The Ballad of Broken Eggshells

Being a nudist in a textile-obsessed culture (or "clothes-minded" society, if you will :-p) is not the easiest thing in the world. I'm committed to it in spite of its challenges, because the mental and physical benefits it brings to my life are priceless and irreplaceable.

But one of the sacrifices you have to make is that other people will start to doubt - and eventually no longer trust - your fashion sense.* Not just because typically eschewing clothes leaves you in the dark about current trends. (You can, as I do, be a nudist and still have an interest in fashion). I mean when it comes down to the question of public decency.

But the fact that I would walk down main street completely naked if it were socially acceptable, doesn't mean that I don't understand or value the importance of context when it comes to dress codes. I'm a little bit more willing to push the boundaries - yeah. I would argue that doing so is not only healthy, but necessary in a free society.

But I'm not ignorant of social propriety, and I'm not clinically insane, either. What I am is willing to take responsibility for my own fashion choices, if and when I should ever make a mistake and breach the rules of social etiquette. My decisions with regard to how I adorn my body are a major part of my lifestyle - I'm prepared for the potential consequences they may provoke.

And though I do value your opinion - I know I'm not a perfect, infallible creature, and sometimes I need the guidance of an external perspective - I don't need you to protect me from any possibility of fallout, when doing so amounts to squandering my creative spirit. If you know me, you should know that I'm not normally prone to reckless decision making. But if I end up breaking a few eggs over the course of my lifetime in pursuit of the perfect omelette (and my track record so far speaks for itself), that's a price I'm conscious of, and willing to pay.

*Being gender non-conforming compounds this problem, as there are so many cases where a man could be heavily censured for literally wearing the exact same thing a woman would wear without fanfare (like a skirt and heels in the office, or a series of tiny triangles connected by strings at the pool in front of the kids). There's so much baked into this, from the different ways in which we view men's and women's bodies, to how much women's clothing is deliberately fashioned to exude sexuality - and the extent to which we accept this openly without flinching, even as we cower in fear before any reminder that a man's body can be sexual, too. (Which is in stark contrast to, but does not contradict, the fact that our society traditionally commends men for expressing their sexual agency even as it condemns women for doing the same thing).

We need to address this imbalance, because although we can invent reasons to treat men's and women's bodies differently, at the end of the day, it's simply not fair to have different standards for people based on whether they have a penis or a vagina - something nobody chooses at birth. And in the meantime, it puts the transgender community in a uniquely dangerous position, as they (in many cases reluctantly) navigate the front lines in a war against outdated and regressive stereotypes, in search of peace, understanding, and self-love.