Since Patrick Sébastien’s controversial concert punctuated by fellatio on stage, “mimed” according to the singer, in a naturist and family campsite in Cap d’Agde (Hérault), at the end of July, a question divided the Internet: do children have their place in naturist campsites? Alongside the indignation, the question of the nudity inherent in the practice raises questions when it concerns a young audience.
To the point that, since the beginning of August, the online petition “Let’s ban the presence of children in naturist places”, created by the author Cécile Cée and by the child protection specialist Louison Lume, has collected more than 6,200 signatures. Deciphering a burning debate.
“I discovered naturism at 2 years old. I had to return to school a year early and my parents sent me to my uncle and aunt in Bélézy. (a naturist estate located at the foot of Mont Ventoux, in Vaucluse, editor’s note) thinking that being naked would help me learn to be clean faster. It was the condition for entering kindergarten.traces Margaux Cassan, philosopher and author of the book Living nakedpublished in April 2023.
From then on, naturism became a summer habit that she returned to with joy. “My summers were a land of freedom, a world where we no longer have two parents but a hundred, where the whole village is a housedescribes Margaux Cassan. I spent my summers on the farm and I wandered among the elderberry and apple trees, already having, I think, awareness of the haven that this place would always represent for me.
Born in the 1920s within bourgeois and hygienist circles, the practice of naturism advocates living together where nature and freedom take precedence. Freed from the textiles that usually dress bodies within the limited framework of the community, individuals connect more to the environment, to the rays of the sun, to the water of the sea, to the rocks of a river. “Naturism is an area to be defended as an accessible utopia that helps achieve a social ideal of sobriety that we so need”defends Margaux Cassan, who continued to cultivate this philosophy in her adult life.
Desexualized bodies… in theory
Author of a thesis on naturism in France, defended in 2024, Thelma Bacon was interested in the presence of children in these communities. It appears, following various interviews with adult naturists, that the young public seems to have little regard for generalized nudity. “Thus, the question of children in naturist campsites worries adults more than it actually disturbs children accustomed to naturism. For children, just as for adults, nudity, by revealing what is usually hidden, helps desexualize the vision of naked bodies.writes the sociologist in her thesis.
But in France, where morals oscillate between hypersexualization and modesty, the idea of desexualization of bodies, advocated by the way of life, itself takes on the air of utopia. Thelma Bacon thus notes that complete nudity is not always a sufficient condition to escape sexualizing gazes. A woman who is a fan of naturism tells him, about men: “When we had young (women) arriving, (faced with) lustful looks, I said: ‘You don’t even realize! At some point, you have to stop the bullshit, you know.’ We are still in a state of beaufitude for some, which deeply bothers me.”
A security manager at a naturist campsite confided to the sociologist: “The biggest problems here are single men. (…) (They) cause us a lot of problems, because it goes from the little insistent glance regularly on the beach, to following young girls, to posing next to young girls. Up to the problems of photography, video, harassment, that’s it. I’ve never seen a rape here, fortunately. (…) But there are a lot of problems with people behaving badly because nudity simply drives them crazy.” Without representing the majority of experiences in naturist places, these interview extracts remind us to what extent the desexualization of bodies remains an ideal difficult to achieve.
Charters and security agents
Aware that normal nudity can attract people with bad intentions, naturist communities have charters intended to guarantee, on their scale, a secure and pleasant experience for vacationers. Sexual, voyeuristic or inappropriate behavior is prohibited and results in immediate exclusion, while photos and recordings are only authorized within the strict framework of the family.
“The charters which govern village life severely punish insistent glances, implying that any insistent gaze becomes a voyeur. It’s so true that in certain villages, single men are not allowed to enter to guarantee holidaymakers’ families that they will not have to deal with indiscreet people, flirtatious people or pedophiles.supports Margaux Cassan.
As for the idea that naturism constitutes an incestual climate in itself – an argument put forward by the petition to prohibit the presence of children in naturist places – the author and philosopher formally rejects it. “If incest were a phenomenon specific to naturism, it would be known. Incest develops in a context of family withdrawal which does not exist in naturism, since the way of life is communal.”
An opportunity to recall that the incestual climate, far from being defined by the simple question of nudity, is characterized by a confusion of roles within the family, as well as a confusion of physical and psychological spaces, preventing the child from having his own world.
Consent of the child
Coming back to the basics of naturism, is the desexualization of bodies only desirable for children? Not according to Pauline G., psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and child development. “We now know that children must be taught consent as early as possible, from kindergartenshe emphasizes. It’s a gradual learning process; for example, we start by naming the buttocks, the vulva and the penis with the right terms. It is clearly explained to them that their bodies and genitals belong to them. They must not be touched in these places and an adult is not allowed to show them his genitals either.”
In this sense, the psychologist points out the contradictory effect that naturism could have on the learning of these first notions. “How can we make a small child understand that we can be naked and see naked adults in this setting, but that elsewhere in public space this behavior is punishable by law? This nuance can be complicated to integrate for young children and in my opinion, we should not desexualize all parts of the body. The question, above all, must remain centered on the well-being of the child, with particular attention to his limits, his modesty and his potential embarrassment in the face of nudity, his own as well as that of others.
In an episode of the podcast have childrenentitled “Can you get naked in front of your child?”, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Serge Hefez, specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry, concludes on the question: “The same act can be done with extremely different intentions and interiority depending on the situation. The only advice (that I have) to give to parents is to be attentive to the fact that they allow their child to become himself, that is to say, to create his own universe of ideas, thoughts, perceptions, guide him so that he can build himself and flourish from what he is. A fixed compass in questions of education therefore, without prescribing or moralizing advice for the attention of parents.
