The notion of "gender balance" or "sex balance" in naturism is common

ly accepted by various quarters in our lifestyle. The women who have spoken on t
his matter have cited feelings of being 'comfortable' in a gender balanced mix.
This thus indicates that they feel uncomfortable in an environment with an unbal
anced mixture of sex (ie: more males than females). More directly, and taken lit
erally, many women are saying that they feel uncomfortable around single males.
Understandably this leaves single males feeling isolated and ostracised by the g
eneral nudist community, being clubs, retreats and resorts. Many of these establ
ishments still defend their policy of "gender balance" today despite common know
ledge that any form of artificial segregation is immoral, unethical and illegal.
What is more surprising, perhaps, is the fact that most of these peop
le who defend segregation see nothing wrong with it. Now I might be drawing a lo
ng bow here, but there have been many instances throughout history where the ide
a of "feeling uncomfortable" around certain types of people have led to some of
of the most barbaric human behaviours. Feelings of discomfort around blacks has
ledt to apartheid, segregation and slavery, feelings of discomfort around homose
xuals has led to gay bashings and murders, and feelings of discomfort around Jew
s led directly to the Holocaust and anti-semetic feelings are still rife today.
I have lifted some quotes from the net to elucidate members on those issues:
Black
-----
"Someone I considered a long time friend just told me that she's tried hard, but
she feels uncomfortable around black people and we can't be friends at all. But
she insists she's not a racist because it has nothing to do with feeling superi
or, it's just discomfort. I don't know what to think."
"I feel uncomfortable around blacks. I really do, I feel like they wanna rape me
or something. I know they won't but, still."
"Many white prisoners told Human Rights Watch that they were uncomfortable with
blacks and would prefer to live in a racially segregated environment. t is hardl
y astonishing that white prisoners should be 'uncomfortable' around blacks. Nor
is it surprising that they want to get away from them, whereas blacks are less i
nclined to be separated from people they can rape, buy and sell, pimp out, and h
umiliate with impunity."
Homosexuals
-----------
"Lesbian teen Constance McMillen won her day in court last month, but was still
robbed of her chance to dance with her girlfriend at her high school prom.
The girls were misdirected by parents, other teens and school administrators to
a fake prom at a local country club while her classmates partied at a secret pro
m organized by parents.
After a court told her high school they could not refuse to allow Constance to b
ring a female date to the prom, the district responded in a grounded, mature fas
hion by simply canceling the entire event.
They encouraged parents and community members to host a privately sponsored prom
, with the idea that a private event would be allowed to discriminate against ga
y teens. Only seven students attended the â fake promâ . Two of them are students with
learning disabilities. Constance, who seems to actually be a pretty classy pers
on, said the best thing about the devious prom shenanigans was that those kids d
idnâ t have to worry about being made fun of at their prom."
Anti-Sematism
-------------
"This, however, should not be so shocking, because in all honesty, pretty much e
veryone on Earth dislikes or feels uncomfortable around Jews, including a lot of
Jews."
"If you feel uncomfortable around Jews, no one is forcing you to go there."
"She made a point of mentioning the Hebrew lessons a few times so I would know
theyâ re Jews. I thought she thinks I may be uncomfortable around Jews so I pressed
on but she was amazingly rude after she realised I was a Muslim."
"I don't hate Jews, but I felt very uncomfortable and prejudiced around them or
a long time. "
Disabled
--------
"I feel uncomfortable around disabled people... it's getting to a point where I
find myself laughing nervously when I'm around them and i can't stop myself!"
"I know it's wrong, but I feel very uncomfortable around disabled people. I do f
eel for them, but I don't pity them. However, I do try to avoid them as much as
possible..."
"I wasn't aware of this at all - I knew a lot of people can be very uncomfortabl
e around disabled people, but I was really surprised to find all these cases of
people being beaten up or pushed around."

Imagine, for a moment, if the shoe was on the other foot. If you were
in the unfortunate position of being a single male and you were excluded from j
oining a club or attending an event, how would you feel? If you were a genuine n
udist and had been for all your life, your nudist wife had died and you were now
in the position of meing a 'single male', how would you feel to suddenly be a s
tranger among your own people? Many of our senior nudists are in this position.
Now imagine you are a married male nudist, love nudism and long for acceptance a
mong your fellows, yet your wife looks sideways at you and says, "Put some colth
es on! You look disgusting!" The imaging you are a newcomer to naturism, you hav
e the misfortune of being single and male at the same time, want to get involved
but no-one will let you. Then you search the net for clubs you might join and f
ind:
"something" caters for genuine nudist couples & families;
"something" Nudist Club for families and couples;
"something" Network is a family orientated networking website, designed to allow
, couples and families to find other genuine nudist couples with whom to attend
outings;
"something" is a family oriented naturist club for all ages;
"something" is a family nudist club that has been operating since 1980;
"something" is Australiaâ s oldest Nudist Club (est 1949) catering for families & c
ouples;
The "something" nudist club is a family orientated club with strong family value
s;
Membership is available to families, couples, single parent families and some si
ngles for the same price.

