatever that means) under the covers” as previously stated - who cares? I stopped wearing PJs or even underwear during my freshman college year - it just feels better. I suggest at least keeping a pair of underwear close by. One Saturday morning during college I was awakened by the house phone ringing, and went into the hall naked to answer it while supporting a morning erection. The other roommate reached the phone at the same time, smiled, and quickly turned around. But I have no interest in naturism - I don’t equate these as even related. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/29 "2015-02-01T06:23:25Z")
Guess I’m in the minority, here - I’ve tried sleeping bare, and I really don’t like it. Sleeping in the nude makes me feel dirty, and not in the fun-sexy-times way, either; rather, in the skidmarks-on-the-sheets way. Plus, even on the warmest nights, I get cold unless I’m wearing a t-shirt and skivvies. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/30 "2015-02-01T06:27:43Z")
> [@Tully\_Mars](#): > > If you’re male and single, you will encounter a little resistance at first. It’s a cultural thing and it’s understandable. But, if you mind your manners, you’ll soon be accepted. I think it used to be common practice to completely ban single men, but I think most resorts/campgrounds of the AANR variety have ended this. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/31 "2015-02-01T06:41:42Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I see the main problem with the OP’s parents (and possibly the OP him or herself) - naturism is mostly really, really non-sexual. It’s really more a sensual thing, in the non-sexual sense of that word. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/32 "2015-02-01T07:02:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If you live in a coastal area, there are likely to be “clothing optional” beaches within driving distance. You’d be surprised how you might need to stretch your definition of “driving distance” for this to hold true. San Diego has Blacks Beach, just north of La Jolla, then there isn’t even one completely legal clothing optional beach until you get to somewhere between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, about 450 miles north. Given that beaches of this type tend to be secluded and remote, and often have little parking or none at all, you have to figure in the amount of time it will take you to hike from where you park the car to where the actual beach is, and back. Looking at old cartoons and films can give you the idea that “nudist camps”, as they used to be called, were totally a thing, as in, you could drive to just outside any major city and find one, but that’s certainly not true today, and I’m not sure it ever was. The disapproval by the mainstream makes it very, very difficult. > [@](#): > > You will probably find a lot of middle-aged or older people involved in naturist activities. There is a strong cultural attitude among nudists that it is _not,_ repeat _ **not** _ something erotic or sexual. If you feel otherwise, you would probably feel pressured to keep that attitude well-hidden. You would need to NOT feel grossed out by seeing older baggy wrinkled bodies, pot bellies, low-hanging boobs, etc. Bodies is bodies; don’t be judgemental. (I have a bit of background in massage therapy, where the same non-judgemental attitude about peoples’ bodies is considered highly appropriate.) What this really boils down to is the point of naturism is self-directed; it’s about how you physically feel when you’re lying on a beach or strolling a hiking trail in the nude. It’s not about seeing or being seen. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/33 "2015-02-01T07:47:56Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > You’d be surprised how you might need to stretch your definition of “driving distance” for this to hold true. San Diego has Blacks Beach, just north of La Jolla, then there isn’t even one completely legal clothing optional beach until you get to somewhere between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, about 450 miles north. Given that beaches of this type tend to be secluded and remote, and often have little parking or none at all, you have to figure in the amount of time it will take you to hike from where you park the car to where the actual beach is, and back. There’s [Pirate’s Cove, near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County](http://www.avilabeachpier.com/information/pirates-cove.html), with good parking and only a small hike down to the beach. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/34 "2015-02-01T11:42:25Z")
We know a family who are nudists and have talked to them about their lifestyle. They bowl nude. Mom, dad, two kids. Bowling. In nothing but _bowling shoes_. And don’t get me started on the family portrait displayed prominately atop the TV. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/35 "2015-02-01T18:08:53Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > We know a family who are nudists and have talked to them about their lifestyle. They bowl nude. Mom, dad, two kids. Bowling. In nothing but _bowling shoes_. And don’t get me started on the family portrait displayed prominately atop the TV. Where? Certainly not in any public bowling alley, I’m sure? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/36 "2015-02-01T18:44:19Z")
In my 20s I was a regular at a nude beach in RI which was closed in the 80s due to traffic from NYC (MO of real reason) or maybe really the endangered piping plover. There was a volley ball net and some of the regulars enforced the informal rules- be polite. There was also Dyer Woods, a naturist community in Fostah/Glocestah. I believe that is defunct as well. At a 2011 conference the noted HPV researcher Joel Palefsky (who is a major hoot besides being a genius) posited park benches as a source of perianal HPV infection. There’s about 4 square blocks in SF clothing optional. Everyone laughed, but at that time there were subjects in his anal HPV studies who denied other (more common) methods of transmissions. Everyone laughed, but given the ubiquitousness of HPV it’s theoretically possible. So yes, sitting on a towel is highly recommended on a lot of levels. I like gardening nude, but the damn ultralights started flying lower. Plus I don’t want to scare the sons in law. There’s a great Korean spa in Lynnwood where clothing is not optional- you can’t wear any- and the hair covers are also not optional- you must! OP, at 17, until you leave home, try either a nightshirt or the above mentioned silky boxers. Silky underwear IMHO is the next thing to bare. Your parents are a tad repressed… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/37 "2015-02-01T19:16:57Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Where? Certainly not in any public bowling alley, I’m sure? :dubious: No, they go to some sort of nekid place, kind of a resort. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/38 "2015-02-02T00:14:55Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Where? Certainly not in any public bowling alley, I’m sure? :dubious: I wonder if it makes for a better game? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/39 "2015-02-02T01:21:41Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Guess I’m in the minority, here - I’ve tried sleeping bare, and I really don’t like it. Sleeping in the nude makes me feel dirty, and not in the fun-sexy-times way, either; rather, in the skidmarks-on-the-sheets way. Plus, even on the warmest nights, I get cold unless I’m wearing a t-shirt and skivvies. Everyone is different, to be sure. I’ve found it wise to wipe the old feak every now and then during the day, to prevent skid-mark build-up. Not really that much different from cleaning one’s nose. re temperatures, I’ve found it’s much easier to throw aside a top bed-cover – the topmost quilt, blanket, sheet, etc. – than to get up and take off jammies, or t-shirt and tighties. The former, I can do almost in my sleep. Also, what’s fascinating is, when it’s cold, you can put your legs together, minimizing overall radiating skin surface…and when it’s hot, you spread your legs apart, opening up that much more surface to radiate and to sweat. To that minimal degree, we can control our body’s geometry! We’re Transformers! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023/40 "2015-02-02T03:29:19Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There’s [Pirate’s Cove, near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County](http://www.avilabeachpier.com/information/pirates-cove.html), with good parking and only a small hike down to the beach. That’s good to know, and thanks for the correction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-curious-about-naturism/711023.md?page=3)