Why Nudism is Good

Nudism is a wholesome, healthy lifestyle and there are innumerable reasons to be nude when you can. Being nude in a comfortable and relaxed situation is a serene and wonderful experience and offers the freedom to be happy, healthy, active, productive, sane, social, bold, unashamed, and truly alive. Social nudism is an interesting and effective way to communicate and bond with others. Nudity is relaxing and stress-relieving, which is healthy for the body and mind. Nudity also has other positive physical health benefits. Moderate exposure to sunlight increases Vitamin D intake and actually improves many aspects of skin health, discouraging fungal and bacterial infections. In fact, sunlight exposure is even sometimes prescribed for people with some skin diseases. Nudity allows more exposure and gets sunlight to body areas normally neglected.

One of the most compelling principles of nudism is the ideal of body acceptance. Mainstream society and mass media makes harsh judgments about and often discriminates against those who don’t match the unrealistic air-brushed and digitally enhanced ideal promoted by Madison Avenue. In the past women have born the brunt of being made to feel shame by not living up to these unrealistic ideals of the body, but now many younger men are also being made to feel insecure because they don’t match up to similar unrealistic ideals. Most nudists and naturists make you feel welcome no matter what you look like. Nudists have developed some very positive ideas about what nudity should be about and promote acceptance. This in turn helps many to develop a better self-image and improved body image.

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Laid-back beach, lost in time, in Zipolite, Mexico

It feels light years away from the areas of Mexico that tourists now avoid due to drug violence. Not only has the U.S. State Department spared Oaxaca from its travel warnings about Mexico, but Zipolite in particular seems lost in time, a place where visitors think nothing of leaving their belongings unattended on the beach and backpackers sleep in hammocks strung along the coast.

Zipolite also has a few claims to fame. The climactic beach scenes in the Mexican blockbuster movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien," were filmed here. And it's gained notoriety as one of Mexico's few nude beaches, although the majority of sunbathers remain clothed. (Farther east, past an outcropping of rocks is the cove known as "Playa de Amor" where nudity is more openly practiced.)

Mike Bolli, a retiree from Vancouver, Canada, says he has been visiting the area for the last 10 years without "accident, issue or injury."

"I have only ever met the nicest and friendliest eclectic mix of locals and visitors — it's a great throwback to the '60s," Bolli said. "So it's all good and safe from my viewpoint."

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Social Nudity: Nothing Is Better

Of course, it wasn’t such a big deal being among naked men; that happens in locker rooms all the time; but it was very different seeing a woman undress in mixed company. I was particularly struck by how casually a slim redhead removed her clothes while continuing her conversation with her husband, totally unconcerned about others — including me, a stranger — being present.

But those in the car were correct: Within five minutes, being among naked people of both sexes seemed just as natural as being among clothed people in any other setting. While I of course noticed the naked bodies, I was paying more attention to what they were saying and being impressed by the diversity of people there. For they were a diverse and interesting group, ranging from puzzle-makers to computer gurus, telephone executives to truck drivers, bankers to factory workers and nurses … and even a Baptist minister. I would discover that naturism fits everyone from fundamentalist Christians and conservative Catholics to atheists and agnostics. There is a spiritual element to being clad as we came into the world, feeling all the effects of heat, cold, wind, and rain.

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The "Labia Pride" Movement Is on the March

Rebelling against the porn aesthetic, women are taking to the Internet to sing the praises of "endowed" women.

Underneath a self-portrait snapped of the ruffly pink flesh in-between her legs, a woman writes, “I am 23 and so embarrassed of my labia that I still have never shown it to anyone — to a guy or even a doctor!” It’s a post submitted by an anonymous reader on the Tumblr “Large Labia Project.” The blog is filled with similar photos accompanied by tales of vulval shame. One woman writes of distress over the fact that her labia are lopsided. Another worries that she’s lost lovers in the past because “they all thought my vagina was weird.” There are concerns about taste and smell, too, but mostly vulva shape and size.

It’s just one of several new sites calling on women to bare all — to benefit womankind.

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