Another One Bites the Dust

There must be something going around, because there's some sort of plague attacking nudist bloggers and taking them down. Gymnophiliac, Being and Nakedness, thenudelife.com, Earth Friend Gen, Nothing to Dread, Pasco Naturally, Nudist Day and others have either disappeared altogether or have simply stopped updating. Now comes the sad news that The Academic Naturist is packing it in.

Say it ain't so! TAN is the best and brightest young voice in the nudist blogosphere. He just completed a highly detailed 7 part series on building the perfect naturist venue, and now he says he's walking away?

Yes, life does get in the way sometimes. I nearly walked away from this blog a year ago, but I came back. Over the last month I've been very busy, but I hung in there and kept the faith alive.

I hope this retreat wasn't triggered by his skeevy experience at the VVRC Winter Party, which he wrote about here. Apparently some swingers exhibited some "questionable" behavior which certainly left a bad impression, not only on Mr. Academic, but his date as well. If the girlfriend is turned off, it's all downhill from there.

Anyway, it's a sad day, and I hope that the promised part two of Doug's "suicide note" holds some hope for the future. This is a guy that I thought would go all the way, who would have been active on the Naturist Action Committee, fighting on the front lines for body freedom.

This is a time when nudism and naturism should be taking great strides forward. With the economy in shambles and governments looking for innovative ways to raise revenue, AANR and TNS should be fighting hard for more public lands to be set aside for nude recreation. Westmore Vermont just voted down a measure to spend $25,000 to ban nude bathing at Lake Willoughby, so it's logical to assume that there are many towns out there who would vote for nude bathing if it's proven that $25,000 could be raised by admission and parking fees.

But if people are walking away, if the Naturist Action Committee can only muster up one blog post so far this year, and if AANR just keeps publishing a bulletin which is merely an advertising vehicle for affiliated clubs, then the status quo will quickly turn to rapid decline. If you think the economy sank like a rock, just watch how quickly nudism is swallowed up by the adult industry. There are far more swingers in America than there are nudists, and I fear that soon the majority of nudists will also be swingers.