“They have the misconception that the people who cause problems are the naturists,” Deschênes says. “I have visited naturist beaches all over the world and they are always the cleanest and safest ones. Yet that doesn’t mean bad things can’t happen. You can’t find a public beach where they don’t have the same problems, and nobody is suggesting that it’s the people in bathing suits that are the problem.”
For naturists seeking a designated location to bare it all, there are several options in the Ottawa region. The Grand Barn in Vankleek Hill is one such alternative, promoting open-mindedness and offering a clothing-optional environment.
Loretta Erie, the Grand Barn’s events coordinator, says the naturist way of life isn’t about sex and is simply about choosing to shrug off the shackles of textiles.
“People don’t understand. They automatically put nudity with sex, and it’s not about that. It’s really hard for a lot of people because their mindset is if you are nude, it’s sex. It isn’t — it’s got nothing to do with that. It has to do with freedom of no clothes,” Erie explains. “Those of us who are nudists, we speak to each other eye to eye and face to face more than people who wear clothes. In regular society, when I was a 28-inch waist and a double-D chest, I never had a face. Everybody talked at my chest. I’m still a double-D chest, but when I’m nude at the Grand Barn, they are looking at my face, not my chest.”
Deschênes agrees with Erie’s statements regarding the separation of nudity and sex, saying the concept is just too difficult for most clothed individuals to grasp.
“Society is so oppressed, and we’re told that nudity is bad. We’re conditioned to have a phobia of nudity,” Deschênes says. “The only experience people have with nudity is in a sexual environment, so it’s hard to imagine anything else. It’s a very arbitrary social construct, but it’s deeply embedded in our psyche.”
Fournel strongly suggests that naturists contemplating a return to Meech Lake this summer choose different locales to strut their stuff.
“For 2012 we will do police surveillance again, and whoever is caught naked will be charged with a criminal offence. They need to go find other places. I know people have been going there for a long time, so it’s a need to change their habits,” he says. “Our message is there is zero tolerance.”
Xtra is following this story.