The Skin We’re In: Naturism as a Framework for Body Positivity

At first glance, the connection between "body positivity" and "naturism" (or nudism) seems obvious: both involve looking at bodies without shame. However, a deep dive reveals a relationship that is far more nuanced, philosophical, and, at times, contradictory. While mainstream body positivity has been co-opted by commercial wellness and retail industries, naturism remains one of the last living laboratories for its original, radical premise: that human worth is not conditional on appearance.

In a family-friendly naturist resort, nudity is as uninteresting as a handshake. Children grow up seeing every type of body—old, young, fat, thin, disabled—without the lens of shame or desire. They learn that bodies are functional, not just ornamental.

When the AIDS crisis hit in the 1980s, naturist resorts became some of the first places to openly accept men with Kaposi's sarcoma lesions (visible signs of AIDS), because the philosophy of "non-judgmental acceptance of the physical" overrode the fear of the diseased body. This was body positivity in action, decades before the hashtag.

Classic naturism was notoriously ableist in its architecture (stairs to beaches, no wheelchair access to pools). While modern clubs are improving, the naturist ideal of the "free, unencumbered body" historically favored the able-bodied. True body positivity requires confronting how naturist spaces are often physically inaccessible, thus excluding the very bodies that need the therapy of acceptance the most.