meaning I live in a normal clothed world except when I am alone in private or with like minded friends.

I don't walk around sexually stimulated

I live in a rural wooded area and there is no one to 'show off' to, even if I wanted

All of which has fuck all to do with the original letter, Bob. If you'll read it, you'll see that LW's boyfriend does walk in the nude when he's not alone or with like-minded friends, he does walk around sexually stimulated and he does "show off" to others because she says he likes it when people see him. The advice wasn't a diatribe on nudism in general, but advice to a woman whose boyfriend can't get sexually aroused except when other women see him naked and masturbating.

And she said nothing about anything sexually, but you did

Again, read the letter, Bob. The boyfriend's nudism isn't about communing with nature or just enjoying a nudist lifestyle like yours--he can't get aroused with his girlfriend unless he's been seen naked by other women (who, presumably, haven't asked him for the pleasure of seeing him jacking off on the street). This guy's "walks" are all about sexuality.

To address your letter, Bob, people who are secure with their own choices don't see "toxic diatribes of misinformation" in writings that have, at most, a tangential connection to one's lifestyle. I get it: nudists by and large aren't sexual predators by nature. But Amy never said they were, so maybe you should go take a nude dip to calm the hell down.

Wow, to hear this guy talk, all we need to do to solve the problems of society, including alcoholism and drug addiction, is to let everyone go naked.

I certainly have no problem with nudism as long as it is in surroundings where everyone knows the drill, but I don't think it's going to keep all people from having problems in life.

And I really don't want to happen across this guy just walking down the street. I daresay our interaction wouldn't include "pleasant greetings."

Did he miss the part about the guy masterbating while walking...I mean, unless he has a girlfriend. Then it would be ridiculous really.

There's a difference between hanging out naked and jerking off. I've been to nude beaches which were less sexually charged than normal ones. But the people there weren't masturbating.

Wow, Bob, reading comprehension fail.

I too spend a lot of time in the nude - I have a habit of noodling around naked when I'm in my own home and I do a lot of cleaning naked or wearing just underwear. Why? I dunno. It's more comfortable, I guess, and I don't get my clothes dirty, and it's easy to jump into the shower afterwards. (Oh, wait, yeah, it's Spirituality and I'm feeling at one with my cleaning products.)

The letter writer's boyfriend wasn't a nudist, he was a pervert, and the two aren't automatically synonymous, nor did Amy say they were. The LW was expressing concern because this guy is involving other people in his sexual fantassies without thier consent - he's wandering around all boner-riffic, and he can't get it up without some nudey time outside where unsuspecting passersby might see him.

I have a feeling Dan Savage would have given much the same advice that Amy did. This isn't nudism; it's a fetish coupled with some seriously predatory behavior.

Bob seems about as much fun as your average evangelical vegan - which is to say, not any at all.

"Rarely have I seen a more toxic diatribe of miss-information"
There is so much irony is this first sentence.

Obviously Bob has never read your column. So does he search the web looking for any post on nudity so that he can rant? Maybe he needs to go for a walk.

Bob from NY seems very spiritual the way he purposely misunderstands everything. I'm a little curious about the Howard Stern reference. Does Bob mean to imply that sexuality is dirty?

I think Choika's hit on the truth of the matter: Bob came here to evangelize in favor of his (geez, but I hate this word) "lifestyle," as do rather a lot of people who consider their particular code of behavior superior to anything we poor, benighted fools might do. About two-thirds of that Bob-O-Gram is boilerplate, worked into each and every such complaint he posts whenever he sees a threat to his Sacred Cause.

A friend of mine went down to Haulover this past winter, and some putz parked himself in her line of sight, applied SPF 8 to his arms and legs, and about SPF 600 (based on the number of repetitions) to the twig and berries. Shall we ask Bob to defend this fellow also?

My grandpa does the same thing... Rambles on and on and lectures without actually paying attention to the discussion.

We'll just have to hope that Naked Bob has someone living with him out there in the woods so nobody finds his cold, naked body out there when he COMPLETELY loses it and wonders off...

"Finally, I know many families who have raised their children in a nudist lifestyle and guess what? Never in over 40 years of being around these people, have I ever heard of one drug addict, or alcoholic."
*Yeah, well I have.* (I'm not saying it's because of the nudism, either- though I doubt it helped.)

