Channel 4's Diary of a Teenage Nudist?

[whitestokes]

I purchase a DVD copy of Diary Of A Teeenage Nudist documentary sometime back on ebay, pretty much because of another topic about it here on this forum. After watching it, my conclusion of this Channel4 documentary, Bianca Badham (who is the main character), I found out to be a very interesting young lady.



In the documentary Bianca (who is also 18 years old at the time) live on the grounds of a naturist club, with her family for the majority of her life. Bianca describe her early childhood, growing up there as a very happy one. She also explain that when she was younger, she use to participate in a lot of activities with the club events, disregarding the fact that she and her younger sister was pretty much the only kids there. But what really caught my attention about Bianca is when she reach the age of puberty. She said at that time, she started to distance herself from participating in the club activities and the naturist lifestyle, because as she describe being the only teenager at her club (other then her sister) was really difficult for her being in the nude, especially while her body was making all these changes. Her feeling towards her weight and size, was her biggest problem in being nude around others.

So now this is where the documentary really unfolds, as she journeys to find an equilibrium on being a teenage naturists. She seeks out to find and meet other teenage naturists, which the majority that she find are not born into the naturist lifestyle such as herself, but later became involved in naturism in their teenage years. Each teenage naturist she encounter, Bianca seek to find out what draw and motivate them to naturism, in the effort to help her with her own dilemma. But even their enthusiasm with naturism really didn't help her much.
It seem to me, from watching this program from Channel4 for the first time through, that Bianca will never again enjoy naturism. I really started to think all hope was lost for her. Until later in the TV program, when Bianca arrange some plans to travel to America to visit Empire Haven naturist park, where the words Body Acceptance was finally brought into the picture. At Empire Haven, Bianca attended body acceptance workshop classes and got in involve with body acceptance talk groups, where she finally started to understand her body and the changes that it was going through. It took her no time at all, to feel comfortable around others again in the nude.
By just observing, what Bianca was going through with puberty and body issues, I was very delighted to see that she embrace the concepts of body acceptance through the means of naturism. Even she admitted that without her using these same concepts and ideas, she would have probably never overcome her fears of ever enjoying naturism with her family and friends. This Channel4 program of Diary Of A Teenage Nudist documentary, is another prime example of body acceptance is the key to a happy self-esteem and nude nude recreation is the way.

Now, the reason why I posts this topic on the forum, is because I was really confuse about why didn't Bianca parents, didn't think of using body acceptance to help her with this problem in the first place. I also pick up from Bianca that her living in and growing up in a naturist club/resort can also have problems for a child? So is she a rare case or is it just how her parents raise her?

whitestokes.

.

[Rik]

Originally posted by whitestokes:
Now, the reason why I posts this topic on the forum, is because I was really confuse about why didn't Bianca parents, didn't think of using body acceptance to help her with this problem in the first place.

I haven't seen this film but I guess the answer to your question lies in the cultural differences between the US and the UK. The average Briton is, in my opinion, far less likely than their American counterpart to accept the proposition that they might benefit from some quirky psycho-babbling body acceptance workshop and Bianca's parents may well have taken the view that bringing up a child in a naturist environment was all that was needed to dispel the body shame issues which a lot of teenagers seem to go through. Clearly they were mistaken.

It's something to do with the traditional British stiff upper lip I think - we're not always too keen to allow others (or even ourselves) to get close to our inner feelings and will often go on denying we have a problem rather than actually seeking the help we need.

Rik

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Rik:
I haven't seen this film but I guess the answer to your question lies in the cultural differences between the US and the UK. The average Briton is, in my opinion, far less likely than their American counterpart to accept the proposition that they might benefit from some quirky psycho-babbling body acceptance workshop and Bianca's parents may well have taken the view that bringing up a child in a naturist environment was all that was needed to dispel the body shame issues which a lot of teenagers seem to go through. Clearly they were mistaken.

It's something to do with the traditional British stiff upper lip I think - we're not always too keen to allow others (or even ourselves) to get close to our inner feelings and will often go on denying we have a problem rather than actually seeking the help we need.

Rik

You could be right about all this, but it's kind of funny that you made call your people and country the traditional British stiff upper lip, about body acceptance. When in fact, that the BBC is light years ahead of America, in even airing a show like this. A TV program, about a young girl trying to find happilness through the means of naturism, would be unheard of here in the United States.

