Celebrity Naturist of the Year 2018: Emily Ratajkowski

     Emily Ratajkowski in Allure magazine.

It's becoming more difficult every year to find someone to name as Celebrity Naturist of the Year. While it's easier to find, say, celebrities who admit they are gay, or they play a certain sport, somehow, admitting or publicizing you're a naturist is not that fashionable or remarkable.
So the circle from which to 'recruit' a Celebrity Naturist of the Year is getting tighter each year: Dame Helen Mirren, Eva Mendes, Heidi Klum, Rosario Dawson, Kate Moss, we know they all like to be naked and it's not just to shock or because fashion brands and magazines pay them to take their clothes off.
But with this year's pick, there is at least a Wikipedia entry to go with: she 'visited nude beaches in Europe with her family during her youth.'
So we know British-born American model/actress Emily Ratajkowski was a naturist at a very young age, thanks to her parents. While as in many cases, fame might now bar her from seeking out public naturist beaches, she is still a symbol of body freedom.
As said many times before, one can be critical of stars like Ratajkowski because it's 'easy' for them to go naked since they are 'beautiful,' and their nudity does not help people with body image issues to venture on to nude beaches.
There are the stereotype reactions under media articles about nude events saying that not-so-beautiful people should stay covered and that somehow nudity should be reserved for supermodels.
Naturism goes against all those prejudices, as it is not about showing off, but about feeling right in your skin. Naturism is about going nude when you feel like going nude, and a naturist's ideal world would be one where you can just go naked anywhere and any time you feel you'll like it. For some people, it will mean putting on some clothes if they feel chilly, for others it will be never having to put clothes on again.
Going back to Emily Ratajkowski, she can personify the feeling of comfort that comes with body freedom, the nudity of the skin under the sunlight and in the water.
A couple of months ago, this blog already mentioned her due to her Botticelli pose. There is no need to repeat all we wrote then again today, but let's just say that I think that celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski and Kate Moss, to name just few, do make nudity more acceptable by often appearing naked or near-naked in the media and online.
Therefore, and due to the naturist elements in her upbringing, Emily Ratajkowski deserves to be my Celebrity Naturist of the Year 2018.

                                          Photo by Patrick Demarchelier.

Real Naturists of The Year 2018: Association des Naturistes de Paris

France and naturism have gone well together for a long time.
Even as long as 50 years ago, when naturism was not so well known and little seen, many people knew that in France, there were islands and remote beaches where you could throw off all your clothes and swim and sunbathe nude without having to pay a price for it. Then Brigitte Bardot came along, the Cannes Film Festival, and taking your clothes off in France became a glamorous thing to do.
Over the past decades, naturism in France has attracted thousands of people from all over the world, not just to remote beaches, but to huge resorts as well, though its identification with the Cote d'Azur and the Mediterranean has largely remained.
All of that is changing again now. Naturism is moving inland, or more precisely, into the cities, and into the mass urbanization of one of Europe's and the world's largest cities, Paris.
Because of the impressive list of activities to turn naturism into an urban phenomenon, we name the 'Association des Naturistes de Paris' (ANP) the Real Naturists of the Year 2018.
If you look at their events' page, you will note more than just the usual swimming outings or nude sports contests, but you will also find items that made the world news just a few months ago.
Cases in point are the opening of a naturist space at the Bois de Vincennes, giving naturists in the region as well as tourists an opportunity to relax in a safe atmosphere, and the nude visit to the Palais de Tokyo arts museum. Both made headlines around the world.
In addition, the ANP has also been frequenting the nude restaurant O'Naturel, part of an expanding trend of restaurants around the world where guests can take everything off and enjoy good food without having to worry about their privacy.
Nude theater and outings as far as Belgium are also part of their agenda, and we're sure that over the following years, we will hear more in the mainstream media about their endeavors.
For their efforts to promote what we should call 'urban naturism,' the Association des Naturistes de Paris are the Real Naturists of the Year 2018.