INTRODUCTION

Before beginning this article we wanted to point out that the authors of this story, my wife, Julie, and I, are both lifelong nudists. We both grew up as full time nudists from birth and never learned to associate nudity with sexuality. For us, and the other members of our families, being nude is just our normal state of dress. We are both proud of having grown up as part of two wholesome nudist families and wanted to make it known that no one in either of our families was obsessed with sex or were sexual perverts. Except for the fact that everyone was nude whenever possible there was no difference in our activities or behaviors from any other textile household.

Julie feels compelled to share this story because it was a defining part of her life experience. She hopes that it will be of help to other families finding themselves facing similar situations. In recent years our acquaintances ( mostly part time or novice nudist families ) have asked her how to best provide their children with advice regarding acceptable sexual behavior and boundaries, mutual respect, communication, and personal safety. Several have requested more details regarding the sexual education lessons provided to Julie by her parents during her teen years. The major challenge in our discussions is peoples’ tendency to equate nudity with sexual intention.

Portions of this story are very explicit in their sexual content, but Julie wanted to be as truthful and complete as possible. This story has nothing to do with nudism, even though the participants were nude for all of the activities described. The events described could just as well have occurred in a textile home.

BACKGROUND

Bill & Mabel were committed to providing a loving and wholesome full time nudist family lifestyle for their daughters, Becky and Julie. The family engaged in all of their everyday household activities in the nude. They were always nude at home, at camp and many other social nudist venues, and not just for the events described in this story. When people would ask they would say that their home life was just like any other except that they all wore less clothing.

We have noticed that people raised in a textile ( non-nudist ) environment tend to see nudity as a sexual overture because they are not used to simple benign nudity in everyday situations and they only enter some state of nudity when engaging in sex. Consequently, after a lifetime of learning they find it hard to separate nudity and sex. Growing up as full time nudists Becky and Julie never learned to associate their nudity with sex. It was just their state of dress. It is the persons’ behavior and attitude that leads to sex, clothed or nude. If you carefully consider the situation, living nude is no more sexual than the textile lifestyle.

This story is an account of how Bill & Mabel used innovative strategies to protect their daughters’ well being while establishing family policies on acceptable sexual behavior and teaching them safe sexual practices. We must point out that even though Becky and Julie were exposed to explicit sexual acts they were not harmed, physically or emotionally, by these experiences. At no time did either girl participate in or have any physical contact with any of the sexual acts that they were observing. Their exposure was done after careful consideration by Bill & Mabel and in a very safe and controlled environment with the sole purpose of providing a thorough sexual education. To some, these methods may seem extreme but one must carefully evaluate Bill & Mabel’s attitudes and intent, the societal norms and cultural conventions of the times, and the unique environment in which they lived.

MOTIVATING FACTORS

Bill and Mabel, were both college professors and very much in tune with the cultural and moral changes that were rapidly developing. It was Fall of 1969, the middle of the anti-establishment, “sexual revolution”, “back-to-nature”, burn the bra, free beaches, Woodstock and the Free Love movements.

Although they embraced the relaxation of social taboos as positive Bill and Mabel were also alarmed by the growing incidence of “date rapes”, unwanted pregnancies and emotional depression in their female student population. They noticed that many of these traumatized young women suffered from regrettable intimate encounters. Most of these cases happened because of lack of proper sexual education, leading to poor decision making which resulted in unhealthy sexual conduct.

Bill and Mabel soon realized that their students had never received instruction regarding appropriate and respectful sexual behavior, much less on the emotional health and safety aspects of sexual behavior. Because the students’ parents typically didn’t practice open communication with their children, especially for sexual issues, the students had to rely on their friends and porn for their sexual behavior information.

Bill and Mabel believed that Becky and Julie’s friends at school and nudist camps were sharing misconceptions regarding safe sex and pregnancy avoidance practices. That October two girls at Becky and Julie’s high school had dropped out of school because they had become pregnant and a third had returned after losing her pregnancy. These factors, above all, convinced them to take the necessary steps in order protect the girls from suffering similar fates. They felt that it was important to protect their daughters from making mistakes that they would regret in the future based on such faulty information. Most of all they wanted to avoid either of their daughters from joining the ranks of the unwed student dropout mothers.

Becky was about to turn 18, and as a senior in high school, would be attending community college the following year. Julie, 16, was a Sophomore in high school and was starting to show an increasing interest in dating. They were both very beautiful and popular with the young men at school and especially at camp. Despite having played and interacted closely with many nude young men at camp and at home gatherings over the years neither girl was yet sexually active.

Mabel had always had a higher than average libido and, with its high sex drive was sexually adventurous and had few self-imposed sexual inhibitions. She knew that libido levels were genetic and feared that the girls would soon start to develop a similar strong sexual appetite. Becky, the older daughter, liked to flirt with her male friends, so was already showing signs of wanting to experiment sexually. She feared that one or both of the girls would not remain virgins very much longer.

Following the recommendations of some of their nudist friends, Bill and Mabel, wanting to make their oral sex more enjoyable, had been discreetly trimming their pubic hair since the previous summer. Bill had been trimming the longer stray hair around his testicles and shaving his penis shaft. Mabel would comb out and trim short the pubic hair on her labia, from the top of her clitoris down to her perineum. They knew that Julie and Becky had noticed and wanted to prepare a truthful answer that they would understand.

