Sexual Response & Nakedness

This article first appeared on our friend’s site at www.nakedandunashamed.org. It is reposted here with permission.

In general, the assumption amongst the majority of non-naturists is that the sight of another naked human will cause sexual arousal or lust…especially the sight of a naked woman, by a man.

They say that experience is a great teacher and that if you can use other people’s experience that is even better as it can at times lead to wise decisions without having to make your own bad decisions first.

I’d like to take a few minutes with this article to address what I believe is the big lie that Satan has convinced the non-naturist world. He has convinced people that the sight of the beautiful creature that is the human body, made in the very image of our Creator is somehow shameful, sexual and dirty and will cause a sexual response. I can assure you based on firsthand experience and backed by the principles of the Word of God that the opposite is actually the case.

First, a little common sense…anything that is novel will gain attention. If the sight of a naked person is novel, then it is noticed. Anything that is common is ignored. When a person is only naked for a shower or sex, then nakedness is novel and therefore will garner attention and that can be in the form of a sexual response. When nakedness is common and in a nonsexual context often, then suddenly nakedness is no longer novel and it no longer garners a sexual response.

When a person first begins the journey to the Truth as it relates to the naked human form, they are forced to confront all kinds of mental and spiritual training that they have been subjected to that is contrary to the Bible and to experience. They are confronted with the fact that what they’ve been taught might have been wrong and that is a very discomforting emotion.

For example, when I was growing up I was taught “modesty” from I Timothy as meaning dressed from neck to knee for the ladies and long shorts for the guys at a minimum. It’s what I now refer to as our “Sunday Best”. There was no real Bible standard, it was basically whatever the pastor or church taught was modest, that was what the Bible meant. It was making Scripture conform to the pastor/church teaching rather than the other way around. As an adult when I studied the passage and its actual teaching, what I found that the Bible was actually teaching was the exact opposite of “our Sunday Best.” The real concern was that there were poor ladies in the church with literally nothing to wear and rich ladies in the church with their fancy and expensive clothing. The teaching was for the rich ladies to dress more “modest”…an old fashion word meaning humble. Well, the truth is that the most modest attire was to match the very poorest in the congregation. Notice the teaching went on to say not with braided hair, not with jewelry, etc…in other words “modest” or humble. Not the meaning that the church has ascribed to the Bible, but the correct meaning anyway.

Modesty was basically whatever the pastor or church taught was modest.

So, what does our experience tell us that the church isn’t? My wife and I have been biblical, nonsexual naturists for about the last 20 years now and this is the Truth of what we have found.

  1. The commonplace of nonsexual nakedness has led to a desexualizing of our minds and those around us.

We have visited over 20 family friendly naturist resorts across the country and 3 nude beaches and in every case, we have not seen one instance of sexual response at any of the locations we have visited. In fact, what we have found is that the commonplace of nonsexual nudity has eliminated the sexual response based solely on visual stimulation.

  1. We have seen our minds renewed to the point that we used to think the body was shameful, sexual, and dirty…we now see the body as made in God’s image, beautiful and nonsexual in nature.

We no longer view the naked body the way the world views the naked body, we view the naked body as God views it. Isn’t it odd that the church and Hollywood hold to the same belief regarding the body? Living as a naturist has changed that for us. We no longer see the body sexually…we see the body beautiful. All bodies, in fact…tall or short, skinny, or fat, black, or white. You see…when your mind is renewed you begin to see others as God sees them…not as sexual objects, but as beautiful creations of God…made in His very image.

  1. Sexuality becomes more about the relationship than the superficial.

The typical non-naturist is visually motivated. In fact, we are told by good-willed pastors all across the spectrum of denominations that men are visually motivated, so it’s up to the woman to dress modestly to keep the beast at bay. We are told that this problem is “every man’s battle.” I am here to tell you, that is a lie. It is told by Satan to continue the cycle of try, fail and eventually give up trying when it comes to conquering the addiction to pornography.

I can tell you that men and women have been programmed to think this way, but that the thinking is contrary to how God sees us and how God wants us to see each other. Addiction to pornography is a matter of incorrect thinking and incorrect thinking can be corrected. When a person experiences the commonplace of nonsexual nakedness…again, I said commonplace…they see naked bodies doing normal everyday things like mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, vacuuming the floors, gardening, taking a walk in the woods, swimming, playing volleyball, etc. and instead of a sexual response they now see the body as just that…a body.

Think with me for a moment…if this is you and you are now used to seeing naked people doing normal everyday things all the time with zero sexual context how does that change your thinking? You are no longer a victim of Pavlov’s experiment…you are a victor because you now see people as God sees them. You now see people as the wonderfully made creation that He intended from the very beginning when He made them naked and not ashamed.

