Category: reflection

A Brief Glimpse of Our Bare Practitioner Story!

Introduction:

In honour of GLBTQ+ Bare History Month, this posting is a very brief (hence the heading inclusion of synopsis) presentation of the history of bare practitioning here. The serious lack of any extensive documentation of our culture and community within the volumes of works has created a growing discrepancy in the history of us! My intent is to provide the basis for others to use in our quest for acknowledgment and legitimacy! Not knowing of our past is a step towards repeating it! In an attempt to learn a little more of ourselves and avoiding repetition, a brief look at our bare heritage!

Our nudity, be considered as us being bare, clothes free, naked, naturist, natural, nude or whatever, helps to make us all transparent. This transparency enables all others, regardless of their state of being dressed (clothed, textile) or undressed (without covering) to see our physical essence as it really is, unhampered by the artificial concealment of garments. This affords us, the bare practitioner (same gender loving naturist/nudist) the virtue of living life honestly and openly.

We don’t need or require the superficial trappings of accessories, adornment or fashion to present ourselves as someone that we’re basically not! We leave such pretentions to others. We live proudly as the men that we truly are!

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Background:

As committed bare practitioners (same gender loving and naturists/nudists) we are often overlooked by both the mainstream of humanity and also by our own marginalized groups. The mainstream is totally embarrassed by our existence and within our own subcultural identities we are often feared/ignored as too controversial and too eccentric. This often leaves us completely alone as the “odd-man-out” of everyone else’s communal agenda. The proverbial “no man’s land” – off the radar and left to fend for ourselves.

Frequently, our same gender love is seen by the mainstream society as nothing but repulsive. Too often we are viewed as nothing but “perverted” even though our affection for others is no different from those around us except for the gender of those to whom we are attracted. If men can love women, then why can’t two men or two women love one another? After all, aren’t we all – at least theoretically – human?

For far too long our same gender love has been vastly judged as abnormal, alien, despicable, disgusting, disruptive, inhuman, offensive, and unnatural. Collectively, we are condemned and judged because we’re ourselves.

Yet, we remain ostracized. We also remain human.

Regardless of being condemned, criticized, harassed, judged and ridiculed, we still remain human and we also elect to be naked. Completely free from the restrictions of clothing. Being ourselves and trying to be content and happy even though the majority of the clothing optional world prefers us as far from the rest of them as possible!

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Evolution:

From the earliest days of humanity, a certain level of comfort and relaxation has been experienced with the state of nudity by humans, no matter of their intimate physical attraction. For all of us, it is the condition of our birth. We naturists/nudists thus view it as our natural being.

Even in the early stages of our current history, our nakedness – freedom from clothing or any other type of covering – was not judged. It was a natural practice and was an option open for all to enjoy and not a condition of social determination. The earliest needs for covering were for retention of body heat rather than for any consideration of modesty. As people migrated to more difficult climates, the needs for comfort began to outweigh the freedom from clothing/covering.

The evolution of humanity gradually introduced other conditions for the adaptation of garments. It soon became a visible token of class and social status. Our ancient civilizations of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome developed and thrived during this transition of optional into mandatory concealment. The migration and relocation of humans to climates and regions less conducive to naked comfort and existence forced the need for layers of covering for protection from weather extremes. This soon reinforced the use of garments as a symbol of social class (the “haves” and the “have nots”). The evolution of society also incorporated the growth of shared belief systems that very often mandated that clothing was an absolute necessity. Judgments soon became against any nude freedom – both in private and in public.

The needs for persons living in the Equatorial regions across the globe were not impacted by climate and/or warmth. For those who encountered people from different cultures they assumed, optionally, the custom of covering their genitalia if they made any adaptation. Those who had no contact with inhabitants or traders from different cultures or populations continued to prosper and thrive with their own tradition of nudity, whether in private or in public. This custom did not prevent them from being judged by others based on their belief systems where clothing was mandatory and nakedness was “backward.”

Eventually, the persons living in the more temperate areas of Africa, the South Pacific and South America evolved to the use of body decoration made from natural dyes instead of woven fabrics. This practice was a continuation of body comfort and freedom as opposed to modesty. When concealment was a necessity, it was easier to utilize natural products (animal hides and/or feathers) over any type of garment.

Just as there are cultural differences between the humans, there also exist differences in the belief systems that developed, particularly in the beliefs (religions) towards the traditions of allowing and tolerating nakedness. Not all beliefs outlawed shared nudity or frowned (condemned) upon expressions of body and clothes freedom. There exist some religions that have no official position on the state of being bare.

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Bare Practitioners: Our Story!

