Experiencing life unhampered by clothing

Our Wonderful Bodies!, by Jim C. Cunningham, photo-edited by Linda S. Cunningham, published by Naturist LIFE International, Incorporated, in Troy, Vermont in 2001, softcover, 100 pages, $10

reviewed by Jennifer Hersey

Is the nude human body inherently shameful or dirty?  Should the body always be hidden from view of others?  What is it about a Judeo-Christian upbringing that makes people ashamed to be seen unclothed?

In response to these questions and more, Jim and Linda Cunningham have written and compiled a book of essays and photographs focused entirely on the benefits of experiencing life without being hampered by clothing.  The Cunninghams are naturists and through their book, invite others to examine this lifestyle through biblical scripture. 

The book is filled with photos of people doing very usual things — hiking, dancing, swimming, building sand castles, horseback riding, chopping wood, gathering sap, and washing dishes. The only unusual thing about the photos is that everyone in them is nude.

It should be noted immediately that this is not a book intended to titillate readers.  The people in the photos are not attempting to arouse anyone. The photos have no element of sexuality in them, as the intention is to show the beauty of the human body within the context of morality.

The first essay by Mr. Cunningham is called “Welcome to You!”  Mr. Cunningham writes, “Wonderful bodies?  Yes, they are.  And we are not talking about some nebulous, hypothetical, ideal human body, but ours — yours and mine.”

Having been bombarded, since our first cognizant moments, with images of people with “perfect” bodies by American standards, it is refreshing to view page after page of regular people. Those shown in the book are tall and thin, short and round.  The women do not have impossibly small waists and unnaturally large breasts, and the men are not muscle-bound diet pushers.  They are real people.

Mr. Cunningham says that “because we were made to seek perfection” we tend to focus on what is wrong with our bodies because we are comparing them to an ideal we will never attain.  He writes, “Deep down we all tend to want to believe the truth of the body’s goodness and beauty, but this conviction finds little opportunity to be explored, expressed, proclaimed, and celebrated on account of various elements in culture which relentlessly threaten to contaminate it.”

The idea is not that we should change our bodies, but that we should change how we regard them.  In America advertisements for diet pills proliferate while women and men starve themselves, exercise compulsively, and vomit after bingeing in order to pare their bodies down so small that they cannot even sustain life.  For example, The Gap now sells pants sized zero.  What are you when you fit into zero-sized pants?  Do you even exist anymore?

Mr. Cunningham asks, what are bodies supposed to look like?  He says we don’t know because “without opportunities to see what others really look like, we have nothing left as a measuring stick but myths like the centerfold of Playboy.” 

The book is a place where everyone fits in, where all are the “right” size and shape.  He notes that it is odd that we feel free to show people our faces and other supposedly innocuous body parts, but deem some parts too awful to expose.  He says that people should be known as whole people, not as fragmented parts.  He writes, “A nude accepts not only himself, but also those around him.”

Leading a nudist lifestyle is about shedding a need for external happiness and about learning that “now you alone are the arbiter of your own happiness.”

He furthers the point by writing, “I am not saying that body acceptance is nirvana or the height of spiritual perfection.  But I am saying that to aim for those other spiritual perfections without first reconciling yourself with your physical reality which we cannot escape, is like trying to run the 100-yard dash with your shoe-laces tied to each other.”

Loving your body’s innate goodness is not egotism, but an acute appreciation of one of the many gifts you have received from God, according to Mr. Cunningham.  Being ashamed of the body is the same as being ashamed of God. “I can tell you in all humility that I am beautiful.  I say this despite total blindness due to 30 years of juvenile diabetes.  I have not seen myself in over a decade.”

Mr. Cunningham uses humor frequently throughout the book to illustrate his points.  One of the major discussions in the book deals with breastfeeding and society’s urge to force nursing mothers to shroud their babies while they eat, as if the breast is a singularly sexual organ.  “If babies should be veiled while dining, then why not adults?  Why don’t we all go out to eat with baggy hoods pulled over our faces, lest anyone should be aroused by witnessing the supposedly erotic activity of adult dining?  It would be hilarious if it were not so sad....”