You see what we’ve really done by teaching that the image of God is somehow dirty, shameful and sexual is that we have propagated Satan’s lie, rather than the Truth of God’s Word.

• God is the One who created us naked.

• God is the One who said that there was no shame in it. God is the One who called it “very good.”

• God is the One who questioned “who told thee…so we know He didn’t start the lie…someone else did…Satan did.

So, what about sexual relationships with our mates?

We have found that because of our lack of sexual response to visual stimuli that our sexual relationship has moved from the superficial to an emotional response.

Our sexual relationship is based more on our friendship now. Our sexual desire comes out of our spiritual connection.

Our intimacy has deepened as has our relationship and our lovemaking is now way better than it has ever been.

The fact that we are not visually stimulated by a simple naked body has not reduced our sexual response to each other, it has strengthened our sexual relationship and made it more intimate and more connected.

The fact that there is no sexual response at the sight of others naked has increased our trust of one another and therefore our intimacy.

It’s almost like, when you experience life the way God intended…naked and not ashamed that you find that God was right all along, which means that the standard teaching in the church was wrong all along.

This is disappointing and unsettling in the beginning because what you thought was foundational was wrong and now you wonder what else was I taught that was wrong as well. Do not let that uneasy feeling stop you from living the life that God intended for you, just realize that you now believe what God said and not what man/Satan twisted it into.

13 thoughts on “Sexual Response & Nakedness”

  1. Okie61
    Reply

    What a beautiful way of understanding that the world is here to propagate Satan’s lie. Our job is to see past that. It is sad that so many people are too timid or afraid of the world’s response to see Satan’s lie for what it is. Thank you for reposting this.

    Like

  2. sassycoupleok
    Reply

    Very good reading, points well made. Many of these thoughts we have tried relating to our friends and family as a result of them questioning our preference to be socially nude as much as possible. We all know how social media and our entertainment industry has tainted and warped the minds of many about the human body, expectations and nudity. The reality is that social nudity frees the mind from all the judgements and expectations of society.

    T & K

    Liked by 1 person

  3. David Colantuono (@David4Nudist)
    Reply

    Up until around the middle 2000s or so, I used to have sexual responses to seeing naked human flesh, particularly when it came to female naked flesh. Part of the reason for that is because it was ingrained into me that nudity was dirty, obscene, immoral, and any other bad thing my family came up with. In fact, I wasn’t even supposed to look at nudity as I was told that to see it would cause me to sin…and then, I’d be on a one-way ticket to the worst place in existence in the afterlife. It’s a long story.

    Indeed, I made some poor choices when it came to nudity. I bought adult magazines and videos during the 1990s. A little later in the 1990s, online adult stuff entered my life. I also used to sneak peeks at my older sister (and, at times, even my own mother) when she was taking a shower. Yeah…I made some very poor choices because, as I said, I used to have sexual responses to seeing nudity. At that time, I knew nothing of non-sexual nudity.

    Sometime during the 2000s, while browsing through many adult websites, I stumbled across my very first nudist website. At first, I mistook it as simply another adult website since it featured naked human flesh, and my response was the same. But, the more I looked into the site…along with other nudist websites I managed to find…the less sexual it became for me. I saw nudity in a way I had never known before then.

    Today, I still make very poor choices, but, at least, they don’t involve non-sexual nudity anymore. Now, when I see it, I have ZERO sexual responses. In fact, it’s actually impossible for me to have a response when it comes to non-sexual nudity. Sexualized nudity, on the other hand, is a different story. But, I don’t want to go into detail about that. Let’s just say that some of my very poor choices involve the sexual kind of nudity, and leave it at that.

    Please don’t delete this post. I wanted to share my experiences with nudity and how things changed from how I used to view it.

    Like

  4. Andrew Cook
    Reply

    Great article, reassuring and confirming to me that I was not as weird growing up as I initially came to believe. School mates and work colleagues thought I must be some kind of “asexual freak” because I never showed interest when they pointed out a “hot chick” walking down the street, or any desire to borrow their Penthouse magazines. I could never understand why they were excited over boobs!

    The fact of the matter is that there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, I grew up on a dairy farm, where kids learn about sexual activity from an early age as just another aspect of life – bulls mount the cows to produce a calf. And secondly, nakedness was commonplace around our farm. Clothing was for practical reasons – to keep warm in cooler months and for personal protection when performing certain tasks. And different kinds of clothes were for different occasions when going out. But my parents, brothers and sister just didn’t bother putting clothes on if there was no need. We didn’t know about the terms “nudist” or “naturist” – it’s just how we lived.

