pat@pyuxqq.UUCP (Pat M. Iurilli) (03/30/84)
Can some light be shed on what is meant by 'clothes optional' for a casual
reader of this group? Does this mean that there is a mixture of clothed and
unclothed people and the unclothed ones don't mind the clothed? Or is this
just a polite way of saying unclothed only? Please forgive my ignorance.
Pat Iurilli Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ
{ihnp4, harpo, allegra}!pyuxqq!patpvlm@hou2f.UUCP (P.LAMASTER) (03/30/84)
"Clothes-optional" is a deliberately different term from "nude." It does, indeed, mean that the amount of clothing worn is entirely up to the individual: any combination of dress/undress is acceptable. The term is intended to assure newcomers to social nudity that they may attend events and see how they feel about the whole thing before (if at all) taking anything off. This (I'm told) is a relatively new idea in the field of social nudity which traditionally required participants to be nude in order to discourage gawkers. In spite of being a new idea, it's a quite well-supported one since many people who never would have attended a nude event will attend a clothing-optional event and, in the non-threatening environment, find out that they like it. It also makes the environment less threatening since noone has to worry about when it's appropriate to "break the rules" about requiring nudity (like when it suddenly gets cold or when one person's tolerance of cold requires more dress than another person's). Pete LaMaster (201)949-5009 hou2f!pvlm