I love being openly naked. Whether it's online or outdoors at a clothing optional space, it makes me happy to know that the real me is being seen. When I'm openly naked I no longer need to feel the shame about my body that society once instilled in me, and made me want to hide it away.
That's because being openly naked taught me to love my body and myself just the way I am. My first experience doing so was in 2019 at a gay men's clothing optional campground. It was a positive life changing experience that was such a liberating thing to do. This is especially true in today's culture, which is obsessed with perfection and fitting everyone into the same mold, rather than celebrating our individual bodies as being beautiful specifically because they are one of a kind. I have a tummy and love handles, so I certainly don't have a "perfect" body, but it is just perfect for me.
Socially, I'm a quiet and shy person with an introverted personality, yet I have absolutely no problem with people seeing me completely naked. In fact I enjoy it. I like being seen as the real me, every part of me, and I don't think that there is anything shameful, wrong, unacceptable or unusual about that. Quite the opposite, I think it's considerably healthier to enjoy being openly naked, it's inherently more natural than purposefully keeping ones body covered up at all times out of shame, embarrassment, or some moral obligation towards the society that shamed us all in the first place.
Now before you go making a list of incorrect assumptions about me and blacklisting me, cancelling me, or labeling me as a pervert, keep your hat on. When I talk about being openly naked, I'm talking about non-sexual nudity.
I think it's safe to say that in our culture the term "non-sexual nudity" sounds like an oxymoron, but I assure you it isn't. Nudity and sex are not mutually exclusive. In other words, you don't need to be naked to have sex, and you can be naked without having sex. Being naked and being sexual are two completely different constructs.
Happy to be naked! Happy to be me!
Non-sexual nudity is simply people being people. It used to be that if you wanted to go for a swim, you just took off your clothes and went for a swim, there was nothing sexual or shameful about it. Sadly, nudity has been so sexualized and shamed in our culture that we've lost the ability to understand nudity as simply being our true nature as human beings. It's simply who we are for real when we're not hiding under our clothing.
By losing the ability to understand and accept our naked bodies, and each others, in a non-sexual way, we've lost a part of our humanity. Our understanding of ourselves as human beings has effectively been warped into being exclusively sexualized.
In our culture we're taught to be ashamed of our naked bodies from childhood, and that it's the norm to keep our bodies covered up. More often than not when I am around other people I am wearing clothes rather than naked, or in the least, more clothing than I would prefer to be wearing in order not to offend anyone.
We're also shamed for having the body that we have for real instead of a "perfect" one. Not too long ago, maybe 30 years or so, it was mainly women who were shamed in this way while, generally speaking, men were still able to have whatever type of body they happened to have. Today that has changed completely, both men and women are shamed equally for not having what the media tells us is the "perfect" body for ones specific gender. That's equality going in the wrong direction.
It's understandable that we each have our own comfort zones when it comes to being seen while we are naked, or seeing others while they are naked. The fact is, I simply don't like wearing clothes all of the time, sometimes I just want to be naked or to wear as little as possible. My favourite article of clothing is a swimsuit thong which keeps my manhood suitably covered while leaving my butt cheeks exposed. I find it to be an extremely comfortable swimsuit to wear, and it's what I prefer to go swimming in at the public beach. I also often wear it around the house as well, as when I don't feel like being naked my swim thong is just the right amount of clothing for me in those moments.
My favourite swimsuit thong which I've worn at the public beach many times.
I've always felt more comfortable being naked or wearing minimal clothing, but only recently have I felt comfortable enough to do so in front of others. When I was younger I was so ashamed of my desire to be openly naked that I thought it made me a sinner and a bad person. I thought that exposing my naked body was shameful and I was too embarrassed even to take my shirt off outdoors unless I was at the beach. At the time, I felt that wearing a swim brief was an "excuse" to be almost naked in front of others, so I went swimming as often as I could.
Frankly, I just feel smothered having clothes against my skin all of the time and I want to let my skin breath. It feels good being naked and free.
It would be wonderful if I could legally do so outdoors in my city. I don't like the idea that my naked body is offensive, or that parts of it are so dirty and immoral that it is wrong for those parts ever to be shown in public. To me, that is a very sad and negative way to think about our own bodies. I've known my entire life that it doesn't make me feel good to think like that about myself. As such, I have absolutely no interest in shaming my body that way anymore, so from now on I am going to live my life as openly naked as I am able to.
As such, in 2023 I began posting my naked selfies online, mostly on Quora where I also started a body positive space for men called Men CAN Be Proud of Their Bodies. Separately from this, I've created a special blog that I titled Mikey Artelle's "Naked and Free" Body Positive Blog. Posting my naked selfies on these sites is a legal way for me to be openly naked, and I love it!
Admittedly, posting naked photos of myself online is not as joyful as actually being naked outdoors, but it's still quite a remarkable feeling to know that thousands of people have now seen my naked body as well as "dick pics" of my penis. It makes me happy to think about that, and I can't help but to laugh because of it. What a silly and oppressive society we live in, yet it's one with a glaring omission called the internet that allows me to be openly naked in public anyway!
I'm simply showing what my naked body looks like, it shouldn't be so taboo to be seen as my natural human self. In my mind, the more people there are who see me naked online the better, because in this way it becomes even more and more redundant for society to shame me for not wearing any clothes! If everyone already knows what I look like naked, then insisting that I wear clothes becomes rather pointless!
It's exhilarating to be my natural naked self as I feel like it's the real version of me, there's no hiding required, nothing to feel ashamed about, just complete acceptance.
I love showing my naked body to others and feeling like, at long last, my true self is being seen. Honestly, I wish that my city (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) had a clothing optional beach as I would be there in my birthday suit every single day of the summer!
There is some good news though! I'm feeling optimistic about the fact that society is now starting to accept men wearing different types of minimal clothing, such as running shorts or short shorts, leggings and swim brief swimsuits (all of which are shown below). It means that society is starting to accept the natural shape of men's bodies, and allowing men to show more skin than what was previously "allowed" by our prudish culture. I love wearing these types of minimal clothing and have no plans to ever stop!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
-Mikey
I love wearing short shorts as there's no excess fabric on my legs.
Lately I've been wearing leggings which are so much more comfortable than jeans!!!
Here are my shiny black spandex leggings and the mat black polyester/spandex leggings.
My cute little pink swimsuit swim brief, and my favourite black Speedo!
I have a collection of about 50 different swim briefs! LOL