I can not judge, what I do not know about body acceptance in the UK, but as for your country BBC, I think it's very open minded in showing TV shows like the Channel4 Diary Of A Teenage Nudist documentary and Channel5 Naked Jungle gameshow, that aired 5 or 6 years ago.



whitestokes.

.

[Rik]

Originally posted by whitestokes:
You could be right about all this, but it's kind of funny that you made call your people and country the traditional British stiff upper lip, about body acceptance.

Perhaps I wasn't too clear but what I was trying to say was that the British tend to have a suspicion of things like "body acceptance workshops" or indeed any sort of workshop which might involve them in confronting their own deep-seated emotional issues. They have a tendency to prefer to sort things out for themselves rather than involve counsellors or psychiatrists.

In terms of body acceptance I think that the British in general have similar issues to Americans but probably not to the same degree. This may be because of our closeness, both geographical and culturally, to mainland Europe where nudity is relatively commonplace. It's perhaps important to understand that most non-British Europeans can easily separate nudity from sex which is something I feel is extremely difficult for Americans - even American naturists judging by some of the things I see on this board - and is difficult (but less so) for the British. I see the British attitude towards nudity to be halfway between American and mainland Eurpean attitudes.

When in fact, that the BBC is light years ahead of America, in even airing a show like this. A TV program, about a young girl trying to find happilness through the means of naturism, would be unheard of here in the United States.I can not judge, what I do not know about body acceptance in the UK, but as for your country BBC, I think it's very open minded in showing TV shows like the Channel4 Diary Of A Teenage Nudist documentary and Channel5 Naked Jungle gameshow, that aired 5 or 6 years ago.

Just to correct what appears to be a misunderstanding of TV broadcasting in Britain, Diary of a Teenage nudist was broadcast by Channel Four which is quite separate from the BBC. The BBC broadcasts on two terrestial channels (BBC1 and BBC2) and on a further 4 or 5 Satellite channels. The other terrestrial channels are ITV (Independent Television - a commercial channel), Channel Four and Channel Five which are both commercial channels. Until the arrival of sattelite TV not that many years ago we had a choice of only 5 TV channels!

I'm not a particularly patriotic person but I've always felt fairly proud of the BBC. Because it is funded through a licence system there is very little in the way of commercial pressure on programme content so it is able to make programmes which don't necessarily appeal to the mass market and which don't have to comply to the whims of commercial sponsors. In other words it puts quality above ratings. (And best of all BBC programmes have no commercial breaks!)

The Naked Jungle was, as you point out, broadcast by Channel Five 5 or 6 years ago. At the time it attracted quite a few complaints but I don't think it would be considered nearly as outrageous if broadcast today. I've seen a recording of the programme fairly recently and I have to say it didn't do much for me.

Programmes about naturism and nudity are fairly common these days on British television and rarely cause complaints. The BBC recently broadcast a Spencer Tunick event live which involved nearly 2000 naked people. They felt no need to pixilate or otherwise obscure the genitals of those taking part and overall the collaborations between the BBC and Spencer Tunick was hailed as a great success. But I think all of this merely reflects an increasingly relaxed attitude amongst Britons towards nudity.

I am hoping to get a copy of Teenage Nudist shortly so I'll revisit this topic when I've seen it.

Rik

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Rik:
]Just to correct what appears to be a misunderstanding of TV broadcasting in Britain, Diary of a Teenage nudist was broadcast by Channel Four which is quite separate from the BBC. The BBC broadcasts on two terrestial channels (BBC1 and BBC2) and on a further 4 or 5 Satellite channels. The other terrestrial channels are ITV (Independent Television - a commercial channel), Channel Four and Channel Five which are both commercial channels. Until the arrival of sattelite TV not that many years ago we had a choice of only 5 TV channels!

Rik

Thanks for the information about the BBC, now I know a lot more on what is going on, over there. But still the BBC or any other TV outlet, is better then America TV, especially about nudity and with naturism involved. Usually the only nudity involved over here, has something to do with sex.

whitestokes.

.

[Rik]

Originally posted by whitestokes:
Usually the only nudity involved over here, has something to do with sex.

It used to be the same here and I'm fairly sure that this is one of the main reasons why some people have difficulty in accepting non-sexual nudity. When the only nudity you ever see is sexual it's little wonder that you associate all nudity with sex.

I'm pleased to say that this appears to be changing in Britain but I think it will take a lot longer in the US mainly because of anti-nudity laws and what from here appears to be censorship of the media.

