Anybody who is interested in embracing the holistic environment of the Naturist culture.

We use the term family a lot in this section, so it begs the question: how do we define family? Most commonly a family is constructed of two or more people who have a social, and economic relationship, who are also mutually supportive of each other, often with a strong interpersonal relationship. This might or might not include children, often under the age of eighteen. The simplest answer, however, is that the definition of family is up to you.

What about singles? Single people are more than welcome to join in. Naturism can be your place for social activity, a safe place to be with others who share your beliefs and who will not judge you for being a Naturist. Those of us in the Naturist community know a lot of people who joined as a single person and found their life partner. You never know, but you are welcome.

What about people who are dating or just friends? Why would the Naturist community treat you any differently? A Naturist experience could make for a fun date, something on your bucket list, an activity that more closely binds you together.

Self Image. Thus far, all reputable scientific studies show that naturism can help both adults and children in the development of a positive self-esteem, have a positive impact on living a well-balanced sexuality, particularly for children, and can create healthy and holistic environment for families. Naturist often say that, “body acceptance is the goal, nude recreation is the way.” Naturist embrace the concept that we are much more than the skin in which we live.

Licensed family therapist and relationship expert, Gayle Peterson, PhD, explains it's natural for parents to be relaxed about nudity at home up until their children are about 3 years old. "It's very common for parents to take baths with them and so forth, assuming it's a healthy environment where nothing is super sexualized.”

The Making Healthy Families founder (and author of the book with the same name) explains that when parents and young kids feel comfortable being naked around each other, it can help encourage children to develop self-esteem and positive body image.

"It's good for children to feel like they can ask questions about their bodies at that age and [receive age-appropriate] educational answers," says Peterson. While outside factors like seeing sexualized imagery in the media or being teased by classmates about their bodies can still have an effect on kids, "If they grow up with a basic liking of their body, then they're going to feel better about themselves at the core," she says.

Though the two terms are largely interchangeable, nudism emphasizes the practice of nudity, whereas naturism highlights an attitude favoring harmony with nature and respect for the environment, into which that practice is integrated. That said, naturists come from a range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds; there is no single naturist ideology. Naturism may be practiced individually, within a familial or social context, or in public.

From its inception, what we today call, Social Nudity or Naturism has been a family centric activity. There are documented psychological benefits of naturist activities, including greater life satisfaction, more positive body image, and higher self-esteem. Social nudity leads to acceptance in spite of differences in age, body shape, fitness, and health. Recent research suggests that children raised in a Naturist setting actually postpone their first sexual experiences and in particular young men are less likely to objectify young women.

The North American introduction to Naturism can be traced, primarily, back to Germany. The term Nacktkultur was coined in 1902 in a series of philosophical papers published in Germany by Dr. Heinrich Pudor, under the pseudonym Heinrich Scham. In 1906 Dr. Pudor wrote a three volume treatise with his new term as its title, which discussed the benefits of nudity in co-education and advocated participating in sports while being free of cumbersome clothing. Richard Ungewitter (Nacktheit, 1906, Nackt, 1908, etc.) proposed that in a family oriented setting, a combination of physical fitness, sunlight, and fresh air bathing, along with a nudist philosophy, contributed to mental and psychological fitness, good health, and an improved moral-life view. Major promoters of these ideas included Adolf Koch and Hans Suren. Germany published the first journals of nudism between 1902 and 1932.

The wide publication of those papers and others, contributed to an explosive worldwide growth of nudism, in which nudists participated in various social, recreational, and physical fitness activities in the nude. The first organized club for nudists on a large scale, Freilichtpark (Free-Light Park), was opened near Hamburg in 1903 by Paul Zimmerman. In 1919, German doctor Kurt Huldschinsky discovered that exposure to sunlight helped to cure rickets in many children, causing sunlight to be associated with improved health, as it produces Vitamin D in the body, a common deficiency.

