Welcome to the draft I wrote for my book! IT hasn’t made it in the final but I thought it is an interesting experiment so without further ado.
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*Ghost Jade strips off and jumps into a river*
Let’s talk about nudity because it is normal in some countries to be naked on the beach but not in others. Nudity has been highly sexualised and to be honest, we know where it comes from.
Can I hear the fellas hoot for a flash of a Victorian ladies ankle?
Now unless I have been intimate, I have Never stripped naked for anyone. I mean like even at the doctors, I have a cloth hiding my personal parts. That was until I had a cheap bottle of Rum on a beach.
Now I have a few people to thank for taking the shame out of nudity, my best friend, my adventure pal and my lovely instagram friend who does naked dipping. They are are regular naked runners, sea dippers and in general adventurers. This isn’t my first discovery of this topic, its been on the periphery of my life for a while. I know older women who find it really empowering and it is really empowering. I find people who love to adventure and empower their power and take back their bodies by jumping around in rivers naked.
But anyway, back to the cheap rum, we have talked about naked sea dipping for a long time because we wanted to try it but there's so much awkwardness and shame about being naked, especially around friends. The preset nervousness of if they are gonna judge you is so ingrained in your mind, it is just another layer you have to peel back.
This whole book is peeling back layers of a body obsessed onion, we start with stopping caring with what people think of our bodies but each later is a new thing to unlearn. The shape we are, the things we are ashamed of, the things we are taught to hate.
Fun Fact Time: you know until I was 27 I had no idea I had nipple hairs, honestly didn’t even notice, didn’t even realize they grew their own women. Until someone on the internet pointed it out (and as a person, that instantly means it should not be there and it's yet another thing I have to groom). Boom. new insecurity was born. Before that, I was fine, I didn't get a fruitcake. But after that? Was worried about it, what if my boobs were weird? Hairy? Wrong? PANIC. The point is, another layer of onion to peel off and let go.
What has this all got to do with rum? Well my friend, being the lightweight that I am, we had some rum, stripped off and ran into the sea and it clicked. It was a full on lightbulb moment. It doesn't matter. It feels intense because we live in a society that treats bodies like sexual objects and nothing more but actual, they are just bodies. Nudity was the last layer of the onion to find body acceptance because if you can walk around naked and just be, no insecurity. Not for attention, not for sexual enticement, just be. Then my friend, you are accepting.
Don't get me wrong, do not go walk down the town centre naked, indecent exposure is still a criminal offence. But you should know that you should never be ashamed to be naked in any capacity. Your nude body is beautiful and it isn’t a vase to be objectified by someone who wants to become intimate with you. All I am saying is, if you want to go do some naked sea dipping or wild running, you should do it. Your naked body isn’t just for your betrothed darling, it’s a tool for you to have the most fun with your life.
I found through my experimentation it is really freeing and really liberating, its not like I walked around flashing my flaps at people. Ghost Jade flashes you from beneath a trench coat. I mostly stay under the water but its wild and freeing and bracing and helps you feel alive. Fighting the patriarchal conditioning that you have to be contained and behaved.
You are beautiful and pretty and handsome and attractive. You are mesmerising and anyone would be more than lucky to have you. You are the most amazing person and I hope you know that.
Because I believe it with every ounce of my soul.
Don’t let the fear and shame you have about your body stop you from doing and trying new and crazy things. If not naked forest running but anything. Bikini on the beach? New sport? Make a new friend but you are afraid they wont like you for your body? Feel the fear, do it anyway and crush it. Feel the shame and say “No, I refuse to be ashamed of who I am and what I look like, I am saving my self shaming for if I am a total asshole to someone. My actions, how I treat people, how I exist in the world defines Who I Am, not my body.”
You are outstanding, live your life while you can. You’re awesome and I appreciate you.