Exuberant nudity
By Ari | Dec 7, 08 08:56 AM
I've been catching up on my reading, and have encountered two incidences of happy nudity that I just had to share.
In Carbusters #36, at the end of a report on the World Carfree Day events in Curitiba, Brazil: "Finally we began our bike march: 300 cyclists swept the streets of the city. The feeling of freedom and happiness was so intense that a few riders couldn't resist, and took off their clothes."
And, in Communities Magazine #138, in Anissa Ljanta's story of the shock of moving from an intentional community to a mainstream neighborhood: "I missed being naked, and the ease with which people were naked at Twin Oaks. People made an effort to appreciate beauty of all kinds, not just the skinny hairless women validated by mainstream media. I got to live in a culture that embraced me for who I was, where body image and dress were not fraught with tension."
Ljanta's story is sadder - she goes on to express her resentment at being asked to wear clothes while swimming; she describes her run-ins with sexism and the very real possibility of sexual violence which requires women in mainstream neighborhoods to be careful when walking alone at night, something she didn't fear at Twin Oaks. However, both of these stories offer glimpses of a kind of happy nudity that sounds like something that should happen more often.
Seriously, how often do you feel happy and free enough that you can revel in the body nature gave you? If we're all born with a naked body to enjoy, and we like looking at naked bodies, and all other species are running around naked all the time, what exactly is up with us that we have so many hangups about nudity? Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where nudity was not only safe and socially acceptable, but viewed as a healthy expression of joy?
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