Even Wikipedia has it wrong. The article says that nudity was banned. It was not. The law passed prohibited nudity on public property unless you had a parade permit. You cannot be denied a parade permit because nudity is involved. There are many events with open nudity in SF every year.
Great article Fred - if there are problems in SF I'd guess the combined suggestive inuendo-ing of the prudists is gaining traction. I'm in England but feel that where nudity was once just 'naughty' in the public mind it is now being perverted by the prudists into a form of shaming that no-one in authority is willing to recognise is just one more manifestation of 'hate speech'...
To be truthful, I am blaming the major nudist organizations for not organizing or promoting it. I believe they don't want to associate themselves with it because it is too "free range" for their tastes. Clothed and nude commingling in the same crowd, rather than being safely segregated as in a WNBR.
Nice interesting article & the event.. It's unfortunate for the reduced number of nudies over the years. Is this event organised by the local administration or by private agency? I was unaware of such a event.. Thanks Fred..
The City of San Francisco organizes traffic and crowd control and cleanup. The B2B is traditionally a big tourist draw.
The promotion and logistics of the event is done by private sponsors. For a long time it was sponsored by the SF Examiner. Currently it is the company Zappos. Other sponsors have included Alaska Airlines, ING, Craig's List, and Under Armor.
Most of the people on the ground doing the work are volunteers.
Appreciate the update but hate to hear that the numbers are diminishing. One of our good friends has made nearly all of them. Nudist Dan Hawkins aka D.H. Johnathan nudist fiction writer.
Would be nice if we could get all the nudies to start up in one place and then head off to their respective corrals. I might have spoken to him along the way and never knew who he was.
There are a great many photos of him doing the B2B over the years. Quite a few with the ladies as well. He also does a lot of art class posing and frequents festivals if they allow nudity and often times he's the only that is but he's definitely not deterred.
I understand that. I've done the same thing. Often they "allow" nudity but do not actually believe anyone will take them up on it. Take them at their word and they are surprised and confused. That turns the solo naked person into a bit of a spectacle.
I had much tougher skin when I was young. Nowadays I may still be an individualist but I'm no longer so rugged.
I haven't been in front of an art class to pose in 40 years. It is much more difficult out here these days. It has turned into a profession with gate keepers. Not a casual thing one might do for spare bucks.
Dan is in the DFW complex and has found several colleges and art venues who give him regular posing work.
We are in central Oklahoma and I've tried sever art schools and have not gotten a positive response, bible belt here and nude is often viewed as lewd. So, it goes.
I checked out nude art groups on Meetup.com. Even they have long wait lists for people to pose. When I was 18+, I posed for the colleges I was attending. Now almost all have a rule forbidding that.
When I was a 20 something, I contacted one guy who provided models for many area colleges. He just started sending me out and never asked for a reference or a photo. Worked that way for most of a decade. Today it is quite competitive. They want references and an extensive portfolio; professional figure models or other models who want to switch genres. I suspect to break in you have to know someone.
I almost got a modeling job at a local college just before COVID because I met an art teacher who referred me. My contact there retired and now I can't find a way in the door.
Although you sound discouraged, I really enjoyed your report. As a San Franciscan who was a very early Bare To Breakers participant, your article gives me serious FOMO. Except during the Covid lockdown years, I have not been in town for B2B in at least a decade. I hate missing it, but the timing is impossible for me. A few years ago, we moved to a home that's right along the event route... what a bummer not to be able to enjoy that! My neighbors all watch from the sidelines, which would be an added bonus as far as I'm concerned.
Bay to Breakers is unique. You said it quite well in the piece: "It is different from the WNBR. There, you are segregated from the world, a demonstration to be viewed from a distance. Here, you are enmeshed in it."
I did do SF Pride nude last June (not the parade this year; only the festival). It felt good. Another fun clothing optional SF tradition is the New Year's Plunge at Ocean Beach. A small percentage of participants do it nude, but I've always found the vibe very inclusive.
If I see a group forming, I'll do the B2B again next year. I am tired of such a low turnout but I'm limited in how much I can promote. I don't care to do it alone.
Since I live in LA, that's a long drive. WNBR is all that happens locally. We typically do it near the Solstice.
LOL! If my neighbors watched me from the sidelines, they'd drive me out of here with pitchforks and torches. But they'd never go to such an event.
No. Both my wife and sister-in-law keep their clothes on.
However, they accept that I do things like this and see nothing wrong in it. Seeing casually naked people doesn't bother them. To them, I'm just a bit eccentric. That is probably the best a nudist can hope for from the rest of the world.
I would not have married a wife that had a problem with it. She knew about it the day we met. If she'd objected, there was no point in going further.
I sometimes hang out on forums and social media for nudists. I am amazed at the number of men who have been married for years and still struggling with how - or if - they should tell their wife they are nudies. Usually try to come up with a story about how they just discovered it. "Oh, look at this magazine I found about nudism. Doesn't it look really interesting?" And even then be too afraid to follow through.
Why do they feel so guilty? I wonder what other secrets they are afraid to tell...
I'm with you on this, Fred. I cannot imagine getting myself into a relationship where I could not be myself.
