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Absolute Naturists Nudity in Foreign Countries
| How is social nudity, family nudity, recreational nudity, nude living either viewed, dealt with or accepted in other countries outside the US? I was intrigued by a recent post that related to this in another Topic. I think it would be interesting to hear first hand from persons who have had experiences with social nudity in other parts of the world, like Italy, Croatia, France, etc.. Please share. | |
| Though I traveled to Viet Nam, Turkey, and the Phillippines while in the Air Force I never experienced social nudity in any of those places. I did hear there was a nudist beach in Turkey but never got there (I wasn't yet a nudist myself). Everything I've read about social nudity elsewhere seems to be most prevalent in Europe, though. Jim Livin' naked and free | |
| Social Nudity in other parts of the world does not resemble social nudity in the States..for example..Germany has many parks that are clothing optional... almost anytime of the day in the summer of course you will find nudist laying in the sun on towels or blankets while textiled people walk by...no one is upset by it at all...its part of life... Cap D'Adge in the south of France(loved it there) is the only complete city (hotels,condos,stores ,restaurants etc.)in the world where you are required by law to be nude 24/7... famlies ,singles,gays all visit during the season and mix and mingle... there are usually about 25,000 nudist at any given time there during the season...Italy of course is famous for its topless beaches... Hedi Klum talked about the topless beaches she goes to there in Italy several weeks ago on Jay Leno...she was a hoot when she told Jay that she had more bikini bottoms than she had tops..I thought poor Jay was going to fall out off his chair... oohhh and speedo's are not appaling beach wear that they seem to be in the states either... while I have not been to Croatia I have been to the Greek Islands and the nude beaches and they are gorgeous... and again singles,gays,families are all represented as well as topless and textiled folks mingling...nudity is just NOT the abhorent life style in Europe as it seems to be to sooo many here in the states...I have not been to Australia yet but am planning on going..oo forgot Barcelonia Spain...another wonderful place... | |
| Ohhh, if only we Americans could be more like the Europeans, at least the Scandanavian and Mediterranean sectors of the continent. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could walk about in parks, at beaches, or even shopping malls and witness nude or partially nude people enjoying themselves in any state of dress or nudity and not being seen as anything other than normal? Jim Livin' naked and free | |
| I'm from Germany, I think our naturist culture is well known around the world? Or at least I assume it is, FKK has always been popular here. It's a good place to live for a naturist. | |
| I am lucky enough to have a job where I travel internationally. When away from home, I always try to get to a spa where nudity is commonplace at least in the suana areas. Some of my favorite places are in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I was recently stuck in Munich for three days because of Hurricane Irene. I enjoyed walking through the English Garden (I unfortunately didn't have a blanket with me in order to partake) and taking a day at the Sauna Paradise in the Therme Erding (where I could rent a towel). | |
| There doesn't seem to be much nudist activity in most of Latin America. There are a couple of nude beaches in Brazil; they are run by private clubs, and single men are not admitted. In the early Oh-Oh decade, there was an attempt to build a residential nudist community, mainly weekend cottages for summer recreation but with some permanent residents. That was also in Brazil, a short way inland from the southernmost city, Porto Alegre. It gets cold there in winter, but the population is mostly European, including lots of Germans. Even with that cultural support, the community got into financial trouble and may no longer be running. Huge generalization to which I welcome counterexamples: For the Third World in general, nudism as we know it is almost entirely an imported European and North American activity. It takes lots of explaining to the locals, for whom public nudity is often situationally tolerated, but strongly associated with sexual invitation. Example: "I used to samba naked at Carnival when I was young and wild and wanted to get laid, but now I'm married and over 30, so I wear a fancy costume." Incidentally, for people who were puzzled by Do's term FKK, that's FreiKoerperKultur (Free Body Culture), a traditional German way of doing nudism. | |
| yep, I heard that Spain kinda closed it's doors to nudity. Anybody have any info on that or any other countries doing the same and why. Is the US on the verge of opening it's tolerance levels? SF or NYC? just a thought... | |
| SunBunny, First World countries in general are making a major lurch away from personal liberty. Nudism is not a major target, but it gets swept up in a general jihad to define any minority behavior not practiced by, say, at least 0.2% of the population as deviant, to be stigmatized and persecuted. Spain has a traditional understanding against public nudity. Other Europeans can get away with some in water sports venues during tourist season, but they are flouting local public opinion. I remember that back in the Franco years, even men on the beach were expected to wear shirts when not actually in the water. | |
| I can't remember exactly where I read it but AANR someone with AANR was saying something about Spain being the most accepting of public nudity and that is it totally legal there... and I also remember reading about a official of Spain saying that they were removing those laws from their books and that any type of nudity was now illegal. Anybody have current info on this? | |
| SunBunny - I don't have specific info on Spain, but I know that they have a large and population of conservative Muslims, especially in the southern half of the country. This would have a large impact on nudism in areas near those population centers. | |
| A couple of years ago I was at St Jean de Luz, a French coastal town by the Spanish border. We visited several surrounding "wild" beaches...most had unofficial nude sections. It was pretty awesome to be able to practice nudism in a variety of locations. At the main beaches, there was some topfreedom (although not as much as when I was a kid), and most children under 4 were nude on the beach (something that would probably cause a massive crisis here in the US.) We had lunch at a nearby restaurant; a lady sitting next to us was breastfeeding her child while having lunch with a friend (another situation that would cause a commotion here in the US.) But still..that was nothing compared to public park nudity that I saw in Germany in 1985. In short...Europe is light years ahead of us when it comes to nudity acceptance. It's truly a shame. | |
| Nudity in Mexico is not well seen unfortunately. The good thing is that it seems to be picking up but slowly. You can find more nudist groups forming across the country. There are some nude beaches but there are really no official nude beaches since it is illegal. New nude resorts are opening but mainly aimed and visited by foreigners. | |
