Thank you, Danee, for bumping this thread. A wonderful article, and a great subject for discussion! In fact, after reading this article/thread, combined with another thread that I have now lost, but which related to the possibility of naturism being on the decline due to everyone carrying a phone/camera all the time, my thoughts and observations were stirred to the point that I wish to share.
(This may be a more appropriate response to that thread which I cannot find, so mods feel free to move this if you wish.)
The article is exactly on point. My waffels taste the same whether I am clothed or nude. My garden accepts the water I give it, whether I am clothed or nude. The dishes come just as clean while washing them nude as when washing them while clothed. Nothing is any different.
I am not sure that the omnipresence of phones/cameras makes a huge difference. I am not discounting that theory, I just cannot support it, either. For the present, I will remain neutral on that particular possibility.
One thing I do notice, however, with people in my own age group, and even a bit older, so perhaps I should refer to it as my generation rather than my age group. This particular behaviour seems to be prevalent everywhere I go. And that issue is: Branding. Obviously, clothing manufacturers are not in favour of naturism. And they have figured out how to get free advertising; in fact, to get us to pay them to let us advertise for them. Over several years, they have created a mentality where we WANT to wear their brands, in huge letters and designs across our chests and around our waists. Even when trying to look a bit less casual, you see it. Polos have a logo on the chest, jeans have a designer name on the pocket. We have been taught (perhaps the correct term is 'brainwashed') that advertising for the manufacturers is somehow demonstrating our diverse personalities.
Of course, the opposite is true. Wearing someone else's name across your T-shirt shows their personality, not your own. It does not celebrate who we are, but rather how much we spend. On the other hand, when nude, we cannot hide behind someone else's name, nor flaunt our relative wealth. And since those two “needs” are becoming more prevalent, the wearing of clothing has to logically follow.
Add to that the fact that most teenagers are insecure (myself included, just in different ways). We WANT to hide, to some degree. We have grown up seeing how wonderful other people are, reading every day, every hour, of famous people, actors and singers, seeing into the intimate details of their lives on the internet. We have grown up being told that we should emulate other people (actors, politicians, and particularly sports stars). But we never see them at the naturist resort…. We see them wearing branded clothing, and we then want to do the same.
Since it is impossible to be nude and display the brands that we want to show, we dress. I have probably been affected by this less than many, but I even see it among my siblings and cousins, who are growing up in clothing-optional families. They often CHOOSE to wear clothing just to show the brands they like, or to show places and activities they have been to.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with wearing a T-shirt to support the footie team you play on, or to show that you visited some resort. (Although it would be ironic if your T-shirt advertised a naturist resort.) But when we really want to be who we truly are, no clothing displays that. Our bodies do. And learning to accept those bodies is becoming increasingly difficult in a world where we are continually told to hide behind someone else's brand name, where the messages we receive are that advertising is acceptable but natural skin is not.
Granted, this is only one factor among a myriad of signals that our minds are being fed. But I think that for a specific generation, it is definitely a factor. Add to it the general tendency of parents to not talk about the human body with their children, to leave education about our bodies and minds to school rather than family, the sexualisation of our bodies and of nudity via the internet, and the general fear of speaking of (or thinking of) genitalia as a natural and integral part of the human body. . . . . . . and you certainly have the basis for a reduction in the naturist population. Or perhaps I should say, for an increase in the number of people whom are uncomfortable with their own bodies.