Should Nipple piercings be banned at nudist resorts? - Give us your opinion

A woman named Felicity has started a nudist blog called, Young Naturists America. She just wrote a post about nipple piercings that I thought was pretty interesting.

Her blog post is titled: "Nipple Piercings and Dinosaurs."

She talks about Rock Lodge, NJ nudist club and how they have a policy that bans nipple jewelry.

From the Rock Lodge website: "Body Jewelry. At present, genital and nipple jewelry are not allowed. Prior to arrival at Rock Lodge, please ensure that any genital jewelry is removed and that any nipple jewelry is either removed or covered."

Felicity writes: "Those who supported the rule argued that nipple piercings don't belong in a family-oriented nudist club; that it draws attention to areas nudists aren't trying to draw attention to, i.e. the breasts; that nipple piercings are sexual and associated with the swinger atmosphere (ridiculous). On the other hand, proponents of change argued that nudism is about open acceptance of people as they are and allowing them to express themselves."

She further writes: "nipple piercings are becoming a lot more common these days among young people, and I have a few friends who have them who might say, "Rock Lodge is nice, BUT what's with this stupid rule?" I think the club would do better to cut out a rule that would exclude or discourage younger people from joining, those who'd keep the place alive."

For her full interesting blog post Click here

We have guests from their 20's to 70's that stay with us. Although most people do not have pierced nipples, some do. We have had 20 year old guests and 70 year old guests with nipple piercings. We have never had a guest complain about the nipple jewelry.

Piercings have to do with fashion not morals. In the 1800's, it was fashionable for women to have pierced ears. Then in the Victorian era, it was considered risque and only poor or "loose" women had pierced ears as clip ons became the rage. As late as the 1950's, women were considered "slutty" if they had pierced ears. Then Hollywood changed it in the 1960's as female movie stars got pierced ears and no one gives it any thought after that.

I remember in the 1980's almost no nudist resorts allowed nipple piercings. then as pierced nipples started to slowly catch on, more and more nudist resorts like ours allowed them.

The same was true about shaving genitals. In the early 80's no one shaved, now most Americans, nudist and non nudists alike shave or trim their genital area.

Now of course all businesses have the right to make their own policies on the issue concerning nipple jewelry. But is banning it a smart business move?

Personally I see no big deal with nipple jewelry.

What's your opinion?

Right a comment here and let everyone know.

Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California
Join our Facebook page at http://bit.ly/TerraCottaInnFBPage

More people need to become aware of nude recreation choices in the US and Canada

The Bare Oaks Blog click here did a very good analysis as too why Glen Echo nudist Park outside of Toronto, Canada closed.

Here are some highlights from their blog:

...The fact is that I am sad that 54 years of naturist history is coming to such an abrupt end...

It has certainly generated a lot of press. See:

Toronto Star August 28
Metro News August 28
Toronto Sun August 29
CTV News September 2

From a business standpoint, the loss of a naturist park in the Toronto area is a bad thing. We are not in competition with each other. There are at least 400,000 people in the Greater Toronto Area, according to a survey by the Federation of Canadian Naturists, who are interested in naturism. If I add up all the clubs in the Toronto area, I only get to less than 5,000 members. Even if I assume that another 5,000 people are visitors and not members, that still leaves 390,000 people unaccounted for. If we assume a huge margin of error (which is unlikely given the methodology) I am still left wondering where the other 90,000 people are.

In my opinion, they are not visiting naturist clubs because of a lack of awareness. When I talk about Bare Oaks to my neighbours I frequently get a surprised reaction that "there are places like that in Ontario." ...If we managed to get another 10,000 people participating in naturism, we would all be completely overwhelmed!

...each club is truly unique. While we all share the naturist/nudist label, the application and interpretation of the philosophy varies greatly in each club. Some clubs offer a more urban experience while others are more nature-oriented. Some are passionately naturist while others are more clothing-optional."

The blog makes many good points. First is awareness. We got an e-mail from a couple who said they just got back to England after a 3 week long holiday in Palm Springs. They just learned that we were in Palm Springs and were so sad that they didn't know there were urban naturist resorts in the US. They thought they were only in Spain and France.

I spend so much time promoting nudism as does FCN and AANR, yet this couple didn't know nudist resorts exist in the US.

Sadly because marketing budgets are small in the nudist world, we don't have the marketing power that the big hotel chains have.

The Bare Oaks Blog says if they had another 10,000 people participating in Toronto, they would be overwhelmed. I figure if we had another 50 couples booking a week long stay, then I could afford to put a big flat screen TV in every room and not raise rates. That's just an additional 4 couples a month staying for a week.

I bust my butt on marketing our resort, but I know it's definitely not going to happen this year getting 4 additional couples a month. This year we probably have the highest occupancy rate of ALL hotels in Palm Springs, but it will probably be only our 2nd or 3rd best year of our 15 years in business. However, if next year we averaged an extra 4 couples per month booking rooms for a week or longer, then our guests would really be happy as we reinvest more money as a percent of sales in our resort than probably any other nudist resort in the US.

But, it sure would be nice though if 4 additional couples a month decided to support nudism in the US and stayed at our resort instead of supporting non nudist owned overpriced places in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Now if you want to take a fun vacation, give us a call at The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa located in sunny Palm Springs, CA.