But I could fill another two pages with names of great scientists, intellectuals, professors, philosophers, ministers, noted writers, poets, painters and just plain nice people who enjoy the nudist lifestyle at their leisure.

How about listing a few ... ones that can be verified. So we'll know you're not full of it.

=========================

...meaning I live in a normal clothed world except when I am alone in private or with like minded friends.

I go for a walk in the nude nearly every morning. I do most of my outdoor chores naked.

When I lived by the ocean, I use to always take a walk and a swim in the nude. On occasion, if someone was to pass, there was always - repeat - always pleasant greetings exchanged and not people running away screaming in horror.

So, he's only nude in private ... except when he's in public taking his walk, doing his outdoor chores, or swimming in the ocean. And he does encounter strangers at times. Strangers who probably did not consent to encountering a naked old guy.

Pleasant greetings? What else are you supposed to do when you encounter a naked guy in places you don't expect to encounter a naked guy? Provoke him? Hit him with a stick and run? I'm willing to bet many of the women he encountered on his walks were smiling and saying hi while clutching the mace or pepper spray in their purses.

By his own admission, the clothed world is the "normal" world.

=========================

All she asked was "Should his nudism bother me?" ... And she said nothing about anything sexually, but you did...

The letter writer wrote, "I tell him that women find this upsetting, but he is really turned on by being seen naked by them and has no intention of stopping. Also, he can't get aroused with me unless he's been on one of his walks. He says that when he doesn't have a girlfriend, he masturbates while walking, but because he has me, he doesn't." before she asked, "Should his nudism bother me?"

And Amy addressed the pertinent points in her reply. The guy the letter writer described is not a nudist.

=========================

Again, why did the Vermont legislature see the need to legalize public nudity? What compelling public good does it serve?

Lolo Hot Springs out here is on government land, so a lot of the people who come out are nude. Lots of kids from U of Missoula. The thing is, you never get to see the ones you want nude- it's always the old hippies and biker chicks.

PS- I have never even heard of someone walking and masturbating at the same time! Would that possibly fall under the "no spitting on the sidewalks" statutes? It's probably good cardio though.

I can't defend Mr. Boner Walking Around, but I am amused at how prissy American women have become.

Crickey! It is hard to imagine that in many societies public bathing and topless attire was the norm until Westernization.

Or that some American women look down on Islam for its clothing diktats, but then shudder at the thought of seeing someone nude, or even going to town topless.

Scott Sumner calls this the "The Way We Do It Here and Now Is The Only and Best Way" syndrome.

Really, I don't care about Mr. Public Boner-Man. If I saw him, I would ignore him. If I saw a good-looking nude woman, I would be pleased and give a friendly wave.

Sad fact: In the 1970s, a PBS station in Los Angeles aired a BBC historical drama that had full frontal nudity.

I was watching a fun detective show on PBS Sunday night (Montalbano). There was a brief scene showing a woman's buttocks--blurred out.

The prudes, weenies, prissies have won.

But you can still watch slasher-killings everyday on TV. Oh, that makes sense.

BOTU invites us to admire and mimic his sexual decorum.

I would everyone admire my sexual prowess!

>>"Or that some American women look down on Islam for its clothing diktats, but then shudder at the thought of seeing someone nude, or even going to town topless."

Hmmm... I think Eric covered that one:

>>"The thing is, you never get to see the ones you want nude..."

If you ever took a moment to investigate the subject matter, you would quickly learn that nudism has more to do with Spiritualism - not sexuality. It has to do with comfort, not perversion. It has to do with a clean mind as well as a clean body, not slithering out of back allies with nothing but a raincoat on. That is not the lifestyle nor intention of a nudist.

before attempting to giving guidance in the guise of primitive Jewish - Christian prejudices and condemnation.

Which simply reinforces my irrational prejudice that most people who follow "the nudist lifestyle" are sanctimonious and pretentious twits. I don't care about seeing them nude - but I generally don't want to talk to them to avoid the lectures. Same as vegans and the organic food nuts (who are often one and the same).

Hey Bob - there's no registration required for comments here. If you've got something to say, man up and do it in public.

Can you tell us where in New York State Bob lives? I want to be careful to give it a wide berth.

He's stickin' it to the man. You uptight prigs with your square jobs, you're the freaks! Not us, man. We just wanna be free, man, free to ride our bikes, man!

Wait. I think I just conflated a conversation I had at Burning Man with a Peter Fonda biker movie monologue.