You may, or not, have noticed some changes on the site. If you're not sure and do not know what I'm talking about, let me guide you: there is and will not be any nude pictures on the site. We are nude-free! What, a weblog, dedicated to naturism and not a single nude picture? Really? What happened?
Well, here's the reasoning behind the decision, the work that has been done over the last weeks and how it will affect future posts.
Everything started a five years ago, as I was writing the first post of this blog and was searching for pictures for a blog post. So I went to Google! Of course, if you google the word nudism or naturism, you end up with dozens of pictures of genuine nudists... and millions of sex pictures. Now, it's easy to sort the non-sexual ones (there are few) and pick one or two that fits the purpose of the post. Then, a little while later, I found a nice photo sharing site, Nudism Life. It as full of nudist pictures, and, almost, only nudist pictures. It was a great source of images. The only issue? Not a single trace of consent or copyright protection. Those pictures seemed, for the most, to have been gathered (stolen?) from various sources. I was never at ease with this.
Recenty, the post of Matthew McDermott, Should websites for nudists include photos?, sparked a good discussion with readers and the doubt grew into my mind. Most of the pictures I was using did not have consent nor copyright protection attached to them. I was not doing the right thing, and I was not really serving the cause of naturism, when it comes to respect!
So the decision came almost naturally. I would not post any more nude pictures on the site, at lease without consent, and would only use genuine, copyright free pictures. Beyond respect of consent and copyright, no more nudity on the site is a way to attract more people, to get a completely clean image for search engines and to ensure there's a defined line of demarcation between non-sexual communal nudity and sexual nudity.
No more nudes, really? Is this a new vision of a prudish naturism? In fact there still is and will be nudity, because nudity is an integral part of naturism. Yes, it's a means to and end, and not the end itself, but communal nudity is central to naturism. Therefore, there will some nudity, in the form of Instagram-like or Nick & Lins, covering some bits, or just not showing them, to avoid shocking non-naturist eyes. But wait, for naturists, those bits are not shocking! True, but we still are a minority and if we want to attract more people to our lifestyle, to demonstrate its awesomeness, we need to go step by step and be respectful of differences of appreciation of nudity.
I've been spending the last weeks cleaning the site. There are close to 500 posts, so going to each of one, finding new pictures and uploading them consumed a lot of time. But, I'm proud of the result and I hope you like it too. Nude and Happy is still dedicated to naturism and will remain so. Our mission is to participate in spreading naturism among society. We truly believe naturism is one of the answers to the crisis the world is going through, and that by embracing a more nude, frugal and minimal life, we will make a better, more respectful and more beautiful world.
Please leave comments! What do you think of this new approach? Will you go away or will you stay? Will it make easier to share the site to more people? Thank you for being our readers!
Get Naked, Stay Naked, Live Naked and Share the Naked Love!
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash