Millennial Killed the Nudist Club: Part II
Revisiting the Struggles of the American Nudist Movement
”Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin
Over five years have passed since I wrote my Buggles-inspired piece called “Millennial Killed the Nudist Club,” in which I both lament the ways that Millennials are blamed for the death of basically every industry and cherished tradition you can imagine and explore the many observable reasons that younger Americans are not flocking to visit their local nudist club or join the nudist movement in the ways that previous generations once did. Millennials, I noted, are pegged with not being joiners and with not financially supporting all these various industries that their parents and grandparents did, but much of it comes down to time constraints and financial insecurity, to say nothing of shifting social values and perspectives. Young nudists are out there, I wrote, but they’re not engaging with nudism the ways that the nudist community wants them to and they’re not showing up and supporting nudist clubs in the ways that earlier generations had. I wrote the piece from the perspective of someone who had been interested and moderately engaged in the nudist community for just over a decade at the time, and the piece itself garnered quite a bit of attention from nudist advocates, thinkers, and leaders. For that reason, since writing it, I’ve come to be much more actively involved in the nudist machine. What a funny thing to write… I’m keeping that in.
A Falling Tide
The involvement I have had within the nudist community, the contributions I have made to its organizations, and the research I have put into subsequent blog articles touching on the history and current state of the nudist movement over the past five years have given me an expanded perspective into this ongoing struggle. The nudist community, the nudist movement, and the nudist idea are genuinely struggling to find their place in a changing world—perhaps a feeling many of us can relate to today. The nudists used to occupy some corner of public consciousness—even if often negative or as comedic relief—but the nudists, their leaders, and their organizations have spent much of the past generation very effectively avoiding attention, staying out of the limelight, focusing on leisure and recreation, and recusing themselves from important social conversations to which, in my opinion, they could have offered a valuable contribution. They could have shone a light and offered support for complementary movements and groups in the name of the values they already tout: Equality, liberation, body acceptance, and community.
Instead, we are facing the consequences of global economic tribulations, a sheepishness to stand behind our guiding philosophy, and our own increasing cultural obscurity. The current waning state of the nudist community and its clubs cannot be blamed on young people, or even on any one generation, one leader, or one group in particular, but—I would argue—on generations of decisions made by the nudist community and a storm of unfavorable social, economic, and political conditions. In the United States, memberships to the established, storied organizations tasked with uniting the nudist community and advocating for its freedoms, namely the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) and The Naturist Society (TNS), appear to be falling short of the growth needed to sustain and expand effective advocacy efforts. The recent spate of looming nudist club losses, threats to clothing optional beaches, and legislative efforts to outlaw public nudity and pornography definitely feels like a direct result of membership stagnation and a lack of funding for advocacy, threatening the spaces and freedoms that nudists may have taken for granted as they became complacent with the gains made by previous generations. In reality, change itself is as much to blame as any actions or inactions taken by the nudists or their establishments, as rising costs make maintenance of nudist spaces less and less financially viable and as moral panics rage around gender, sexuality, and nudity, increasing our collective anxieties around anything to do with the human body.
Just as is true for all the other industries that struggled during the years when Millennials were coming of age and entering the workforce, it was never really the fault of the Millennials that nudist clubs and organizations began to decline in participation and membership. The world just changed. The market changed. People changed. There was a major recession. It was hard for nudist clubs just as it was hard for businesses and it was hard for families just as it was hard for Millennials. The aftermath will also be hard for the next generation, Gen-Z, who have just begun entering adulthood and assuming responsibility for their future in the years since I wrote that initial piece. Nobody can argue that it was never hard for earlier generations, of course, but it is naïve to assert that the current situation is comparable. Though conditions for Millennials do appear to be improving some as they gain some purchase in the workforce, the current lack of financial stability for young people and trends away from in-person socialization are still a major factor in the struggles we’re all feeling in the economy and in our personal lives right now, including the struggles felt by nudist clubs and organizations.
Worse yet, these economic conditions are not expected to improve as the baby boomer generation enters retirement and adds to the strain on care services and social security. In time, the aging generations who have long propped up the remnants of the nudist community will likely be facing financial instability akin to what Millennials and Gen-Z are facing now, which is sure to deepen the already negative impacts felt by the nudist community. And that’s not to mention that the sheer population of older Americans is bound to fall rapidly in the coming years, which will surely take an additional toll on the ranks of a nudist community that has struggled to appeal to younger replacements. What once may have seemed like an unlimited well of new baby boomers is soon to dry up. The future does not look bright unless the established clubs, the legacy organizations, and—hopefully—lots of new grassroots groups with bright new ideas and thoughtful leaders can find ways to replace those losses with newer, younger members excited to take up the cause and champion body freedom advocacy. Or, at the very least, to reimagine what a thriving American nudist community ought to look like in the twenty-first century.
We Can Rise From Here
Change keeps coming and that is the problem that the nudists have always faced. Change is inconvenient and it is uncomfortable, absolutely, but it is entirely to be expected. It is constant. One perspective of mine that has not changed much since I wrote the precursor to this piece is that the solution to surviving all that change is to change, too.
