Lars Egeland Composes Editorial About Natural Nudity & Body Image in Norway

Natural Nudity Is The Only Kind Of Nudity!
Natural Nudity – This year, 2013, is an election year in Norway. On September 9th, the country’s citizens will pick the government which is in place for the following four years. In comparison to the United States and many other countries, Norway has very little to worry about economically or socially. Which is in part why the subsequent editorial by present parliament member Lars Egeland the only openly nudist member of parliament stuck out from all the other election year rhetoric.
The Socialist Left Party, of which Egeland is a member, is one of the smallest of Norway’s major parties, having gained only about 6.5% of the vote in the 2009 elections. But from a policy standpoint, it’s a leader on issues of environmentalism, equality and thanks to Egeland body acceptance. In the editorial below, Egeland discusses his feelings about naturism from both a private and political view.
This can be a translation of http://x-topless.com/pins/tiny-beach-tits.php . Click the link to see the original Norwegian version.
Natural Nudity – Lars Egeland, Member of Parliament for the Socialist Left Party
Norwegian youth are seeing more porn than ever. At the exact same time they’ve been so bashful they don’t dare shower nude after gym class at school. 70 percent of all middle schools in Norway report that pupils shower in boxer shorts. But it does not just have to do with the youthful. Water-parks all over Norway have had to start a campaign called Always Shower Nude. As Wenche Bjornebekk said in an editorial in Aftenposten before this year: young girls understand everything about anal sex, but have never seen their classmates naked.
We’ve created a discourse which was unimaginable a couple of years past: Is it a breach of human rights that pupils do not get to shower alone? Those people who are accustomed to undressing in the locker room and going into the showers start to wonder if we are viewed as exhibitionists?
Is this a hygiene issue that merely concerns how much chlorine is in the pools and rebuilding group showers to single booths? Sadly not. It’s to do with poor self-perception that actually makes many people psychologically sick.
The Red Cross’ service in Norway for children and youth reports a growth in queries from young individuals who have a poor relationship with their own bodies. Use of doping substances and growth hormones is on the rise not to improve performance in sports, but to obtain the ideal body. A body that is certainlyn’t only thin, but also muscular. A British study recently demonstrated that nearly one-third of young girls would trade away one year of life to have a perfect body. Researchers note the correlation between poor body image and dependency problems including drug use or eating disorders.
It’s a paradox that we see more nudity in media and advertising while at once young people don’t dare shower naked, according to Ingela Lundin Kvalem who’s a professor of health psychology at the University of Oslo. But is it a paradox, or a correlation coefficient? If the model for what the body should be comes from pornography and marketing, it is natural that many individuals will feel bad about their bodies.
I have been a naturist for many years and considered it a private issue. But is has become steadily clearer for click can also be politics.
I have only believed that it gives a feeling of independence to swim and sunbathe without clothes. At exactly the same time I’ve experienced the body-focus and gender-fixation of cloth shores is nonexistent on naturist beaches. Bikinis and bathing suits create more sex-focus than when everyone is nude. This is especially pertinent when it comes to children, who at a steadily younger age are subjected to sexualization. After having seen several thousand men and women without clothing I’ve learned that very few have the kind of ideal bodies we strike in digitally-manipulated advertising images. They are fat, skinny, short or tall and undoubtedly young and old. And it’s rather difficult to say that one body type trumps all the others. Individuals are different and it’s also the variety that is certainly beautiful.
The relationship to nudity is a cultural phenomenon. Many Norwegians are shocked when they come to some German sauna where it is unthinkable to have swimwear on. The German philosophy is rooted in hygiene, but also in relaxation and wellbeing. And so come people of all ages and genders to spend the evening together.
There is certainly an all-natural correlation between saying no to commercial stripping and yes to natural nudity. We do not say no to stripping because we believe the nude body is immoral or offensive. You’ll still be able to strip for your partner without fear of being hit with any moratorium! But the commercial stripping marketplace is closely tied to prostitution. It truly is not liberating when guys pound beers and look at nude girls as objects. Both stripping and porn live by double-standards. It is no accident that porn’s capital is the United States Of America a nation where folks have strong views about nude skin.
The Socialist Left party platform has an entire subsection on measures for the decrease in body-fixation, body-oppression and commercialization of the body. It was as part of the subsection that I advocated among the measures should be setting the basis for more natural nudity as an example, by supporting naturism. Whether or not someone decides to swim naked can not be regulated by a party platform. But it can have meaning if we, as a political party, express an opinion about boosting natural nudity ahead of more taboo-making of the body.
My recommendation includes a acknowledgement that naturists have worked to create safe assembly locations as defined in the bylaws of the Norwegian Naturism Association: a lifestyle in harmony with nature, expressed by societal nudity without regard to sex and with the goal of raising self respect, respect for other individuals and others’ opinions, and respect for the surroundings.
Nobody can compel someone to favor nudity. But the experiences of other states show that if nudity is a more accessible option, there are more people that will select it. If the road to the naturist beach was shorter, if there was an opportunity for family swimming with a common changing room at the swimming hall, more folks would perhaps grow up with a more natural relationship to the human anatomy.
We’re dependent on society to evaluate the chances for such body-oppression-free zones and set the basis for there to be more of them. It is but one measure that can be taken to get folks to feel content just as they are.

This post about Lars Egeland and his stance on Natural Nudity was published by -Young Naturists and Nudists America FKK
Tags: body image, body shame, children and youngsters, culture, europe, norway, politics, social standards, teenagers, the media
Category: Body Image Blogs, Social Activism
About the Author (Author Profile)
Erik Jakobsen works in Nyc, lives in New Jersey and has been an avid nudist for 25 years. He is a frequent contributor to FKK’s blogs.