    One statement in the article is a little unfortunate, however: “You are no longer a victim of Pavlov’s experiment…” That’s not actually the complete truth. It ignores the fact the Pavlov also went on with the experiment to show that the conditioned response was vulnerable to extinction. If the conditioned stimulus is continuously supplied in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, then the conditioned response becomes weaker and weaker until it disappears. In Pavlov’s experiment, this would translate to Pavlov ringing the bell without giving food to the dogs. Eventually, the dogs would stop salivating at the sound of the bell.

    Pavlov’s experiment, therefore, offers hope to those enslaved by pornography that their addiction can be overcome by normalising nakedness and making it commonplace, thereby removing the conditioned sexual response to the sight of a naked person.

    Liked by 2 people

    • sassycoupleok
      Reply

      Andrew, I could certainly relate to your nude experience growing up on a farm here in the hot southwest. In the late 40s, 50s and late 60s when I was a kid thru my teen years years nudity around the house and the farm was everyday life as well as for our farming neighbors. Most work could be and was done nude except where protective items were need to prevent injury. The breeding of livestock was often a neighbor involved thing as we often shared breeding to help each other, however families were around to watch so this aspect of sexual activity was definitely not a secret. Dipping into the stock tanks or rinsing off with a hose was a way of life for the men and boys. The women and girls usually sponged off indoors with a wash pan. The women and girls at times wore either half or full slips at times but they were sheer enough that little was left unseen.A neighbor lady or daughter stopping by to borrow a needed household item until they could get to town for replacement was very common. No one ran and hid, we went about our business or greeted with a hello if passing by. My grandmother and her husband had a cattle farm in NW Arkansas. There was no indoor plumbing, they had out houses. Baths were taken indoors in a big galvanized tub with some of the water heated if required on a wood burning stove. This was in the kitchen/living room right in the middle of the house with everyone around reading or something awaiting their turn. No one thought anything of any of this. It was just life, it certainly wasn’t porn and there were never any sexual responses.

      Mr. T

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Reuben
    Reply

    I learned that lesson after being trapped in lust addiction over naked bodies for over 3 decades, with not a clue how it came over me or how to reduce it. No prayer or effort at thought control had any effect to remedy the issue. Until I finally despaired of ever solving it and mentally tossed the while problem in God’s lap as it were, and told Him. “You clean up my mind, I can’t do it” and then He started leading me to understand the concept of how my mother thought nudity was an automatic lust generating sight and she thought that shielding me carefully from seeing nude people was the way to keep me pure. But that was the very element of life that opened the door to the lust addiction. I had to start going naked a lot in common life and ignoring it, and soon the lust response faded away. Then visited naturist resort and found a wonderful lust free environment there. But to start with it was a very shocking thing to my mind, because I was well conditioned to see nude as an automatic lust trigger, couldn’t imagine it being any other way. It’s been a wonderful relief to be set free of that relentless drive of the mind into lust.

    Like

  6. Paul B
    Reply

    I wonder how much our problems in this regard have to do with how we understand the image of God? It’s a retorical question. I have often heard people talking about the Image of God as being spiritual. I mean God is invisible, right? Seeing it that way allows us to call the body sinful. For me, even though I would have denied it, it ultimately made the woman to blame for my lust problem. And my wife, when she wasn’t interested. And I blamed the God who made them. Where have I heard that one before? Oh yeah, Genesis 3. That woman you made have me some and I ate it.

    But I always had a slight problem with the spiritual Image of God. The “one flesh” of marriage demonstrated in a tangible way the unity in the Trinity. And the 3 line poem in Genesis 1:27 genders the Image of God, which is genetic and therefore biological. Actually I believe the Image of God does include the spiritual. It is everything about us. But when My Chains are Gone challenged me to put the idea at the back of my mind to the front, my lustful eyes changed in a couple of days and my relationship with clothing has been changing ever since.

    Like

  7. Paul B
    Reply

    Doesn’t it what? For me it wasn’t about understanding, but rather embracing it. We have a little known lookout, which overlooks Toowoomba. It’s about half an hour walk from the trailhead. Due to public nudity laws in Queensland, I’ve never done it in daylight, but it’s an easy trail and with a headlight it’s an awesome walk in the dark. I go there to be naked with God and pray for my city.

    By the way, we don’t have mountain lions and the likes in Australia. Walks like that don’t hold the risk they would in other parts of the world.

    Like

Leave a comment