Non-Verbal Language of Nudity

Communication is the most important tool for a group of species. There are many forms of communication with the most popular ones being verbal, written, non-verbal, sign, and with our technological world we have emojis to express our otherwise muted emotions and other visual cues. I’ve wondered how often one, but very important, form of communication is overlooked by its importance, and how an entire conversation can happen over non-verbal cues.

Common Non-Verbal Cues

When communicating with someone face-to-face, or at least in close proximity to see their expressions and actions, you can generally understand how their mood is, what their current interests are, and general temperament. Someone who is happy or content will often have a smile, smirk, or a raised eyebrow look signaling they are not harboring any contention. Alternatively, someone who is angry or upset may have a scowl on their face, exhibit aggressive actions, or you can tell by the color of their skin and other actions (like sighing or slamming doors).

Have you ever been in a group conversation or in a room with a lot of people, and then you look over at someone close to you to give them “the look”. I’ve often given looks of excitement, agreement, anger, or even surprise, and I’ve also seen others give the same look. How many of you have looked over at your spouse, lover, etc, and given them those “I want you eyes”? I’m sure you’re met with an amendable look, and one of you points your eyes to “escape”, while the other confirms. Well, you’ve just had an entire conversation without any words used at all. It’s just an implied conversation on known cues, and no matter who you interact with, these cues are almost universal.

Language of Nudity

As most of you already know, nudity can be portrayed many different ways, and the most common language of nudity is obviously going to be sex. However, this is not the only one, and I see nudity as having multiple languages within itself. I see nudity as having these languages:

• Sexual
• Humor
• Relaxation
• Contentment
• Spirit

Sexual

As I mentioned before, sex is the primary language of nudity, and for obvious reasons. You cannot engage in any intimate sexual actions without being naked or exposing some part of you. This applies to anyone whether you’re at home, a park, the car, or even a store changing room. Nudity allows your body’s natural responses to be seen. For men, it could be in the any of the following forms.

• Erection
• Eye Contact
• Eyes will wonder
• Mood will change
• Stands taller and thrusts out his chest
• May begin to sweat more

I’m sure there are many others, but that is for another day. Women have some similar signs when it comes to nudity, but they also display very different ones. The most prominent sign will be the eyes though.

• Downcast eyes or look down
• Eye’s will widen
• Her pupils will dilate
• Head canting or tilting
• Smiling
• Flushing or blushing

You may see or exhibit these yourself when wearing clothes, but when one or both of you are naked it can much more prominent. The barrier of clothes are gone, and you can involuntary react to one another without ever saying a word.

Humor

In the right context nudity can be quite funny. Not in the sense of making fun of someone because of their naked appearance, but when you utilize your body as a tool to get a positive response our of someone or a number of someones. Take a look at the video below as an example. Ursula Martinez doesn’t say one word during her performance, but she has undoubtedly captivated the audience with her non-verbal nudity and other unspoken body language. She’s quite talented.

Relaxation

Just like many of you, I find nudity very relaxing in itself. Yesterday I was out in the yard helping getting our new above ground pool ready, and it was so hot and humid that my sweat had sweat. I could not wait to come inside and strip down for a shower. However, your nudity can sometimes be used as a relaxation technique for someone else. If you’re like me, then you may only choose to use this at home with your partner, but if you’re one of those who are more prone to be the naked one with your friends, you may have witnessed this yourself.

If someone is angry or having a bad day, and you’ve tried many things to cheer them up, or maybe make up for screwing something up, then maybe you can use nudity to solve it. Let’s say you get into an argument with your spouse or partner, and you have done or said something that made them angry at you. You’ve tried apologizing, you’ve done something nice, or tried to right the wrong, and nothing you do will de-escalate the situation. What do you do now? Fuck it, strip.

Walk into the room wearing nothing but a smile like nothing has happened, and more often than not you will immediately change that persons demeanor and mood. Nudity brings about a change in people like no other actions can. In situations like this you can show a sign of submission, or that you will anything to help please your partner and make the situation better. Even if you don’t completely change their attitude, you have at least changed their mood.

Contentment

Nudity can bring about a lot of positive things in your life, and the one aspect I enjoy is contentment. If you live most of your life without clothes you show the world that material items don’t really matter, and anyone can get by with a minimalist approach. You don’t need the fancy Victoria Secret underwear/sleepwear (although they are nice…not gonna lie), or those Under Armour lounging pants just to sit around the house in. Removing your clothes helps one to realize that you don’t need all of the worldly things to help yourself feel better. Allowing yourself to be content frees up your time shopping for things that don’t matter, and allows you to devote more time to things that really do matter.

I’m not that naive to think we can just drop everything we have because we need certain items to survive, but if you’re like me and have a hard time making final decision, then taking this approach can maybe free up some time for you.

Personally, the greatest achievement with contentment is being content with you, your body, and how your uniqueness makes you wonderful. We ALL have imperfections in our bodies. It’s a fact of life. Some suffer from genetic issues, health related impairments, surgeries, babies, and many other life events that cause our once perfect bodies to suffer. When you finally take ownership of who you are and realize all the events in your life made you the wonderful person you are today, then you can hopefully let go of some (or all) of your insecurities and finally be content.

Spirit

Do some internet searches for various nudist events and you will be overwhelmed with pictures, videos, and other media. So much that you can get lost in the time suck and lose a whole day. I enjoy reading, hearing, and seeing how different people enjoy their own nudity, but one thing I enjoy the most is how it affects their inner spirit. I’m not talking about a religious spirit in the sense, but more of a personal spirit being set free. While sitting at a public place, well, before the coronapocolypse, you can people watch and usually get a sense of that persons spirit. Are they high strung and up tight, carefree and fun, passive, or maybe a take charge kind of person? Sometimes they surprise you.

Nudity has a way of speaking to you. Whether within or from someone else. Nudity speaks to me in a way that allows me to release my inner spirit and help me to feel free. Takes me back to that Lynard Skynard song, Free Bird. Removing my clothes and taking a minute to “release” my Free Bird. It’s like letting go of all the inner demons holed up trying to get out, and I can finally free them so I can be without care and free spirited.

Having a free spirit is something I see a lot when researching different nudist venues. I see large gatherings like WNBR and Burning Man as a place for all the free spirits of the world to come out and join together as one. Basically, showing the world that you too can bring this free spirit to yourself, and release those inner demons fighting to keep you anxious, high strung, irritable, and many other negative moods. Release your bird.

Note: Header Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash