Yesterday’s post here on the business side of social nudism/naturism touched a nerve within our community — and I think we are a community when it comes to the common challenges we face, along with our shared perspectives on the textile world and other things. The post has drawn almost 1,000 views and several excellent reader comments in less than 24 hours.
Naturism posts are always popular here and usually draw very thoughtful responses, often more insightful than the posts themselves. I have learned a lot about this subject from my readers — and I am sure casual readers of this blog have learned something, too. Which is why I maintain a list of the Nudism/Naturism posts in this blog (I updated it again yesterday): The posts and their reader responses are good resource material for anyone looking to do some research on the subject.
I am cautiously optimistic about the future of social nudism — even in Donald Trump’s America — not only because of its growing popularity in social media, but because it may very well catch on with mainstream media as news outlets discover its readership potential. If 1,000 people read yesterday’s post here, think of how many would read a similar item on a mainstream print media site. A weekly column on, say, The New York Times site would draw thousands upon thousands of readers — perhaps hundreds of thousands — and go a long way to raising awareness. Social nudism/naturism could help struggling newspapers survive in their bids to transition to the Internet, while they in turn would be lobbying for more public spaces for us and helping people overcome body hangups etc.
In other words, social nudism does have the potential to be big business, with numerous spinoff effects. It could help save a lot of jobs and create a lot of new ones. It can help so many people in myriad ways. It can save lives.
It’s only a question of time before some mainstream executive editor has a light-bulb moment and gives a weekly social nudism/naturism column a try — perhaps after reading this blog post, eh?
— Jillian
Photo credit: Aitor Méndez from Spain (Wikimedia Commons)
Jillian Page 
I would think that the expansion of social nudity would be far healthier and profitable then the expansion of drug laws.
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A thousand people read the article here (assuming they read the whole thing); how many Washington Post readers would stay long enough to learn anything about social nudism after they realized that there was no smut in the article? Nothing sexy, nothing to fantasize?
Excuse my cynicism, but over the years we’ve been doing our website I’ve seen no change in the US mainstream media’s utter lack of interest in social nudism unless they can make fun of us or find a sex angle. I see nothing in the foreseeable future to indicate a change in that.
Social media doesn’t count for much since most visitors are looking for sexually related matter and have little interest in our philosophy. Some may become interested, but a minority. We had thousands of followers on our FB Page (before we shut it down) and few interacted, let alone clicked on articles to learn something. Closing that Page affected NOTHING in our website stats. As soon as folks realized that we weren’t a naked woman pic site, they disappeared.
Our website, followed or discovered by genuinely interested people, is doing just fine! But it’s not the Washington Post.
I hope you’re right and things improve, but there is no history to suggest that will happen. If we have orgies at nudist camps, they WILL get attention, but ‘unbelievable’ articles portraying social nudism as a family practice will never sell to America’s sex-obsessed Puritans. Best we can hope for is a poorly written article in the ‘Weird and Strange’ section.
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You might be right about this. But I wonder how many people have been drawn to naturism articles hoping for a sexual angle, and then became interested in the subject, and overcame hangups — and now can see a naked body without being sexually aroused or even thinking about sex. The job of good writers and editors is to raise awareness, and if using the word “nudism” in a headline draws people in who know little or nothing about the subject and the article teaches them something, it is mission accomplished.
I have seen responsible reporting and feature writing about social nudism in mainstream newspapers as well as on Canada’s very on CBC Radio. The former president of the Ottawa Naturists group has been featured both on air and in the print media, sharing his views.
I’m hoping newspapers that are trying to reinvent themselves online will see social nudism/naturism as a serious subject they can write about — with a lite touch at times — that will also bring in readers. And if the articles bring in readers hoping for smut who then learn something about the social nudism, fine.
Of course, in a small blog like this one, we the converted tend to assemble and chat and enjoy each other’s thoughts. But I’d like to think some newbies are peeking in here, too. In fact, I know of two people who were introduced to naturism through this blog and came out to our events in Ottawa.
So, don’t give up hope. If only one or two mainstream media outlets gave a weekly column a try, it could make a huge difference for the naturism community.
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Reblogged this on All Nudist.
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Any positive exposure (pardon the pun) will aid in our efforts to normalize nudity, but I make every effort to avoid the lamestream media, as I call it. I worked in the broadcast industry, and I saw first-hand how people in the media, whether print or broadcast, will use deliberate fabrications to manufacture a controversy where there is none organically. Sometimes a reporter will do it to further his/her own personal agenda, but it’s allowed by his superiors because it generates numbers, and therefore revenue. So even if one of the lamestream outlets were to publish something favorable regarding nudism / naturism, I wouldn’t trust it because it will turn on you like a pit bull turns on its owners, and it won’t hesitate to attack if there’s profit in it. I think it’s up to us to do our own P.R.
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Thank You for all the interesting information contained in these Blogs, Cheers Shayne
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