The More We Talk About Naturism, the Less Strange It Becomes

Today has been rather extraordinary for Naturism Wales. Our website has passed 113,000 visits in a single day, and the number is still climbing.

Naturally, I am delighted to see that level of interest. But the number itself isn’t really what interests me.

It’s the conversation behind it.

Every person who visits our website has encountered the word naturism. Some will already be naturists. Some will be curious.

Others may have arrived because something caught their attention on social media and they wanted to understand what on earth we were talking about.

And that matters.

For generations, naturism has suffered from being something people don’t particularly talk about. When a subject remains hidden, other people fill the silence with assumptions. Nudity becomes confused with sexuality. Naturists become stereotypes. Perfectly ordinary people can find themselves worrying about what friends, neighbours or colleagues might think if they discovered this part of their lives.

Conversation changes that.

When somebody reads the story of a woman explaining what naturism has meant for her confidence, or a widower discovering friendship and community, they encounter a person before they encounter an argument about naturism.

That is why I increasingly believe visibility is important.

We don’t need everyone who encounters Naturism Wales to become a naturist. That isn’t the objective. If somebody arrives sceptical, reads something, understands us a little better and leaves thinking, actually, they’re just ordinary people, something worthwhile has happened.

Because every time naturism becomes slightly less mysterious to somebody else, our own lives become slightly easier.

Perhaps the next time they encounter a naturist beach, they understand it. Perhaps when a colleague mentions being a naturist, the reaction is curiosity rather than ridicule.

Perhaps a landowner approached about an event has already heard of naturism in a positive context. Perhaps somebody who has secretly wanted to try it for twenty years finally realises there is a community nearby.

That is how attitudes change. Usually not through confrontation, but through familiarity.

Today’s traffic has already resulted in genuine membership applications, which is wonderful.

Yet I think the larger opportunity is the tens of thousands of people who have encountered Naturism Wales without applying for anything at all.

They now know we’re here.

Some will agree with us. Some won’t. Some may never give naturism another thought.

That’s perfectly all right.

A healthy society doesn’t require everybody to live in the same way. It requires us to understand enough about one another that difference stops automatically becoming something to fear.

So yes, I’m enormously pleased that more than 113,000 visits have landed on our website today.

But I’m even happier that 113,000 opportunities for conversation have been created.

The more confidently and responsibly we introduce people to naturism, the less explaining future generations of naturists may eventually have to do.

And surely making life a little easier for the people who come after us is something worth talking about.

Who could you introduce to a better understanding of naturism simply by having an ordinary conversation?