In San Luis Obispo County, there is only one beach in which clothing or swimsuits are optional, Pirate’s Cove in Avila Beach. With such little exposure to the natural human body, it has become a weird or unnatural thing to see a person with little or no clothes on. This leads to the unnecessary sexualization of certain body parts or bodily behaviors which leaves us begging the question, should we have more nude beaches?
“I think we have a lot of spirited people here and I feel like it would be more fun and people would feel more open to it,” said freshman Jayde Malzone, who described Pirate’s Cove as one of her top two go-to beaches.
Malzone explained that when she visits the county’s only clothing-optional beach, the people she sees taking advantage of that unusual policy are “mostly the elderly.” I asked her why she thought that was.
“Maybe it’s because young people feel more judged if they do it,” said Malzone. Normally, young people have been exposed to the human body far less than those who have been living a bit longer than they have. This can lead to negative mental body images due to false body standards (which have become extremely common in TV, magazines, movies, and other media) and ignorance in regards to what the human body really looks like.
“I think we have a good balance now of nude beaches,” said junior Madi Sandoval. She clarified that Pirate’s Cove is certainly a very open setting where people bothering one another is very rare, but felt that one nude beach in SLO County was enough.
“[One] is enough,” said junior Cammy Piette. She informed me that she often sees old naked men at Pirate’s Cove, but is never bothered by it either.
In any case, people need to be aware that nudity is a natural thing and by the same token should be made more aware about the human body. The average person knows much less about their very own body than they should, which results in immature reactions whenever they do see a naked person, poor awareness of what one should and should not see on a person’s body, and, most horribly common of all, the sexualitzation of non-sexual body parts. No matter if we have one nude beach or one thousand, let’s let bodies be bodies, and people be people.
