I suppose we have some sort of unreal image of Vietnam thanks to a plethora of films about the country (see the scene from ‘Full Metal Jacket’ above) and its attitudes to sexuality and nudity.

Its first ever nude photographic exhibition took place last September, and photographers are working hard to create a clear demarcation between nude art and vulgarity.

Hmmm…that sounds a little familiar to those of us striving to create a demarcation between naturism and pornography.

The reality is that, since the Vietnam War and whatever attitudes prevailed before 1975, they’ve since hardened under a Marxist-Leninist socialist republican system of government (i.e. Communism, a failed political ideal). Hence the tiny steps being taken by a few (click the links above to see how artistic, non sexual and relatively bland their approach to nudity is).

It’s surprising, therefore, to read that naturism is gaining a foothold in Vietnam.

Whilst swimming and exercise based events are being undertaken a little below the radar, it’s always pleasing to learn that our lifestyle has a place whatever the political system in place!

They say shedding their clothes makes them feel uninhibited, a rare chance to stray from the pack in the one-party state where social compliance and strict norms are taught from a young age.

Though public nudity remains taboo in much of Asia, nudist swimming clubs have popped up in conservative China, and tourist-haven Thailand boasts several ‘naturalist’ retreats mostly for foreigners, while public bathhouses have long been popular across Japan and South Korea.

But nudist bathing and beach-going is rare in Vietnam

“Vietnamese people should be more open when they talk about nudist bathing. We shouldn’t be so modest about it like in the past,” said naked bather Nguyen Thi Thuy, wearing nothing but the hair on her head. [eh? Has the trend for depilation reached Vietnam?]

This is currently of particular interest to me, as one of the plans for 2018 on SLN was to do a kind of ‘Around the World in 80 Nudes’ series, highlighting naturism as a lifestyle in various real world global locations. There won’t be 80 posts on it, of course, but we plan to try to highlight naturism in lesser known spots (for naturism) around the world. As such, the links that highlight some acceptance of nudity and naturism in Vietnam make it a prime reason why I’m logging this as the first stop on our global tour, and commencing the series a week early.

Incidentally, the appearance of bare breasts, at least, used to be much more commonplace in Vietnam as it was right across Asia. Just for info purposes, the top photo identifies ‘a young Annamite woman’ (in French). Annam was the name for Vietnam until the end of the 2nd World War.

As for the Vietnam War…well, nudity could certainly be found in the war zone itself, with a soldier seen here taking a shower fed by a bucket hanging from the barrel of a tank.

Ella

Cocks!

There, I’ve said it. I hate the word. There’s something a bit…not quite proper about it. I prefer the word ‘penis’, or ‘male genitals’ if we’re going to factor in ‘balls’ (testicles) as well. Within Second Life, though, the word ‘cock’ has primacy, with male avatars heading off to buy a ‘cock’ of various quality as soon as they can after joining (due to the graphic mechanics of SL, males aren’t born into SL with their equipment in place : it’s something that needs to be attached to an avatar as an add-on).

I have the same distaste for ‘pussy’, the word that takes primacy in SL for female genitalia. Or the anatomically incorrect ‘vagina’ for sale for female avatars when it’s actually the vulva (the outer lips of the genitals) that are on view, inside and out of SL. Besides, the word ‘pussy’, it seemed to me, became a popular word because it resembled  a furry little kitten, waiting to be stroked. In these razor-happy days the word ‘pussy’ doesn’t even seem like it’s an accurate description.

Unless…

…no, that doesn’t work for me at all.

I get to do a lot of research for this blog, and by means of illustrating the blog posts get to see a lot of photos of nude males and females. I’ve said this before, but there’s a lot of sites out there claiming to be ‘naturist’ in content but which aren’t. I don’t get myself quite so wound up about, say, a Tumblr site that calls itself ‘Naked Grandmas’ because they aren’t offering content that is anything other than accurate. But when I click onto a site called ‘Naturists on the beach’, for example (these names are plucked from the air, incidentally, I don’t know if there are, or aren’t, Tumblr sites of these names) and the site is nothing but naturist women, then I begin to get up a head of steam! That’s not to say such a site might not be useful for photographic material but I’ve found that naturism in real life usually contains a couple of genders, and believe a website promoting (or exploiting) naturism should reflect that. No guys in the photos? It’s not a ‘naturist’ site.
And there are sites, featuring only women, advertising their wares as ‘naturist women’ which might more accurately be described as ‘naked women in gynaecological detail’. That’s not to say naturist women haven’t, probably myself included, sat on a beach with legs spread wide. It’s an unconscious thing, though, we aren’t out there like that for the purpose of displaying ourselves. However, we’ve probably not sat like that with pair of stockings and high heels on. So..not naturist either.

Neither am I greatly taken with the need to fetishise everything. In naturism the whole CMNF/CFNM (clothed male nude female or clothed female nude male) is part and parcel of daily life. It’s a scenario that happens with great regularity. But what is normal in naturism is then taken and twisted into some sort of domination/humiliation perversion. In naturism such a scenario is nothing more than ‘a naked naturist who just happens to be speaking to a clothed naturist who is dressed to go sightseeing or shopping’. If I see a ‘naturist’ site, then, that doesn’t feature males, it’s not a ‘naturist’ site. Both genders please, equally.

