A few weeks back I unfortunately had an encounter with a woman on the beach which is well known to be used by naturists.
She arrived alone on the beach and immediately started to verbally attack me regarding my nudity. She informed me it was inappropriate and she did not want to see me naked. She continued with her onslaught informing me she was offended by naked people and that she may want to bring her young daughter to this part of the beach.
I quietly informed her that this beach is regularly used by naturists and that I had walked some distance up the beach away from the main area to allow me to have a peaceful afternoon nude on the beach, and that if she did not like seeing naked people that maybe the best thing to do is turn round and go back to the area of beach used by textiles.
But this got me thinking. She was offended by my nudity! If this is the case then why do we except the nudity of all other animals on this planet but don’t expect our own nudity and bodies.
We are very happy to visit the zoo and stand and look at naked gorillas and monkeys who clearly have the offending genitals on show and we are happy to take our children to see this. We also allow naked dogs and cats into our house but a human is a big NO.
Is it that these animals have hair or fur?? Maybe if us naturists allowed our body hair to grow and cover our genital areas then we would be accepted more?
Then I thought about her daughter. I don’t know how old she was but I would guess if the daughter had been with her mother she would have completely ignored my nudity and got on with enjoying the beach, it is only the mothers angry attitude that I feel would have upset her.
This then brings me to when does nudity become offensive? I see nearly every time I go to to the beach young children running around the textile area of the beach naked, having the best time playing and no one complains or seems offended by this.
When does the human body become offensive when naked? is it at a certain age? maybe at 6 or 7 years old all children’s bodies should be covered up as some people may find them offensive, or maybe it’s when the child’s body starts to develop into an adults body, maybe this is time!
I am confused to when a naked body is offensive, be it animal or human. Or maybe its not offensive and society has just got a twisted idea of what offensive is