Take "Sarah," a 34-year-old teacher who joined a naturist group after a mastectomy. "I felt mutilated," she told me. "I couldn't look at my chest in a mirror. At the nudist park, no one flinched. An older woman came up to me and just said, 'Nice scar, sister. I have one just like it.' That was the first time I didn't feel broken."

: Naturist environments allow people to see a wide variety of body types in a non-sexualized context, which helps stop the habit of comparing oneself to idealized media images. Empowerment through Exposure

Key tenets include:

The "locker room syndrome"—where men compare genital size or muscle mass—dissipates in mixed-gender naturism. Because the environment is non-competitive and non-sexual, the performance anxiety vanishes. Men report feeling less pressure to "manspread" or act aggressively when they are not hiding behind designer jeans.

Before diving into naturism, we must acknowledge why so many people are looking for alternatives to mainstream body positivity. Originating as a social movement led by fat activists, body positivity aimed to dismantle societal standards of beauty. Today, it has largely been co-opted.