I know this is an old thread, but our friends at the cottage were talking about this song line quoted by Ramblinman:

Two friends, both now out of college and married, have been coming to the lakefront cottage since COVID, including long stretches when their university shut down the dorms and international students were encouraged, if possible, to live off-campus to avoid close quarters with other students. They didn't grow up in the USA so that song was new to them (anyway, it was written before they were born) and they loved it.

They felt that song was a near-perfect description of how they felt their first time undressing with their boyfriends in a group of people, absolutely scared to death as they unbuttoned their blouses and took off their bras, even though their boyfriends (and other male friends) were fully nude and the normal and expected emotions were rising up in their bodies of both curiosity and excitement at the very new experience to them of seeing male anatomy.

They both remember their boyfriends lightly touching them on their backs after they took off their bras, and blushing but enjoying their touch. One remembers her boyfriend, after she pulled down her skirt and panties, lightly touching her hair, offering her a hug, and then she concealed her nudity from the rest of the group by pressing her body into his, not realizing the reaction it would produce in her boyfriend. She felt the lines about closing her eyes and hiding, wanting to hold him until she died, and in her case, coming very close to breaking down and crying, and in fact holding him until her fear subsided and she could let him go and face the room again, fully bare and exposed and open and vulnerable, was almost tailor-made to describe her feelings on her first time undressing.

One line didn't fit. Only the girlfriends, not their boyfriends, wanted to "break down and cry." Of course their boyfriends were nervous undressing, but both absolutely loved seeing their girlfriends nude, and even more (both couples had previously been nude in private), going through the incredibly difficult experience of undressing in a group of male and female friends.

Both said the reassuring experience of light touch by their boyfriends on their nude backs after taking off their bras, and the caressing of their hair, and later on, holding hands and walking with arms around each others' waists as they got used to walking around nude, all of that physical touch gave them the reassurance they needed that, "Yes, this is really scary, and I feel really vulnerable, and yes, my boyfriend enjoys seeing our female friends nude, but he's with me and he loves me and he is really happy I'm going through with this."

What the song doesn't say (no song can say everything, of course) is how two women who had been raised not to show their bodies to anyone except their husbands on their wedding night realized that it wasn't just their boyfriends who enjoyed seeing nude women. As the day went on, the women enjoyed seeing their male friends nude, watching how male anatomy moves when it's not bound up by pants or swim trunks, and learned to enjoy men paying attention to their nude bodies.

What began with closing their eyes and wanting to hide, within half an hour, led to their fears subsiding as they learned to enjoy what they once feared. Both remembered giggling with a sense of "we shouldn't be doing this but it feels great" as they showered together for the first time in a group, again enjoying the physical touch of the man they loved, and learning to enjoy touching him as well.

The two women showed us a picture of them as freshmen wearing bikinis. It hadn't been their first time in bikinis but it had still been new to them, and the male friend who took the photo had told them how sexy they looked. (He wasn't wrong. They did look great.) They were sitting nude eating lunch with their nude husbands, in a room full of people with nobody wearing any clothes, and commented on how nervous they felt years ago to have their photos taken wearing bikinis, but now, even though they were completely nude and had been since arriving at the cottage, they were perfectly fine doing everything without wearing anything. Both couples woke up nude in their separate bedrooms, made love with their husbands, walked into the hallway nude, showered with their husbands and several other couples, and while there was definite physical attraction between friends, the two friends were very happy for each other that they had married a man they love, and have a very satisfying romantic life.

As they pointed out, the fear subsided long ago, replaced with mutual enjoyment of being nude.

I saw the board virtually died, but logged in today, saw new posts about Thanksgiving, and decided to give replying a try.

Sorry about your family issues, Dipper, and glad you were able to have perfect weather, "low to mid 70s and sunny when we got down to the sand, with almost no wind. The water was crystal clear and still warm enough to enjoy walking in the shallows."

It's too cold now to enjoy swimming at the lakefront cottage, but suntanning is great on a warm day in late fall. Some warm days prompted college students to invite friends who, as often happens this late in the season, felt "now or never until spring," and decided to try social nudity.

