The following text is an account of a fictional academic research project set in the near future. It describes the schools on Isla Espiritu Santo, off southern California, and how a policy that required adolescent males to be nude both in school and out was implemented, from the very beginning to the current moment of writing (late 2027).
As such, it is a parody of an academic project. This introductory paper will be followed by posts which are fictional accounts or testimonies of participants, from young adolescents to older adults. Although there is little narrative directly depicting sexual encounters, the content of the series will include accounts of sex between underage individuals, adults with underage individuals, and transactional sex. If this content violates laws in your jurisdiction, you should not read it. If you are under age 18, you should not read any further. In no sense does any of this content advocate for any illegal activities. You have been cautioned.
This series begins with a historical essay, and then moves to testimonies from boys, girls, teachers, parents, and members of the community. It will include a representative photographic collection with the full consent and awareness of those who are shown. Tags include: young, old, intergenerational, bi, gay, cfnm, cmnm, and gay incest. Although it depicts mandated behavior in some instances, there is no domination (Dom) in the usual sense of the term. If you enjoy this, you may contact the author at GavinRower2@protonmail.com The full series has already been written, and will continue to be posted.
Education on the island schools of Espiritu Santo (properly Isla Espíritu Santo) is a well-known topic. In this project I will summarize the story of policies and practices of adolescent male nudity as it evolved there, and then refer to personal testimonies from boys, girls, parents, community members, and educators. The published version of this project will include those testimonies as edited, with photographic illustrations as possible and legal.
The first two parts of this project concern the origins of the idea and its spread on the island, 2022-2027.
Part One: Espiritu Santo Academy
1. The Island Community
The context of the community and its schools is key to understanding how and why the policy and practices evolved. The island (a rough triangle) is geographically distinct from the mainland; it is reached via a long, winding, two-lane, 25-mile road through the leeward side of the peninsula of San Baccho National Forest and Seashore to a high bridge the Army Corps of Engineers built in the 1940s (and the corporation since rebuilt). The island is separated from the San Baccho peninsula by a 400 foot wide and 1000 foot deep canyon formed when the island was pushed into North America by the Pacific tectonic plate. The rock that forms the island is extremely dense and some of the oldest on the coast; even strong coastal earthquakes merely vibrate the entire island. The canyon on its north side is a tidal channel with very treacherous currents at high tide. At low tide one can walk from the southernmost beach of the National Seashore to the beautiful island beach, traditionally unreachable from the rest of the island because of the sheer drop of 900-200 feet from the island surface to the beach. Long ago it became a famous "nude beach," a custom so strongly established that visitors are simply warned that they may encounter nude bathers. The beach became reachable from the main island level in 2015 when a carefully designed and half-concealed stairway was cut into the cliff to allow access from the town.
The surface island, approximately 25 square miles, is a long, variegated slope from the 1000-high canyon wall to the north to about 200 feet above the beach towards its southern end, where it rises to a sharp promontory about 800 feet high. Until recently the island was largely covered with long grass and small coastal plants and trees that retained water. In the late 19th century a tuberculosis sanitarium and a few fishermen's shacks were built on the leeward side; it closed in the 1930s. During WWII the army took control of the entire island and built a battery on the promontory to defend the bay, supplied via the road and the bridge. The two commercial piers on the leeward side, facing the bay were built during the Cold War; these now are used for the ferry and bulk shipments. At the southern promontory, the Navy built radar and tracking towers, since torn down. This has now become the site of the state university's astronomical observatory and radio telescopes.
In 1985 the island was sold to a public trust which designed and developed the island community on careful environmental and LEED design principles, and using as much as possible native materials, colors, and textures, and plants. The island is now home to 20,000 people in moderate density low-rise residences with a town center near the passenger ferry terminal that takes commuters to three locations in the wider metropolitan area. Most of the island is car-free; many cars are parked in unobtrusive parking fields; many residents depend upon the renewable-electric powered public transportation, mini-bikes, and bicycles. A large number of unobtrusive, dispersed solar arrays power much of the island and especially the highly successful solar-powered desalination and and co-generation plant. The island was designed to reduce its carbon and ecological footprint as much as practical and possible, and conserve water usage. (It does offer, however, two large community swimming pools.)
