So I went on the NEWT holiday with people who are active on this website. I understand and agree on the general holiday aspect and even the protest-like aspect that our message is that nudity is normal.
What I am more concerned about now, is that I did not tell my parents about this website. So far I only mentioned "e-mails" from the "newt organisation" that has a website. I did not mention this social media website.
I told my parents about this hiking tour and how good the atmosphere was. They also told their friends what I was going on my holiday. Among them a general concern arised that nude pictures on the internet can be saved, re-named, photoshopped and without asking for permission be put on another website, ripped out of context. And what appears on the internet, stays on the internet and may or may not be used against you at some inconvenient time.
I wonder how many people on this website are aware of this. Of course, the same can happen on any social media website (stealing pictures and using it for a total different purpose) but we all know how stigmatized naturists still are and how sexism is still a thing when one non-naturist or non-asexual sees a naked body. To be honest, I am not worried about someone else using my pictures on different social media websites for blind dating – that is not problem – but I am more worried about identity theft, which can also happen through other social media websites, for course… Still I'm afraid that nudity seems to be more sensitive to abuse than regular pictures? Does anyone have any idea on this?
So far on this website I do not have any full body picture, which will make it less easier for people to abuse the visual material. And I hate to be so conscious about it, but it is also partly because I don't want to give my parents reasons to worry. The internet is actually quite new to everybody and it is evolving quickly. And we can never know who has bad intentions and who has not. Same in the offline world: who will kindly greet you and who will call the police? You just never know…
Thanks Evelina for this honest and open blog post. What I'm going to say here is entirely my own opinion and it's only applicable to me and I'm not suggesting that everyone should do it. And I'm not saying that what works for me will work for others too.
First, I must say that I totally agree with Richard. He's right on all points. Many people do not realise that I only became a naturist in 2013 when I joined the Taiwan Naturist Association at a gathering in Taiwan. When I came home, I decided to tell the whole world the fact that I was a naturist. But I live in Singapore and many forms of nudity are deemed a crime punishable by imprisonment. And everyone would react most negatively if they knew you were a naturist.
But I don't like secrets and I find it very hard to hide any aspect of myself particularly when I truly accept the decency and naturalness of nudity. So I decided the whole world had to know. I posted online photos of myself taken at the naturist gathering on many social media sites including tumblr and wordpress and twitter which allow for nude pics. On google+ and Facebook, I deleted the genitals to comply with the rules of those sites.
The reaction at first was cataclysmic when I went to church the following Sunday. I play in the church orchestra. Everyone avoided looking at me in the eyes. I think they were embarrassed. Later, someone asked me if my wife would divorce me. It soon dawned on me that they thought I had gone for an orgy. That's how little people know about naturism. I took time to explain everything. I even showed them the many photos that I took. It didn't take long before people understood what naturism meant and that it had nothing to do with sex. That's not to say naturists don't have sex. But naturism per se has nothing to do with sex.
I think all it took was for me to be true to myself. I'm a naturist and I don't want to hide that fact. It's natural for Asians to be mistaken about what naturism means and it's my duty to explain it to them. They may not agree with me, and everyone I know certainly doesn't agree with me. But at least they understand the philosophy behind naturism.
I realised the fear of a reprisal from negative reaction is usually more imagined than real even for an Asian like me who lives in a country where you can get arrested for bringing in chewing gum. Today, everyone accepts me as a naturist. Even my bishop. I'm sure they think I'm eccentric but it doesn't bother me. Perhaps I am. But they must know it's not lewd to be nude and that's all that really matters.
When some naturists got arrested for going naked in a deserted island in Penang (they were jailed from 1 month to 6 months), my friends alerted me. I was then in Croatia and they were worried if I might be implicated. Of course I was not. I would not do nudist activities in a Muslim country – the penalties are severe. But they were concerned for me.
If I lived in Europe, I would have no fear at all. It's very different in Asia. I've received threats for my blogs. Although I shut them down before I left for NEWT because of the threats, I have reinstated my blog again. I make sure that any posting in the blog are made when I am out of the country and I won't post any nude pics when I'm in my own country because that is illegal. It's really troublesome for me but that's life. But what's pertinent here is despite the extremely negative situation in my part of the world, the 'repercussion' for being known as an open nudist is zilch. It's been 3 years now and I can say there is no repercussion at all. Not in my church, my relatives and friends, my circle of friends in the legal and judicial fraternity and my wife's medical colleagues. I acknowledge it would be vastly different if I were a Muslim. But that requires a whole different set of considerations and it's not relevant here.
Ultimately, this is only my own personal story. Things may be different for different people and each one of us should decide for ourselves. It's really a very personal matter and none of us can speak for anyone else.
NOTE FOR EVERYONE: Little advertised fact…in the US military, (you can Google the numbers) initial basic training involves community showers, meaning literally millions of veterans have been seen naked by up to 90 people at a time (less in the females' barracks). Add to that, the huge tents that soldiers live in while in combat areas, plus millions of doctors and nurses who see patients' exposed anatomy daily, including labor and delivery wards of hospitals, surgery centers, etc… WHY IS (US) SOCIETY SO UPTIGHT ABOUT SEEING A NUDE BODY, OR BEING SEEN NAKED??? OK, sorry for the rant; just had to point out the ridiculousness of it all. 🙂
That's okay Joe. Sheila has to listen to me all the time.
Yesterday,on my FUN site there was a link to "christians" shaming nude Pride walkers, doing the EXact opposite of what Christians are supposed to do.I was outraged.