Interestingly, however, organised naturism is declining in the UK and elsewhere in Europe - largely because free-range naturism is much easier these days - but in the US it seems to be growing quite rapidly.

Rik

[NudeDen]

That video sounds like it would be great to show at family-friendly nudist resorts to show teens how to deal with the issues they are going through. I haven't seen it yet but would like to.

I have to agree that american TV is too censored when it comes to plain non-sexual nudity, yet if it's sexualized it's more likely to be shown. I'm hoping that will change someday, but i doubt it will anytime soon.

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Rik:
The Naked Jungle was, as you point out, broadcast by Channel Five 5 or 6 years ago. At the time it attracted quite a few complaints but I don't think it would be considered nearly as outrageous if broadcast today. I've seen a recording of the programme fairly recently and I have to say it didn't do much for me.


Rik

May I ask you Rik, why you didn't care for the Naked Jungle TV gameshow? I just purchase it awhile back on ebay as well. I thought that it was pretty funny.



whitestokes

.

[Rik]

Originally posted by whitestokes:
May I ask you Rik, why you didn't care for the Naked Jungle TV gameshow? I just purchase it awhile back on ebay as well. I thought that it was pretty funny.

I guess it didn't do much for me because 1) it was a gameshow and 2) it didn't help to create any greater understanding of naturism.

The purpose behind it (5 or 6 years ago) was, I sense, "let's do a programme about funny nuddies". It was along the lines that anything done by naturists must, by definition, be funny. We sometimes get a programme here where viewers submit videos of people doing silly things - falling over, falling off bikes doing silly dances etc - and invariably it includes clips of naturists doing things like playing volley ball or running down the beach into the sea and the studio audience fall about with laughter (actually it's usually canned laughter) at the sight of naked people doing pretty ordinary things. Naked Jungle was, for me, of that genre. If it weren't for the nakedness would it be have been quite so funny?

I don't want to sound like I'm that serious in my criticism - I'm not really. I just watched it, was mildy amused by it and I didn't feel the urge to watch it again.

Incidentally, Keith Chegwin, who presented the show, is a fairly well known TV personalty in the UK. He presented quite a few children's TV shows in the early 80s and pops up from time to time on daytime TV. At Chegwin's demand Naked Jungle has never been repeated on British television. To be honest I'm surprised it's available on DVD.

Rik

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Rik:

quote:

Originally posted by whitestokes:
May I ask you Rik, why you didn't care for the Naked Jungle TV gameshow? I just purchase it awhile back on ebay as well. I thought that it was pretty funny.

I guess it didn't do much for me because 1) it was a gameshow and 2) it didn't help to create any greater understanding of naturism.

The purpose behind it (5 or 6 years ago) was, I sense, "let's do a programme about funny nuddies". It was along the lines that anything done by naturists must, by definition, be funny. We sometimes get a programme here where viewers submit videos of people doing silly things - falling over, falling off bikes doing silly dances etc - and invariably it includes clips of naturists doing things like playing volley ball or running down the beach into the sea and the studio audience fall about with laughter (actually it's usually canned laughter) at the sight of naked people doing pretty ordinary things. Naked Jungle was, for me, of that genre. If it weren't for the nakedness would it be have been quite so funny?

I don't want to sound like I'm that serious in my criticism - I'm not really. I just watched it, was mildy amused by it and I didn't feel the urge to watch it again.

Incidentally, Keith Chegwin, who presented the show, is a fairly well known TV personalty in the UK. He presented quite a few children's TV shows in the early 80s and pops up from time to time on daytime TV. At Chegwin's demand Naked Jungle has never been repeated on British television. To be honest I'm surprised it's available on DVD.

Rik

I really don't want to get off the subject of Diary Of A Teenage Nudist, but I think naturism is a lifestyle, that stand for happilness. There are a lot of stuff with naturism to take very seriously, like the values and freedoms to be nude in mix-company, but nude recreation means: Refreshment of one's mind or body, through activitiy that amuses or stimulates play and fun.

So seeing this gameshow the Naked Jungle, showed me a touch of that. People having a good time while being in the nude, without any sexual content involve. To me isn't that naturism, but this time it just happen to be on a gameshow. I took the gameshow for what it was ment to be, funny.


whitestokes.

.