It’s also important to remember that it’s not all doom and gloom, that there are bright spots of camaraderie and joy and even growth within the nudist community today, too. Communities have shown that they can rally behind the clothes-free spaces they hold dear, like in Seattle where frequenters of Denny Blaine successfully thwarted an attempt to repurpose it as a children’s park, and I know from personal experience that nudist organizations are working quickly to avoid further closures of nudist clubs by encouraging cooperative ownership structures. These kinds of changes and these forms of advocacy require a great deal of work, funds, and input from engaged members and participants. The nudist community, when confronted with these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, needs central points around which to rally, needs voices, and needs engagement. American nudist organizations like Naturist Action Committee have made it their goal to alert the public and the nudist community to ongoing threats to freedom of expression and nudist interests. More recently, AANR has also embraced a more educational approach, releasing statements on a much more regular basis about their ongoing legal and governmental efforts. In my eyes, these adaptations are integral in educating and activating nudists to advocate for their community and fight for their rights, not to mention that it reminds nudists what is at stake, what they have to lose.
Some of the most promising conversations happening within the nudist sphere revolve around advocacy outside of our own closed-in community, spreading goodwill and generosity to those in need and to movements who could use our support. This benevolent approach is outlined well by Evan Nicks in an article on his platform, Planet Nude. In his piece, Evan makes a clear case for a more visible altruism among nudists and the nudist community, opting to participate in those discussions and movements from which we had, in the past, mostly recused ourselves:
Advocacy through altruism has the potential to profoundly reframe the conversation surrounding nudism. This isn't merely an angle for good PR—though let's not underestimate the power of favorable optics—it's an authentic expression of our values. When we align our causes with charitable activities, we don't just gain acceptance; we command genuine respect.
-Evan Nicks, “Clothed in a cause,” Planet Nude, September 2023
Involvement of younger and more diverse individuals has also been a priority within organizations like AANR: I offer myself as an example, having been brought into the fold of various AANR committees starting as far back as 2019—owing largely to this very blog—tasked with passing along feedback from other young and diverse members of the nudist community, advising on various social media efforts, and contributing to conversations around public relations. The changes that the nudist community needs to make in order to counter the changes taking place in the world around us may seem slow, and they may seem arduous, but they are possible. These efforts are a step in that direction and have generated encouraging conversations and promising changes. Changes like these also don’t all have to take place in committees or national organizations, either. Some—maybe even most—of the changes within this community of free-spirited, nudity-loving folks are happening organically in grassroots groups like the one Linda Weber wrote a piece on for Planet Nude, The Füde Experience, city-based event clubs like the Naked Adventure Club of Detroit, or specific cause-oriented advocacy groups like Friends of Hanlan’s Beach.
There are people, groups, and platforms making change and uniting like-minded individuals on both a localized and grand scale, often much more effectively than large national organizations or remote clubs are able to do. As consumer habits evolve, economic conditions worsen, and society adapts to new ways of life, nudists will need to rethink their centering of the remote nudist club as their primary objective and as the bellwether for the health of the greater nudist community. The nudist community is much more than its walled and gated clubs clubs and, while the clubs will continue to be culturally and historically important, nudists need to think beyond those boundaries if they are to successfully advocate for their own rights or the rights of others moving forward. Support for the nudist community may not always look like club attendance. It may look instead like participation in a local meet-up group, contributions to a newsletter, membership to an organization, a subscription to a nudist platform, donations to advocacy groups, spreading awareness about legal battles, support for artists and writers and creators, or any number of other modes of engagement.
Sure, there is a lot to be done and a lot of change to be made but there are a great many ways to contribute and there is a great deal of work already being done to adapt the movement, to welcome newcomers, and to be better advocates. The issue, in my eyes, is not whether or not there are young and diverse people out there interested in getting naked (there are). The issue is whether we can quickly and effectively activate all of these folks and unite to change our strategies, outreach, and advocacy before it’s too late.
Living in the Age of Change
If the most prominent message of my initial piece, “Millennial Killed the Nudist Club,” was to please not blame Millennials for the struggles faced by the nudist community and to instead work to find ways to adapt to changing demographics and behaviors, then the message of this “Part II” is that blame itself will get us nowhere and that the necessary adaptations are well underway but that their success relies on people chipping in, participating, and molding this community to reflect the best of us to the world around us. Success relies on supporting the agencies advocating on our behalf, supporting the platforms that educate and spread awareness on the myriad issues faced by the nudist community, and supporting the leaders and grassroots groups working to make nudist spaces more accessible and welcoming. It also relies on people like you just bringing people together, celebrating life, getting naked in the woods or on the beach or at an event somewhere, putting to use the rights and freedoms you have.
Precisely because the world is changing so rapidly, precisely because the fires of moral panic are raging all around us, and precisely because much of the old guard of the nudist community is fading away, the surviving nudist community is at a crossroads. It needs change, new life, new minds, new breath. If we want there to be a voice out there in the crowd advocating for the naked body at all, we need the Millennials, Gen-Z, Gen-X, and Boomers within this community to rally around new ideas, around one another, and around an altruistic approach to our surrounding communities and movements. We can point fingers and cast blame all we want, but any of us who would like to see the nudist community thrive have got to put our sandals on and do something about it.
We need only to face the issues at hand and keep working toward change if change is what we want to achieve.
Bro this is a clarion call! Well written and honestly inspiring.
Hey Tim, the problem that most clubs in Australia face is we only have 3-4 good months of weather a year. In that time they have to make enough to get them through the 8 lean months, unless they have a sideline like farming for example.
Young people are what we need running clubs but no one will take that on when they are struggling to make ends meet.
Also most clubs in Aus will take day visitors, singles ect
Great article BTW