The Effects of Social Nudity on Childen

It hasn't been that long since the butchers and cooks were forced to speak about "white meat" and "dark meat" instead of chicken breasts and thighs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the words thigh and breast were considered too sexual to be said by or to women and children.

Despite the cultural bias against any nudity and even more regarding family nudity there has been extensive research. It points clearly to family nudity being good for families and especially beneficial to small children. Open nudity helps children understand the differences in bodies as they age into teen years, middle age and the elderly body. It removes much of the preoccupation with the physical visualization. It also helps the child appreciate the difference of normal bodies and those foist upon us by the advertising industry.

Social nudity leads children and adults to separate sexuality and nudity. The next time you look at an erotic image, note that it will probably be partly clothed, not fully nude. Pornographic images as much as Penthouse and Playboy, rely on garter belts, sheer panties, partly undone bras, and other props. Real nude people going about their daily process are not erotic unless sexualized for the sake of advertising. Cooking, cleaning house, washing the clothes, collapsed on the sofa in front of a TV are not activities that reek of eroticism.

Most of the errant opinion against nudity among children came from now discredited ideas of Sigmund Freud. Benjamin Spock picked this up from Freud and made unsubstantiated claims about the dangers of children seeing their parents nude. Another popularizer, Joyce Brothers, who did no research, nor studied any, also also presumed and spread the false idea that home nudity led to incest. Popularizing writers such as Ann Landers and Abigail van Buren, relying on Spock, Brothers and other Freudian-based authorities have further spread this error. There is no factual basis for these ideas and they have been countered by the research of many psychologists and sociologists including Albert Ellis, Louis Janda and Margaret Mead.

To quote from the Canadian Federation of Naturist's paper on Children, Social Nudity and Scholarly Study,

The fear that seeing naked people in some way harms children is not supported, however, by academic research. The small handful of studies on this topic in psychology and sociology have shown, instead, that children reared in an atmosphere containing family social nudity may benefit from the practice.

Longitudinal studies of this subject by Smith and Sparks completed in 1986 and an 18 year study by Dr. Paul Okami (UCLA professor of psychology, 1998) have demonstrated that rather than being a negative influence on children, family nudity including exposure to parental nudity has a positive effect.

Other studies show a benefit in mental health and emotional stability as well as a more realistic outlook toward sex with nudist children than non-nudists. (Lawrence Casler, Marilyn Story)

Most recently, the AANR has been running summer camps for nudist children. The results have been almost uniformly positive.

Of course children are not little adults. They need to be protected. There are places where nudity is appropriate and places, especially in general public locations, where nudity will offend others. Also, in the real world there are places and people who make life dangerous. We do not let small children play in the street nor climb cliffs unsupervised. We try to teach them how to protect themselves. In the same way, children need to learn those locations and places which are dangerous. But the naturist/nudist family is not one of them.

It is clear that being dressed has not protected children. Child abuse takes place primarily with clothed families; the naturist family is more likely to have desexualized nudity.

Again quoting the Canadian Federation of Naturists,

The best thing we can do is teach our children the confidence to speak up when people do things which make them uncomfortable. If they are not ashamed of their bodies, they are much more likely to tell their parents when someone does things to them that they don't like. Whether nude or clothed, children should know that being touched in certain ways is wrong.

Although good parenting is by far the most important factor in raising children, naturism helps to promote their confidence and understanding about their bodies.

Future posts will include . . .

• Nudity and religion--especially Christian religion
• Nude Therapy
• Social Nudity and Individual Nudity
• Observations and Arguments in Favor of Nudism
• Women and Nudism