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Our club was founded, and our park subsequently constructed by our members,
for the purpose of practicing naturism. Naturism was defined by the
International Naturist Federation in 1974 as follows: So defined, it is very hard to see why anyone would question the right of anyone else to practice naturism, when and where they see fit. It should be regarded as a fundamental birthright to everyone to be able to commune with nature in our pure physical form, to revitalize ourselves by direct contact between the elements and every one of our senses. If you don't know what it feels like to slide through silky waters unimpeded by a bathing suit, or to lay in a forest with your entire body washed in intense sunlight, you have not fully experienced what it is to be a human being. America is, for all its progressiveness in other areas, still an inexplicably neo-Victorian society. We are wrought with body shame and moral hypocrisy. Compared with other cultures, most of us have been raised to be fiercely independent, yet we shudder at the thought of anyone seeing us for who we really are. When we go out in public, we cloak ourselves in a suit of armor consisting of name brand clothing, shoes, and cosmetics. Keeping up appearances takes on monumental importance for us early in our youth, when we are taught that to not "fit in" is synonymous with failure. Wear the wrong type of pants to the school dance, and be labeled a social outcast. Be seen driving the wrong car down Main Street, and instantly be categorized as to income and social status. The list of examples goes on forever. It is an extremely inhibiting and stressful way of life, and we should be ashamed for doing this to each other...yet we deal with it every day. |
Naturism provides a precious means of escape from all of this. There is no need
to wonder what one is hiding once the cloak is removed. Naturists do not go through the
motions everyone else does when they first meet, because common ground has already been
established. A level of honesty exists from the start among people who have made a
commitment to put aside the urge to represent themselves falsely, in the physical sense, and
this has a tendency to carry over in how we deal with each other as a whole. We accept
each other for who and what we are. We go with what is on the inside, not what
is on the outside. The fundamental right to be yourself is a
given, and this fosters mutual respect among everyone.
Naturists are not opposed to wearing clothes for practical reasons. If the weather turns bad, we don't like being cold any more than anyone else. We don't recommend getting around a deep fryer without some form of protection either. But just as it would be foolish to be nude in these cases, it doesn't make sense to us to bind up our groin in restrictive clothing when we want to take a swim on a nice day. In fact, it's pure lunacy. When you think about it, the very word - swimsuit - seems ridiculous.
So, naturists we are. False perceptions of us abound among the public... We are not a sex club, we are not a "colony", and we are not perverts. We are families, couples, and individuals who refuse to subscribe to an inhibiting, hypocritical convention which says that we should be ashamed of ourselves for no good reason. We may be your doctor, your hairdresser, your student, or your next-door neighbor, and you might never know. Bay Bares is a refuge where anyone with the right attitude can experience a little of that which has been taken from us all since we were children. The right to be ourselves. |
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