To the casual observer, it is remarkable that 20,000 people live in a community that feels small-town and dispersed. The inhabitants are mostly professionals in health, medicine, academia, and environmental research. Well over 75% of island adults hold at least a college degree. While only 8% of the island population is African American (much less than originally intended), 15% is Caucasian Hispanic and 30% is Asian, evenly divided between Iranians, northern Indians, and Koreans, 20% is "mixed" and the rest Caucasian, especially Danish and German researchers and professors that followed an international lab that moved to the state university in the 1990s. There is very little rental (AirB&B etc. is strictly regulated), and only a few licensed guest houses. There is a small but growing number of sublets. The purchaser of a home also purchases a share in the island corporation and has a vote in corporation affairs. The politics of the island are very progressive, briskly pursued, with few confrontations. The corporation tends island's infrastructure and the town government its political, social, and educational affairs.
Although the island was carefully designed, several social or ethnic groups have nevertheless sorted themselves (or been sorted) into neighborhoods or general areas. The elementary school that serves families on the "lower" leeward side of the island, has more American-born children of Iranian/Persian, Indian, Latino, and ancestries than the other three elementary schools, so most of his classes were mixed "brown," with fewer whites, but also fewer African Americans, who for one reason or another gravitated to the lower windward side of the island, and the elementary school there. Income and socio-economic status were not deciding factors, because the island had been purposefully designed to mix kinds of housing (both features and prices) in every area, and arrangement which has successfully avoided socio-economic stratification since 1990, since the price of housing has practically required any resident to have more than median middle-class income.) The upper leeward and windward areas are also mixed, but nevertheless more white.
Since the weather averages 70 to 85 degrees during the day and 55 to 60 at night, with little rainfall, little heating or cooling is necessary, and most buildings are naturally ventilated. The "June gloom" is less severe than on the mainland, burning off by mid-morning, and for a coastal location the night skies are remarkably brilliant (hence the siting of the astronomical observatory). Most days have many hours of sunshine, and major storms are infrequent.
In local terminology, a "street: or "road" can carry vehicular traffic; a "lane" is a pedestrian street that also allows bicycles and electric-powered mini-vehicles. As noted above, most islanders either do not own an automobile, or own a small electric-only powered SmartCar since there is only one point on the island to purchase gasoline. There has also evolved an informal network of pathways between and among the residential clusters of condominium and duplex houses. Outdoor lighting is kept deliberately low to avoid interference with the telescopes at the observatory.
2. The Island's Secondary Schools
Two schools serve the island: the Espiritu Santo public schools, and the Island Shore Academy (private), both K-12. The public middle & high school enrolls around 1,250 students in seven grades 6-12; Island Shore Academy 420 students grades 6-12. The Academy is built in the grounds of the old sanitarium and incorporates several of its (rebuilt) outer buildings; the middle & high school campus is located near the town center and is easily reached from every residential neighborhood by bicycle or walking. The high school sends 98% of its graduates to college (or gap year) and its highly regarded. The Academy is a IB curriculum based on the model of a German classical gymnasium with strong instruction in the sciences. Each year, about 30 students from the public school and 10 students from the Academy also attend the Cooperative High School for the Performing Arts (CHSPA, pronounced Ches-pa), located on the mainland that teaches instrumental and vocal music, drama, and dance. It meets in the afternoons Mondays--Thursdays, and its students take their core academic subjects at their public or private school in the mornings, and are transported to CHSPA and back.
The are four public elementary schools (preK-5), each serving a quarter of the island. The Academy has a lower-school division, preK-5.
Both schools were founded in 1990. Neither school has fielded football, baseball, or softball teams; the public high school had boys' and girls' basketball until 2020. A co-op with the island swim club and the public school fielded an excellent and successful swimming and diving team. The Academy formed its own squash, tennis, and cross-country teams; the high school tennis, cross-country, track & field, and ultimate frisbee. A town recreational soccer team for high-school boys and girls plays similar teams from a few other towns; the tennis teams practice on the small town courts, or the courts of the three tennis clubs. Neither school offers particularly strong co-curricular activities and clubs (partly because of size and academic emphasis), with the exception of a very active student environmental sustainability group, and coastal orienteering. The modest level of co-curricular offerings may have accounted for the behavioral problems that grew more acute after 2015.
