We Were Supposed to Be Fine With Nonsexual Social Nudism By Now. What Happened?

By the turn of the twentieth century, there was full-fledged nudist movement going on in Europe. This wasn’t the oil-soaked, full-penetration nudity of the Roman Empire, but a communal understanding among “nonsexual social nudists,” folks that felt the sting of the Industrial Revolution in their lungs and wanted to get back to nature. They were, predictably, mostly German and they let it all hang out in parks and naturists resorts. Though the trend made its way across the Atlantic, it morphed in America, becoming a beach thing and, eventually, becoming a subcultural thing.

Mark Haskell Smith, who reports on subcultures for a living, shed it all to live as the nudists do for his book Naked At Lunch. Smith weaves his American and European nudists adventures with the fascinating history of nudism. Inverse talked to him about the future of the no-clothes pastime and what not to do at a nudist resort.

• read more – Source:* Inverse