What about around strangers or non-intimates?
I’ll admit, I’m generally not comfortable around strangers being naked. Not even at kink events. For me, my body and sexuality is an intimate thing to share with those I choose.
And yet, I’ve been to naturalist (also called nudist) camps and beaches. And in those situations, it’s the norm, and just like I would wear black to a funeral, or workout gear to the gym, I strip down out of respect for the cultural norms in those spaces.
It’s not my thing.
I’ll never be a naturalist, really. I love to be naked. I’m comfortable naked. I have a pretty healthy self-image.
I also LOVE LOVE LOVE clothing. I spent 10 years of my life teaching about fashion and fabrics and personal style and design, after all.
But that’s neither here nor there.
All of this is actually an introduction to a study done one the influence of being naked around strangers on personal body image.
( I feel like a food writer! “But before I give you the recipes, let me tell you how I fell in love with names on a cool fall day…” LOL!
Half of the participants socialized sans culottes (without pants—or any other clothing), and the other half socialized in the usual way, with clothing on. The safe was made secure and welcoming.
It was discovered after the event that those who socialized skin-only had increased body image positivity, while the others did not.
It’s suggested that being naked reduced anxiety about how other people view our bodies, and put the focus on other things. Which seems counter intuitive, and yet…I get it, having been in those situations.
When nudity is normalized, a lot of concern over physical looks are lessened—at least in my experience.
Source: http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28407/