3. Behavioral and Social Problems Were the Impetus for New Thinking
The pandemic of 2020-2022 accelerated a long-simmering sense of social isolation and alienation among teenagers because of social distancing and the sudden emphasis on online interaction. Problems with harassment, emotional abuse, and cliques carried through social media had existed for some years, and educators attempted to respond by teaching best online practices, but the disruption of two consecutive school years and changing ideas about gender and sexual identities led to a significant level of depression, anti-social acting out in parties and other events, and culminated in suicides of two popular students. During the waves of the pandemic, however, educators felt powerless to "change the script," as one put it.
Sexting in particular, both images and videos, became a major concern, as well as a private channel for sexual face-to-face or online meetings. The sexting involved males as often as females. Straight (or allegedly straight) males sexted, harassed, and intimidated numerous women, gays, and transgender or non-binary individuals. A "secret" nude beach party in August 2021 involved several hundred teenagers and resulted in virulent sexting and online gossip especially by and about males, who seemed to be nude far more frequently than the females. Educators and community leaders knew it was time to act, but had no idea what action might be effective.
The headmaster and senior faculty of the Academy were from northern Germany and Denmark, and shared a common background in the FKK movement and beach camps. When Headmaster Lucas Raadengaard re-read several texts by Plato and Thucydides, he noticed more than ever before the number of times when young men both were nude and were assumed ought to be nude. It was not a special event, but an everyday habit. The problem was that the ancient Greeks also cloistered and suppressed women. Nudity seemed to express boys' beauty and improve their behavior. Could nudity improve the behavior of male adolescents, ages 12-18? Raadengaard developed the idea: he tried it out on his colleagues, who supported it (especially his female colleagues). How could they carry out this idea? It became a goal for the beginning of the Fall semester, 2022.
The faculty began with the parents. They fanned out and each presented their students' intercepted sexts with small groups, without the students' names although many times the parents recognized not only who was depicted in the sext, but who sent it, and who received it. They were shocked at the scope and depth of the problem that had grown under their noses. When the teachers tentatively and diplomatically suggested a solution, required daily male nudity for all events and activities, very few of the parents objected, and even those who did initially came around. In the midst of repeated disruptions of the 2021-2022 school year, the policy was quietly put in place by the Spring. The parents and teachers would have the summer to acclimatize the boys to required daily nudity in the presence of girls and adults, who would remain clothed. Boys from ages 5 to 11 could go nude every day if they wished, but it was neither expected nor required. The headmaster anticipated resistance from the Iranian-American, Indian-American, and Korean-American parents, but little emerged. If the rest of the parents agreed, they would agree as well.
This new policy would require many details to be sorted out, and the parents and faculty established groups to resolve questions about: athletics and athletic events, boys' nudity when visiting off-island venues; attending the cooperative arts school; nudity and public conduct in the town, as well as online behavior and photographs; handling the media; and "best practices" for families instituting young male nudity over the summer; dealing with boys' anxiety, sexual education, and mental health.
The school uniform for males had long been red athletic shorts and a school t-shirt (with sandals, usually); in the Fall of 2021 the headmaster quietly brought the shorts up to current or revived fashion, with the "short shorts" 1980s style, worn with an accompanying "crop-top" shirt with the school logo rather than the full t-shirt. He even allowed mesh crop-top shirts--in fashion, what goes around, comes around. He allowed similar but somewhat less revealing uniform for the girls.
The faculty prepared the students by showing graphic sexts that had been gathered by colleagues in other private schools across the country. No local boy or girl was supposed to be exposed, but everyone knew the exactly the same kind of sexts were circulating in Espirito Santo Academy as well as the public middle & high School. Graphic and often false sexting surprised no one, and for a little while its occurrence seemed to lessen, but then sexting returned with a jump-start from a private "fuck" party at one student's house (exactly which house was hard for the faculty to tell, but the students all knew).
