If you don't mind a little heavy slogging, you might find this interesting. (Words in italics are defined at the end. Bolding within the article is mine.)
The excerpt below is taken from an article which examines why naturists (among others) are attracted to beaches. This isn't to say that there are not other naturist venues such as parks, but I think most of us would agree that the beach is the quintessential naturist gathering place.
The author argues that it is, in part, the liminal nature of the beach that draws naturists; the naturist beach is a timeless space of sun-worship on the periphery of our geography and our social mores.
Of course we go to the beach to enjoy naturism because we like the sun, the sand, and the sound of waves, but I think there is also some truth to the argument that we go to the beach because it is a metaphor. The beach is the edge of the medieval map with the inscription, hic sunt dracones (Here be dragons).
excerpted from “The beach as a liminal space,” a scholarly essay by
Robert Preston-Whyte, (Professor Emeritus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
in A Companion to Tourism, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2004
Lew, A.A. and Hall, C.M., editors
pp 355-356
Nudist spaces
The signs and symbols assigned to the wearing of clothes are associated with indicators of power, status, and gender in most Western societies. In these societies, public nudity commonly carries with it a level of social opprobrium, largely shaped by religious dogma, which tends to be articulated through expressions of disgust, disapproval, and suspicion. If the subject of nudist beaches is raised in social gatherings there are likely to be three responses. The first is a stern rebuke for even considering such aberrant sinful behavior. The second is a shifty-eyed denial of any interest in the practice of nudism. The third is enthusiastic acknowledgment of support for nudist beaches.
The third group of respondents appears to be growing in number. An exploration of the internet reveals a large number of nudist beaches on the continent of Europe, North America, and Australia. More relaxed attitudes on the part of local administrators and the police have accompanied the growing popularity of "clothing optional" public beaches. Many such beaches now have tacit recognition from local authorities and some have even progressed to the next stage of acquiring legal status. Morfa beach at Dyffryn Ardudwy near Barmouth in Wales is an example where 30 years of disrobing has finally received official recognition. Morfa beach is acclaimed to be the nation's first official nudist beach (BBC News 2002). What is the attraction of these beaches?
It would be naive to expect a simple answer to this question. There is little doubt, however, that "nudists" are attracted by the liminal nature of these beaches. The discourse of nature [naturism?] emphasizes tolerance, and a passive sensuality is tamed by individual self-regulation (Evans 2000). There is also a sense of liberation that comes with disrobing. "Nudity," according to Skye Delaney (2002), "is in fact a metaphor for peeling off false layers of the self. The many masks we wear in life, the many layers of falsehood that get us from one place to the next, can sometimes result in exhaustion." This suggests that nudist beaches are spaces of relaxation where the atmosphere of liminality allows the stressed and largely educated "free-thinkers" to relax and release the tensions of life. Evans (2000: 17) draws on Stam's (1988) critique of Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of Carnival in a searching analysis of motivation to suggest that
Eros and nudity; the doffing of symbols of class and the mixing of distinct social groups; the ambiguity of a semiotics without clothes; communal rites of disrobing; and the background discourses of utopian freedom; all these phenomena at Wreck Beach combine with its ideational and geographical marginality to produce a Carnival atmosphere in Bakhtin's sense.
The ease of access, liberation and sense of community that characterize the timeless atmosphere of nudist beaches is admirably captured by Evans (2000: 19):
The cost of entry is small — a willingness to dispense with normative ideals of modesty and propriety. Once naked, people, no matter what their class, gender, or ethnic origins, are bona fide members of the community. In their nudity, they share a bond, a trans-personal sense of belonging. In their ritualized participation in the timeless space of sun-worship, they mutually step outside the tyranny of the clock and the tyranny of "normal" surveillance. They are, in a sense, united in a timeless space of ludic pleasure and sensual recuperation; they belong to a place out of time and out of normalcy.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
liminal: adj. relating to the point or threshold beyond which a sensation becomes too faint to be experienced
doff: verb to remove, throw off, get rid of
semiotics: noun
1. the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.
2. a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics.
ideational: adj. theoretical, conceptual, broadly: consisting of or referring to ideas or thoughts of objects not immediately present to the senses
ludic: adj. playful in an aimless way