Where are all the real nudists?

I see real nudists. They walk around like everybody else. You don't even know they're naked on the weekends.

(my apologies to Sixth Sense)

Seriously, though - a "real nudist" is anyone who decides to call him/herself a nudist, and in the most general terms possible simply refers to someone who is comfortable with the idea of being nude in mixed company. Not all of them *can* be (there are a lot of closet nudists out there). Additionally, not everyone who is comfortable with mixed nudity calls him/herself a nudist (There's a Naked News segment where the interviewer is on a nude beach, talking to various people there, asking them about nudism and I remember very clearly a stark naked woman saying "oh, I'm not a nudist." Case in point...)

Each person comes into nudism for his/her own reasons. Some common ones: nudity is more comfortable; nudity allows for an all-over tan; nudity promotes positive body image; nudists are terribly friendly folk; spousal involvement (lots of people become nudists after their spouses or significant others try it, and had no personal investment before it, but fall in love with it after trying it).

I'm personally a nudist for none of these reasons - rather, I think that nudity as a sin is an outdated idea predicated on British cultural issues rather than on any religious or scientific reason against it. I value my freedom, and would like the freedom to be naked when it's convenient (ie: when swimming, or when the weather is perfect and there's no practical reason to need clothing). As such, I tend to stay clothed a lot more often than other nudists. To each their own.

There's very little wrong with nudism. For me, I see a problem in that the national organizations (AANR and TNS in the US) have a vested interest in continuing to keep public nudity illegal, as doing so helps increase business at privately-owned nudist resorts. If nudity in the US was completely legal, then we would have no reason for these resorts at all, and they would fade away into oblivion, followed closely by their parent organizations. But I'm willing to accept organizational involvement in order to keep any form of group nudity legal, as there are much more powerful organizations constantly at war with nudists, trying to infringe upon our right to practice our beliefs. One of the more famous examples came in 2003, when then-Congressman Mark Foley sought to end the practice of nudist youth camps (he was not successful, and the youth camp program has had amazing growth since being made famous). Other examples occur constantly, however, and the lobbyists for organized nude recreation have been instrumental in preventing poorly-written laws from negatively impacting our resorts.

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