Honouring the lives of some of our bare practitioner (same gender loving naturist/nudist) community and culture’s very own who were both bold enough and brave enough to live true to their sexuality (bisexual or gay) and their nature (body and clothes freedom) in an age and day when it wasn’t acknowledged and/or allowed. The essential fore-bares of our bare practitioner history!

This 2023 Bare Practitioner Heritage features Lebanese-born author, artist and poet Kahlil Gibran and two early photographers, German-born Wilhelm von Gloeden and Italian-born Vincenzo Galdi. Enjoy and explore!

Our bare practitioner (bisexual or gay and naturist/nudist) heritage includes many who share our way-of-life but are completely unfamiliar with our self-identity. Their legacy to us today is our ability to own, privately and/or publicly, our existence, identities and ourselves with confidence, joy and pride. As the bare practitioner community and culture, we appreciate and are grateful for their courage, example and role-model!

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Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran (also Jubran Khalil Jubran) was a Lebanese-born author, artist, poet and philosopher. His best known book, The Prophet (published in the USA in 1923) presents us with positive proof of his knowledge and talent that continues to influence and inspire us still today. Kahlil was born to Maronite (an Eastern Rite of the Roman Catholic Church) parents in Bsharri, Lebanon (then part of the Syria province of the Ottoman Empire) on January 6, 1883.

In 1895, he immigrated to the USA with his mother and siblings (all younger). They settled in the state of Massachusetts. He attended schools in Lebanon (primary), Lebanon and USA (secondary) and in France (graduate).

Gibran was considered a gay man and published about this although there are indications that he may have been bisexual (in correspondence with friends).

Almost all of Gibran’s early works were written in his native language, Arabic, after 1918, they were written exclusively in English – the exception being for articles he composed for several Arabic language newspapers.

On Clothes (from his book, The Prophet)

And the weaver said, “Speak to us of clothes.”

And he answered:

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty. Yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.

Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.

Some of you say, “It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear.”

But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.

And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean,

And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

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His above thoughts on garments is one of many examples of Gibran’s preference for social nudity!

Kahlil Gibran died in New York City, USA, on April 10, 1931. His remains were interred in his birthplace, Bsharri, Lebanon.

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Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden

Wilhelm von Gloeden was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a German grand duchy on September 14, 1856. He was trained as a painted artist but was given a gift of a camera from a friend. The camera soon provided him a career. One of the patrons of his photography was Oscar Wilde. He suffered from tuberculosis for most of his adult life and soon resettled in Taormina, Sicily, due to warmer temperatures. While living in Sicily, he took a local youth, fourteen years younger than himself, as his lover and they stayed together as a couple until his death. The youth’s name was Pancruzio Biciuni who was sometimes referred to as “Il Moro.”

During the Great War (1914 – 1918) he had to leave Italy altogether or face arrest. Some of his photographic patrons included Oscar Wilde and Albert Freidrich Krupp of the Krupp family, makers of German guns and ammunitions. Baron von Gloeden’s favourite subjects for his photographs were naked teens (males).

When Benito Mussolini came to power as prime minister of Italy in the 1920’s, he was put on trial for harboring pornography but was acquitted by the court in Milan. During World War II, Germany was allied with Italy so he did not have to leave because of the conflict. During the course of his trial in Milan, much of his photographs and negatives were confiscated and destroyed by the Italian police under Mussolini’s orders.

Wilhelm von Gloeden died in Taormina, Sicily, on February 16, 1931. He was buried on the grounds of his home there. He left his entire estate to his lover, Pancruzio Biciuni, who died himself in 1963.

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Pancrazio Buciuni (above) was the model and lover of Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden. He was born June 28, 1879 in Sicily, Italy. He was nicknamed “Il Moro” (The Moor) by von Gloeden due to his dark complexion. Upon the death of his lover, von Gloeden, he inherited his entire estate. Buciuni died on January 30, 1963.

He is pictured below with another of von Gloeden’s models in a photograph taken by a different German photographer, von Pluschow.

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Vincenzo Galdi

Vincenzo Galdi was an Italian photographer of primarily male nudes. He was born in 1871 on the island of Sicily. His interest in photography began when he first became an enthusiastic naked model for the German photographer Wilhelm von Pluschow. He then became von Pluschow’s lover and then he progressed to his photographic assistant. He operated his own studio in Rome between 1900 and 1907 when it was officially closed by the Italian police. He is often credited with being the first professional photographer to openly and proudly take credit for his erotic pictures to nude teens, often in very suggestive poses.

Galdi was considered bisexual.

He died in 1961.

He is captured completely bare in the picture below.

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Our heritage, bare and bold!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, October 23, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “United Nations Day!”