Catalan nudism foresees an encouraging future

One more summer, the Illa Roja beach in Begur will lead the human chain to defend freedom and respect for nudists in this space. The most recent case for which this cove became known was the conflict that broke out in 2021 between naturists and the owners of a beach bar, which, under pressure from naturist associations, had to close down. This cove is a space that became a symbol of the nudist movement, and it became a sanctuary for international naturism during the Transition, thanks to the drive of pioneers and groups like the Catalan Naturism Club. Although this practice has gone through quite low moments in recent years, and the average age tends to be quite high, more and more young people are claiming it as a liberation from aesthetic pressure.

Iván Martínez is one of them. Born in Badalona, this 27-year-old decided to explore this world as a reaction to a conservative upbringing and in the midst of a process of self-acceptance. "As a teenager, I had a lot of body image problems. Nudism helped me overcome these feelings and I accepted that there is a diversity of bodies, that all are valid," he explains. However, the reasons that lead people to practice naturism are as diverse as the human body itself. For this reason, Iván recommends not skipping the first step, and the most fundamental: do research. "I started towards the end of adolescence, at 16 or 17 years old. The first steps were not in public either. I come from a family with no naturist tradition, and that's why I started practicing it at home, assimilating my daily reality in intimacy with nudity," he emphasizes.

Once he came of age, Iván joined the Catalan Naturist Club (CNN) to get in touch with other young people with the same concerns. Despite the scarce popularity of naturism among new generations, Catalan naturist associations are an example in terms of activities and awareness campaigns. We often tend to associate nudism with the beach, but the reality is quite different. Who says you can't show your naked body in winter? The group of young people from the CNN organizes a lot of group activities to enjoy this practice, from naturist spa sessions and gatherings to play board games in the colder months, to naturist hiking routes, yoga, or drawing "in the natural".

Iván assures that naturism has had a profoundly positive impact on his body acceptance. On the other hand, he emphasizes that this evolution from adolescence to today has not been and is not linear. "After all, society pushes you towards the other extreme. No matter how determined you are to accept yourself, there are always fluctuations. The way I perceive myself and others has been changing on this journey," he acknowledges.

“Hypersexualization is here and it is very difficult to ignore. It often manifests in a much more aggressive way towards the female body. However, the human body will always be linked to consumption, especially that of women. If it cannot be consumed, it is not valid,” he denounces. Ivan is very active on social media, where he carries out conscious activism to maintain good practice in this world. On the contrary, he recurrently suffers censorship in the digital environment. “It is a gray balance. While on Instagram content that borders on pornography is accepted, naturist accounts are still frowned upon,” he clarifies. 

The president of the Naturist-Nudist Federation of Catalonia (FNNC) and the Catalan Naturism Club (CCN), Segimon Rovira, despite trusting that there is indeed a generational change, does not believe that the political and social circumstances of the moment will contribute to improving the conditions for naturism. "If I compare the times when I started with the present, I see that society has not evolved as positively as I thought. We are in regression in Europe. It is not just a question of exposure on social media or a hypersexualization of the body, but also a more conservative drift has settled across the continent, and nudity is being restricted and censorship is making a comeback".

If we look closer, phenomena like involuntary exposure on social media favor a hypersexualization of the body that represses those who want to start in the world of naturism. A clear example can be found at Sant Sebastià beach in Barcelona. Despite being a nudist tradition since the Second Republic, mass tourism and lack of signage make it increasingly difficult each day to remove swimwear without being susceptible to ending up in the gallery of someone else's mobile phone. The Catalan capital is a clear example of how urban dynamics and a lack of political interest have almost expelled them from the city. La Mar Bella beach, in the Poblenou neighborhood, is today the only one with a sign indicating that it is indeed a nudist space. However, it remains a mirage to see naked bathers among the thousands of people who happily enjoy this beach in swimwear.

Younger people acknowledge that it is increasingly difficult to find spaces where they feel comfortable to start in naturism. In fact, the pandemic marked a turning point. The end of confinement boosted the spread of secluded coves and beaches, but these publications often omitted the information that it was a nudist space. Now, this trend has not changed. In Catalonia, there are approximately seventy nudist beaches, but not all of them have the same conditions for starting to practice naturism.