Paleo-Naturism and Naturist Palingenesis

• Paleo-Naturism and Naturist Palingenesis 1 - Read more...

  In short, paleo-naturism is called ‘paleo’ because it is no longer abreast with the times.
  Therefore the history of naturism is the history of the conquest of nudity: nudity as overcoming sexual anxiety; nudity for a total immersion into nature; as an antidote to the separation between human beings; nudity to understand and develop brotherhood and sisterhood between the sexes; nudity as a psychophysical identity; nudity as a lost dimension; nudity as health and hygiene of the body in the mind. Yes, we wanted to make a summary of what the history of naturism has been to help the readers to understand the importance of this movement whose roots are in the millenary European culture.
  Therefore, when we speak about paleonaturism in relation to the naturism brought forward by the Italian federation and the international naturist Federation, it is not only of cultural error but also a manifestation of blatant ignorance about a movement that made a veritable revolution regarding customs and pushed the envelope beyond a limit that was apparently insurmountable: the common sense of modesty. And this was done by paying a very high price, such as the episodes that we will list briefly, and of which we have given an example by remembering the horrible Nazi repression that culminated in the castration of many German naturists.
  The first person to pay this price in Germany was Diefenbach. For reprisal his three children were taken away from him and only much later could he have them back. Hugo Hoppener (Fidus) was made to suffer because of his work for naturism, to the point of writing these words in a letter to a friend: “the Nazis have rejected my art and suffocated my social actions”. Richard Ungewitter (1868-1958) had a worse fate and had to undergo a long court trial against his book “Civiltà e nudità” which was ordered to be destroyed: in 1933 his books were prohibited and his organization was abolished.
  In France, Marcel Kienné de Mongeot (1897-1977), the founder of the French naturist movement, though he had tried to reach out to public opinion to explain naturism, met with unprecedented difficulties because nudity was considered a breach of moral law even when practiced in private, and therefore without causing any scandals, because it was considered intrinsically immoral.
  Consequently de Mongeot was ferociously obstructed and opposed. In Italy the most dramatic episode involved Delio Della Casa (Messina 1928) with his wife Giorgina. They lived in Genoa where Della Casa had founded the Associazione Gimnosofica Italiana. In 1954 he was reported to the police according to article 528 of the Penal Code for having kept for the purposes of distributing, publications containing obscene photographs and having circulated photos of himself and his wife in their birthday suits.
  Della Casa was sent to jail for several months and in spite of his total acquittal, his life and his family's life were destroyed. When we take into account all of these historical events, it is extremely sensitive to hear the word paleo-naturism spoken flippantly without remembering the blood and tears shed for asserting the naturist idea. However, for the sake of self-criticism we must acknowledge that Italian naturism, which was organized in the 1970s and developed in the shadow of strong cultural conditioning, practically lost every connection with its origins. To the point that, if we visit one of the modern naturist centers, especially abroad, we can see for ourselves how the spirit of the pioneers has been lost and has left its place to a hedonisticconsumerist nudism that shows off their campers with accessories, satellite antennas and every imaginable comfort. Eeverything evolves and even naturism has to evolve to survive.
  And so what are the reasons for the stagnation of Italian naturism? who knows, maybe because it was not presented as a deeply felt need of the human soul, perhaps because we have not had intellectuals who are predisposed to accepting such an avant-garde idea as naturism, or the poll troll laziness of the masses, or because of a misunderstood interpretation of the naturist message, a wrong mixture between nudity and sexuality, or because the naturist culture puts women and men (not hypocritically) on the same level, or because naturist nudity dissolves the phantoms of taboos imposed artificially.
  We will nonetheless try to give concrete answers, within the limits of what is possible, after I have made an in-depth analysis, along with the president of the Italian naturist Federation (without whose contribution these thoughts would not have even occurred) regarding at the failure to spread naturism in Italy as it has been spread in other countries (see the Spanish phenomenon).
  Let's do well on what happens at the so-called "open beaches" where nudity is practiced in a way that we prefer to as “abusive”, in other words illegally though certain places have been frequented for decades by naturist and other places where it is even tolerated, such as the historical site of Ponte della Becca. unfortunately there are problems of a public nature. for example there is no respect for nude people by closed people when closing circulates on stretches of beach where nudism is being practiced; there is always the problem of four years (a bothersome phenomenon that is difficult to uproot); certain despicable behaviors persist that are intolerable for children.

