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"Hello and welcome to this week's episode of "The Book Report. I am Frank Garrison, and this week we have with us sociologist Kyle Langley who just published his book : "Revisiting nudity in the new world". Welcome Professor Langley"
"Thank you Mr Garrison"
"Can you tell me more about your book."
"As you know, in the past two decades the attitude of the American population has drastically changed toward social nudity. Two generations ago, nudism was considered sinful almost evil and suddenly, around 2020, a new generation less ashamed of their sexuality became parents and started re-evaluating their values. Rapidly, naturist resorts started filling up with a relatively young invasion of new clients after decades of decline."
"Yes, you indicate in your book that roughly 47% of the American population under the age of 50 has visited a naturist center at some point in their life"
"Indeed, but for me, the two most shocking numbers are the fact that 26% of that population is either living or is a yearly member of a naturist or clothing optional center, and that over 73% of the overall population now considers naturism to be normal and natural. That was impossible to predict only a few decades ago. Arkansas for example, banned social nudity even in private properties until very recently and only Vermont really tolerated public nudity. No one could have anticipated a television show like "Susanna's world" which enjoys great ratings even amongst the textiles, or non-nudists if your prefer"
"Your book talks a lot about Eden's Creek."
"Eden's Creek is still, for a sociologist, a gold mine. It became the first naturist city in America and if you exclude the various naturist villages set up in Europe for tourists, was the first real naturist city in the world. But unlike the other naturist cities currently established, it is the only city which still has to this day a pre-existing textile population living amongst the naturists. In the first few years, tensions were high, but within 3 years, the city achieved a peaceful coexistence state between the two lifestyles that hasn't been successfully achieved anywhere else."
"Doesn't Maple Lake in Florida also qualify ?"
"Not really. Maple Lake was built in a recently decommissioned natural park with the intent of becoming a clothing optional city. The non-naturists who moved into town knew what they were getting into. Perhaps they had naturist friends or family. The textiles at Base Sigma, where Eden's Creek is now located, had no idea the would eventually live amongst nudists when they moved in. Many left in the first few days and some of them became naturists, even if only part-time, but many of the original textile families still live there ."
"More than half of your book is actually a study of those two populations, right ?"
"Indeed. An old study had showed that naturist children didn't have the same values or behaviour as textile kids. Notably, several studies had shown that naturist children were, on average, sexually active between 2 and 3 years later than textile kids. My study is the first to analyze the mixed environment present at Eden's Creek"
"So, what's so special about them ?"
"Well, the first odd thing is that the textile kids in town, those that decided to completely refuse to participate in social nudity, show roughly the same characteristics as the kids who grew up as naturists. "
"But, doesn't that contradict the other studies ?"
"Not necessarily. My conclusion is that 2 factors influence the age of the first sexual relations: curiosity and the social environment of the kids. If everyone in town has their first sexual relation around 14, then the kids will get the impression that if they are still virgin at 15, they are losers and might try to lose their virginity right away even if they wanted to wait. On the other hand, if the first relations usually occur around 16, kids that are 15 years old might simply wait longer because they do not feel they are late compared to their peers. I believe that this partly explains why all of the kids in Eden's creek have the same average age, regardless of their lifestyle. "
"What about curiosity ?"
"Well, some of the textile kids interviewed in previous studies showed that as their were growing up, they were interested in how the opposite gender worked and actually looked like but that the only way to actually see genitals is often by having sexual relations. The textile teenagers at Eden's creek were in a minority and as such, were able everyday to satisfy a portion of their curiosity."
"You also talk about inter-lifestyle couples in Eden's creek"
"This is almost a unique situation nowadays there as a sociological phenomenon, but there are mixed couples everywhere. Naturists do fall in love with textiles every day and vice versa. But in Eden's Creek it is unique because both communities coexist together. Imagine a naturist man who lives in Los Angeles. He is starting in life and rents a cheap apartment, waiting to be able to move to a naturist center. He meets a wonderful textile girl who lives next door and they start dating. She knows he is a naturist, but she has nothing against them and perhaps even tolerates that his friends and family are nudists. Eventually, they want to buy a house, but that's where the problems start. If it's on a naturist center, she will have to undress. If it's not, he'll need to stay dressed at all times."
"But not at Eden's Creek"
"No, there are several mixed families raising kids and giving them a choice into which of the two lifestyles to follow. I talk about one of the families in which the mother is a naturist and the father isn't. 2 of their kids became naturist teenagers while the other has decided to follow her father's lifestyle. But what's extraordinary is that everyone accepts all three of the kids."
"You still mention that regarding employment, naturists are favoured"
"Sadly, the city isn't truly clothing optional. Most business require nudist employees because most of the residents and all of the tourists are naturists. This causes textile kids to have problems finding part-time jobs since there are no jobs reserved strictly for them. Originally, it was a major problem which caused a lot of tension, but as the naturist population grew and the textile population reduced, the problem became less critical and nowadays most textile kids are able to get employed."
"At Eden's Creek, the naturists however are still the elite"
"Indeed, most of the high paying jobs exist in the town's tourist industry or the various naturist businesses like DeriMark Systems. All of them mostly hires naturist employees or . Some efforts were made however to hire local textile residents for jobs that require clothes like security agents or cooks, instead of just asking naturist to put on clothes."
"Do you think their success in integration can be repeated elsewhere ?"
"The only way I can see this happening is if public nudity becomes legal. Right now, the only places where a naturist can live without wearing clothes is in private place secluded from the general population. This creates in a way ghettos in which the naturists evolve in micro-societies out of touch with the textile population. Increasing the size of the ghettos and allowing people to wear clothes in them will not help integration or invite textiles. It will only allow naturists to wear clothes within their compound"
"Are you yourself a naturist, professor?"
"My sister was amongst the founding members of Eden's creek and I think she hasn't worn clothes in over 20 year, but I myself live in a nice house in a textile suburb. Let's just say I am a textile who appreciates part-time social nudity."
"Thank you for your visit. After the break, we have Clara Evans with her new novel, "As the windmill turns", published 2 weeks ago."