Nudism as a cure for Pornography
Added 6/00


Many people (including myself) will swear by Nudism as a cure for pornography addiction. After all, once you've seen and got used to being nude and being around others in the nude, why on earth would you ever want to look at pictures of more nude bodies? Of course this scares some people as many use pornography to instigate masturbation, enhance sexual activity, or even just learn new sex ideas they can try with their partner or themselves.

The reality of the situation however is that nudism doesn't remove the desire for pornography in everyone. It depends on what that person used the pronography for in the first place, and what sort of porn it was.

One of the most harmful forms of porn in our society is "soft porn", i.e. pornography which sits right on the boundary of "art", "advertising" and "fantasy". Of course it's everywhere, because as any advertising agent worth a grain of salt knows.. Sex sells. It's dangerous because it portrays human bodies as something more than they really are, and teases us to "go further".

And certainly Nudism goes a long way to "curing" people who believe they may have an "addiction" to this type of "soft porn" that pervades our society. But it depends largely on the person concerned and the fantasies (if any) that porn originally stimulated. I can only speak of my own experience here, and I can comfortably say that before I tried Nudism, I would have probably been attracted to more than 80% of "soft porn". But now that figure has dived to less than 10% - but it's not zero. The difference is that now I am in charge of it - instead of it controlling me. And that (I would say) is a pretty good definition of an effective treatment, if not a complete cure.

However "Hard core Porn" is a different matter. It could be argued that "HardCore" is a fantasy within itself, with no basis in reality at all. The situations, the impossibly proportioned bodies etc.. have little to do with the way us humans really look or even with the way we relate to (or enjoy) sex. It is just pure fantasy - and therefore as long as those who use it understand that it is fantasy and not reality, then it's not likely to become a threat or "addictive".

Nudism helps to dispel the myths of nudity and puts "HardCore" in it's place - as a fantasy - removed from the reality. This can have two effects on us - i.e. it can reduce our desire for using "HardCore" or it can actually increase it. The only advantage is that it's likely to result in less "addiction" and more "understanding".

It reduces desire for the same reasons as for "soft porn" above - i.e. "you've seen one, you've seen 'em all" attitude. We no longer crave porn because we know it's a lie, and that us humans just don't work that way.

But in some people it can actually increase desire - but at the same time helping them to realise that HardCore porn is just like any other fantasy - not real. Some people (once they find out that there really is nothing sexy about nudity) are inclined to invent their own fantasy world where nudity and sex are still related. The older the "new nudist", the more likely this is to be the case. This sometimes confuses critics of nudism who use this supposedly "negative" effect to declare that Nudism is a lie, and that it's the HardCore Porn that is the truth. Such critics are likely to be vocal "knockers" of Nudism if they find a bookshelf of Playboys and Penthouses in a Nudist's bedroom. This strange tale of situations is perhaps best demonstrated in one of Nudism's most famous (and many would say Infamous) magazine - the UK's "H&E" (Health and Efficiency) Magazine. Arguement has raged for decades over this (one of the oldest) supposedly "Nudist" magazine which regularly crosses the line into "Pornography". Many purist Nudists claim that H&E is "porn", and yet there are many genuine Nudists who refute those claims and support H&E, perhaps not fully understanding whay they do so. Likewise there are thousands of "Nudist Videos", many which border and cross the lines between Nudism and Pornography - which is of course different for every person who views them - and which results in a classification nightmare for censorship boards worldwide!

The logic on the critic's side is (of course) to ask what use such material could be to someone perfectly used to seeing nude people anyway. What they fail to understand however is that the accused nudist has subconciously created two worlds - the one in which he / she lives (where nudity is not sexual) and a fantasy one (where it still does). This is no different to any other fantasy. Just because somebody likes reading and immersing themselves in science fiction, doesn't necessarily mean that they can't survive without visiting Alpha Centauri every second week. As very young Children we learn how to differentiate between reality and fantasy (perhaps much earlier than many realise). A Nudist's use of "HardCore" porn is no different, and squarely sits in the same category. Their participation in Nudism (here in the real world) helps them to keep the fantasy where it belongs - in fantasy land - and helps to build a wall between the two worlds. Even in magazines and videos where to textiles, it seems that they occupy the same space.

My personal experience suggests that the proportion of nudists who use HardCore porn is far lower than that in general society - but again the figure is not zero. More likely around 20%, instead of the 70% or 80% that could be expected from studying surveys of textiles. My projection ould be to say that of those nudists that DO use HardCore porn, virtually all are far more likely to be "stable" and not "addicted" - and in this respect, nudism can still be seen as an "effective treatment" to the problem of pornography addiction, even for extreme hard core pornography.

So if you believe you have an addictive porn problem, don't hesitate to try Nudism out. And if you're afraid it might kill your sex drive and ability to bring on masturbation just remember.. you can still pretend.