Naturism is a cultural and political movement practicing, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in appropriate public settings. It is also a movement closely tied to family oriented back to nature activities that promote non-sexual nude recreation in order to improve self-image, body positive non-judgmental attitudes. It is particularly strong in Germany where it goes under the name Freikörperkultur. It refers to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism. Naturism grew out of the German Lebensreform movement and the Wandervogel youth movement of 1896, and has been adopted in many neighboring European countries and was taken by the German diaspora to North America and other continents. In 1974, the International Naturist Federation (INF) defined naturism as:

Naturism is a lifestyle in harmony with nature, expressed through personal and social nudity, and characterized by self-respect of people with different opinions and of the environment

The XIV Congress of the International Naturist Federation (Agde, France, 1974) defined naturism as:

a way of life in harmony with nature characterized by the practice of communal or social nudity with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and for the environment.

Gaston and Andre Durville, both of them physicians, studied the effects of psychology, nutrition, and environment on health and healing. They became convinced of the importance of natural foods and the natural environment on human well-being and health. They named this concept in French: naturisme. The profound effect of clean air and sunlight on human bodies became evident to them and so nudity became a part of their naturism.

Naturism became a more widespread phenomenon in the 1920s, in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and other European countries and spread to the United States where it became established in the 1930s.

More than is the case for any other society, North Americans, in particular those living in the United States, have been guided or maybe misguided by a Calvinist or Puritan ethic in which it is difficult to separate nudity from sexuality. It is, thus, important to note that contemporary naturists and naturist organizations advocate that the practice of social nudity should not be linked with sexual activity. Repeatedly, scientific studies show that naturism can help growing self-esteem, thus having a positive impact on living a well-balanced sexuality as well. For various social, cultural, and historical reasons, the lay public, the media, and many contemporary naturists and their organizations have or present a simplified view of the relationship between naturism and sexuality. Current research has begun to explore this complex relationship.

Just as is the case in Europe, Naturism in North America promotes a family oriented lifestyle of non-sexual nudity, as well as a cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may also be referred to as nudism. Though the two terms are largely interchangeable, nudism emphasizes the practice of nudity, whereas naturism highlights an attitude favoring harmony with nature and respect for the environment, into which that practice is integrated. That said, naturists come from a range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds; there is no single naturist ideology. Naturism may be practiced individually, within a familial or social context, or in public.

We have used the term family a lot in this article, so it begs the question: how do we define family?  Most commonly a family is constructed of two or more people who have a social, and economic relationship, who are also mutually supportive of each other, often with a strong interpersonal relationship. This might or might not include children, often under the age of eighteen. The simplest answer, however, is that the definition of family is up to you.

What about singles? Single people are more than welcome to join in.  Naturism can be your place for social activity, a safe place to be with others who share your beliefs and who will not judge you for being a Naturist. Those of us in the Naturist community know a lot of people who joined as a single person and found their life partner.  You never know, but you are welcome.

What about people who are dating or just friends?  Why would the Naturist community treat you any differently?  A Naturist experience could make for a fun date, something on your bucket list, an activity that more closely binds you together.

For More Information on the North American Experience please see: https://aanrwest.org/pdfs/Brief%20History%20of%20Nudism.pdf

• Anderson, Howard (2016). Why Nude?: Thoughts and Reflections on Social Nudity. RFI Technical Services. ISBN 978-0-9572432-3-1.
• Choin, Mireille (2002). Wereldgids naturisme 2002-2003 [World naturist handbook 2002-2003] (in Dutch) (26 ed.). Diegem, Belgium: Wolters Kluwer. ISBN 978-90-5583-833-2. OCLC 66965885.
• Hau, Michael (2003). The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany: A Social History, 1890-1930. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31974-2.
• Oosterhuis, Harry (1992). Homosexuality and male bonding in pre-Nazi Germany: the youth movement, the gay movement, and male bonding before Hitler's rise : original transcripts from Der Eigene, the first gay journal in the world. Translated by Hubert Kennedy. Harrington Park Press.
• Ross, Chad (2005). Naked Germany: health, race and the nation. Berg. ISBN 978-1-85973-861-0.
• Toepfer, Karl Eric (1997). Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91827-6.
• Kurt (FKK) published 1998 or so, DFK
  
• Smith, Dennis Craig, The Naked Child