4. Adolescent Male Nudity: Making the Change
For all the 2021-2022 school year the school had been operating with half days or a little longer, restricted athletic practices and games, and the afternoons supposedly assigned to online instruction. Starting April 1, the school allowed and encouraged "shirtless Fridays" for boys, and then added "shirtless Wednesdays." Even though many of the boys were not especially beautiful to look at, almost all of them enthusiastically participated: it just felt good. With school letting out a 1 p.m., the middle of the day was great for lounging shirtless in the town center, the park, or the bluffs overlooking the Pacific.
With the growing availability of effective vaccines, The town re-opened the pools, which it shared with the high school: two large 12-lane Olympic-length outdoor pools with plenty of room for social distancing. The combined schools' swim team finished practice by 3:00, leaving plenty of time for messing around. When the public school boys learned what the Academy was allowing, they pressured the school administrators to allow shirtless Fridays as well, which they began reluctantly in May. The public school's leadership was still in the dark, however, about what the Academy faculty had in mind.
After the end-of-the-year exams the Academy traditionally had several "fun" days that concluded with an all-school assembly when the honors were announced. Many parents attended, if they could, and most did (since most of them were once again working at home). After the honors and recognitions for the year (everyone carefully distanced on the wide school front lawn), the Headmaster Raadengard addressed them:
I am, first of all, glad to report that the vaccine that we've all been waiting for will be available in June, and everyone will be required to get it. Next year we will go back to full days at school and regular classes, sports, and activities.
Now I want to say a few words about student conduct this year, and a new policy starting next Fall, including the summer practices that will begin July 1. We have all seen the problem with social media harassment, aggression, and sexting this year. Parents and students have seen the same images, acknowledged the same problem. Everyone also heard the important point that much of the aggression and harassment came from and was lead by young males. We need to re-write the script for young males in this school, and the script young males have followed regarding behavior with women of all ages. Young women are not blameless, but we believe that if we improve young male behavior in a significant way, women will respond in kind. We all need to make a change.
Beginning with summer practices and activities July 1, and continuing through the 2022-2023 school year, all male students in grades six through twelve will be required to be nude all day for all classes, practices, events and activities. They will be allowed to wear clothing only when and if safety demands. They will be allowed to wear sandals, shoes, socks, hats, glasses, jewelry, and to carry backpacks. You will all receive further details this summer. I know that this will change the difference in power and persuasion between young males and all females, and that is the point. All the parents and the faculty have agreed and have already supplied written consent to this change for all the boys in this school. Soon it will be time to make this change--you will the beginning of something new.
Total silence followed, then an immediate buzz. Boys looked shocked; the girls looked both shocked and happy. Adults had taken them seriously. Now the boys would have to take them seriously, too. When the boys recovered, they all doubted that any of this would ever happen. Was this even legal? The school must be crazy. Right now was a moment to enjoy the sunshine and the end of the year--they would take all this back. Bad ideas had gone away before. But the boys were wrong.
The task groups of the parents and the faculty did good work quickly before the headmaster could make his announcement, and arrangements were already in motion.
The media group had their work cut out for them immediately. They had given a confidential heads-up to the island town and corporation, public safety, and the leadership of the public school district. They had located several psychologists and educators who persuasively argued that social nudity improves mental and physical health, and un-links the automatic association of nudity with sex and aggression. They explained to media on background the this was "experimental" and was a last resort because of the the dramatic increase in the sexting, part of a host of social media problems. Local media outlets decided to let this story remain on a back page, since they predicted it would be blocked by legal action and the resignation of the school's teachers and headmaster. Predictably, national Fox News picked up the story but dropped it when it seemed to gain no traction. The tabloid press had been warned: the corporation could keep people off the island, and could check at the ferry terminal and the bridge into town. After a couple of days the media story blew over and nothing bad happened. In a world with so many problems, adolescent male nudity on a far-away island elicited a shrug and a yawn.