[Sauna]

From the experience of our own four children I know that the most difficult thing in naturism in puberty was that you could not tell about it to your friends, who had never heard about naturism. Telling it to friends included many risks to be misunderstood from friends. It was easier to avoid the risk by silence. If you have to do so your enjoyment is strongly limited.

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Sauna:
From the experience of our own four children I know that the most difficult thing in naturism in puberty was that you could not tell about it to your friends, who had never heard about naturism. Telling it to friends included many risks to be misunderstood from friends. It was easier to avoid the risk by silence. If you have to do so your enjoyment is strongly limited.

I understand what you mean, about telling non-naturists everything Sauna. It also goes right alone with this documentary Diary of a Teenage Nudist, Bianca did mention that she rarely told friends from school anything, but to solve her dilemma Bianca told every naturists teenager that she met, about her weight, size and her iusses with puberty. I guess she had to, because that would take way the plot of the documentary, in solving her problem.

whitestokes.

[Rik]

I've jut watched a recording of Diary of a Teenage Nudist and found it to be one of the most candid documentaries about naturism I've ever seen.

I think the title is a bit of a misnomer as Bianca was 12 when she gave up nudism and even at the end of the documentary at the age of 18 she was by no means comitted to re-becoming a naturist even though she'd taken her clothes off a few times during the film. So for the maker to consider it to be the diary of a teenage nudist is a bit misleading - but I guess it made an eye-catching title!

I admired her open and objective approach but although she mentioned very often that it was body issues which made her give up naturism it seemed to me that she was also digging around for evidence to support her view that there is something sexual about naturism.

She spoke to a young girl of about 12 who said that on one occasion at one swim she'd been to with her parents she felt there was one person who was following her around. When her parents were asked by Bianca why they didn't just avoid going to swims for the sake of their daughter they replied along the lines that there was danger everywhere and that they couldn't be a prisoner just because there's a few weidos around.

Perhaps the most unsettling moment was the interview she had with a rather creepy guy (perhaps in his late 20s) who claimed that he believed that not only did he find the experience sexually stimulating but 90% of naturists are also in it for a sexual reasons. During the interview he was shown shaving his genitals and also claimed to have been circumcised at the age of 23 "for hygiene reasons". The implication here was that there is some connection between genital shaving and sexual stimulus although it wasn't spelt out. When asked if he'd ever had an erection at a naturist event he said yes but claimed that the naturists around him "didn't seem to notice".

Bianca seemed quite unnerved by her encounter with this guy but then went on to claim that what he had said had confirmed her opinion that there are sometimes some sordid things going on within naturism. In my view the word of a single self-confessed creep doesn't amount to much by way of evidence.

I thought the visit to the American nudist resort was quite remarkable and it was here that Bianca finally got to challenge her own views about her own body by attending a body acceptance workshop where people were encouraged to talk about there bodies in front of the other members of the workshop. Bianca didn't really say much - just that she didn't like her bottom half but was comfortable with her top half - but it seems to have been enough to turn back the tide of self-reproachment about her body.

By contrast the film featured an interview with a teenager called Briony (who I believe has posted on this board in the past), Briony had been brought up a textile and as a young teenager had been very conscious of the pressure to conform or aspire to some sort of body ideal. She joined Young British Naturists (a part of British Naturism, the national naturist organisation in Britain) and found herself amongst a group of people her own age who didn't subscribe to the body-beautiful syndrome which afflicts so many young (and not so young) people today. She came across as totally relaxed and self-confident.

Despite the "nudism sometimes equal sex" parts of the film it gave an overall good impression of naturism and I'd definitely recommend it as a serious contribution to our understanding of natutism.

Rik

[whitestokes]

Originally posted by Rik:
I've jut watched a recording of Diary of a Teenage Nudist and found it to be one of the most candid documentaries about naturism I've ever seen.

I think the title is a bit of a misnomer as Bianca was 12 when she gave up nudism and even at the end of the documentary at the age of 18 she was by no means comitted to re-becoming a naturist even though she'd taken her clothes off a few times during the film. So for the maker to consider it to be the diary of a teenage nudist is a bit misleading - but I guess it made an eye-catching title!

I admired her open and objective approach but although she mentioned very often that it was body issues which made her give up naturism it seemed to me that she was also digging around for evidence to support her view that there is something sexual about naturism.

She spoke to a young girl of about 12 who said that on one occasion at one swim she'd been to with her parents she felt there was one person who was following her around. When her parents were asked by Bianca why they didn't just avoid going to swims for the sake of their daughter they replied along the lines that there was danger everywhere and that they couldn't be a prisoner just because there's a few weidos around.