We agree with you on this:

You are TOTALLY right that social nudity encourages "taking off emotional barriers along with our clothes," but first-timers don't understand and feel nudity is a huge barrier to overcome, especially women who are socialized that nudity is only for the most intimate of relationships with deep trust and love for the man. Even women who are used to swimming, and being on beaches in revealing swimsuits, and who enjoy seeing men respond to what we wear, often feel very awkward taking off our swimsuits and letting not only our boyfriend but other men on the beach see those last few parts of our bodies that our swimsuits cover. It's far more difficult for women like me, taught that except for doctors, no man until our husband on our wedding night should see us nude, and even more difficult for married couples who feel they're somehow breaking the trust of their marriage when, perhaps for the first time in years or even decades, they're undressing with men other than their husband and women other than their wife. Resorts often say married couples must visit together, and there are good reasons for that. From our experience, when a married couple try social nudity for the first time, it's best they undress together and then hold hands or have their arms around each other's waists as they watch the rest of the group undress so the wife learns it's perfectly okay for her husband to enjoy seeing other nude women, and the husband learns that it's perfectly okay for a nude male friend to enjoy seeing his wife nude.

For dating couples, it's incredibly fun seeing men and women struggle with fears and false modesty as they undress together in a group of friends. Initially blushing with socially conditioned embarrassment as they undress and are seen nude by friends and see their friends nude, they begin to enjoy the sensations of warm sun and warm breezes, and their bodies begin to respond as they were created to do.

It is perfectly normal, natural, and healthy for young people to enjoy seeing each other without their clothes, and that enjoyment washes away their modesty. As experienced nudists know, that process usually takes somewhere around 10 to 15 minutes, maybe half an hour for the most modest of new nudists.

I use that phrase "new nudists" because we almost never have someone agree to go nude with us in a group of friends who doesn't get "hooked" after their first experience, no matter how scared they were before they tried it, and no matter how opposed the reluctant wife or reluctant girlfriend was to trying social nudity. Yes, we know couples who had bad experiences on a public beach with gawkers or with unfriendly and suspicious older people at a resort, and women who had bad experiences going solo without a boyfriend or husband, but when couples try social nudity with trusted friends, the first time is almost never the last time.

What we call the "adorable awkwardness" of a young couple undressing together soon turns into enjoyment and excitement as not only the man but also the woman learn to enjoy seeing and being seen. It's not unusual for a woman who stoically agreed to go a nude beach with her boyfriend, expecting to hate it and going only because he wanted her to go, to be very surprised as her body responds to the sensual enjoyment of water gliding over her nude body as she swims nude, and then gets dried off by the warm sun and warm breezes on the beach. Before too long, she's feeling, "I know I'm supposed to be uncomfortable, but I really love swimming and sunbathing nude, and I'm even beginning to enjoy men looking at my nude body the same way they look at me in the cute bikini I spent so much time picking out."

Hi BeachBunny!

Spring comes and goes with the shifting winds.
It actually reached 70 Sunday!
But no one would dare plant tomatoes before the first of May. And swimming is probably not going to happen until mid-June in our chilly lakes. This is not the land of perpetual nudity, (not without a hot tub or sauna). But I think the quality of life is pretty good in my present home.

While we wait on summer, we just take every opportunity for nudity that comes along, even if it is only a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon. It's the rainy season, so those days are extra special.
The impatient among us have one remaining option: point your car south and keep driving until it feels like summer.

Like the changing seasons, your young friends are in transition too and that's a good thing. Imagine if we never overcame our fears, (regardless of what's spooking us).
For the same reason, a single song probably wouldn't serve as the background music for all of one's life. To be sure, men and women don't often cry the same way or for the same reasons. We are better for our differences, don't you think?
I am a better man for the women who have graced my life.


The way guys react to beauty can change in subtle ways over time.
Of course, it's not time that changes us. Rather, it is when we have enriching experiences and our minds are open to growth.
Men can reach a point where generic female nudity doesn't necessarily trigger erotic thoughts anymore than the sight of a vivid sunset or shimmering lake would.

Some guys might be frightened at the prospect of losing the response to nudity that is common to teenagers, but this is a natural part of maturity and essential to social nudity. Instead, our passions are stirred by our interactions with one woman in particular. In polite society we confine those moments to private time. I don't go to the places that are not "polite", don't even want to go there.

But "she" can move heart and soul far more than some cutie walking down the beach. And at the right time and place, the lion roars!