The group dealing with the Town, public safety, and the public school received great cooperation. It turned out that town had few regulations regarding public exposure, and those were easily modified to fit the educational purposes of the Academy's new policy. The Department of Public Safety, a 10-officer constabulary, simply decided that any Academy boy on hisr way to or from home, or practice at a town facility such as the pool, would not be challenged providing he wore the Academy ID card on a lanyard. (They expected the lanyard to be around a boy's neck; the boys predictably were much more creative when the time came.) They alerted the town's merchants to amend the familiar "no shoes, no shirt, no service," to "no shoes, no pants, no shirt, no service," except at take-out windows, and perhaps outdoor tables. In any case, almost all the resident boys were already familiar to the constables because of their regular walking beats.
The group dealing with athletic practices and events had to address several issues. The Academy was not part of a formal athletic league, but meets or events were arranged with other similar schools ad hoc, in some cases for a decade of more. The Academy formed its own tennis, squash, and cross-country teams, all co-ed (as was the schools' combined swimming & diving team). The combined swimming and divine team was the most challenging: nude boys from the Academy would practice alongside suited boys from the middle & high school; would the town leadership allow this? It turned out that the leadership readily agreed, and the swimming club director and swimming coach secured the cooperation of the five other schools with which the team competed. Academy boys would remain nude practicing and competing at home, and would obey local policy when traveling to other schools off-island, and to avoid problems with other communities who might be less welcoming, but would travel and compete nude when possible Similarly, the tennis, squash and cross-country teams would practice nude and compete nude at home, and away as much as possible; the boys were certainly expected to remain nude in the school van on route to other locations. Boys were of course allowed shoes, socks, wrist and headbands, visors, towels, as well as optional sweat pants and shirts if an off-island location was colder than 50 Fahrenheit (likely in only one location). Tennis meets held at private clubs would have to adhere to dress codes or requirements of those clubs; meets held at town or school courts were negotiable though most welcomed nude boys since that was the Academy's policy. The cross-country boys would be running nude through the town as part of their practice and one home meet. For all three sports, if a boy's penis or testicles seemed particularly large, he could wear a jock strap or restraint if that enabled him to perform better, but it would have to put on just before a practice or event, and removed immediately after, including for any awards ceremony or post-meet team meeting. The group was surprised that, with the exception of one Christian school, other schools and clubs welcomed nude competition since that was the policy of the Academy.
The performing arts school (CHSPA) in the afternoon at first presented more of a challenge. The school is located on a refurbished pier in the harbor district of the metropolitan area; island students previously crossed the bay on the passenger ferry, disembarking at the first stop, transferring to a van, and traveling another ten minutes through an industrial dock area. This area is not considered safe for nude boys; the ferry company did not welcome nude passengers due to DHS regulations. The Academy agreed to send one of its larger vans with ten students (five boys, five girls) around the harbor to the school, a trip wound up taking only five minutes more than the trip via ferry and van, and had the advantage of keeping the boys on Academy grounds until their departure rather than being taken down to the ferry terminal, and delivering them directly to the arts school door. The return trip might take longer (at rush hour), but turned out rarely to be delayed.
The interaction inside CHSPA remained a bigger challenge. The five boys in 2022-2023 were a dancer (modern), an actor (a male ingenue), a pianist, a violinist, and a singer (tenor). The dancer was 6'4" African American, the actor a slight blond boy, the pianist a thin, smooth "Desi," the violinist Korean-American, and the singer with dark Latino boy with broad shoulders and attractive muscles. Would the boys' nudity detract from teaching and learning when others were clothed? Would they practice and perform nude, and would that distract other performers as well as any audience? The CHSPA director left these decisions to each teacher or studio, and in the course of the year the dancer found a role as the one nude dancer among black-clad dancers in a geometric set; the actor appeared nude as Puck in an adaption of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the pianist performed a half-recital solo anyway, and the violinist (as first violinist of a string quartet) set the group's expectations regarding other player's clothing, and no one objected. The tenor appeared in scenes from Bernstein's Mass, the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar, and a scene from Sondheim's Company where his nudity was appropriate. CHSPA was very pleased with these results, and planned further work with nude boys.
