Faint praise for nude recreation

There's an article on MSNBC today that is a classic example of the conflicted attitudes we have about nudity in western culture and mass media. "5 reasons to bare it all on your next vacation," says the headline, with the subtitle "Nakation anyone? The skinny on clothing-optional vacations."

Once we get past the cringe-inducing word "nakation," the article presents a straightforward and fairly accurate summary of why clothing-optional recreation can be fun, relaxing, horizon-broadening, and no big deal. Columnist Christopher Elliott of National Geographic Traveler says that no, he has not, himself, taken a "nakation," but he's "open to it." Of course, if you watch the video at the top of the page, he says otherwise: "it's not for me," but you might want to give it a try. And no, there's nothing shameful or offensive about it, but bowing to his readers, he removed the "not safe for work" clip including naked derierres from his blog. (Hasn't he ever heard of a disclaimer? There are prudes, and then there are those those who enable prudery. It took a long time to even find that original blog post, by the way, and only with the help of an advanced Google search. In the process I also found this similar article from 2005.)

"We’re fed a lot of titillating nonsense [by mainstream media]," says Elliott, "lists like the 'Top 5 naked events' and 'Top 5 nude beaches' that leave many of us firmly convinced that all nudists are hedonists." This point is reinforced a mere screen scroll further down the page, with a side bar featuring a photo of three hunky bare-chested guys and a link to the "world's sexiest beaches 2009... our annual round-up of the sultriest stretches of sand." I'm sure Elliott wasn't responsible for this unfortunate juxtaposition, but it illustrates nicely the dilemma. Ads are chosen based on the expected demographic of the reader, and in this case, MSNBC assumes that those who choose to read about "nakations" might next be interested in learning about where to get sultry in the sand.

And don't ask Chris Elliott to refute it. He's never been skinny-dipping on vacation; he's sitting in his cubicle writing safe and unoffensive blog posts about experiences he's heard good things about from other people.