Tourist in his particular Garden of Eden
The tourism expert Maximilian Korstanje , Doctor in the Department of Economic Sciences of the University of Palermo (Argentina) and in the CERS (Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies) of the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) gives us a possible reason : "Postmodern tourists travel outside their homes and cultures to experience a new feeling, to acquire an experience that is not common to them".
Of course, if we think about it, 21st century travelers have already tried it all : fly over monuments in a balloon, live with indigenous tribes, walk on flying paths of glass in towering mountains... What do we have left? Well, precisely the most natural.
" Tourism is based on the idea of a 'mythical return to the Garden of Eden' , and this concept, together with that of sin, is basic to understanding the trend. God expels Adam and Eve for their sins and covers them for the shame of their deeds, so getting naked implies a return to paradise ", explains Korstanje. "In a world ruled by the work that Adam has bequeathed us, tourism itself symbolizes that attempt to emulate the lost Eden . Therefore, it does not seem strange that man wants to come into contact with the world of Creation", continues the expert.
Travelers dressed as Adam and Eve
To make it even clearer for us, we asked two of the "ringleaders" of this movement on the Internet What are your personal reasons? One of them is Paul, an Australian writer living in Los Angeles, he works in the film industry and manages the Facebook page **Naked at Monuments** (i.e. "Nude on Monuments"), with 6,300 followers . The first time a photo was taken in this way -and shared on the networks- was in 2010, and the chosen one was an "old classic": the Chinese Wall. The reason? Pure and hard fun. The same for which he created the page.
In the case of travel blogger Emil Kaminski, it's a bit more meaty. Not in vain, this author provoked a huge media scandal when, last June, he pretended to be one of the mountain climbers arrested, jailed, fined and deported for taking nude photos on Mount Kinabalu. What led him to fake his presence in the group was the fact that Malaysian officials to accuse tourists of triggering Nepal earthquake (which caused almost twenty deaths) due to these images, since the peak is considered sacred in their culture.
"If people take off their clothes in public places that have rules against it, they will have to face the consequences. To me these laws don't make any sense, but they are there. However, I am totally against people being arrested for being naked on top of mountains or on remote beaches. If there was no way to see them other than spying on their Facebook and choosing to be offended, how can they be offended? Right now, for example, there's a lot of fuss over some Chinese tourists who decided to take their clothes off on a remote beach in Malaysia... That's crazy. Remote beaches are the very definition of great places to be nude! "
Emil managed to fake his presence in the group thanks to other photos he had taken in his "birth outfit" in the past. The first one was taken in Tahiti, in 2005, and of course, he shared it. "At first, it started out as a funny thing because no one else was doing it, but the more people freaked out about it, the funnier it became. Nudity is not a problem; our fear of her is. There are a lot more important things to worry about than nipples and ass cheeks," he tells us.
nature bath
Alberto Bermejo , a clinical psychologist from the EIDOS Cabinet, sheds more light on this phenomenon by telling us about the possible profiles of its users. "Most likely, some of the actors will be individuals of a histrionic character. Histrionics is a type of personality that constantly needs to attract attention and be the center of attention . If we knew them better, we would notice in many cases a rampant narcissism: Would they perhaps want to replace their alleged "beauty" with that of the environment where they mercilessly photograph themselves as God brought them into the world? In any case, they are basically exhibitionists , and in sexology, clinical psychologists consider exhibitionism as a sexual deviation, so they have to be careful. And if we are to understand that they are normal and ordinary people (most probably they are), everything is nothing more than a gulf and excessive performance , to the delight of friends and to fill posts, tweets, and make a mark on the internet.
Emil, however, has gone from mere entertainment to having a political reason to show your butt : "The message is often lost, because it is not that I carry posters or something like that, but I do want to convey something : people need to take off the medieval burden of being ashamed of their body . We laugh at the Taliban for wrapping their women in burkas, but we too go crazy when we see a woman breastfeeding in public, or when some private part accidentally slips out of her clothing. It's insane," he argues.
Naked in the water for political reasons?
Whatever the reason, fashion is hitting hard. On websites like My Naked Trip you can browse nudes from different countries , and in Nut Scapes they have created the nutscaping , which consists of capturing images of dreamlike landscapes... with the bottom of the testicles sticking out. One can only wonder: Is this trend here to stay?
"To the extent that society continues to see the issue of nature as something problematic , the trend will continue to increase", Korstanje tells us. "When society produces norms, it needs, in order not to collapse, to reproduce against-norms. If you create the work, you must allow a limited time to break. It is not strange that the conflictive relationship with the environment reproduces counter-revolutionary forms , like nudism," he explains.
Curiously, neither Paul nor Emil consider themselves nudists , understanding nudism as "a practice that was born around the 19th century in Europe used as an expression of protest, freedom or, simply, to connect man with the natural world", according to Korstanje. The first, Paul, who daily receives loads of photos of English, Australian, New Zealand and French people posing openly in tourist hot-spots (the Grand Canyon, Trolltunga and the Bolivian salt mines are the most popular) believes that there is a lot of hype around: "It's just a current trend because the media is talking about it. People have been doing it for years and will continue to do it."
What nudism unites, let man not disunite
The psychologist Alberto Bermejo, who learned about this practice a couple of years ago on an outing with his PERIPLOS travel club to Machu Picchu, believes, however, that he should stop: "It's simply rude. We shouldn't do anything out there that guests wouldn't do in our own home. , for instance. On the trip, the protagonist is the environment, the town, the cities, the people we visit... the traveler is passing through", he considers.
Emil, of course, has a more "romantic" view of the matter: "I hope it sticks, because it's a loud and clear 'que os den' dedicated to the most traditional and regressive people . Those people who scream when they see a bit of butt or a nipple are the same as It prevents women from having access to education, the vote, good salaries, to the right to decide on their body, and they cause a lot of pain and suffering in the world under the guise of their 'higher moral fiber'. I think that in a few generations, people will relax more about it and we will laugh at this as we now laugh at some laws of the eighteenth century. There are millions of people sharing this wonderful planet, and we have to use the maximum amount of logic and reasoning, and not medieval theologies, to keep the peace".
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