The groups working on "best practices" for introducing adolescent male nudity in the home over the summer, and the group addressing issues of mental health, anxiety, and sex education decided to combine their energies and offer a road-map for "getting to nude" for families and for the boys.
This group began work with the situation at hand: parents at home, explaining this change and beginning to expect or require their sons' nudity. Every member of each household would need to understand and support this change and new behavior, and this could be tougher for some households than others. A summary of some of their recommended practices and actions:
For the boy, a special kind of love and support would be necessary to help him understand how to conduct himself nude, how to accept comments about his nudity and body, and how to feel confident in or despite his complete exposure. The group suggested several best practices:
For the boy himself, the group on sexual education, mental health, and anxiety put together a FAQ and several video tutorials about how to handle this big change in his life and experience. With a few minor exceptions, this is the entire text of the FAQ.
5. Nude Boys at the Academy: The First Months
The honors assembly, when Headmaster Raadengaard made his announcement, was the last event before graduation, but in 2022 graduation still had to be a small affair. Boys in the class of 2022 were not expected or required to be nude, and none were.
It is nearly impossible to tell how many Academy boys in how many families actually began to live nude as soon as recommended after school was over. There is evidence that most did in family photographs and personal testimony. If every Academy boy rising to the 6th through 12th grade began to live nude immediately in May 2022, it would amounted to 210 boys across the town, an apparent effect but not necessarily seen by everyone everyday.
A week later after the Academy's graduation, the county health department began the free vaccination program. The local health professionals administering the vaccination against COVID-19 had been forewarned that some boys from the Academy might show up nude, and they counted at least 150 nude boys, a significant share of the total 200 (or more).
Summer athletic events or competitions began immediately. The two local tennis clubs that hosted the Academy teams allowed Academy boys on an informal roster to play nude on their courts, but only before 10 AM Mondays to Thursdays. The squash courts were in a school building, and boys practiced nude there, including conditioning exercises. Since the cross country boys could start to run from just about anywhere, when they ran together (which they preferred) they started from the main entrance to the town park in the center of the island. A total of fifteen boys took part, all running through town lanes and roads nude very early in the morning, so only early risers ever saw them. "Captain's practices" began for swimming in early June. The summer swim competition season, clubs with clubs, was already in full swing by July 1, and Academy boys regularly practiced and competed nude. The public school boys accepted them easily. Adolescent girls began to see nude boys in town, or at the beach on warm days (but almost all the boys at the beach were nude, anyway). It appeared to parents and Academy faculty who lived on island that the new policy was taking hold, and when more resistant boys began to see that their friends and classmates were already nude, they soon joined them. The headmaster felt that compliance with the new policy was 100% by July 15.
Off-island summer vacations or travel presented new issues for those families who left. Given conditions off-island, they gave their boys clothes enough for what was necessary, and in many places chose to spend time in places that were clothing-optional. In any case there was little choice for anyone but to conform to the expectations of those on the mainland.
The first real test of the new policy came on August 1, the day the first payment for the new academic year was due. If a family were going to pull a boy out of the Academy, this would be the moment--the money was due. But all the payments came through, and it looked like all the anticipated students were really going to attend. The next test came at the end of August, when rising 6th graders would come to the middle school building; 62 student students including 34 boys. They all appeared, all nude, pre-pubescent, anxious, looking around and thinking, what have I gotten myself into?
Some of these boys and girls had already started puberty; most were still children in the `tween years. They were greeted by the assistant headmaster, and a 10th grade boy who spoke, mostly meant for the boys (Ethan --See later testimony.) The assistant headmaster reminded them that these years, 6th through 9th grades, are years when they would develop so much physically and emotionally. He had met separately with them after their 5th grade leaving to tell them about the new policy, and why. Their parents had already consented, and they were still children enough that they complied with their parents wishes. A quick look confirmed very few tan lines, the sure sign of a summer spent nude and mostly outdoors. All had lived nude at home since that first day.
