NUDE IS NOT RUDE

Getting Naked - Weird or Normal?

"Nudist", "Naturist", "Gymnophile", "Naked person"... these are all terms that are used by people who regularly get their kit off in places that the rest of society might find unusual or unexpected. To some, these terms are interchangeable, although for many each of these labels carries a specific meaning or intention (more about that later). Here at NINR we do not care what you call yourself so long as you are respectfully naked in random places, or are curious about what makes people wannt to strip off around strangers and want to find out more before - perhaps - trying it out yourself.

When you tell people that you often get naked on beaches, in parks, on walks, at organised swims, out with friends, or even just in your own house outside of the bedroom & bathroom, the reaction is often surprise or laughter. But with more and more people realising that nudity is absolutely sensible and normal in many situations and an increasing number of people spending a good part of their day-to-day lives in the nude, just how unusual an activity is random nudity?

According to a survey carried out by British Naturism, the UK currently has well over a million people who describe themselves as "naturists" (a number which some other surveys put even higher - well over two million in some cases), and a lot more who would never even consider such a label but are happy to get naked anywhere and everywhere. Some fairly informal figures suggest that around 1 in 4 people in the UK (taking just the adult population this would be around 12 million people) have gone swimming in the nude at some point, and a similar number have sunbathed naked when on holiday. Around a fifth of the adult population (around 10 million) have been naked in our own gardens, and - perhaps logically - a similar number have seen a neighbour naked. Perhaps the most surprising is that over 60% of the UK population (over 37 million people) said that they thought nudity in your own (or a friend's) garden should be legal*.

So whatever your definition, and despite the labels that people use to identify themselves, a not insignificant percentage of the population have at some time been naked in places other than their own houses. To put these figures into some kind of perspective, around 900,000 people attend Church of England services most weeks, and around two million people go to Alton Towers in a normal year. Getting naked is hardly a "fringe activity".

But fringe or mainstream, why do we do it? What is it that makes getting out of your clothes for a while so appealing? Why do some people look for every possible opportunity to get naked when society spends so much effort in telling us we need to wear clothes all the time?

These are the questions we will look at on this website, and whilst we doubt that Nude is not Rude will be the catalyst to make society more generally naked, we hope to be a part of the process in getting nudity accepted as a valid and sensible choice in many situations.