28 years ago, I met my husband at a Christmas party hosted by mutual friends. I was the only naked person there, so my future spouse knew about it before our first date a week later. He is very supportive, but will occasionally discourage me from being naked in a setting where it's unexpected but feasible. In such instances I gently remind him, "Hey, you knew about this going in."
So, they hid it from the wives? I think it would look worse if they hid it like that. If the wives discovered it in other ways, there could be a lot of misunderstanding.
I'm really confused how a person can live like that. Either you are sneaking off to be nude or you are putting a tight lid on a boiling pot. I guess that's the very definition of being in the closet.
I don't think that nudism is a casual choice. It flows against the rest of the world in ways that just being a rebel and a nonconformist don't explain. If it is that fundamental, why hide it from a significant other? If they reject it, it is a mistake to make them a significant other.
I think a lot of men secretly feel guilty about it. Even if they know *intellectually* there's nothing wrong with it, they can't shake that Puritan notion that nakedness is sin or the more instinctive fear of not complying with cultural norms. So, a guy meets who he hopes is "The One" and tries to remanufacture himself to meet what he imagines they look for. Women do it too.
Imagine someone who is desperate to make a relationship (ANY relationship) work; "I don't want them to know about my autistic behaviors or it may scare them off. Or they might ridicule me." Swap out "autistic" for many other problematic traits. Then, because you didn't tell them up front, you can't tell them later because they'll feel deceived.
Autistic people are not the only ones who mask. Everyone masks. Everyone has a part of them they don't want the other to see. Some more than others. Some traits are easily cast off while others are more fundamental. Regrets and unfulfilled wants and cognitive dissonance build.
The solution is for two people to accept that they are different. Good partnerships have both commonalities and diversities. You don't need to be just like your partner, they just need to be ok with who you are. Also that it is better to be single than to live life as a lie. That's a REALLY tough idea to accept.
True. Everybody has something to mask. Some would intentionally do it and some would inadvertently do it. Their partners would only see it after awhile. I think it's all about acceptance.
I'm with you on this, Fred. I cannot imagine getting myself into a relationship where I could not be myself.
28 years ago, I met my husband at a Christmas party hosted by mutual friends. I was the only naked person there, so my future spouse knew about it before our first date a week later. He is very supportive, but will occasionally discourage me from being naked in a setting where it's unexpected but feasible. In such instances I gently remind him, "Hey, you knew about this going in."
Even Wikipedia has it wrong. The article says that nudity was banned. It was not. The law passed prohibited nudity on public property unless you had a parade permit. You cannot be denied a parade permit because nudity is involved. There are many events with open nudity in SF every year.
Great article Fred - if there are problems in SF I'd guess the combined suggestive inuendo-ing of the prudists is gaining traction. I'm in England but feel that where nudity was once just 'naughty' in the public mind it is now being perverted by the prudists into a form of shaming that no-one in authority is willing to recognise is just one more manifestation of 'hate speech'...
To be truthful, I am blaming the major nudist organizations for not organizing or promoting it. I believe they don't want to associate themselves with it because it is too "free range" for their tastes. Clothed and nude commingling in the same crowd, rather than being safely segregated as in a WNBR.
Nice interesting article & the event.. It's unfortunate for the reduced number of nudies over the years. Is this event organised by the local administration or by private agency? I was unaware of such a event.. Thanks Fred..
The City of San Francisco organizes traffic and crowd control and cleanup. The B2B is traditionally a big tourist draw.
The promotion and logistics of the event is done by private sponsors. For a long time it was sponsored by the SF Examiner. Currently it is the company Zappos. Other sponsors have included Alaska Airlines, ING, Craig's List, and Under Armor.
Most of the people on the ground doing the work are volunteers.
Appreciate the update but hate to hear that the numbers are diminishing. One of our good friends has made nearly all of them. Nudist Dan Hawkins aka D.H. Johnathan nudist fiction writer.
T & K
Would be nice if we could get all the nudies to start up in one place and then head off to their respective corrals. I might have spoken to him along the way and never knew who he was.
There are a great many photos of him doing the B2B over the years. Quite a few with the ladies as well. He also does a lot of art class posing and frequents festivals if they allow nudity and often times he's the only that is but he's definitely not deterred.
T & K
I understand that. I've done the same thing. Often they "allow" nudity but do not actually believe anyone will take them up on it. Take them at their word and they are surprised and confused. That turns the solo naked person into a bit of a spectacle.
I had much tougher skin when I was young. Nowadays I may still be an individualist but I'm no longer so rugged.
I haven't been in front of an art class to pose in 40 years. It is much more difficult out here these days. It has turned into a profession with gate keepers. Not a casual thing one might do for spare bucks.
Dan is in the DFW complex and has found several colleges and art venues who give him regular posing work.
We are in central Oklahoma and I've tried sever art schools and have not gotten a positive response, bible belt here and nude is often viewed as lewd. So, it goes.
I checked out nude art groups on Meetup.com. Even they have long wait lists for people to pose. When I was 18+, I posed for the colleges I was attending. Now almost all have a rule forbidding that.
