It’s a Tuesday morning, the infinite blue sky of Byron Bay has opened up and the six naturists – four men, two women – have stripped down to their birthday suits for a quick dip in the buff.
This section of beach – an 800-metre stretch along the vast coastline – forms the only legal clothing-optional beach in the shire. Among those taking advantage of the opportunity to be out in the open is Duncan James, vice-president of Northern Rivers Naturists, who is something of an evangelist for “embracing the beach as Mother Nature intended.”
“Many of the beach users have described the clothing-optional beach as their happy place, a place where they can disconnect from modern day stresses, a place they can feel at one with nature,” he says.
There is, however, a metaphorical cloud on the horizon. On Sunday, Tyagarah is set to be stripped of its status as an official clothing-optional beach.
“I guess these values aren’t shared by New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service [NPWS], who are hell-bent on closing one of Byron’s last alternative community hubs and experiences,” James says.
Is this the case of Byron becoming fashionable, hippies being gentrifuged out by rising prices and replaced by Liberal voters who wanted their slice of heaven to be more conservative and family-friendly?
Someone needs to explain to me why nudity is considered not ‘family-friendly’ but watching movies/playing video games with massive amounts of bloodshed and death is considered fine and dandy for kids.
Because of the American Puritannical values, which dictate what the credit companies and advertisers are willing to do business with and the cultural zeitgeist along with it.
The Puritans were some of the earliest British colonists in the US, and were either thrown out of England for attempting a coup to replace the king with a puppet to force their more extremist form of Christianity on the country, or left by their own choice because they felt that the Church of England was too liberal. They were basically a bunch of prudes who believed that the human body and sex were shameful and disgusting.
This has led to the dichotomy where advertisers want nothing to do with sex/nudity, except when it comes to implied sex in advertisements. Because sex is bad, but it also sells, which is good.
I’m pretty sure those games and movies are age-restricted.
I know lots of kids were/are playing those without parental supervision. Those same parents had/have existential fits if their child sees a penis or breasts in a movie.
“why are so many parents bad parents and/or messed up people in general?”
That’s a big can of worms you’re trying to open, GF.
Just because it’s big doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be opened. Only Sonlight can cleanse the shit that bullshit ‘Christianity’ has wrought.
Just because their parents are bad parents doesn’t mean there are regulations and restrictions… at the end of the day parents need to parent and so many are unwilling to do so.
I will mention I have no problem with nude beaches or public toplessness of both genders, religious prudishness has no place in the modern world
PG-13 and rated T for teen, respectively
Who said violence was good for kids? If I were a parent I wouldn’t let my kid play those games. Not until they’re 14…unless they’re a stupid kid. Then 18.
I’m ok with people without clothes on at the beach, but I really don’t want to see a line of people tanning their assholes, so can we at least keep that to a minimum?
I would just turn my head or move further down the beach.
shrugs
I just wouldn’t want to have to explain such a thing to a toddler.
Toddlers don’t sexualize everything like adults do, so there is nothing to explain, really.
Toddlers imitate everything adults do and I don’t think that’s something toddlers should be doing, nor something that people on a beach should see toddlers doing.
Ya as a parent that would be your choice to make, but there really shouldn’t be anything wrong with nudity at any age.
I’d say that really depends on context. Nudity at a beach? Sure. But I also think that there should be clothed-only areas as an option as well. Give everyone what they want. This is obviously not the way to do it since that was how it already was.
I’m certainly not suggesting people get arrested for child abuse or anything.
Then go to a different fucking beach, you idiot. You’re doing the equivalent of walking into a sushi restaurant and complaining it has too much fish. 99%+ of beaches require clothing, go to them.
Comment I already made:
So apparently I’m an idiot who agrees with you. What does that make you?
I have never heard of anyone actually doing that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perineum_sunning
You are so weird
Yes. I am on Lemmy. And also, I was asked about it.
I’ve gone to nude beaches countless times and never seen this, lmao.
It’s like a normal beach with a clothing nerf. Most people are reading, chatting with friends, or swimming with beach balls and floaties.
Why do you stare at people tanning their assholes? That’s considered very impolite germany.
Don’t get your Burkha all crinkled you doorknob
I just looked at my comment and nowhere did I say that I stared at them. Why are you lying in order to criticize me?
Family friendly?
Are you for real? Nudist campings are family campings in yurop. Went to a nekid beach last week and it was filled with families. As it is every time we go.
It’s not the nakedness that seems to be the issue. It’s your hyper sexualised mindset and culture.
as much as we all hate Liberal voters*, and gentrification and rising prices - Byron Bay is ground zero for hippy anti-vaxxers and the resurgence of measles in Australia.
So… I’m torn.
* for Americans, the Liberal party (capital ‘L’) are the conservatives. Basically, wannabe Republicans. They’re economically liberal, not socially liberal. That is, like all conservatives, they like wasting government money and giving liberal amounts to corporations.
Glad you gave the astrict!