Going about naked
I have been a little quiet on planet blog recently. The reason, as I'm sure you'll understand, is that I have not been wearing make-up and I can't possibly be expected to hang around in cyberspace when I haven't got my lippy on, now can I?
Readers of a previous posting will know that a few weeks ago I had conjunctivitis, an eye condition which rendered me so ugly I could not show up for work. Sadly, I did not just have one episode of blood-shot, pussy eyes.
Every five days or so the infection would flare up again, until the doctor and I concluded that I might need to lay down my mascara for at least ten days if I wanted the condition to clear up once and for all.
Very reluctantly, I went about naked (facially speaking) for a fortnight.
It is only now, from my fully kholed position, that I can admit how hard I found this. "Naked" is a good way of describing it. I felt vulnerable and unfinished.
I went to work because I had to, but I felt sloppy and unprofessional, the facial equivalent of filing copy with spelling mistakes. I went to Birmingham Social Media Cafe because I wanted to, but I think it was very brave of me. It still surprises me that people not only talked to me but followed up the meeting with tweets and emails. (How can this be?)
As it happens while I was going through this I read A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland who claims it is normal, when people are being silent for any length of time, for them to stop bothering to do things like put on clean knickers or brush their hair. All I can say is that when I was on a ten day silent retreat, not only did I bathe every day, but I did not feel I could knuckle down to a serious bit of prayer until I had put on my lip-stick and eye-liner.
The same goes for being active in cyberspace. Without make-up, I don't feel right in myself and that affected my desire to be 'out there' even if no-one could see me.
Am I proud of this? No. I'm quite horrified really, but that's the way it is and if you want to know why I've been so quiet, then that's partly the answer.
Do let me know if you've any thoughts on this. I can take it - I've got my face on now.
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Hi Jo, have you seen the TV show 'Miss Naked Beauty'? Its finished now, but it explored some stuff around this. Is our make up like a mask that hides the things we don't want to show and accentuates the things we want people to see? Is this reflected in what of ourselves we are willing to show or not? Are we almost a different person with and without our make up on, and is this obvious to others or just to us? Just some musings!
Claire x
Hi Jo, have you seen the TV show 'Miss Naked Beauty'? Its finished now, but it explored some stuff around this. Is our make up like a mask that hides the things we don't want to show and accentuates the things we want people to see? Is this reflected in what of ourselves we are willing to show or not? Are we almost a different person with and without our make up on, and is this obvious to others or just to us? Just some musings!
Claire x
And to think this is the same Jo who never used to wear make up!!
Those are interesting thoughts, Claire. I did notice that even when the women on Miss Naked Beauty were naked, they were expected to wear make-up.
As for you, Ros. I can't remember when I never used to wear make-up. It's scary when you get so old other people know you better than you know yourself.
Don't be daft. Nobody that sees you could care that you don't have some paint on your face!
Get a grip ...
I'm just too lazy to wear makeup most of the time. When I do it seems to end up on the wrong bits of my face.
Oh Jo, stop being so worried! As naturists for almost 20 years, Mrs Postman and I can tell you that it's not what we look like on the outside but what we are on the inside that counts.
"Is our make up like a mask that hides the things we don't want to show and accentuates the things we want people to see?"
You bet it is! We dress up nicely, wear make-up, get our hair cut trendily, in the hope that it will make us a better person - and it doesn't.
Come along with us to any naturist club or swim (there are plenty in the Midlands) or any naturist beach in the UK or abroad and you'll see all manner of body shapes and sizes - but all people who are confident in themselves and in their bodies.
One of the most memorable things I have ever seen was when Mrs Postman and I were walking along a naturist beach in the Canary Islands shortly after we got married in 1990.
Striding confidently towards us, hand-in-hand, were a German couple who we guessed were in their mid-to-late 60s.
They wore nothing but flip-flops and nut-brown suntans and the lady had a large mastectomy scar where her left breast should have been.
Do you think she was worried about whether she had put her make-up on?
Thanks Mr Naked Postman. I was touched by your story about the woman with the mastectomy scar. I can quite see how naturism could be a way of becoming happy in yourself through being at home in your unadorned skin. It makes sense.
It certainly does and despite our dismal climate, it is becoming increasingly popular and accepted in the UK. The national organisation, British Naturism, has 13,000 individual members while there are 60,000 people in the various naturist clubs and societies affiliated to BN as well as those uncounted numbers who just practice naturism at home in their back gardens.
Over 400 people, including Mrs Postman and I, attended the third annual naturist weekend (indoors!) at Alton Towers in November and there are a number of big events already planned for 2009, as well as lots of clubs and swims around the country.
BN's homepage at http://www.british-naturism.org.uk/default.asp
has more details of events and clubs in the UK, as well as links to sites for naturist holidays all over the world.