When I was a 20 something, I contacted one guy who provided models for many area colleges. He just started sending me out and never asked for a reference or a photo. Worked that way for most of a decade. Today it is quite competitive. They want references and an extensive portfolio; professional figure models or other models who want to switch genres. I suspect to break in you have to know someone.
I almost got a modeling job at a local college just before COVID because I met an art teacher who referred me. My contact there retired and now I can't find a way in the door.
Yes, I believe you are correct. Apparently, there are plenty of people willing to pose nude but not go nude, quite interesting.
T
Although you sound discouraged, I really enjoyed your report. As a San Franciscan who was a very early Bare To Breakers participant, your article gives me serious FOMO. Except during the Covid lockdown years, I have not been in town for B2B in at least a decade. I hate missing it, but the timing is impossible for me. A few years ago, we moved to a home that's right along the event route... what a bummer not to be able to enjoy that! My neighbors all watch from the sidelines, which would be an added bonus as far as I'm concerned.
There's always naked bike rides and Pride. SF has a lot of nude permitted events. LA is limited to one bike ride.
Bay to Breakers is unique. You said it quite well in the piece: "It is different from the WNBR. There, you are segregated from the world, a demonstration to be viewed from a distance. Here, you are enmeshed in it."
I did do SF Pride nude last June (not the parade this year; only the festival). It felt good. Another fun clothing optional SF tradition is the New Year's Plunge at Ocean Beach. A small percentage of participants do it nude, but I've always found the vibe very inclusive.
If I see a group forming, I'll do the B2B again next year. I am tired of such a low turnout but I'm limited in how much I can promote. I don't care to do it alone.
Since I live in LA, that's a long drive. WNBR is all that happens locally. We typically do it near the Solstice.
LOL! If my neighbors watched me from the sidelines, they'd drive me out of here with pitchforks and torches. But they'd never go to such an event.
Your sis in law is a nudist too?
No. Both my wife and sister-in-law keep their clothes on.
However, they accept that I do things like this and see nothing wrong in it. Seeing casually naked people doesn't bother them. To them, I'm just a bit eccentric. That is probably the best a nudist can hope for from the rest of the world.
It's nice that they are understanding. You are so lucky!
I would not have married a wife that had a problem with it. She knew about it the day we met. If she'd objected, there was no point in going further.
I sometimes hang out on forums and social media for nudists. I am amazed at the number of men who have been married for years and still struggling with how - or if - they should tell their wife they are nudies. Usually try to come up with a story about how they just discovered it. "Oh, look at this magazine I found about nudism. Doesn't it look really interesting?" And even then be too afraid to follow through.
Why do they feel so guilty? I wonder what other secrets they are afraid to tell...
I'm with you on this, Fred. I cannot imagine getting myself into a relationship where I could not be myself.
28 years ago, I met my husband at a Christmas party hosted by mutual friends. I was the only naked person there, so my future spouse knew about it before our first date a week later. He is very supportive, but will occasionally discourage me from being naked in a setting where it's unexpected but feasible. In such instances I gently remind him, "Hey, you knew about this going in."
So, they hid it from the wives? I think it would look worse if they hid it like that. If the wives discovered it in other ways, there could be a lot of misunderstanding.
I'm really confused how a person can live like that. Either you are sneaking off to be nude or you are putting a tight lid on a boiling pot. I guess that's the very definition of being in the closet.
I don't think that nudism is a casual choice. It flows against the rest of the world in ways that just being a rebel and a nonconformist don't explain. If it is that fundamental, why hide it from a significant other? If they reject it, it is a mistake to make them a significant other.
I think a lot of men secretly feel guilty about it. Even if they know *intellectually* there's nothing wrong with it, they can't shake that Puritan notion that nakedness is sin or the more instinctive fear of not complying with cultural norms. So, a guy meets who he hopes is "The One" and tries to remanufacture himself to meet what he imagines they look for. Women do it too.
Imagine someone who is desperate to make a relationship (ANY relationship) work; "I don't want them to know about my autistic behaviors or it may scare them off. Or they might ridicule me." Swap out "autistic" for many other problematic traits. Then, because you didn't tell them up front, you can't tell them later because they'll feel deceived.
Autistic people are not the only ones who mask. Everyone masks. Everyone has a part of them they don't want the other to see. Some more than others. Some traits are easily cast off while others are more fundamental. Regrets and unfulfilled wants and cognitive dissonance build.
The solution is for two people to accept that they are different. Good partnerships have both commonalities and diversities. You don't need to be just like your partner, they just need to be ok with who you are. Also that it is better to be single than to live life as a lie. That's a REALLY tough idea to accept.
True. Everybody has something to mask. Some would intentionally do it and some would inadvertently do it. Their partners would only see it after awhile. I think it's all about acceptance.
I'm with you on this, Fred. I cannot imagine getting myself into a relationship where I could not be myself.
28 years ago, I met my husband at a Christmas party hosted by mutual friends. I was the only naked person there, so my future spouse knew about it before our first date a week later. He is very supportive, but will occasionally discourage me from being naked in a setting where it's unexpected but feasible. In such instances I gently remind him, "Hey, you knew about this going in."
Excellent update, Fred. Thank you!