Blokes on the beach can help

K Barnes, Clunes.

There seems to be a bit of prejudice against naturists and unabashed misandry in many of the letters here.

As a human I get so annoyed when I see whole groups of people blamed and shamed for actions that actually come from only a very few (think about some of the attitudes to migrants in recent times). As a woman with a darling husband, I get really annoyed when I see all men slandered as a result of the actions of a very few.

My husband and I are naturists when we can be, for the sheer freedom, closeness to nature and the egalitarian levelling when we are freed from ‘fashion’ and body prejudices. When our work shifts were better synchronised, we often took long unclothed walks on the beach (by the way, walking along the beach is as normal an activity on a beach as swimming and sunbaking).

Now that there is an enforced, shorter clothing optional beach, and our work rosters have changed, my husband gets to the beach on his own more than we can together, usually early in the morning and has to do do more – and shorter – laps to get those kilometres of exercise, which like me, he prefers to do unfettered by clothing.

There seems to be much fuss about ‘middle aged males parading on the beach’. For the information of my dear sisters and some brothers, a nude male (or any other gender) on the beach walking past you on the beach is not evidence of a sexual offence, middle-age is not a crime last I looked, and walking is not ‘parading’. I suppose if one was walking in the soft sand near the dunes that would be ‘skulking’ in the pejorative language that seems to be used by the pearl clutchers.

So if you see my dear middle-aged and slightly-padded man walking on the beach early in the morning, know that if there was trouble, he – and others like him – would be the first to help. So say ‘Hi’ or wave instead of starting a campaign to drive away good folks like my guy, which would actually make this isolated beach LESS safe.

As has been seen in successful clothes optional beaches in Florida, California and Barcelona if more people came and walked the beach – clothed or unclothed – it would be a safer place and more people would see how inoffensive and levelling naturism really is.