Nudists Seek Younger Following

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves while leaving a community center in Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Kicking off her first trip abroad in nearly a quarter-century, Suu Kyi offered encouragement Wednesday to impoverished Myanmar migrants whose flight to neighboring Thailand is emblematic of the devastation wrought on her homeland by decades of misrule.(AP photo/Sakchai Lalit) / Sakchai Lalit

Here's the naked truth about nude recreation: The people who practice it aren't getting any younger.

To draw 20- and 30-somethings, nudist groups and camps are trying everything from deep discounts on membership fees to a young ambassador program that encourages college and graduate students to talk to their peers about having fun in the buff.

"We don't want the place to turn into a gated assisted living facility," said Gordon Adams, membership director at Solair Recreation League, a nudist camp in northeastern Connecticut that recently invited students from dozens of New England schools to a college day in hopes of piquing their interest.

The median age is 55 at Solair, where a yearly membership is $500 for people older than 40, $300 for people younger than 40 and $150 for college students.

The Kissimee, Fla.-based American Association for Nude Recreation, which represents about 270 clubs and resorts in North America, estimates that more than 90 percent of its 50,000 members are older than 35.

"If a young person is enlightened enough to go to a beach or resort, they'll find that they're outnumbered by people who are not like them," said Sam Miller, 32, a medical student in Riverside, Calif., who is helping to plan a youth ambassadors workshop being held next month in Orlando, Fla. "Oftentimes they won't go back for that reason."

No one is quite sure why nudity, at least the organized version promoted by the AANR and similar groups, is such a tough sell for younger people.

"I think people think that we're all hippies," said Laura Groezinger, 22, of Billerica, Mass., who grew up visiting Solair with her family. "Other people, I don't know the right way to say this, but they think it's more sexual, kind of. They don't understand just the being free with your body and being comfortable."

Money is also an issue. As nudist resorts become increasingly upscale, catering to baby boomers and retirees with plenty of disposable income, they're less affordable for college students and young families.

"There's a financial barrier, and I think it's important for resorts, if they want young people around, to recognize that and cater to them with discounts or free days," Miller said.

Only a handful of students attended Solair's recent college event, held on an overcast 60-degree day that prompted many to bundle up in sweaters rather than shed their clothes. But camp members such as Robyn Maguire, 27, of Manchester, Conn., said they plan to try again.

"I hope to get the word out to younger people that hey, it is OK, and here's a safe place to be, a very accepting place," Maguire said. "Unlike any other place in life, people actually look at you when they talk to you."

[rashid821]

Young people won't bother seeing old ones in wrinkled skins and foreskins. It's scary and disgusting!

[rashid821]

Young people won't bother seeing old ones in wrinkled skins and foreskins. It's scary!

[toldyouso21]

Men do this all the time--equating some with a " long legged filly" or tigress or scary ones with black widow spiders--it is as if, to 'see' a female, she must first be made part of the animal kingdom--because as a woman, she reminds men too much of humanity to reconcile what they want to do to her with how they see her. Conversely, when men describe themselves, they often refer to technology or mechanical instruments: " a man with a mind like a steel trap" 'his rapier wit' (rapier is a fencing blade), 'the automation of his movement' precision, accuracy, etc. Writing is painting with words and many artists of that ilk seem to feel more comfortable when one gender is portrayed as "nature" and the other as man--dominating that nature or subduing it. it is as if men pit themselves against women and can only see the struggle in terms of one being very beautiful but needing to be tamed...and the other being strong and worldly and technical and challenged to find the means to tame it.

Humans always separate out those they feel a need to subdue or change--because psychologically, they are most comfortable in thinking they are different from that which they think needs working on--be it women, other races or people of other countries.

[toldyouso21]

The woman in the text converts the text into a woman, and the circulation of this text/woman becomes the central ritual that establishes the bond between the author and his male readers. How do women feel about that?
Posted by bbbbbfan at 03:31 AM : May 15, 2007


Your analysis is interesting and I presumed learned. What I took from that passage is that men often equate and this woman is depicted as a "creature" and like any other creature then, fires up the blood of men. The creature in this case is a Crane, which is a long legged and graceful bird. the text connotes serenity and beauty but also idealizes the woman and makes her less than a woman. In so doing, the man can deflect lust (and more base emotions) into what he thinks is something higher. Her beauty is akin to nature then and he thus is allowed to see her as part of the sea, part of nature, part of flora...even her clothing is naturalized (panties kitted, dovetailed--like plumage floating on the water) it is as if men can only see women as things to plunder or they must be transformed to something more natural to be admired with no danger of ravaging---of course this same mind set would allow a woman to ravaged or raped with ease as she is no longer a human. Humans always transform others into elements they find palatable. end of part 1

[toldyouso21]

Young people don't need special retreats to display their nudity. We use webcams to showcase our bodies to the whole wide via the Internet.
Posted by keyonjeff at 01:32 PM : May 14, 2007


Most people who go to nudist camps don't go for *** or even to look, they go for the idea of being natural and free and accepting of their bodies. People who display their bodies for the internet or to get ***, see their bodies as marketing tools and how they show it as the vehicle for spreading the news--this is the antithesis of a nudist camp. In a nudist camp, the point is not to display the body or to exploit it, just to accept it and then go about doing everyday, normal things. I think the average person would be very disappointed at how much *** is NOT going on at the camps. At least not at the ones in Europe.

[toldyouso21]

Something the nudists probably don't think of since it is as much a philosophical mindset as a physical act (walking around nude) many Young people are very, very narcissistic and self conscious. Most would be "grossed" out to see old ladies or men walking around with wrinkled and sagging bellies and tittts or shriveled up genitalia--these 50 somethings don't know this--but most young people do not believe they will ever look that way--and those who do realize that, may not want to be reminded of it. they would probably get a lot of young people if they did something totally alien to that mindset--allowed the youth to go naked, while they covered up and stayed out of the way.

[candojj1]

Consider the famous scene of Stephen's epiphany in [James Joyce's] The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a crane's and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fringes of her drawers were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailed behind her. Her bosom was a bird's, soft and slight, slight and soft, as the breast of some darkplumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face. %u2022 A man reading this passage is invited to identify with Stephen, to feel "the riot in his blood," and thus, to ratify the alleged universality of the experience. Whether or not the sight of the girl on the beach has ever provoked similar emotions in him, the male reader is invited to feel his difference (concretely, from the girl) and to equate that with the universal. Relevant here is Levi-Strauss's theory that woman functions as currency exchanged between men. The woman in the text converts the text into a woman, and the circulation of this text/woman becomes the central ritual that establishes the bond between the author and his male readers. How do women feel about that?

[thisandthat1]

The basic premise of this in itself seems so self-defeating. What 20 or 30 year old is going to say "Yeah, I'd love to hang out with old, naked people"?

Sheeesh!

[ltaylor974]

Once again, CBS has picked one of the top news stories of the day to put on there evening news website. You ARE entertainment tonight. Katie Couric's smile, your censorship on freedom of speech and small time stories that effect .00002 of the population.
With everything going on in the world, You have resorted to Sensationalism to get attention, positive or negative. Fire Imus, that got two minute of good press, Add Katie Couric . 5 seconds of chatter. Stand FOR SOMETHING.

[grammawhamma]

"Unlike any other place in life, people actually look at you when they talk to you." LOL Yes I bet they do and the old sagging wrinkled skin isn't as nice to look at as a twenty year olds. Maybe twenty year olds don't want to see what they will look like naked 40 years from now.