| Nudony, as far as Europe being light years ahead of the U.S. (hell, even the entire North and South America continents) when it comes to nudity acceptance, don't forget that the nudist movement in America was started by a German immigrant, Kurt Barthel. The U.S. is a "byproduct" of England, and no other country exemplifies stuffy "prim and properness" better than the U.K., especially with its caste system. And when it comes to nudity in foreign countries, I'm sure England is the furthest thought in anyone's mind. | |
| Bauhausnude, I think that you misjudge the British. I was stationed in the UK while in the Air Force from 1967 to 1970. There were MANY programs on TV that showed nudity during "family time." If a commercial was about panties, the model wore only panties etc. There were many summer days (warm for them, cold for me) where secretaries from building around would spend their lunch hour in the park, sunbathing nude. The Brits were conservative but not backwards. John | |
| It does seem Europe, and at least the South American nations such as Brazil, are light years ahead of the U.S. What a shame. Jim | |
| No, nudecojohn, I'm not misjudging the British. I know the British aren't backwards. England wouldn't have been the dominant world power that it was if it had been backwards. Didn't the industrial revolution start in England? However, the conservativeness of the U.K. was my point; and since the U.S. is a former British colony and closely aligned with England, that conservativeness was carried forward here as well when this country was founded. Again, it took a German immigrant to start the nudist movement in America. And I wasn't saying that the British don't practice nudism; but when it comes to the practice of nudism in Europe being so many years ahead of the U.S. , one would more than likely think of Germany (where social nudism was founded), France (Cap d'Agde) or Spain (Gran Canaria). Honestly, is England going to be near the top of anyone's list when it comes to "nudist destinations"? | |
| Being French, I would say nudity is well accepted as long as it stays within the borders of clubs or beaches and there are plenty of those in every part of France. There are groups of nudists who organize nude hikes which are fairly popular and generally without major issues. It's still illegal to be nude outside of authorized areas (clubs, beaches), although there is an organization who lobbies to amend the law so it's inline with other European countries like Germany or Spain. The Cap d'Agde has been described in other posts, but I shall say there are too many people in July-August and the city has a tendency to turn into a complete swinger club, which poses some challenges to families with kids who now tend to go to more family friendly places. I personally find it too crowdy. So I would say, that yes, France is quite open-minded to nudism and welcomes nudists from all over the world. marc | |
| Marc you are correct about Cap d'agde...when I was there two summers ago now there were something like 25,000 folks there...what I do like about France is that they do have "areas" designated and that is great...as for Germany they have parks and clubs and beaches and nudity does not pose a public problem...the last time I was in Barcelonia the beaches had nude areas as well as other designated nude areas...but that has been a couple of years ago so I am not sure what the law is today...but to answer the question...Americans seem to be realllllllly hung up on nudity...back to what I once mentioned in another thread...Americans have no problem mutilating the human body on screen...nope everyone run to the movies and see the human body slashed, burned , run over,sawed, shot,blown up and on and on...but OOOOOO nellie don't you dare show anything positive/nude on that screen or in person...you instantly turn into a pervert...incredible... | |
| I thought I'd chip in here given this thread hasn't had input from a Brit so far. I'm a member of British Naturism having about 10 thousand members in the UK. I've just got back from BN's signiture annual event where we 'took over' a holiday resort for a week. Naturism certainly doesn't come as easily to the British as it does to our continental cousins but as naturists in the States may have guessed, our attitudes and judgements and level of acceptance are very akin to your own. We have the same kind of issues: trouble with our message and promotion from conservative nay-sayers, declining club membership and family participation, issues with gender balance and single men etc.. Nudity is not explicitly illegal here and I and many others participate in nude recreation such as hiking, beaches and events such as the World Naked Bike Ride as well as going to more traditional clubs. After a few years of stagnation we've started again with a new forward looking plan to bring our message to the public but without the stuffiness and outdated approach of sticking to our club system. This time we're going for a younger, fresher approach using social media, mass participation ideas, lots of events and tv/radio publicity and pushing the involvement of the young. This has been driven from a new look executive council with younger more driven individuals including a commercial manager for promotion (unheard of within BN as recently as 5 years ago!) New ideas we've had in the last couple of years included a TV programme specifically about young naturists, a national convention, a nationwide 'Great British Skinny Dip', a week long holiday event called Nudefest, and a take-over of the UK's most well known theme park, Alton Towers. There is uncertainty however as we proceed with this. As we push the great ideas of naturism there is a push back from the conservatives. There is talk of legislation to limit freedom of expression on the internet, possible changes to the 'Public Order Act' (essentially the rules surrounding social behaviour that the police just love to bend to snare unwitting naturists minding their own business) to make nudity explicitly illegal, and public campaigns to encourage conservative conformity. We feel that we're on an upward curve though. Membership of BN, declining for so long, has levelled off. Long way to go but we're heading in the right direction. | |
| Thanks Simon... that is really great information you shared. I for one would like to hear more fom you on this as things evolve. I liked what you said about moving away from the "club" stuffiness to something more appealing to the new generations. That is exactly what we are doing with our club at the moment. it may well be the answer to declining memberships and non-joiner mentality. Again thanks. | |
| certainly its alive in australia, to what extent not to sure of. where i live we have several nudist clubs but not one resort or camping area allowing nudity. In the metro area we only have 2 official free beaches, over east its a bit more commonplace however one state doesn't even have one official beach at all. I guess I'm lucky that wheer i live if we get far enough away from the population you could be naked virtually anywhere as long as your not witnessed by textiles who would complain to authorities and indecent decency charges apply. |
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