Some Early Thoughts from Nice
French people dress more bravely.
The French are more liberal (this translates to better in my mind) when it comes to nudity and, sadly i feel they come hand in hand, sex. People are happy to sunbathe sans vêtements and just change on the beach. Why did i feel i needed to retreat to the toilets?! (Note to self: Maybe spend time in a nudist colony to overcome this ridiculous British embarrassment over something completely natural. Aim for the week: Feel comfortable enough to be nude in public for a few seconds, changing into swimming trunks might present the perfect opportunity. Let's take this with little steps.) Why shouldn't i be confident enough? Why should i care anyway?
French people through all ages are braver with what they will wear. As a result they are more stylish, have more flair and are more individual, they embrace their individuality. What a fantastically confident nation! Their confidence is inspiring.
After the beach on the second day
The French's bravery and the fact that they don't care about other people's attitudes towards them translates to nudity on the beach. But only for females. Why? I felt that i should start the male revolution at least when changing. I didn't. (Update on Operation Nudity: i think it would be easier when not with people i knew. I like to think that with just strangers here i could. Why is it that we are most shy in front of people we know? Maybe we care more. Maybe we don't want to change their perceptions of us.)
Is it only for practical reasons that women are in a state of undress on the beach that men fail to reach (relative to swimsuit "normalities")? Clothes are a human construction after all. No other animals wear them. (When did not being nude go beyond mere practicality, who said: "you know these things that we use to keep warm and use for comfort for certain parts of our bodies? Let's wear them all the time and in the future the idea of being naked in public will seem crazy, will become a crime!" Clothes are nice and all but i'm not sure that they are always necessary or should be the only option.)
Afternoon of the third day
The revolution has started. On my third swim of the day i decided to paddle out into the sea where nobody else was swimming and indulged in some skinny-dipping. It might take a while to catch on if i continue to do it where nobody can see me but i still feel that this can count as a success.
I continue to like how nobody cares that people are naked on the beach. It is a very refreshing maturity especially coming from a country where the most read newspaper prints a naked lady on the third page every day. Nudity here is treated as normal, people don't stare, it isn't seedy, people aren't perverted. I think the problem in the UK stems from the fact that we are so Victorian about sex and nudity. It then becomes taboo and taboo becomes fetish. There are certain parts of the body that we can usually see: the face; the arms; the legs etc (well, if it is sunny anyway - maybe our average temperature contributes in part to these views) and a general appreciation is built up, especially for faces, they are accepted parts of people's bodies. When something usually covered becomes uncovered people act like children, act as if this weren't part of the body but instead some exotic fruit that must be gaped at, in France they just accept that it is all a part of the body and act like adults.
It continues to be disappointing that men have not undressed in the same fashion that women do, why are they shy? I hope to convince myself that is the sheer impracticality of sandy bums that causes this, after all women are not bearing that area either. I do also like to think that if someone started the male revolution on the land (oh yes, i consider myself as the revolutionary of the sea) that i would follow at some point, it's like a standing ovation really: you wouldn't start one even if you thought it was right but you will happily join in later.
The third evening
It seems that the French maturity about the body does not translate into their children following suit. I find this very odd given their parents' views. Our parents don't undress on beaches. Our papers fetishise the female body. Theirs do and don't, respectively, so why did the two girls at the Matisse gallery almost collapse with waves of laughter at the sculpture of a naked man? This strikes me as very strange and i can only put it down to the fact that it was a man, or perhaps the fact that it was a man and they were female. It seems France still has progress to make (though that's good really isn't it? If they had finished there is always the danger of a revisionist school of thought).
Now i was definitely away for longer than three days but i don't want to be throwing too many topics out in one post so that is all for now on Nice. I am very aware, tremendously aware even, that this post has been very gendered, especially given some of my previous posts, but i'm sure you will understand that the distinction was there only due to its importance in the issues discussed.
If you fancy reading non-travel stuff i have a selection of poetry and discussions on gender, identity and eco-graffiti amongst other topics at alexleclez.blogspot.com
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