Why do we ban single people for the simple fact that they are single?
 If you look at the above statements, it would seem that single males do not rep
resent 'family values'. Therefore they are implying that single people are immor
al, trouble-makers, not to be trusted and unworthy of membership. And all of thi
s is decided BEFORE meeting the individual or considering their circumstances. P
urely and simply, it is discrimination of the highest order, perpetuated by many
women, and supported by their spouses. And yet we completely ignore the two mai
n reasons why we have come to this generally accepted state of affairs:
1. Past transgressions by single men at nudist venues have not been followed up
and dealt with on an individual level. There is no facility within the Australia
n Nudist Movement for the reporting of offensive behaviour at nudist facilities.
Reasons for this extend largely to peoples perception of an individuals rights.
However, I believe that if a person breaks the law they forego certain rights o
f protection that the rest of us enjoy. I see no problem with banning, punishing
, prosecuting or imprisoning people who do such things, as they invade our right
s to exist in a decent and moral manner. The nudist movement's only response to
this issue is to presume all single nudists guilty, and NOT give them the opport
unity to prove otherwise.
2. In most cases women's insecurities have been sited for reasons of enforcing a
nd maintaining 'gender" or "sex" ratios at venues. This, in and of itself, condo
nes all the tragic events in history where people have felt 'uncomfortable' in t
he presence of others. But it is not a good enough reason! What we should be foc
ussing on is WHY DO WOMEN FEEL INSECURE? We cannot hope to change the world for
women by removing the source of their insecurity, any more than we can stop the
fashion industry for printing air-brushed images of ideal women. WHat we need to
do is remove the reason for women's insecurity itself - and only women can do t
hat. In a previous discussion a member stated something along the lines that "To
say that body image is all in the mind is ludicrous". Well, if it is not in the
mind, where is it? 'Body Image' is an 'imagined' image of the body, and in bein
g imagined, it occurs ONLY IN THE MIND.
Definition: Body image is a term which may refer to a person's perception of his
or her own physical appearance, or the interpretation of the body by the brain.

Many would argue that a person cannot change their mind, but I will a
rgue emphatically that a person is totally in control of their own mind, and the
re are two reasons why they cannot change it: a.They did not realise they needed
to; b.They refuse to. This again harkens back to the reasons for Apartheid and
the Holocaust. People were educated to believe Blacks and Jews were inferior, an
d had no reason to question this. Others just likes being superior. Propaganda (
or in our day, the media) lay as the root cause for these pandemics. So ask your
self, do I buy the magazines that promote figmentary bogy images? Do I purchase
the cosmetics aimed at reducing or removing the blemishes and imperfections whic
h are perfectly normal on a human body? Do I alter my appearance regularly by co
louring my hair, doing my nails, or whatever means possible? And when all else f
ails, do I consume comfort food to make me feel better about myself?

Why do you think that 95% of all Television commercials are aimed at
women? Why are 99% of all shops in shopping centres specifically for women? Why
do we have a new shampoo and/or conditioner, cosmetic, mascara, lipstick or foun
dation every single week of every single month, of every single year? It is quit
e simple really! The manufacturers know that the product doesn't work, so they h
ave to make another one to continue to make money. And they know they YOU will k
eep bying it based solely on the false promises made in advertising. Deep down i
n every woman's heart, they know this. But by continually buying these expensive
and useless products you feed the monster. Or you could simply say "Enough!" an
d stop. You could do what I did many years ago and force yourself to look at you
rself in the mirror. You could change your life and like what you see. You could
stop walking down the street and looking at other women, judging them for what
they are wearing, or wishing you looked like that. You could stop dressing to im
press - since women have admitted that they don't dress to impress men, they dre
ss to impress other women.

Let us first stop treating single men like lepers and ostracising the
m from the nudist lifestyle. Let us accept and embrace them, and learn from thei
r courage to be nudists despite adversity. And let us realise that, if they look
at our naked bodies for perhaps a moment longer than they should that they are
paying us a compliment AND following a natural human instinct.