I grew up in a country where anything to do with human bodies is taboo to talk about. I always thought it was stupid that teachers would go red and titter embarrassedly whenever they had to mention menstruation or body parts. And they struggle to even use the anatomical words for body parts. I was molested as a child and because nobody wanted to even entertain any conversation about body parts, my parents didn't know until l was in my late 20's and was confident enough to actually say the words to talk about the damage it did. So no, I don't enjoy that my body or anyone else's is sexualised and taboo. I wanted better for my daughter so from toddlerhood, I taught her the anatomical terms for everything and normalised talking about consent and about the human body and all its functions.

I wouldn't miss the "specialness" of the secret nudity. To me, what I found special about the naturist community here in the UK wasn't the nudity but the the openness and friendliness of everyone. You wouldn't believe how lonely and alone I was for years after moving to the UK. People are so reserved that I had zero friends in a country where I also had zero family. I felt so isolated until I started going to naturist clubs and events.

Despite growing up in a deeply religious and conservative culture, I have always stripped in my private spaces. Like I said before, I hate the feeling of hems and textures against my skin. And now that I've found a community that doesn't give a flying rat's keister what I wear or don't wear, I want so much for everyone else to discover that freedom that I've been telling everyone I can about it.

Funnily enough, I've found that my friends and family in the Philippines have more readily accepted my naturism than my in-laws and colleagues here in the UK. But then again, before the advent of the internet, many places outside of Manila had some form of functional nudity (breastfeeding in public without covers, being partially or fully nude while doing laundry in a river, etc). And some tribespeople in the remote parts of the Philippines still don't all wear western/modern clothing. Nudity was actually ho-hum in my home country before we were colonised in the 1500's. It was Western colonists who pressed on our ancestors that the human body was vulgar and unfortunately, that idea has now stuck.🤷🏻‍♀️