We are the most mainstream nudist resort in the US and are perfect for couples trying topless or nude sunbathing for the first time. You don't even have to be a nudist to vacation with us.

Become our Facebook friend at http://facebook.com/terracottainn

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

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Hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!

Nudist club holds14th Annual Nude College Olympics in Florida Saturday

A lot of people do not know that the original Olympics held in Greece were performed in the nude.

A Tallahassee nudist club will be holding their own version of the nude Olympics this Saturday March 28th.

Here's the story:

"No shoes, no shirt, no pants, no problem.
This is the deal for nudists headed to the 14th Nude College Greek Athletic Meet on Saturday at the Tallahassee Naturally nudist club in Monticello, near Tallahassee.

"It's a fun thing, to get the feel of being nude," said Paul Levvalley, a spokesman of the event. "You don't have to be a jock." A majority of those attending will probably be first-time nudists, he said.

Both athletes and non-athletes will compete in games based on the ancient Greek Olympics, including javelin throw, discus, long jump and 200-yard dash.

The Olympics will begin at 10 a.m. with registration and practice followed by a demonstration of ancient competition methods at 11 a.m. At 1 p.m., competitions will begin...

The event is not clothing-optional; those who attend must be nude. Competitors get in free, while spectators must pay $20 per person or couple.

For the full story click here

That sounds like fun.

Now if you don't want to be an Olympian and instead want to relax and be pampered and take a fun vacation, then give us The Terra Cotta Inn Clothing optional resort and spa located in sunny Palm Springs, CA a call at 800-786-6938.

We are considered the most mainstream nudist resort in America and are perfect for guests topless or nude sunbathing for the first time.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Hope to see you in sunny Palm Springs!

For nudism to grow, nudists need to support nudist resorts and organizations

Well, it happened again for the 2nd time in about a month that I know of.

We gave a tour today to a couple from Washington. They are members of Lake Bronson nudist campground in Washington and have been members there for many years they said.

They were in Palm Springs for 4 nights. They booked last minute to get out of Seattle's rain. They stayed at the Hilton.

I asked them why they stayed at the Hilton especially since this time of the year we have our special of stay 1 night, the 2nd is half priced and we are much cheaper than the Hilton. Plus there are other nudist places in Palm Springs. By staying at the Hilton, they wasted almost $375 extra compared to if they had stayed at our resort for those 4 nights.

Their answer was, "the Internet said it was going to rain. We didn't want to be at your nudist resort in the rain." Naturally weather.com was 100% WRONG as usual and we had great sunny weather this weekend. Also if it rained, you can still use our jacuzzi in the rain. And at the Hilton they had to wear bathing suits at the pool which they complained to us about. Imagine nudist club members choosing to wear bathing suits at a Hilton on vacation instead of saving money and staying at a nudist resort that was only 3 miles away.

I said to the people "wouldn't you want to support nudist businesses in Palm Springs in this economy instead Hilton which doesn't support nudism?" They got defensive again saying, "but the Internet said it was going to rain."

Do you want to know one of the biggest reasons nudism is growing so slowly or not at all in the US and why many clubs have closed or gone swinger in recent years? American nudists do not support nudist resorts or organizations enough in our own country. And these are the places that generate all the positive PR about nudism to grow the industry.

Immigrants support neighborhood businesses of their fellow countrymen. Gays stay at gay hotels and use gay businesses when practical. Nudists however are very fickle.

Now nude vacationers who do not belong to the nudist clubs or organizations like AANR support our resort. Probably 95% of our guests do not belong to nudist clubs or the nudist organizations. We work on them trying to get them to join AANR, but it is a hard sell. Because of nude vacationers, we had the 2nd highest occupancy rate of ALL hotels in Palm Springs. If we had to rely on nudist club members, we would be out of business.

Nudists that already belong to clubs should know better and support American nudism. But, many of them do not support American nudist resorts enough. Especially since American nudist resorts are such a great value.

Further like at our resort, about 10% of the revenue we take in goes to improvements at our resort to benefit guests and we don't increase the rates. We have always done that to make every ones vacation experience nicer. Last year we had an 81% occupancy rate. It would have been nicer if it was 85% and guests would have benefited more.

Many nudist club members go to the Caribbean or Mexico to vacation at resorts that are not owned by nudists. They then go back to their clubs bragging how they spent $5000-$7500 for a week vacation. These nudist club members should be supporting the American nudist resorts instead and they would save themselves thousands of dollars at the same time. What they spend on the built in travel agent commissions alone for a week long stay at these places, would pay for 3-4 nights at an American nudist resort.

Caliente in Tampa which has swinger parties said nudists did NOT support them enough and swingers do. They have bills to pay, thus they cater to swingers. Nudists have no one to blame but themselves for Caliente's policy change

I do not know how to change this thought process of the experienced nudist club member. But, just remember, every time you book at a non nudist hotel or at a nude place not owned by nudists, you forfeit your right to say "why aren't there more nudist places to go to in the US," because you are part of the reason.

Let's make 2009 the year that American nudists decide to support nudist clubs, resorts, and organizations in the US. Only vacation at American nudist resorts this year. Join the AANR and/or TNS.

For information about vacationing at The Terra Cotta Inn, call us at 800-786-6938.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

We hope to see you in sunny Palm Springs!