Besides, I don’t see what the phobia against male genitalia featured on these type of sites might be. Well actually, I can hazard a guess. To feature penises on your ‘naturist’ website is, sometimes, to suffer the unspoken criticism from fellow Tumblr bloggers that you’re somehow ‘less than macho’ or closet gay. And what it does is to actually further undermine ‘naturist’ credentials as someone who can’t accept the nudity of some others, specifically nude males.

To me, the naked form is equally beautiful and aesthetically pleasing in either of its genders.

Neither is it acceptable to either fetishise or sneer at ‘small cocks’. Like breasts, penises come in a variety of sizes. They are what they are. As has been correctly said, some men are ‘show-ers’ while others are ‘growers’.

That’s a debate you can find discussed in many internet locations, often on websites aimed at women. 

And do you know what, fellas? Women don’t care. ‘It’s not the size of the ship, it’s the motion of the ocean’.

I’m rolling a couple of different real life thoughts together here, as well as cross-fertilising them with -just about to be discussed- a SL topic, so I hope this ‘stream of consciousness’ posting doesn’t appear too garbled or muddled.

The SL context?

Fellas, you’re supposed to be a guy, not a three-legged milking stool. It does not, as much as you may wish to protest or boast about your real life size, hang near your knees.

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I say this, inworld, to various male avatars, they persist with the idea that in order to attract SL female avatars they must resemble an elephant’s trunk down there. NO YOU DO NOT.

Now, I’ve spoken to numerous female avatars over the course of the years, and basically that overly long and thick flaccid penis hanging there is a turn off. Your avatar says an awful lot about you prior to you even saying ‘hello’. Often, it says you failed basic Art at school, given that you’ve no apparent sense of perspective. A quarterback’s shoulders above legs like a chicken? Not a good look, guys, regardless of how your genitalia are proportioned.

Exhibit A

Above, an eight (!) year old avatar still apparently wearing newbie skin and newbie hair. The proportions are better than some I’ve seen, but the only ‘investment’ in the avatar appears to be in the form of a badly coloured ‘cock’ that is out of proportion to the rest of the body. There’s a lot of that in SL.

Some of you (some…other guys appear to have a superb grasp of what makes a fantastic looking avatar) might consider a new year’s resolution to be to improve the look of your SL avatar and, equally importantly, get your penis in proportion!!!!

While on the subject of penises, my friend Duncan has been using a Lotus cock in his SL until now. With it being the end of the year and time for a makeover, he recently bought a cock from Marie’s Avatars, via the Marketplace. 

Being European (a Brit, specifically) he went for the uncut version (i.e. uncircumcised) while he’s been using a cut/circumcised one from Lotus until now. The reason, the usual reason I find, is because it matched his real life penis profile. (Most Europeans aren’t circumcised).

Here he is ‘before’ (Lotus cock)

And ‘after’, wearing the Marie’s Avatar (L$299) version…

‘It’s not an Aero’s cock’, he says (Aero’s now being the benchmark for penises), ‘but it’s cheaper and it’s fine. The pee and cum functions aren’t the best, but as I pretty much use it in its flaccid, unexcited state on naturist sims, it’s perfect at about 1/3rd of the price of an Aero’s.’

So, one happy customer of a ‘cock’ that’s new to me. I’d never heard of Marie’s Avatars prior to Duncan bringing it to my attention (they also do a ‘cut’ version, incidentally).

We aren’t a blog for ‘areas of sexual excitement’, as you know, but we make an exception when reviewing cocks, as its ‘excited’ state is something you guys are often interested in.

As I was saying, guys…in proportion, please! In both flaccid and aroused states, the Marie’s Avatars cock maintains both. The scrotum is nicely accurate too.

Anyway, it’s a new (to me) addition to the ‘men equipment’ area of SL, and something you fellas might wish to investigate.

 

Ella

After months of build up…it’s all over for another year.

I got some nice presents, and today is a day for further exploring them, as the realities of a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday meant I could only glance at most of them (and not read the instructions properly on another )

The house is toasty warm, there’s a log fire burning and the children are engaged with the gifts Father Christmas brought. So Jim and I have gone into the kitchen to do some dishes and to begin thinking of preparing our lunch. Lots of leftovers! Some may certainly make the cut as reusable, while others will have to be ‘binned’. As the food’s mostly vegetarian, it doesn’t get thrown out, but rather it’s taken down to the compost heap for proper recycling. It’ll be the most marvellous compost by summer!

This afternoon’s a case of wrapping up warm and going for a walk along the coastline. Well, Grandma Keng and I are taking that walk, while the children are less interested in a long walk, desperate to be back to their toys, so after making sure they get some fresh air Jim will take them home while Grandma (Audrey) -now being called ‘Granny Odd’ by the elder two, she’s not, she’s all I could want in a mother in law- walk back along the shore for a couple of miles. Audrey is very typically pragmatically Scottish, and will pack a hip flask of brandy ‘to ward off the cold’

We’ve a little bit of an adventure planned for this afternoon. A flask of tea, a hip flask of brandy and a couple of other items. I’ll report back this evening.

Ella