If Catherine Zeta-Jones Says It's Normal...

I've come to a bit of a realization about our culture; we love our celebrities. I guess that's not really a revelation but I think it's an important realization for the advance of naturism into mainstream society.

Lately there has been a whole host of celebrities confessing to the press about how much they love to be nude. Headlines such as these are popping up everywhere:

Celebrities back plans to expand naturism on Hampstead Heath

Naked celebrities: Why we'd all rather go nude

Zeta-Jones misses nude lifestyle


I've read these before and didn't give it much thought; either because I don't really care about celebrities or maybe I just thought it was all for publicity. My thoughts on this changed yesterday however, when I realized just how much impact these articles can have on people. Here I am playing roller hockey with my friends, including my buddy K who is probably one of my most prudish friends and doesn't even give me the time of day to talk about my nudist experiences. Well he rolls up beside me and says something about what a gorgeous sunny day it was and then he says, "it's a great day to get naked". I almost fell over backwards in amazement! I agreed, then asked him to elaborate. He told me how he had read about some celebrity who had mentioned that she always liked to be nude at home, and how K thought that was a great idea.

Right there I realized that no matter what I said about nudism, it meant nothing to him, but if some celebrity he respects promoted nudism, then that's all he needed to make it acceptable in his mind. And I can only imagine just how much impact that celebrity had on him in order for K to come up to me and suggest enjoying the day in the nude. That's a complete 180 degree change from his thinking only a few days prior.

So what's the deal with nudist celebrities? Well as much as I don't want to admit it, our society is in love with famous people. We want to hear every juicy piece of gossip and we want real-time Twitter updates to keep us informed about every detail of their days. Most of it is trash and I surely don't follow it, but I think it's a little different when we're talking about nudism. It's not written the same way as typical tabloid trash, and I think this is why celebrities can do a lot for naturism. Most articles I've read involving a celebrity who confesses to enjoying the nude lifestyle is written in a positive way. The articles don't condemn nudity or the lifestyle, and more often than not, it makes naturism sound good. And clearly this is a good thing for the promotion of naturism, and this is apparent with my friend K, who has obviously gone through a complete change of opinion thanks to a celebrity who says that nudity is healthy and natural. I think celebrities have a powerful ability to change a lot of minds about simple nudity.

You know there's some irony in that. Celebrities are constantly blamed for inflicting negative body concepts upon people; especially young women. The fashion, the unrealistic bodies, etc. Well since nudism promotes a positive self body concept, these celebrities are perhaps helping the body concept movement for once.

So to all the nudist celebrities out there, I hope they keep on telling the world about nudism because apparently in our society, the word of the celebrity is supreme.