You may, or not, have noticed some changes on the site. If you’re not sure and do not know what I’m talking about, let me guide you: there is and will not be any nude pictures on the site. We are nude-free! What, a weblog, dedicated to naturism and not a single nude picture? Really? What happened?
Well, here’s the reasoning behind the decision, the work that has been done over the last weeks and how it will affect future posts.
Everything started a five years ago, as I was writing the first post of this blog and was searching for pictures for a blog post. So I went to Google! Of course, if you google the word nudism or naturism, you end up with dozens of pictures of genuine nudists… and millions of sex pictures. Now, it’s easy to sort the non-sexual ones (there are few) and pick one or two that fits the purpose of the post. Then, a little while later, I found a nice photo sharing site, Nudism Life. It as full of nudist pictures, and, almost, only nudist pictures. It was a great source of images. The only issue? Not a single trace of consent or copyright protection. Those pictures seemed, for the most, to have been gathered (stolen?) from various sources. I was never at ease with this.
Recenty, the post of Matthew McDermott, Should websites for nudists include photos?, sparked a good discussion with readers and the doubt grew into my mind. Most of the pictures I was using did not have consent nor copyright protection attached to them. I was not doing the right thing, and I was not really serving the cause of naturism, when it comes to respect!
So the decision came almost naturally. I would not post any more nude pictures on the site, at lease without consent, and would only use genuine, copyright free pictures. Beyond respect of consent and copyright, no more nudity on the site is a way to attract more people, to get a completely clean image for search engines and to ensure there’s a defined line of demarcation between non-sexual communal nudity and sexual nudity.
No more nudes, really? Is this a new vision of a prudish naturism? In fact there still is and will be nudity, because nudity is an integral part of naturism. Yes, it’s a means to and end, and not the end itself, but communal nudity is central to naturism. Therefore, there will some nudity, in the form of Instagram-like or Nick & Lins, covering some bits, or just not showing them, to avoid shocking non-naturist eyes. But wait, for naturists, those bits are not shocking! True, but we still are a minority and if we want to attract more people to our lifestyle, to demonstrate its awesomeness, we need to go step by step and be respectful of differences of appreciation of nudity.
I’ve been spending the last weeks cleaning the site. There are close to 500 posts, so going to each of one, finding new pictures and uploading them consumed a lot of time. But, I’m proud of the result and I hope you like it too. Nude and Happy is still dedicated to naturism and will remain so. Our mission is to participate in spreading naturism among society. We truly believe naturism is one of the answers to the crisis the world is going through, and that by embracing a more nude, frugal and minimal life, we will make a better, more respectful and more beautiful world.
Please leave comments! What do you think of this new approach? Will you go away or will you stay? Will it make easier to share the site to more people? Thank you for being our readers!
Get Naked, Stay Naked, Live Naked and Share the Naked Love!
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash
I understand your concern, but I respectfully offer two comments: First, I don’t believe that obscuring “bits” serves any purpose other than reinforcing the notion that those “bits” are somehow bad and should not be displayed. Second, I’ve always felt that showing photos of true nudism/naturism in all its simplicity, wonderfulness and shamelessness is the best way to educate the general population. Thank you for your effort on this site!I’ll
Ted, thank you for your comment and words of confidence. Actually, we will not obscure “bits”, we will and are, in some cases, using genuine nude pictures and we will continue educating around naturism. It’s the mission of this site and it remains unchanged. We, however, want to attract more people and seeing those “bits” first does not seem to be the best way, in our opinion. We totally share you view and concerns, and will do our best to continue serving our readers in the best possible way.
Hmmm… as to obscuring bits. If you want your post shared to Facebook. best to obscure them. Also if you hope to get linked to by main stream media. Posts with obscured bits are more likely to be shared to textile blogs and sites. Exposed bits will also get you blocked by some software.
If you are doing outreach to textiles, know your market. Some people may need to be eased in gently. OTOH, if you’re talking to college educated young people or to people who are genuinely curious, obscuring the bits looks prudish.
I have been known to do two different version of the same article, one with a NSFW label and one without bits exposed. My audience doesn’t seem to care.
A couple of comments from someone new to naturism:
1) it is helpful to be able to refer acquaintances to a site that expounds naturism without exposing them to nudity when they still automatically associate nudity with sex;
2) I find it helpful to see depictions of nonsexual social nudity to reinforce my new understanding and to keep me from reverting to 50+ years of indoctrination.
For a number of reasons I am unable to go to a nudist/naturist venue. I am nude at home and at the cottage when alone or with my wife.
Thank you for what you share on the web site. It is encouraging.
Thank you for your comments and your kind words. They are much appreciated.
Wow! That’s a tricky one! I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years as well, and rarely use photos grabbed from Google, mainly because we have a lot of photos we’ve taken over the course of 20 years of naturist travel. I have also asked people on Instagram to publish their photos with attribution. More often than not, they have said yes.
I respect your decision, and move your blog, but I do think images help a great deal to contextualize the prose.
Wow finely someone with a huge following gets it. Now their post will be able to be shared in many more places and in return will find more people that are on the fence to give naturism a try.
My own blog is replete with plenty of nude photos of me and very few of other people. The reasons, of course, are copyright and permission. I’d LOVE to include photos of other people but that is – usually – a no-go.
FWIW, my blog has nude content but most followers are textiles and and most posts are aimed at the general public. They don’t seem to mind.
I am not going to some random supposedly nudist site and pull photos from it. Most of them were merely copied from other sites with no possible way of knowing the provenance.
There is also the question as to when you are allowed to post photos of other people that you have taken. The answer is not always yes. Absent a written release, the subject may have a legal interest in where nude photos of them end up. Or you may get confronted by an angry mob.
There are legitimate ways to post nude photos of other people. (Some of them involve signed releases. Some don’t.) Most of the time we’re just to lazy to do it right or we are so anxious to include nudes of happy naked people frolicking in the sun we just start doing screen grabs.