[fatpizzaman]

Hi,

I have been buying the naturist magazines The Australian Naturist and Australian Sun and Health for many years now, and was wondering what could be done to help improve the lifestyle that they are purveying?

At present they are published only 4 times a year in this country, and seem to only feature overweight grey nomads, baby boomers, and left over punks and hippies from the 70's.

I have shown it to younger friends and their reaction has either been one of mild amusement or scorn. They find the content rather boring, and the pictures to be pretty ordinary. Some of the things they've said are like "I wouldn't go to a local resort or beach if they're going to be there", "this magazine has helped me to feel so much better about my body" to "why is it put behind the porn mags? there's nothing erotic or sexually gratifying in any of these mags".

The naturist scene in Australia is in the doldrums at the moment with a number of clubs and resorts closing down and younger adults not commuting as much as they did back in the 80's and 90's due to the soaring fuel prices. You don't often see documentaries done about it on prime time TV except for the "nude moments" series in 1996 on Channel 10, and the odd one on SBS when nobody else is really watching tv. The magazines seem to constantly rehash problems the movement has had since the 20's with how to get one's reluctant spouse (usually a wife) interested, or local clubs turfing out single men who are just out to relax and have a good time with no intention of hitting on other guys wives or girlfriends.

In America during the 30's - 60's, the magazines put a lot of emphasis on health, diet, sports, philosophy and environmentalism and was sort of the 'thinking man's eye candy' as it featured mainly young athletic women and eventually men and in the 60's families and teens. When the magazines succommed to sexual liberalism and featured soft porn in them the sales plummeted and they were withdrawn for sale in newsagents and sold only in adult bookstores and privately in brown paper envelopes.

The naturist movement is about body acceptance first and foremost, but sometimes that can go too far when they feature people who are hideously overweight and obese in them. This turns off a lot of younger people as well as women.

I think the magazine editors need to employ some professional marketers to help boost the sale and production of them and help it become taken more seriously by the mainstream than being the naked vicar's parish bulletin.

[phileasmann]

There's a reason I stay away from naturist magazines... it gets messy.

Never cared for these types of content, never will... this is certainly a niche market (thank God for that, no offence fatpizzaman ), and it's not like the articles are the Pièce de résistance of journalism.

The photos are though

[dude]

phileasmann, on Mar 22 2009, 7:22pm, said:

There's a reason I stay away from naturist magazines... it gets messy.

Do you get off looking at pictures of old folks mate?

[phileasmann]

dude, on Mar 28 2009, 11:53pm, said:

Do you get off looking at pictures of old folks mate?

Yep, your mum.