Seeing and Being Seen

I simultaneously ran two surveys on Bluesky and Twitter / X with the following texts:

Survey 1:

    "I have launched two polls simultaneously.

    This one is about being seen naked; the other one is about seeing people naked.

    Q: When it comes to being seen naked, do you:

    a) prefer not to?

    b) not mind?

    c) want people to see you?

    d) go out of your way to let them see you?"

Survey 2:

    "I have launched two polls simultaneously.

    This one is about seeing people naked; the other one is about being seen naked.

    Q: When it comes to seeing others naked, do you:

    a) prefer not to?

    b) not mind?

    c) want to see them?

    d) go out of your way to see them?"

I was very to see the responses because I am always interested in why I am, and have always been, a nudist, and other people's thoughts, while not always coinciding with my own, have always provided me with insights into my own nudism as well as nudism in general.

When others cite reasons like comfort, feeling free from restrictions or feeling closer to nature for their nudism, it immediately strikes me that other, more weighty, questions need to be considered before attending to your own comfort and feelings, and people must have thought about these before taking the plunge.

As nudism is not regarded as wholly "normal" in society, anyone who professes to be a nudist may justifiably be concerned that they might well be regarded with mirth, suspicion or even disgust by friends, family, colleagues and anyone else. To risk being thought of by members of society in this way is surely an extremely important consideration when it occurs to you that you may feel a little more comfortable without your swimwear, or walking around naked. Actually, I would say it is of primary importance.

Making the decision that you would be happy to be seen naked, to be in the company of other naked people, or even just to be known to do so, is a decision that is not to be taken lightly, precisely because of the fact that nudism is a minority interest and the potential social stigma that is sometimes attached to it.

In some cultures of course this is more of an issue than in others. We all know that in Western culture, the Scandinavian and Germanic societies are far more relaxed, blasé even, about nudity than, say, the Anglo-Saxon or Mediterranean (Catholic) ones.

Needless to say, being a poll conducted primarily among nudists, 90-odd percent of respondents stated they would either not mind seeing naked bodies and/or being seen naked, or positively wished to see and/or be seen in that state: b) and c) in the options.

What I found slightly surprising was the distribution between b) and c). I would have thought that, being nudists, respondents would have actively wanted to see and be seen, but by far the great majority stated that "they wouldn't mind."

In part, I am tempted to put this down to i) my choice of wording and ii) the concern of respondents that they might appear to be harbouring exhibitionist tendencies if they answered c). If, instead of asking respectively,

    "When it comes to others seeing you naked, do you c) want them to see you?"

and

    "When it comes to seeing others naked, do you c) want to see them?",

I'd asked,

     "When it comes to others seeing you naked, do you c) like them seeing you?"

and

    "When it comes to seeing others naked, do you c) like seeing them?",

I'm sure the b) / c) proportions would have been different. The combined b) / c) mix, however, would have remained the same.

The screen grabs are of the Twitter / X survey, however the Bluesky version produced almost identical results.