Sun and sand and stuff
Last month, California’s Department of Parks and Recreation warned that they would crack down, so to speak, on nude use of San Onofre State Beach in Orange County, which prompted the Naturist Education Foundation to commission a poll. If the numbers are accurate, Californians weren’t all that upset about this sort of thing: 79 percent agreed “that people should be able to enjoy nude sunbathing on a beach or other location that is designated for that purpose.”
This, of course, requires another question: should locations actually be so designated? Seventy percent said they should.
I suppose my real question here is whether Californians, the majority of whom live within a reasonable distance of some sort of beach, are unusually tolerant of this sort of thing, or it’s simply that no one ever asks this of, say, Iowans.
Meanwhile, naturist activist Allen Baylis (previously mentioned here) points out:
“I think this poll mainly shows that the Parks Department should go ahead and designate clothing-optional beaches in California because that’s what the people of the state want. The people want to have safe, legal, clothing-optional beaches.”
Or at least, they’re not interested in seeing people prosecuted for doing without swimsuits, since, according to the poll, 40 percent of them have gone at least as far as going skinny-dipping.
(Seen here.)
McGehee »
10 December 2009 · 11:52 am
And those who’ve seen ordinary people sans couture (or whatever the correct French would be) probably don’t mind that such designations will involve the posting of warning signs.
CGHill »
10 December 2009 · 11:57 am
The warning sign is pretty well established by now; anyone who claims to be surprised simply hasn’t been paying attention.