Monday, August 31, 2009

It's Fun to Vacation at Nudist Resorts

"It's fun to vacation at clothing optional and nudist resorts." That has long been the motto of Tom Mulhall, the owner of the Terra Cotta Inn, along with his wife Mary Clare. Today Tom has a new post reiterating that philosophy.
The only conclusion I can come to is nudism just is not being portrayed as fun. And if it doesn't seem like fun, people won't be interested.
Tom correctly points out that the Naturist Society Facebook page has only about 500 members, about the same as the AANR Facebook page, yet a group called "Sleeping Naked" has 125,000 members. What's wrong with this picture? The lack of any mention of the word "fun." by the national organizations.

The Naturist Society offers a solemn "mission statement" promoting naturism as "a culture of body acceptance through clothing-optional recreation using the tools of education and community outreach." Honestly, would anyone ever go to Disneyland if they marketed their parks like this? Imagine if Uncle Walt had promoted his family amusement park as "a culture of leisure acceptance through mechanical recreation using the tools of engineering and marketing."

This past weekend at Cedar Trails in Ohio, a little toddler girl squealed with delight as she approached the pool. She nearly fell over in her enthusiasm to get into the water. Her unmitigated glee was an external expression of what most nudists and naturists feel when they shed their clothes - pure delight. There is absolutely nothing wrong in admitting that it simply feels wonderful.

This past weekend my wife and I swam, sunbathed, hiked, played about 50 games of billiards, socialized, and just plain had fun, all completely in the nude.

There are a myriad of problems facing nudists and naturists, especially on the marketing front, but Tom is absolutely correct to point out that bringing the fun back into nude recreation is job number one. AANR managed to do that this year with the skinny-dip record attempt.

So lighten up a little out there and have some good, clean, naked fun.

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