In the second essay, called “Let It Shine!,” Mr. Cunningham delves into “body image in light of Judeo-Christian revelation.”  He says that within a Judeo-Christian background, people are given the guidelines for deciding what is right and wrong, and that often those guidelines are muddied when learned within a society that has its own ideas of right and wrong. 

He argues that many Christians do good acts, bestow kindness on their fellow humans, and otherwise avoid doing harm, but that they are still not living according to scripture. 

“Let’s face it:  When it comes to our bodies, like most everything else, we Christians are really messed up.  We are far, very far, from the mind of Christ,” he writes.  He says we are living according to the dominant culture and not the word of God.

Again writing about the idea that some parts are dirty and some aren’t, Mr. Cunningham writes that because the body was made in God’s image, “not one part of it can be unholy or dirty.  The notion that some part of it is indecent or obscene is entirely unscriptural.  Those who believe the human body is ‘dirty’ (and 99 percent of Jews and Christians do, in practice if not in word) are judging by the erroneous standards of the world, which we are not supposed to blindly accept, but rather illuminate and correct.”

He goes into the history of nudity, explaining that at one point in time, public nudity was quite normal. Before plumbing in each house, people bathed together in public baths, nude.  He cites many biblical references for laboring nude, fishing nude, and even preaching nude.

The third essay, in comparison to the free-spirited first two essays, sounds a bit preachy.  The third is called “Behold:  It Is Very Good!” and deals with morality based on Mr. Cunningham’s reading of the Bible.  He writes that one should never do anything to willfully arouse someone outside of marriage, and that doing so is inherently immoral.  He makes the distinction that arousing someone unintentionally is not immoral. 

He uses the example of arousal. He says sometimes it just happens, for whatever reason, without a source of stimulation.  However, if a man went to a nude beach with the intention of being aroused or arousing others, he would be acting immorally.

Taking his morals from a literal interpretation of the Bible, Mr. Cunningham asserts that “sex belongs only within marriage.  Sex is good, great, and holy, but only in its place.  Both natural law and God’s law tell us that marriage is that place, since it is obvious from the mere observation of sexual physiology, that sex concerns procreation (Genesis 1:28) and union of husband and wife (Genesis 2:24).”

He advances his essay with guidelines one can use to determine whether an act, thought, or word is moral.  He says the three components of a moral act are the act itself, the motive, and the circumstances surrounding the act. Basically it all comes down to intention.  Mr. Cunningham uses this example among others, “If it turns out that some lecher was lurking in the bushes and lusting, that cannot be something we wanted to happen, but something merely tolerated for the sake of the good effects of our nude swimming experience.”

The final criteria for a moral act is that “the good effect must be at least equal to, or greater than the evil effect, or else the whole thing is not worth doing.”

All three essays are extremely thought-provoking, especially in light of the view many of us have of Judeo-Christian morality.  The first two are a joy to read and invite those who might not agree to at least think about an alternative lifestyle within their ideas of right and wrong. 

The third takes the higher ground and might be taken as judgmental of those who don’t fit within Mr. Cunningham’s morality.  His view of morality does indeed encourage readers to think about the morality of their own actions within his carefully drawn guidelines.

Many will not look kindly on the philosophy of the Cunninghams and those with similar ideals.  How could they based on the misplaced ideas of prurience and cultural ideals of morality pervasive in this culture?  But nudity is not sex.  Skinny-dipping in itself does not inevitably lead to sexual acts. It is people who sexualize the body. 

The people in these photos do not stare back at me seductively.  They are not postured in degrading and subservient positions.  Instead, they are doing things they would normally do. They aren’t here to arouse, but only to be.

Because this book might not be readily available, the best way to obtain a copy is to call the Cunninghams directly at 1-800-NLI-7020.