Evelina: Identity theft is usually for purposes of financial crime, using personal info like credit card & bank account#'s or government benefits identification, etc. Pictures are used either to make the fake identity look respectable, or to make a fake social media profile look real. Either way, nude photos are highly unlikely to be used, as society still considers nudism more or less scandalous.
Any device can be hacked, so your dressed photos on phone/PC/tablet can be stolen along with personal info, whether from your device or from corporate servers (cloud storage, retailer, financial service co/bank) whether or not you posted anything on social media. Of course the same is true for undressed photos on those devices.
As for blackmail/extortion, you can only be blackmailed/ extorted if you 1. did something wrong, or 2. have something to fear. I have friends/family who would not approve of nudism. I do not publicly share my activities as I value their friendship and respect their right to hold different opinions. But I don't believe I am doing wrong and if I was 'outed', I would simply argue that the human body is nothing to be ashamed of, and accept that my friends/family may like or dislike me as they choose.
I would also report any blackmail/extortion attempt to the authorities, to prevent further attempts against me or others.
To summarize: you can't be shamed for doing something admirable; being courageous enough to be yourself in body as well as soul and spirit IS admirable; and anyone who wants to pretend they are you for social media purposes is admitting that you are both beautiful AND courageous…and the world needs to see more of both, even if the world doesn't feel quite ready to embrace nudism! 🙂 Your parents need not worry for you. 🙂
I support my fellows' comments.I am addressing my motivation in allowing my totally nude photos to be available on line.
Firstly, as a child the news was full of politicians in the U.S. and Britain being toppled from office due to blackmail.
Criminals were extorting money from rich people due to secrets in their lives. I decided at,?? ten years old, not to have secrets. I would do what I thought was fine and moral and if people found out who I was, then they would know who I am.
When I became a nudist I also decided that I wouldn't work for any company who banned private nudity.
I publish photos on FaceBook that are censored but I also limit my exposure to friends and family.
I am who I am. This is the way I was born and no one can threaten me with it. That's why I post photos here and share my thoughts on naturism and nature.
I completely understand your parents point of view though. It's natural to be concerned with your child's welfare and future. As they say, "there's nothing to fear but fear itself."
I fully understand your concerns. Identity theft is the reason I don't use my actual name, not just on this web site but on all social media regardless of whether it is naturist related or not. I don't care about photos of me appearing as long as my name is not associated with it.
Identity theft cannot happen from your image and there is not enough in most people's profiles to supply the basis for an identity theft. Really the only thing people can get from your "stolen" image is just that – your image. I cannot tell you how to feel about it but my feelings are this. My body is mine and I should not be ashamed about it any more than I am about my name. If someone sees it or has a picture of it they have taken nothing from me and there is nothing illegal about these pictures as long as you do not post them to inappropriate sites. So… wth! If we want people to feel that nudity is really an innocent thing by itself then we need to practice what we preach, right?
The fear comes from not knowing much about the internet. We fear what we don't know. I believe that a lot is possible with the internet of which I am not aware.
After reading your comment, finding your pictures being used on an inappropriate website + blackmailing is the worst thing that can happen with pictures? Saying that because of your picture there, you are active on that inappropriate website? Yes, still not as bad as identity theft.
My parents will probably see this website as worse than facebook, because nudity makes vulnerable, according to them. They are definitely not the ones preaching for nudity as normal to be shown on the internet as part of social life. Apparently. Fear. It is easier to follow the norms of society, than having to feel that you are constantly being threatened by invisible computer perverts. This is how I understand my parents and I don't feel in the position to argue with them on this internet subject, because I don't know anything more about the internet than they know.
I can only hope for the ideology behind this website, which I support. And I can hope for people like you, James, who can reassure me that the worst thing I fear (on any website) is not going to happen with pictures only.
In fairness Evelina, we get our fair share of idiots here too, like any website. Although the moderators make an effort to clamp down on any miscreants we still get people coming along and pretending to be something they're not.
There are all kinds of variations; people who say they are naturist and have lots of stories, but nothing to back them up; people who post photos claiming they ARE that young lady, and then a quick google search turns up the same photos with many different names on many different sites (sexy rita and the like). The list goes on and on. Some are very clever too, whether they make a lot of noise to cover their tracks, or whether they are silent and sneaky, it's just something we have to deal with as best we can while still enabling us to use a functional (and naked) social media network.
All we can do is to post what we're comfortable with, and try to remove the idiots, as we notice them. There is no perfect solution which still permits us and others to express ourselves equally, but we try.
I, for one, love this site an am very happy that I found it. I have a number of real friends that have helped me through personal issues. Not everyone is out to get us here.
I see a lot of similarities with the LGBT+ community. Now there are gayprides, but naturism still seems to be something you practice in secret, on special campsites, special holidays and even special places on the internet, for sharing experiences on websites especially made of it, while being afraid that your parents get worried about visual abuse and maybe even identity theft.
Just like the rainbow community, the naturist community is trying to make everything look natural and normal, but society still is their major opponent. You never you when your "lifestyle" will be held against you.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your consideration for your parents. I have decided on this site to not post photos of myself as they can very easily be copied and saved by others here. I originally posted some photos when I joined but then decided not to do so. What others do here is personal choice. I am an active member of another naturist site and do have a profile photo which shows my face. The other photos I have posted there are for friends only – people I can trust. And I am very selective with whom I add to my friends list there. Here I also have kept my friends list small. I prefer meaningful conversation prior to accepting any friend request here. Hope this helps!!