Looking vs. Feeling Naked

To be a nudist, I have an advantage, in that I'm at least moderately attractive (depending on who you ask). I like the way I look. I enjoy admiring my reflection in the mirror, or my likeness in a photograph. Sometimes, even just glancing down at my body makes me happy. But I understand that even I am not always the most pleasant thing to look at. It must be hard for people who don't actually like the way they look. People who, when they get a glimpse of their body, it reinforces their own negative self-image. There are a lot of people out there - most of them, I would wager - whose bodies I don't need, or have any special desire, to see more of.

But one of the things nudists like to say - that nudism is about being naked, not about seeing people naked - there's some truth to that. Yes, the human body can be a beautiful thing, and it's nice to be able to admire that, in a way that textile culture doesn't so readily permit us to do. But that's the exception to the rule. I was sitting out on the porch naked, hunched over, thinking that I'm gonna have to cover up when guests arrive. And I was thinking that, well, okay, they don't want to see me naked, and I can actually understand and empathize with the custom of covering our bodies up, given that (especially in this age of rampant obesity) in many cases that's a not entirely pleasant view that we could do without.

But then I thought about how, even if I were wearing, say, a loose dress over my body, I'd still have to wear underwear to keep me contained (otherwise I could not be considered "decent" despite being technically covered) - and that restrictive feeling on my anatomy is exactly what I hate most about clothing, and why I prefer to be unencumbered by textiles. And if I were being active, the looser, more flowy clothing would have a tendency to get in the way. There's really no good solution. Even if I wanted to cover up to preserve other people's sensibilities, I'm gonna have to sacrifice comfort, and the euphoric feeling of freedom that nudity gives you - that I like to call "gymnophoria".

So it's a tradeoff. With attractive people, there's little to be lost from letting them go naked (although beauty is a highly subjective quality). But for the rest of us (which is most of us), we have to choose: dignity, or freedom. I actually respect nudists for keeping things in perspective and allowing themselves to be comfortable regardless of the aesthetics. But it's a hard sell to get the rest of our textile culture on board with that philosophy. Oh, if only someone could invent some kind of workaround, where people could feel naked, while appearing dressed. Ideally, with an option for those of us free spirits to enable those who consent to bypass the "appearing dressed" part. Hasn't our technology caught up to this possibility yet? Some kind of "augmented reality" version of the Emperor's new clothes? Let's get on this, already.