BANNED for Nudity: YouTube’s hypocritical policy

YouTube claims to allow for non-sexual nudity on its platform, but this is either a straight-up lie, or they simply do NOT understand the concept of naturism. I was banned for a video (below) my wife took of me and the family on a nude beach in Greece, where I can be heard stating, “We are here to practice naturism!” I do not look the least bit aroused. I make no suggestive poses. But my penis is clearly visible (and why shouldn’t it be?), so, of course, YouTube flags it as p@rnography, again missing the point of naturism.

Body parts are not inherently sexual, YouTube!

I never thought something like this would happen to me. Still, like Hector Martinez and Jesse O’Brien, my voice is being silenced because, in a world of White Supremacists and Nazi flags, the very worst thing you can be is a human who isn’t ashamed of being human.

Truth be told, I’ve never been much of a YouTuber. I used the platform to promote my D&D content, but I quickly lost interest when I realized how incredibly time-consuming making a proper video can be, time better spent writing my novels. Now, according to YouTube’s nudity policy, which I was careful to read before uploading, nudity is perfectly fine and dandy. In fact, several of my favorite naturist videos can be found right on the platform. This includes a fully naked beach volleyball tournament at Bare Oaks Naturist Park in Ontario and an all-nude French swim competition. So why oh why did YouTube single me out? I have no friggin’ clue.

Here is their policy, cut and pasted verbatim from their website:

Explicit content meant to be sexually gratifying is not allowed on YouTube. Posting pornography may result in content removal or channel termination. Videos containing fetish content will be removed or age-restricted. In most cases, violent, graphic, or humiliating fetishes are not allowed on YouTube.

They even show this cute little video explaining that nudity IS A-OK!

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Clearly, a day at the beach with the family is NOT sexual. I abhor explicit content when it is related to innocent nudity and would never think to post anything intended for that purpose. Of course, what constitutes fetish content is anyone’s guess. I suppose a devout Muslim might accuse a woman of attempting to elicit sexual feelings in him for not wearing a hijab.

I have spent the better part of two decades championing the nudist ethos because when it comes to arousal, it’s all subjective. More often than not, it’s the innocent who suffer, typically women who are bullied (sometimes to the point of suicide) and socially ostracized for how they present themselves. Children become victims when shame is used as a weapon against them due to no fault of their own, like when voyeurs use hidden cameras to take unsolicited photos. But for platforms like YouTube, all nudity is bad nudity, apparently. This hard-line attitude only serves to empower abusers, giving disgruntled boyfriends/girlfriends the means to blackmail their exes and molesters a tool to silence their prey. Nobody can ever blackmail me, mind you, because I take pride in my nudist advocacy, photos, videos, and all.

Perhaps the most insidious thing, I think, is YouTube knows this. Yet, they want to have it both ways: to satisfy both stuffy Church-going ladies and free-thinking naked guys like myself. If they had been upfront about their policy, if they simply stated: we don’t allow nudity, period, I would at least have had the chance to make an informed decision. What’s more upsetting, for me at least, is that the good folks at YouTube told me that since this was my first violation, my channel would remain online. A day later, without any warning or explanation, it was gone, along with the dozens of videos I’ve uploaded over the past decade. I am appealing the decision, but my hopes are not high, given Hector’s and Jesse’s lack of success.

There is an interesting story to the video in question. For the past two decades, whenever I visited the Greek islands where I was first introduced to nudism, I made it a mission to seek out the naked parts of the beach. Unfortunately for me, Greek attitudes toward public nudity have been declining since the 70s. There was a time—my friend’s dad told me—he felt as out of place as a Martian in his bathing suit. Nowadays, it’s quite the opposite. It might be all the “No Nudism” signs being posted. Or all the America Karens bitching to the authorities about not wanting their kids “to see that,” even though nudists have traditionally steered clear of populated areas and textile children. But I’d heard that nudism was still alive and thriving on the tiny island of Elofonisos. When we got there, of course, all we found were swim trunks, bikinis, and tattoos. It was a bit depressing until I convinced my wife to walk the length of the beach, where, unfortunately, she stepped on a rather large splinter that ran through her toe. I felt awfully guilty for dragging out into No Man’s Land, but after a quick trip to the store for a pair of tweezers, we were good, and I’d found my—mostly empty—heaven. You can see the delight on my face in the video, which, to any sane person, is anything but arousing (the penis doesn’t lie)!

But hey . . . MAYBE I’m wrong. I just signed up with Vimeo to share the video that got me banned. Do you think this was meant for sexual gratification? You be the judge! 

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