Disclaimer: This blog post contains nude photos that show my erect penis and may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
There was a time, being the nudist that I am, where I would freely share in my Snapchat Stories photos and/or videos of my nude-self and of my nudist lifestyle. This, of course, was before Snapchat changed their community guidelines in order to make their platform advertiser-friendly, which essentially restricted nudity. Now, I like to say that advertisers ruin everything, but I also do understand that in order to make money and stay afloat, Snapchat had no choice.
Naturally, I do chat with friends on Snapchat, or send to them normal Snaps that do not contain any nudity. To be clear, I’ve never sent to anybody an unsolicited nude pic, or what is commonly known as a ”dick pic”. Although I have received plenty from men who were most likely ignorant of the fact that I am heterosexual, or who may have thought that a picture of their penis alone constitutes some type of photographic masterpiece.
And as a heterosexual male, of course, I would have preferred to receive this type of content from women. But as the lyrics go to the Rolling Stones song ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, well, precisely that: ”you can’t always get what you want (…) LOL!
Now, when I would share anything on Snapchat that involved nudity, it would be to my Snapchat Story, for my friends and followers to view if they chose to do so. In other words, if they consented. Because one has to explicitly choose to consume a Snapchat Story, and they have the option to leave it and stop viewing it at any time. Furthermore, I would also add a disclaimer at the beginning of each Story stating that viewer discretion is advised.
For those of you reading this who have never used Snapchat, a Snapchat Story is a collection of ephemeral photos or videos not longer than 10 seconds that are viewable to your followers for a period of 24 hours before they disappear forever.
For me, and pretty much all nudists, there is nothing inherently sexual about simple human nudity. And this is precisely the attitude I conveyed when sharing my nude-self and my nudist lifestyle in my Snapchat Stories. In other words, my penis was always flaccid in any photo or video that I posted. Because as a nudist living a nudist lifestyle, that is usually the state of affairs. As in, nudists simply don’t spend the day wandering around with a full-blown erection, if that were even possible.
In fact, for any male considering giving nudism a first-time try at a nudist resort or beach, the most asked question usually revolves around the possibility of getting an erection while naked in front of everybody. And the answers to that question, depending on who it’s coming from, is that erections rarely happen when naked in front of others, that erections are normal and healthy, that one can simply cover themselves with a towel, or if on the beach, that one can lie down on their stomach to hide it until it goes away. In my view, these answers are all correct.
From personal experience, the only time that I got an erection while naked in public was on the beach in Spain. I was skinny dipping in the comfortably warm summer water and when I began to exit the water, a young woman on the beach placed herself directly before my line of exit, watching attentively and with interest as the sight of my penis was slowly revealed into full view the further I made my way from deep to shallow water.
Adding to this was the warmth of the summer sun hitting my wet body, and voilà, it was the perfect recipe for my first-time experience of getting an erection while naked in public. In this case, I quickly made my way to my beach towel and laid down on my stomach to hide it until it subsided.
On the other hand, I’ve never had an erection while naked in public at the many events I’ve attended such as the World Naked Bike Ride, Strip Karaoke, the Toronto Pride Parade, and the nude 2012 protest in Montreal against the increase of University tuition fees. [You can read more about that naked protest here].
In fact, whenever I’m naked in public I seem to experience some type of psychological phenomenon that causes my penis to shrink a little. And that is precisely why I have a love-hate relationship with my penis. At home when I’m all alone, he likes to ”hang” just fine. But once in public he all of a sudden suffers from a mild case of shyness and decides that he would have preferred to have been born a turtle instead. LOL!
Alright. Now back to Snapchat. Almost every time that I would post nude content to my Story, somebody would ask me if the next time I could show my erect penis, or send to them directly a Snap of it. I would always answer that sharing my erection was a line that I would never cross and that my erect penis was intimately reserved for my girlfriend and I (even if I’ve been single for ages, LOL).
I would also add in my reply to them, that as a nudist, being naked was in no way sexual and that sharing a Snap of my erect penis would indeed sexualize my otherwise simple nudity.
Then one day, most likely out of sheer boredom, I decided to see what would happen if I tried to apply a Snapchat face filter to my erect penis using the Snapchat camera. Funnily, Snapchat detected my penis head as being a face and applied the Dog Filter to both it and to my actual real face.
I thought this was quite funny and decided that maybe it was worth sharing after all. After some hesitation, I finally took the risk and did it. I posted it to my Snapchat Story, and finally crossed that line I had always said I would never cross. I have to admit though, it was extremely liberating. I think that this is due in part to the fact that I am not entirely satisfied with the look, shape or size of my erect penis, as is the case for many men. We all want better, although, in the end, our penises are perfectly normal and pretty much similar to others. Again, the fact that I was able to share this part of me, despite my perceived shortcomings, was extremely liberating.
Here is the original Snap with the Dog Face Filter applied to both my face and to my penis:
Not only was it extremely liberating because I finally had the confidence and courage to share myself this way, without any fear or body shame, but it was also extremely liberating because of the many positive comments from my Snapchat followers that would ensue.
This led me to produce and share more of this style of content, albeit not using the Dog Filter, but instead applying more often than not the Playgirl logo to these photos.
Producing and sharing this content led me to believe that if I had had the same confidence to share myself this way when I was younger and in my prime, that just maybe I could have been a model for Playgirl magazine. It’s too late for that now. But, it’s never too late to live the dream by posting my old ”Playgirl Style” Snaps on this blog, right?
As one of my Snapchat followers said at the time, sharing this type of content is ”great for #erectionpositivity”. And I think that he summed it up pretty well with that hashtag, as indeed, having and sharing your erection, despite how taboo it may be, is indeed a positive feat. At least for me, it is.
Simply put, an erect penis is nothing to be ashamed of if displayed in an appropriate context. And those who answer the oft-asked question by those wanting to give nudism a try for the very first time—that an erection is part of the natural, normal, functioning of the male human body—are in my view 100% entirely correct.
That is why I decided to share some of my old ”Playgirl” style Snaps in this blog post, and to talk about my experience sharing such a personal and intimate part of me. An experience that has once again, in the end, been very liberating.
Now, thinking back to my erection experience while naked on that beautiful beach in Spain, I can’t help but think that maybe I should have accepted the natural state of affairs and not ran to lie stomach first on my beach towel in an attempt to hide what is otherwise a natural part of the human body. Or maybe I did the right thing by staying polite and reserved? What do you think? Would you have done the same as me?
The Naked Jade 