Thursday, March 4, 2010

Is nudism for whites only or is it color blind?


There is a very interesting post on the Naturist Review blog Click here to read it He writes, "Is naturism for whites only? When I view images online of naturists, they're mostly caucasian. When I go to nude beaches or resorts, I mainly see caucasians."

Through a lot of history, having a tan was looked down upon as it was a sign that you labored outdoors and were a lower class. Many women used lead or arsenic based cosmetics to bleach their skin white.

In 1903, the connection between suntanning and curing rickets was made official by Niels Finsen who won a Nobel price for his discovery. So the sun was found to be beneficial.

Then in the 1920's it was a combination of Coco Chanel getting accidentally sun burnt and Parisians falling in love with Josephine Baker and her beautiful "caramel colored" skin tone that sunbathing started to become popular with the wealthier leisure class. In the 1940's women's magazines started advertising sunbathing as an activity for the common woman, and sunbathing really took off in popularity.

Now in the '40's, '50's, and '60's there was general discrimination against people of color from baseball, to TV, to modeling, etc. The "mainstream" only used white models. I would assume this discrimination also carried over into nudist publications of that era.

Patty, who is pictured above, has worked for us for 8 years. She has been our manager for the last 3 years. She is a Latina and a great employee and person. And Norma who just started working for us is also a Latina.

We have all races represented at our resort. We have all backgrounds from American whites, Canadians, Europeans, Blacks, Asians, etc.

Yes, white guests predominate, but in the 15 years of being open, I have noticed more and more minorities enjoy nudist resorts and nude recreation. I think as nudism is seen as a more mainstream activity, even more minorities will join in.

Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa
Palm Springs, CA
800-786-6938
http://sunnyfun.com
Follow me at http://twitter.com/nudist_resorts

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