I really can't call myself a nudist. That said, I have been to a nude beach on the Mediterranean and to nude recreational areas in North America. It was astonishing how asexual the whole thing was. Also astonishing was the leveling effect of everyone being nude. Clothing, for better or worse, is a major marker of where you sit on the totem pole. But nude, the fellow who came in a $2,000 suit has nothing over the jean-jacketed labourer who in any other context might feel a little over his head. Finally, there didn't even seem any hierarchy about sheerly physical differences. The grossly overweight, the sagging elderly, the buff 20-somethings, all seemed on a level. It was nice. I learned a lot. But I feel no particular urge to find a nudist camp today. In the last analysis, it seemed silly to say that creatures that have been clothing themselves for millennia are somehow more 'natural' without clothes. The experience was interesting -- but not an expression of me. |