• Paleo-Naturism and Naturist Palingenesis 2 - Read more...
  The Italian naturist Federation obviously does not certify anything except beaches that are granted by concession or the historical sites where the practice of nudism is definitely tolerated.
  It unmistakably certifies naturist clubs, campsites and resorts that, because they are fenced in and controlled, allow the practice of nude-naturism in tranquility without any sort of problem. After evaluating all of this, the president of our Federation a while ago expressed some thoughts about Italian naturism.
  One of them was particularly striking because it gave a specific answer to so many of the above questions regarding the lack of expansion of naturism in Italy: "the future of naturism is in the naturist clubs, campsites and resorts: everything else causes confusion”. Consequently the socalled "open or free" nudism is counterproductive because it is contaminated by the invasion of textiles and disqualified by other abominable behaviors which end up by damaging naturism, the purity of the naturist idea. we believe that true naturist palingenesis can be implemented only if it takes into account the fact that the future of naturism, as the federal president has said, is in the naturist clubs, campsites and resorts or, in any event practiced in special facilities that are adequately protected and not on the so called "free" beaches where anything can happen. As we have said many times naturism is a simple idea but in actuality it is difficult to understand and consequently to accept.
  On the contrary, ope nudism could even be defined as an involution of the naturist idea, which contemplates the practice of nudism in nature but this must not occur to the detriment or safety of those who practice it and, secondly the ethical and cultural values that we mentioned above and that make naturism an avant-garde idea.
  Therefore, talk about paleo-naturism! If a renewal of the naturist idea must occur, which frankly we're not sure exactly what this means, also because perhaps it's not even necessary, such a renewal must take into account the need to conserve the naturist idea for future generations, which will be possible only if it is and is practiced in facilities set up specifically for that purpose. Wiebe wrote that our weapon for fighting against the non-expansion of naturism was not to introduce optional nudity but a self-made ghetto, i.e. a sort of voluntary ghetto.
  In short we were proposing to return, for the good of naturism, into those fenced off places (nudist camps) from which we had left after the cultural uprisings of the 1960s and 70s. We said that this necessary self preclusion would allow us not only to practice and hinted he in complete tranquility but would also allow us to not preserve the naturist idea from erroneous cultural contamination. The article stated that you cannot preserve the naturist idea by introducing a principal, such as optional nudity, that would certainly destroy it.
  Moreover, the naturist idea is preserved by keeping firm the basic principle that holds up the entire framework of naturist philosophy: nudity that mixes gender and age, obviously whenever possible. We also pointed out that the pioneers of naturism had done just that and had not yielded, not even in the face of persecution from terrible dictatorships and bigoted moralist Victorianism. In concluding the article, we state that self-ghettoization is neither an involution nor a backing down, but the only defense weapon we have for preserving and defending naturist philosophy.
  So don’t come telling us that naturist clubs, centers and resorts are zoos where people can freely circulate nude because they are closed in a cage. Zoos are horrible prisons that humans have built to imprison animals while naturist "zoos" are oases that humans have created to rediscover their identity. It might seem like a paradox but we naturists are not afraid to say that we feel free in the naturist "zoos", and imprisoned in the large “zoo” of textile society.
  In conclusion we believe that the federal directors are far from incapable “paleonaturists”; on the contrary, and for a simple reason: by defending the principle of naturist nudity which is observed in the centers, resorts, campsites and beaches granted in concession, they are fulfilling their duty, the duty envisaged by the Statutes of the Italian Naturist Federation and the International Naturist Federation.