A reader recently suggested that the term ‘textile‘ may be inappropriate to use in reference to those who are not nudists. This has come up before and is quite reasonable, considering how easily folks are offended and our obsession with political correctness in today’s society.
Sometimes, though, a banana is simply a banana and nothing else should be read into the term. ‘Textile’ is the commonly accepted, non-derogatory, descriptive term for those who choose to wear clothes, even when there is no plausible reason to do so.
Some examples:
- wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturism In naturist parlance, textile or textilist is a non-naturist person, non-naturist behaviour or non-naturist facilities. e.g. the textile beach starts at the flag ..
- truenudists.com › Truenudists Forums › General Discussion RE: A nudist study – Textile Yearly Clothing Costs VS Nudist Yearly Clothing Costs.
- angelfire.com/super2/greece/folegandros-beaches.html These are “who comes first” beaches, so they can be textile or naturist beaches.
- religioustolerance.org/nudism4. Jan 24, 2011 – Textile is used as a noun to refer to a non-nudist, or as an adjective, as in “textile resort”.
- nudistspace.org › Forums › Family … I grew up in a textile family, so I perfectly understand you…
- urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=textile textile. n. A non-nudist. adj. Of or relating to non-nudists … Nude or clothing-optional beaches are just like textile beaches, except the dress code.
- oxforddictionaries.com/definition/textile 2: informal: used by nudists in reference to non-nudists:textile beaches
- lycos. com/info/nudism From a textile point of view, the existence of nude children and adults …
We’re always happy to hear from folks about things like this, even from textiles! After all, the purpose of All Nudist is to educate and inform about the nudist lifestyle, and any opportunity to lessen misunderstandings between people is welcome!
Filed under: Political/Social | Tagged: naturist, nudist, social nudism, textile |
All Nudist 
How can textile be considered a dirty word, the way everyone has cell phones if someone asked you to text them, what are you supposed to ask them, you want me to call or strip. Textile is a product in case some people forgot. Whoever came out with that remark evidently do not understand nudity or the ways of life behind it.
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I think they were just being overly sensitive, or perhaps had they had heard from someone else that ‘textile’ is a slur. Either way, they’re mistaken and we’re happy to be able to set the record straight.
And you have to figure, if one person has a misconception, then most likely a whole lot of people also do. An awful lot of our human problems stem from misunderstandings, so it’s a pleasure to to be able to remove even a little one like this!
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Textile is the common term among us nudists and I never mean it disparagingly although I’ll often try to use another term. I’m not completely happy with the term nudist or naturist either. They’re just labels for just one aspect of who I am. I kind of like being called a gymo-American.
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Well Rick, I see your point, but there’s one little problem; a descriptive term, in order to serve its purpose, must identify that which it is used to describe. I’m afraid that ‘gymno-American’ means little to all but a certain segment of those who consider themselves nudists or naturists, and nothing at all to pretty much everyone else!
It might work better as a means of secretly identifying oneself as an American nudist to other secret nudists under circumstances where one’s identity as a nudist might otherwise be kept secret. Kind of like scratching a fish symbol in the sand identified one group of believers from outsiders, a long time ago!
But then there would also be gymno-Italians, gymno-British, gymno-French, etc., further distancing fellow nudists from each other when we should be striving to unite in common cause, not finding ways to separate into sub-groups. Maybe there should be an international agreement to call ourselves ‘gumnos’, from the original Greek word for naked, bare or exposed.
That would give us a common, neutral term for ‘nudist/naturist’ instead of the various national spellings and pronunciations of nudist and naturist that are used now. Once everyone understood what the word meant, that would cover the bases and also please those who now use euphemisms like ‘clothesfree’ to avoid the ‘vulgar’ term, nudist! It would also resolve the ‘naturist’ and ‘naturalist’ issue, and no one would confuse us with tree-lovers!
Ok, let’s see how that sounds: “Hi there, I’m a gumnos!” “Say, have you ever been to a gumnos beach?” “We’re planning to spend our vacation at a gumnos resort!” I’m not so sure about that. Hmm, let’s try just one more… “Everyone’s favorite website, All Gumnos!”
Nah, I think we’ll stick with All Nudist for the time being!
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In your quote from Wikipedia on Naturism you conveniently left out the part that says many people don’t use the term textile because of it’s “perceived negative or derogatory connotations”.
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