What naturism means to different people

The words naturist or nudist conjure up different notions in different people. This private meaning of the word is part of what has become part of each person’s idiolect. An idiolect is similar in some respects to a dialect, it is the set of more personal meanings, images or ideas associated with words. To some, a naturist is someone who lives a normal life but goes away at weekends to a "nudist colony" and "prances around naked". The activity is secretive so breeds rumours of odd practices; the more secretive, the wilder the rumours. The mass media often fuel this nonsense, with ludicrous double-entendres. They will print things like "You can't hang out there" or "We'd love to see more of you" or even "Bottoms up". They do not really know what happens, and use school boy humour to describe pubescent ideas. The Carry-On films made this worse. One in particular, Carry On Camping, depicted two men who decide to spend a camping holiday at a nudist camping site with their less than enthusiastic girlfriends. The venture is a failure but not until all the old prejudices have been wheeled out. No doubt it was thought to be funny at the time but now it is simply tiresome. Newspapers in the UK have recently printed items more sympathetic to naturism, they have even sent reporters to take part, some of whom have been converted to the way of life, others have seen the sense even if they choose not to join in. The television companies have also improved, driven no doubt by the increasing size of the naturist movement and their realisation that there is good business to be had.
But there is a long way to go.