I prefer nudity because it feels nice. I love the feel of fresh air or water over my bits. But I'd be lying if I said it doesn't take a certain amount of mental preparedness to get nude in front of a bunch of people that I'm not in an intimate relationship with.wh..sh wrote:I am not questioning any intents or Feet's happiness. People should do what makes them happy.
I just refuse to agree with the general notion that naked people are more secure and vice versa. There are all kinds in both nudist and non-nudist groups.
Clothes (or lack of it) don't make a man.
I just had to state my unpopular views when Feet presented comfort with nudity as a counter-statement to insecurity.
But security is not the right word, exactly, for what it is that you need to get naked in front of others. If that were true then strippers and porn-stars would all be paragons of self esteem and body-positivity, but I think it's fairly obvious that there's as much of a range in body security among adult entertainers as there is in the general population.
The thing that I think about when considering public nudity is that we live in a society where women's bodies are considered public property, and this notion is reinforced through media, interactions with other people, the viewpoints of our friends and acquaintances, the things our mother's teach us about what's appropriate to wear in public and what's not, among other things.
But I feel that my body is irrevocably my property and no one else's, and daily, I feel that conflict between what I believe and know to be true and what's nastily floating around there about women's bodies out in the default world. So, to even decide to be nude in a safe space like Burning Man is still fraught with this conflict. It's kind of like what some notable gay figures have written about PDA's in public, about how the simple act of caressing your loved one becomes some huge mental effort because you're always aware that there are people out there who're violently opposed to your very existence and who even feel entitled to that feeling and don't see anything wrong with the way they think. And you also know that, to those unfortunately numerous people, a simple PDA is like saying, 'hey, come over here and harass me.'
It's the same thing, even though I simply enjoy nudity and am actually topless as I write this post in the privacy of my own home, know that there is a sizable chuck of the population out there who is violently opposed to the thought that my body is no one else's by my own, and that my decision to be nude would be taken as less to do with the fact that I just enjoy being nude, and become an open invitation to harassment and potential violence against my person.
It's not a light decision.
I mean fuck, I almost had to break some dude's finger off because he attempted to reach under my short skirt when I was out at a club last Friday. It's probably good for both of us that he ran away after I reached back there and grabbed his hand when I felt him fumbling.
