By Gary M., SCNA President,
January, 2010
Reprinted with permission.

Occasionally we get calls from people who confuse social nudity with sexual recreation. This confusion is to be expected since American advertising bombards us every day with images of scantily-dressed women promising to improve our sexual prowess if only we will buy their product. We have been conditioned to think that if you take off your clothes, there is going to be sex. Movies rarely show skin without it being foreplay.

Wrong. At least , not in the nudist community.

While we enjoy sex as much as anyone, social nudity is not a means to that end. Anyone who has ever visited a nudist park (please don’t call them camps or colonies, as those terms are relics from 50 years ago) knows how unsexual they are.

Frankly, we are really quite boring. If you go to any clothed public park, you will observe people sitting on blankets eating picnic lunches, reading quietly, or listening to music through a headset. Friends sit together and catch up on gossip or perhaps play a favorite board game. The social center is always around the club swimming pool, while off in a corner, people are enjoying a game of tennis or volleyball.

Nudists do exactly the same thing everyone else does at a park, only without clothes. (In fact Volleyball is our “national sport.”) Why without the clothes? Because it feels better to relax in the sun and open air without clothes, plain and simple. Don’t knock it until you try it; the feel of the sun and breeze against your bare skin is quite addicting! Plus the Vitamin D is good for you.

While most nudist parks are open for visitors and first-timers curious to give social nudity a try, opponents to our way of life prefer to make political hay out of sexual innuendo rather than finding out the truth. Maybe this misconception is partially our fault. As of 2009, there are 270 clubs affiliated with the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR.) Most of these are up-scale recreational parks with gated fences to keep the looky-loos out. When one hears there are “naked people” behind that big wall, many people assume something must be going on in there.

At the Gate Occasionally, people who are convinced our clubs are sexual playgrounds do attempt to talk their way onto the grounds. Be aware every club has a registration office where newbies must enter, fill out a form, show identification, and have a verbal interview before admittance is allowed.

Most clubs also check the person’s ID and photo against several national computer databases for registered sex offenders, and some also review felony databases for those convicted of sexual or personal assault or other crimes the club feels important.

Only after passing these tests does the newbie gain entry, usually with a club officer who conducts a tour (often by golf cart) around the facility, during which even more questions get asked. Most clubs and resorts require the newbie to do this tour nude, and so usually those who come to come to look and not participate refuse at this point, and so get turned away. This system is not foolproof but it works almost 100% of the time.

Swingers also have been known to come into our parks to solicit other couples for a little after-hours fun. Nudist parks as a general rule, do not dictate what people do behind their own closed doors, but the parks do object to having their members annoyed by swingers who won’t take the first “no thanks” as a final answer. Often the “swinger” question gets raised during the initial interview and people are counseled that “no means no” and any further approach to members is considered annoying and can get the couple kicked out of the park. Many clubs have a “no swinger” policy, period. At all clubs, open sexuality is forbidden. If you are caught, you are banished from the club and often other clubs in the area are alerted. Examples of open sex are exactly what our opponents need to have an excuse to shut us down as they shout, “I told you so!”

What Happens "Inside the Gates"

Once inside, anyone who stares too long, sits uncomfortably close to another person, spends too much time near the children’s area is easily spotted. As that behavior is not normal to say the least, all members are empowered to tell the person to stop or to call security.

Most voyeurs do not like to be discovered, and if they suspect they are being watched, they will almost always leave the grounds immediately. Depending on the offending behavior, often their names and descriptions get emailed from the front office to all the other nudist parks nearby should they attempt to visit there.

All clubs have security, and if someone appears to be a predator, such as spending a lot of extra time putting suntan lotion on a stranger’s back, or is seen rubbing against someone’s leg for a long time in the pool, is perhaps constantly itching his genitals, or perhaps is observed sneaking out a cell phone camera, then park security gently but firmly will ask that person to leave the grounds. (Some parks ban the use of cell phone or require they be used only in designated places far away from the social areas.) In reality these scenarios do not happen often, perhaps once a year at a large park and not at all at a smaller one, but the bottom line is our system works and those individuals, couples, and families who are there to enjoy the sun and swimming pool can be confident they are safer at a nudist park than they are at a shopping mall, amusement park, or even a church.

That does not mean holding hands or hugging is forbidden. Believe it or not, to overcompensate for the sexual innuendo in the minds of the suspicious general public, until the late-90’s, hugging was forbidden at many nudist places as was alcohol. In some parks today, couples still are asked to be dressed in order to dance together. Most of us find these antiquated rules quite ironic considering the outside public still assumes we were doing much more than just holding hands behind our walls.

Beaches: A System that Works

Nude beaches have a different kind of challenge, since they generally have no admittance gate, and are therefore more vulnerable to voyeurs.

Because the textiled world has claimed most of the best beaches with nearby parking, lifeguard towers, and restroom facilities, those beaches claimed by nudists are mostly secluded stretches of sand that are both hard to get to and hidden by high cliffs populated by the occasional voyeur seeking a free look. Haulover Beach in Florida is a nude stretch of 1000 yards smack in the middle of the hotel district. Due to it easy access, it attracts visitors from around the world and brings in an estimated $800 million in revenue to the local economy from its share of parking fees and hotel taxes. What makes Haulover work is its team of Ambassadors, a group of volunteers who spend their time greeting people as they enter the designated nudist area, hand them literature about the behavior guidelines, and empowering the visitor to report anyone whose behavior seems out of place. Because voyeurs know they are being watched, they don’t try anything. The system there has worked since the beach was officially sanctioned in 1992, and it now gets endorsements and testimonials from law enforcement, the mayor, and even the state legislature.

At Black’s Beach, in La Jolla near San Diego, the Blacks Beach Bares are similarly organized as a “neighborhood watch” to empower visitors to enjoy the beach and to shame away any persons there with different agendas. The same system works at Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Rooster Rock Beach on the Snake River in Oregon, Mazo Beach in Wisconsin, and literally a hundred other beaches across the country.

The word is out: bad behavior will get you kicked out. If we cannot shame you into stopping, intimidate you into leaving, we can always call a local sheriff deputy (who is usually on our side these days) to escort you away.

Lewd behavior guarantees a call will be made, as it has no place in our world. If you do not stop, we will have you arrested. At some beaches, nudists take photos of people sitting high on the overlooking cliffs watching the show. It is amazing how fast these people leave once they are discovered. These people want their privacy, and privacy is what we deprive them.

In Conclusion

All this focus above on misbehavior may make the reader think we have a real problem at our parks and beaches, but we really don’t. Voyeurs today have so many other outlets for their behavior through the Internet, television, and DVDs, that the number of actual visitors who show up at our parks and beaches with bad intent is almost zero. We go to a lot of trouble putting security processes into place but in actuality they are rarely needed.

So if you are reading this with the hope of coming to a nudist venue to see naked people and get your jollies, my advice is go buy a magazine and get a room.