Nude Family Values

By John Cloud Lutz

Like any boy who has felt the furnace of a June afternoon in the South, 16-year-old James Gordon knows the pleasures of stripping nude for a swim. But a couple of weeks ago at his summer camp, Gordon was nude just about 24/7. He sang Kumbayah around the campfire naked, gave a speech to the entire camp naked and played the violin in a talent show naked. Which is what's expected when your camp is organized by the American Association for Nude Recreation (A.A.N.R.). Gordon was one of two dozen young people, ages 11 to 25, who attended the camp, which ran from June 5 to June 13 in sweltering Lutz, Fla., outside Tampa, at a secluded place known as the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort.

All the campers had, like Gordon, been raised in families that routinely visit--or reside at--places like Lake Como (there are 259 A.A.N.R. resorts and clubs). Gordon says he has been a nudist since he was 2, "and now we come out [to the local nudist resort] every Sunday after church." (Gordon and his parents attend a conservative Christian church, and because it's a congregation that may not welcome nudists, we have changed his name.) Despite his religious background--in fact, partly because of it--Gordon sees nothing wrong with nudism. "God created all of us," he says. "He made our bodies, and we shouldn't be ashamed."

Gordon is old enough to know that many people disagree. Some even think he--or, rather, A.A.N.R.--should be not only ashamed but also investigated. Congressman Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who is planning a run for the U.S. Senate, bitterly attacked the A.A.N.R. youth camp last week. "I have no way of knowing whether illegal behavior is taking place in this camp," he told Governor Jeb Bush in a letter. Nonetheless, Foley asserted that the camp was "exploiting nudity among minor children to make money." He worried that the campers were in danger of sexual abuse. And he asked the Governor to help determine whether the camp is legal.

Though the summer camp was in its 11th annual incarnation, Foley hadn't heard of it until last week, when he read a story in the New York Times. As it happens, I attended the Florida camp, as a (fully clothed) reporter invited by A.A.N.R. The group hoped to publicize its effort to expand nudist camps for kids across the U.S. A weeklong camp for young nudists opened last week in Ivor, Va. (Conservatives in the state, including the attorney general, promptly criticized the camp and promised to monitor it.) Another A.A.N.R. youth camp is set to start in New River, Ariz., in July; yet another is planned for Texas as early as next summer.

In some respects, Foley is right to be worried, but he's also less informed than he could be. Foley seemed to fear that adults would see the young campers naked, but nudist adults see naked kids--their own and the children of other nudists--all the time. All three A.A.N.R. camps this summer are being held on campgrounds of larger resorts full of adult nudist visitors--RVers, foreigners, locals--many with their own nudist kids. There's a fair amount of intermingling. At Lake Como, for instance, A.A.N.R. campers used the same pool as regular Lake Como visitors. For the most part, there were no problems.

That said, there were two Peeping Tom--type incidents during the A.A.N.R. camp at Lake Como. One adult nudist leered at the kids as they swam in the pool; another allegedly asked two girls to pose suggestively for photos. Both men were ejected. A.A.N.R. officials say the first man was placed on its do-not-admit list, which goes to all member clubs. The other man was reported by the girls to camp authorities, who confiscated his film. It turned out he had not taken inappropriate photos, according to Susan Weaver, A.A.N.R. p.r. chairwoman. "These incidents are always acted upon immediately," she says.

The Florida camp had 24-hour sentries, a well-lighted security fence--and no reports of child abuse, according to the Pasco County sheriff's office. It was perfectly legal under Florida law, which--like most other state codes--doesn't prohibit anyone of any age from being naked at home, in locker rooms, at nudist resorts or in any other areas where nudity is expected. Lewd behavior is outlawed in public and private, say Florida legal experts, but not mere nudity.

Still, Foley has a point. One reason A.A.N.R. is so attuned to preventing sexual abuse is that it knows that pedophiles are a rare but persistent problem in nudist America. Every nudist resort has policies in place to protect potential victims, and every nudist parent I met watches for suspicious behavior. Members of both nudist resorts I visited, Lake Como and Cypress Cove Nudist Resort & Spa, in Kissimmee, Fla., said they have had to keep an eye on creepy men.

So why would anyone want their kids in such an environment? The answer begins with nudist demographics. Two years ago, A.A.N.R. paid the marketing firm Claritas Inc. to analyze the membership of the 72-year-old group. Claritas found that the cluster most likely to renew A.A.N.R. membership is a group it labels "God's Country"--primarily executives from the exurbs who tend to be Republican. Their key issues are tax reform and terrorism; they like Golf Magazine and GMC Safari vans. And most have kids at home.

This demographic picture often shocks those new to the nudist world. Four years ago, Florida state senator Victor Crist, a Republican, was redistricted into an area that includes Lake Como. At first, he says, he was apprehensive about having so many naked constituents. "So I went out there for myself. I think the most surprising point was that the majority of these people are just regular people ... I don't promote this lifestyle, but some people that are active nudists are individuals you would never expect--some of our most prominent lawyers, doctors, judges, policemen ..." His list continues for some time, painting a positively Rockwellian picture.

Children are a quotidian feature of nudist America. Swingers who think they will find like-minded libertines at nudist clubs will, with a few exceptions, face disappointment. In fact, most nudist clubs are so dominated by married parents that A.A.N.R. occasionally fields calls from singles claiming discrimination against them.

