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Re: [at-l] Re: hike-naked?

Gas@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I met three naked, redneck hikers last year on June 21st in New Jersey.
> 
> My first reaction was one of humor, which quickly changed to disgust and
> several
> other reactions.

Why did your reaction change? Was it something the hikers did, or simply
your personal feelings about nudity that caused your rather dramatic
change in response to these people. Oh, and why were they "rednecks"?
 
> What kind of an image does it portray as through-hikers stroll through
> a town or down a country road --- naked?

Well from what I understand of this tradition no one is walking around
in town or down a road naked, no one wants to be arrested. 

> Would you want your daughter (who is a solo through hiker) to come upon
> three naked male hikers in the wilderness?  Is there not just the slightest
> possibility of many forms of sexual abuse in this scenario?

There is the possibility of sexual abuse in all situations involving
more than 1 person, and a situation involving public nudity probably
involves less of a chance of sexual abuse than most situations. Why?
because the average person would be more on gaurd for this sort of
thing, and... well, being able to see everything could provide an early
warning system :)

> Is not naked hiking almost strictly a male ego/macho thing?  Is it not purely
> a form of sexual abuse?  Have you ever seen women hiking naked?

Actualy I remember Gutsy's journals last year mentioned a young woman
who was hiking naked, not just on one day, but quite a bit of the trail
from what I understand. From what I remember, no one really seemed to
care. It occurs to me that it would probably be just about impossible to
do a thru-hike, with all of the other hikers around you, and not see a
nude person the entire way. I mean everyone is staying in the same
shelters, the same hostles, sharing motel rooms to cut down on expenses.
It's bound to happen and might just happen often enough that the average
person becomes more comfortable with their own, and other persons
bodies, which I can only think would be a good thing.

> I know its the "90's" and there is a "new morality" among young people today,
> but I  think the practice is disgusting and an affront to all the people who
> have
> worked so hard to establish and maintain the footpath.

Well I have never asked any of the maintainers, but the ones I have met
seem to be the type of people who would think it was rather funny, and
that's all, just funny. I hope this didn't come across as a flame as I
truley don't mean it in that way. But I do believe that many people in
this country (the US) have adopted attitudes about the body which are
truely unhealthy. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with nudity in
the right context ie. your own home, in someone else home who is
comfortable with it, in an area where peole expect to see others nude
(locker room) and in a situatuion where nudity has been previously
agreed on (naturist resort, naked hiking day) or where you reasonably
expcet to see no one else (way off in the wilderness) in these caeses I
am hard pressed to see any harm at all. In fact it might be the attitude
that nudity is a bad thing that does the most harm to our society.

enough of my rambling,
E. George Oeser (aka Needles)
synergy@nc5.infi.net
> The Big E
>
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