Ten of the boys were younger brothers of Academy students, so if they had an older brother attending, they had been nude at home with him. The class included Indian-American twins, beautiful light-brown thin boys with curly dark hair, smooth skin, lovely dark nipples, and utterly bare pubes. They had turned eleven in July, just making the cut-off for ages, and their older brothers were in 9th and 11th grades, so their parents had spent the summer with four nude boys at home (and often their nude friends). The assistant headmaster spent an entire day with the boys on nude etiquette, but mostly the three orientation days were days of building the class (most of whom already knew each other from 5th grade): scavenger hunts, art projects, and the year-long process of making a playable wooden flute. Much of the middle school curriculum was influenced by Rudolf Steiner, but with an overlay of language and hands-on science.
The first day of school came a week before Labor Day, and already the parents, headmaster, and faculty saw the benefits of the new policy. As students assembled on the front lawn of the Academy, grouped by classes, there was a natural sense of camaraderie and fun as girls and other boys caught sight of boys nude for at school for the first time. The opening included a short speech by the senior class president, a boy on the swimming team with tight, smooth muscles and a penis that appeared to be half-erect as he spoke without notes or podium (Ethan). He said he was grateful for the experiences that living nude had already showed him, and he looked forward to a new a different chapter in his education. The girls Academy uniform remained red shorts of varying lengths and school knit shirt or cropped t-shirt, and they enjoyed their sense of equality and fairness, and even power over nude boys.
The school and parents had expected problems with photographs, but surprisingly this was only an occasional problem. Part of the reason lay with the face-to-face personal apology that was required of the perpetrator, another certainly lay with the genuine loss of telephone privileges for a year. Numerous photographs were posted online in various social media (or sent as texts), but almost all showed boys online from the waist up, or headshots.
Several surprises lay in store: the faculty had recruited a number of younger teachers as older faculty retired rather than carry out the new policy. The males among them consulted with their classes, whether the girls would be threatened or feel uneasy with a nude teacher. When it emerged that they did not and would not feel threatened at all, all ten of the newer, younger male teachers made the decision to teach and coach nude, and promised their students that they would not rescind their decisions. In the elementary school, each class was 15 students, 4 classes per grade, and most of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade boys decided that if the older boys were going to be nude, they would be nude, too. (A boy would have been allowed to change his mind if he didn't like it, but no boy did.). Most of the boys and men in the school community, from 3rd graders to teachers in their 20s and 30s, were nude, and the consensus was that this change was overwhelmingly positive. The boys on the swimming, squash, tennis, and cross-country teams were almost uniformly greeted when they visited other schools or combined meets, and the Espiritu Santo Academy achieved a distinctive status in its region and recognition from many progressive educators around the world.
More details about how the days went will be found in the personal accounts which I will attach to this story. The second part of this introduction will look at the spread of adolescent male nudity in school and sports to the Isla Espiritu Santo public middle & high school.
Part Two: Implementing New Policy at Isla Espíritu Santo Public Middle & High School
The district consists of four small elementary schools enrolling about 200 students each; all these students combine in the 6th grade in the Middle & High School, which has a smaller wing for grades 6--8 and a larger wing for grades 9--12. The campus comprises five buildings connected by walks (some covered), set on a low hill and positioned to take advantage of sea breezes, with minimal cooling, a fully LEED-certified building that generates most of its own power from the solar array on the roof. The middle school wing overlooks the town center; the high school wing overlooks the ocean. Each grade enrolls 170-180 students, slightly more boys than girls for no apparent reason other than statistical variability. In 2022-2023, 660 of the 1278 were boys, and 618 girls. This was one of the factors behind the rise of online aggression, harassment, and sexting. Given the town's population in 2022-2023, 52 of the boys were African-American, 99 Caucasian Hispanic, 65 Iranian-American, 66 Korean-American, and 76 Indian-American or "Desi," leaving 302 mixed-race or Caucasian, proximately 80 of which were of Scandinavian background. The last fact is important only because these boys were the "leaven" that facilitated the new policy; Scandinavian culture permits far more male nudity than even very progressive American culture. With 190 darker-skinned boys and about another 80 either Korean or mixed heritage, about 270 boys were distinctly "other" than stereotypically Caucasian, giving the school a truly variable complexion.