If the world of nudists brims with surprises, perhaps the biggest is that it is a propitious moment for nudism in America. Membership in A.A.N.R. has climbed from about 40,000 a decade ago to nearly 50,000 today. A tourism official in Pasco County, Fla., says more than 100,000 tourists a year visit its five nudist resorts, of which Lake Como, founded in 1947, is the oldest. In 1992, Forbes estimated nudism to be a $120 million-a-year industry. A.A.N.R. claims that with all the nudist resorts, clothing-optional cruises (seven this year) and other enterprises (there was a nude passenger flight to Cancun not long ago), the figure is nearing $400 million.

Why the growth? One reason may be that at a time of crushing global uncertainty, nudism thrusts its devotees back to basics. In surveys, the No. 1 reason nudists offer for going around without clothes is relaxation: as confining garments fall away, so do the worldly responsibilities that they signify. Many nudists--especially women--also argue that the nudist subculture prizes body acceptance, meaning they don't have to stop eating carbs or fat; there is little Botox here.

But contrary to what you might think, American nudism is not rooted in the hippie '60s. A 1988 history, Family Naturism in America, credits German immigrant Kurt Barthel with organizing the first nudist outing in the U.S. in 1929. Barthel trumpeted the presumed hygienic benefits of light and air on the body. Within a decade, the American Sunbathing Association--which later became A.A.N.R.--was founded. It was run by Baptist minister Ilsley Boone, who for decades enforced a family atmosphere by refusing membership to clubs that sold alcohol.

Nudists have long been preoccupied with whether the lifestyle is healthy for their children. In 1959 naturist author Donald Johnson wrote a pop sociology called The Nudists. It extolled, in common naturist refrain, "the nudist child's freedom from sexual curiosities ... The unsatisfied desire to see that which is customarily forbidden incites many children to unwise or immoral acts ... Nudist children spend much of their free time at the park with their families; they are therefore less likely to join motorcycle clubs." One still hears such quaint sentiments today. It's common for nudists to claim, without evidence, that nudist teens are less sexually active than nonnudist kids.

In 1986 a nudist press published the results of a five-year study of children raised by nudists. Growing Up Without Shame concluded, rather expansively, that "the viewing of the unclothed human body, far from being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign or to actually provide benefits"--typically indifference to such inevitabilities as puberty, sags and wrinkles. Dr. David Fassler, a fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, says such claims haven't been validated by independent psychiatric researchers. But a visit to the camp yielded anecdotal support. An 11-year-old girl described--in disarming detail--how she was prepared for her breasts to grow and menstruation to begin. At another point, a group of adolescents listened to a 62-year-old explain why she'd undergone breast reduction. There were no giggles--in fact, most of the kids seemed bored. Nudists believe such frank talk frees their kids from the body-image worries that rack teenage girls and, increasingly, boys. "America's young people, as early as 9 or 10, their goal is to look like Britney Spears," says A.A.N.R. president Pat Brown. "We need to learn body acceptance."

But kids in the throes of puberty can see their developing bodies as horribly inelegant. At the camp, pubescent children covered themselves more often than older boys and girls--though even the pubescent children were nude most of the time. The campers were never required to be naked, but most nudist resorts mandate nudity in pool areas. That can be difficult for some kids. A 15-year-old girl from Texas who has been a nudist since age 3 says she only rarely felt awkward during puberty. But when she did, she didn't always want to be naked--even though her club requires nudity unless it's cold or you have a sunburn. "I found a loophole in the rule," she says proudly. "They won't stop us from wearing a towel. So I would just wrap that around myself." But should kids have to find loopholes to feel comfortable? "Yes, there's a coercion of sorts with the pool," admits Dean Hadley, 55, who owns the Cypress Cove resort. "But they have a choice of getting into the pool or not."

There was little sexual behavior on display at the camp. A typical observation came from Gordon, the 16-year-old: "With girls on the outside, you get to know the clothes, not the person. If I am looking for a girlfriend, being a nudist is actually better"--better from a moral standpoint, he clarifies--"because I think [nudism] is less sexual than trying to get attention with certain outfits." Nudists as moralizers? There's more. The presence of so many kids at nudist resorts has resulted in a proliferation of rules governing naked behavior. Nudists may ignore the No. 1 precept of human interaction since Adam and Eve, but they have overlaid their world with other strictures. One cannot walk around clad only in underwear, which is considered titillating. At Cypress Cove, nude dancing is forbidden. Nudists are supposed to carry towels to cover seat cushions.

On the last night of camp, the kids held a talent show called "Sunny & Bare." They sang a nudist rendition of a Garth Brooks classic--"I got sand in low places"--as well as a straight version of the G.O.P. standard God Bless the U.S.A. The next day there were tearful end-of-camp goodbyes. Most of the kids were returning to areas where they have few nudist friends, and most nonnudist pals wouldn't understand the lifestyle.

I wondered how the kids would turn out. The 11-year-old camper who was so frank about her incipient puberty also said that a visitor to the Lake Como resort twice touched her leg in the pool. (Camp wasn't in session; the girl had been visiting a relative who lives at Lake Como full time.) The man was thrown out. Says the girl's mother: "Kids here are taught to talk about it. They immediately tell." But might the man have been emboldened because he saw the girl naked? As America's nudists continue to thrive, they will have to grapple with that question. They may have learned to see the naked body as mundane, but most people haven't.