Bill and Mabel felt that both girls were now mature enough and ready to learn from a proper, detailed discussion regarding the facts of life. With those factors in mind they came to conclusion that now was the time, especially for Becky, that the next level of sexual knowledge would be required. On the other hand, they also did not want to interfere with their daughters’ sexual development, but felt that the girls did need to have a comprehensive sexual education in order to develop appropriate sexual behavioral boundaries of their own.

WHAT THEY KNEW

If the facts of life discussion was going to have any meaningful relevance to the girls Bill and Mabel would first have to determine their current level of sexual knowledge. To their great surprise, by asking Becky, Julie, and their nudist girl friends a series of veiled leading questions, they found how little they all knew about sex. It was counterintuitive, but they found that the nudist camp teens knew far less about sex than the textile teens at school.

Contrary to popular opinion the teens at our nudist camp were not preoccupied with sex. In most nudist families, being nude was treated as a state of dress and not as a sexual condition. Although they were nude together for long periods of time and often had considerable incidental physical contact, they had no actual sexual contact. A very few of the older teens ( 19-20 ) had become boyfriend and girlfriend and privately engaged in kissing and experimental petting but only a very few had actually engaged in sexual intercourse. Most of the nudist girls wanted to remain virgins until marriage.

Becky and Julie had only a vague awareness of the function of vaginal wetness, almost nothing of oral sex, and nothing about ejaculation or how to achieve orgasm ( other than by masturbation ). And neither knew exactly what caused erections. They had both frequently seen Bill’s erections at home. And they had also seen the occasional nonsexual involuntary erection on the young men at camp. But they did not know the specific kinds of stimulation that led to real sexual erections nor of the fluid emissions that often accompanied them.

Mabel had shown both Becky and Julie how to safely insert tampons when they each began menstruation. Because they would be nude at camp, she showed them how to color the string with a marker, trim it to the proper length, and tuck it between their labia to make it inconspicuous. She also explained that it was a natural monthly process for all girls because their body prepares a lining in their uterus to hold a baby. If no baby is formed, their body sheds the lining in the form of a blood discharge. This bleeding is different from being cut and may be accompanied by cramps as their uterus contracts to shed the lining. Taking Midol would ease the cramps. Because of the hormone loss related to shedding the lining they may experience mood changes, but can minimize them by keeping busy and exercising.

Becky and Julie had been masturbating since just before each started having their periods. They had learned how from one of their girl friends at camp. Being very open with their parents they confided with Mabel regarding possible harm from masturbation. She told them that occasional masturbation was actually completely normal and healthy and had many physical and mental benefits. She explained that masturbation relieves menstrual cramps, is a natural stress reliever, aids in better sleep and improves self-esteem. It is also a positive way to enhance sexual pleasure, increase libido and strengthen their pelvic muscles. Mabel strongly objected to the idea that associated masturbation with shame, negativity and self guilt. She felt it was narrow minded dogma based on an ignorant belief system filled with mistaken cultural and religious prohibitions that had labeled masturbation as unnatural and sinful.

Mabel encouraged the girls to continue with the practice, adding that she and Bill on occasion would masturbate to relieve tension and improve relaxation. She also then told them that she had recently found out about exercises called Kegels which would strengthen their pelvic floor muscles to help make it easier to reach orgasms during masturbation.

DEVELOPING A LESSON PLAN

Bill and Mabel wanted to provide Becky and Julie with a medically accurate sexual education that included emotional and psychological considerations. Their research found that the available sex education literature of the time focused mainly on describing the body parts, only briefly mentioning the physical interaction between the male and female parts. Being nudists the girls already knew what all of the parts looked like, but not exactly how they worked.

The main focus of the available sex education literature was on abstinence, stressing adherence to religious and moral standards as the reason to delay sexual intercourse until marriage. No mention was made of the importance of having a healthy lifestyle, stable relationships and the individual’s emotional needs relative to their sexual growth. There was nothing describing the importance of foreplay and the psychological fulfillment and pleasurable aspects of sex

So for several weeks Bill and Mabel searched for a more appropriate and effective way to present the “Facts of Life” discussion to the girls. They consulted their family doctor for advice, asking if there was any better educational literature available. They also asked what pregnancy protection options were available for Becky and Julie.

So after several weeks of research, consideration and debate Bill and Mabel developed a lesson plan that included discussions regarding responsible sexual behavior and demonstrations of related sexual activities. Regarding the demonstrations, Bill and Mabel decided against showing the girls porn films because of the unrealistic and exaggerated portrayal by the actors. And the available sex oriented magazines were just as bad.

Bill and Mabel felt that it would be best if they themselves demonstrated the sexual acts to the girls in the safety and privacy of their own home. They would have to carefully develop a detailed curriculum that allowed them to demonstrate how to safely perform various sexual acts while deriving maximum pleasure and satisfaction. They would be sure to include many breaks in their activities and encourage the girls to make detailed observations and ask questions. The demonstrations would be clinical and educational, while still emphasizing the emotional, tenderness, pleasurable and loving aspects of each sex act. At each step there would be a termination option if they felt that the girls were not being receptive and learning from the lessons.

LESSON PREPARATION

In March of 1970 Bill and Mabel determined that it was time that they had the “Facts of Life” discussion with Becky and Julie. They had decided against showing them porn sex films, as they presented unrealistic portrayals. And, importantly, they wanted the ability to modify the performers’ actions in response to any question that may arise. That reinforced the idea that it would be best if they themselves performed these demonstrations. They believed that their home offered the girls the most comfortable, secure setting to receive lessons. There the girls would not be distracted as safely learned directly from their parents.