Perhaps the most unsettling moment was the interview she had with a rather creepy guy (perhaps in his late 20s) who claimed that he believed that not only did he find the experience sexually stimulating but 90% of naturists are also in it for a sexual reasons. During the interview he was shown shaving his genitals and also claimed to have been circumcised at the age of 23 "for hygiene reasons". The implication here was that there is some connection between genital shaving and sexual stimulus although it wasn't spelt out. When asked if he'd ever had an erection at a naturist event he said yes but claimed that the naturists around him "didn't seem to notice".

Bianca seemed quite unnerved by her encounter with this guy but then went on to claim that what he had said had confirmed her opinion that there are sometimes some sordid things going on within naturism. In my view the word of a single self-confessed creep doesn't amount to much by way of evidence.

I thought the visit to the American nudist resort was quite remarkable and it was here that Bianca finally got to challenge her own views about her own body by attending a body acceptance workshop where people were encouraged to talk about there bodies in front of the other members of the workshop. Bianca didn't really say much - just that she didn't like her bottom half but was comfortable with her top half - but it seems to have been enough to turn back the tide of self-reproachment about her body.

By contrast the film featured an interview with a teenager called Briony (who I believe has posted on this board in the past), Briony had been brought up a textile and as a young teenager had been very conscious of the pressure to conform or aspire to some sort of body ideal. She joined Young British Naturists (a part of British Naturism, the national naturist organisation in Britain) and found herself amongst a group of people her own age who didn't subscribe to the body-beautiful syndrome which afflicts so many young (and not so young) people today. She came across as totally relaxed and self-confident.

Despite the "nudism sometimes equal sex" parts of the film it gave an overall good impression of naturism and I'd definitely recommend it as a serious contribution to our understanding of natutism.

Rik

Well done Rik! I am really happy that you enjoyed it, as much as I did. But there is one thing you need to understand about Diary Of A Teenage Nudist and that is never forget who directed and produce this documentary.
Channel4 is apart of the mainstream media, just like any other TV channel, station or network, that's world wide. To them it's all about the rating and to put sex into the story line will draw in more viewer to watch the programme, which in return help out their rating. I think and believe, if it was not done by the textile media, but by a independent naturist film organization or company, on a DVD or videotape, it would probably be more to the point of view with naturists ideas in mind, instead of the issues of sex.

But in all, when a story or documentary such as this, is report from the textile media such as Channel4, this is to be expected. So, you have to take the good from the bad and go from there. This can be also said about the movie industry as well, because just last year, a movie was produce call Les Textiles. It also try to involve sex into the ideas of naturism too.

whitestokes.

[Nudony]

I've jut watched a recording of Diary of a Teenage Nudist and found it to be one of the most candid documentaries about naturism I've ever seen.

The documentary is now available on the net, so I was able to watch it today and trace this thread. I think Rik did a great job covering the doc, and I have relatively little to add except a couple of comments (hoping not to paraphrase too much.)

As it's been mentioned, it seemed to me from the beginning that Bianca was on a "perv quest." Her primary goal seemed to provide conclusive evidence of the presence of gawkers and pedophiles within nudism. That bothered me a bit; but at the same time...I guess that would be a legitimate concern for a reluctant teen. But it did cast something of a "dark cloud" over the whole experience.

There were several other key moments in the doc. One was the young closet nudist who went nude at the beach for the first time and was totally thrilled about it.
The other was the young couple on the beach, where the young man went nude, but his fiancee wouldn't. Bianca noted that the young woman had described herself as confident about her looks as to wear skimpy clothing; so she didn't understand her reluctance to strip on a fairly deserted nude beach. To me, that was a good illustration of the irrational hold textilism can have on a person.
Finally, the top key moment, as described by everyone, was the body acceptance workshop at Empire Haven. Bianca was able to confront her body issues as Rik described. I think that a lot of her time at Empire Haven was edited out, though. I'm sure she socialized and played nude because of her "sudden" comfort being nude, but none of that was shown (except for the horseback riding and the body mold).

What I found most interesting about the doc, and which didn't get enough focus, was the fact that Bianca, a born and raised nudist, would have to drop out and rediscover nudism with the help of the body acceptance workshop. So it raises questions as far as the importance of body acceptance, and setting up seminars and workshops at resorts.