Word spread to the public school administrators and faculty about the innovation at the Academy very soon after the its headmaster announced the new policy in late May 2022. With the arrival of the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine, at last the public middle & high school would settle back into some kind of normality, or so some thought. The disruption that began in March 2020 changed instruction, which was now a very successful hybrid of online work combined with classroom and on-site laboratories, discussions, and project-based learning. Given online faculty, for the first time the school could offer Persian, Korean, or Indian literature in translation, Latin, Greek, college calculus, and other "exotic" subjects, and the school and community were unwilling to sacrifice these few gains made during all the pandemic madness. The students' amazing facility with online interaction meant, however, that the harassment and sexting that caused so much disruption in 2021- 2022 continued unabated, and school faculty and mental health specialists were worried about the lasting effects of online harassment and the school's disruption. Matters came to a head in October 2022, when cleverly faked short video clips supposedly showed various girls sucking many of the boys, an invited the viewer to "rate the cocksucker" with 1 to 5 stars. Within a month videos appeared that purported to show popular, athletic boys giving oral sex to several girls and sucking several unidentifiable boys, all faked. By Thanksgiving break the school and parent organization knew that something had to change, and the Academy was reporting solid success with its policy of required nudity for male students. Could that idea be scaled to a larger public middle & high school?
Like the Academy, the school had encouraged similar short shorts and crop t-shirts or mesh shirt for boys, and similar but less provocative clothing for girls, mostly as a concession to current fashions. Since the high school did not really have a uniform, this encouragement followed the wider revival of 1980s fashions, and some boys had already adopted crop shirts as their distinctive outfit.
Requiring male nudity in a public school raised many new problems. Attendance is public school is mandatory unless the student has registered other arrangements, such as a private school. Did state educational requirements also mandate that students must be clothed? The disciplinary provisions left to local schools said nothing, but in this case would the state education department intervene? Or would it support this idea, as a larger pilot program? Was the town ready to handle 660 nude male boys ages 11-18 in addition to the 200-odd boys at the Academy? Would CHSPA accept 15 more nude boys? The public school was a member of a regional division C athletic conference; would those schools and teams accept nude male swimmers, runners, and tennis players? The town soccer club had a high-school boy recreational team that traveled to a few other similar clubs in the region; would those clubs accept nude players? A number of the high school boys worked light part-time jobs in the town; would employers accept nude employees? Would customers accept nude boys, if they served the public? The public school had a much larger percentage of Asian American students, all of whom were completely American by birth and culture, but descended from cultures not known to support nudity of any kind. Would those families push back?
The middle & high school principal wanted to lead the school in this innovative direction, and the district superintendent left it up to him, staying officially neutral were conflict to ensue. The principal, Len Fitzpatrick, had an old friend in the regional education compact who knew the politics of the whole state thoroughly, so he had a private lunch with him in the old Ivy club in the city and raised the problems, the possible means of addressing them, and the numerous complications. That friend then had several private conversations elsewhere in the State and returned with the message: if the school wished to move in the direction of required male nudity, the state and the region would regard it as strictly a local policy decision, and neither comment nor interfere. Fitzpatrick next had a private lunch with the Town Manager, director of public safety, and media relations director. Having seen the positive results at the Academy, they were all for the public school adopting a very similar policy and would make sure that no local regulations or policies would interfere. The educational and legal way was open, but the parents needed to be brought on board, and it had to be done quietly.
Fitzpatrick had another private lunch, to which he invited the chair of the parent teacher organization, the school mental health counselor, a highly-regarded young male art teacher, the mother (Iranian-American) of of one of best boy swimmers, then a 6th grader, and a pediatrician who was also the father of highly-regarded cross country runner. The principal expected that this group might have some sway with the parents. He would ask the mother of the boy swimmer to speak with vocal and occasionally challenging groups of Asian American parents. He asked the teacher to speak about the atmosphere of the school, and the school mental health counsellor to speak about the anger and depression in students who had been cyber-bullied or sexted, and the dramatic rise in prescription anti-depressants among all the students. He asked the chair of the parent teacher organization, who was a genial, energetic older woman who seemed to know most of the residents of the island by name, to speak to every else. The principal's coup was the pediatrician, a specialist is adolescent health and development at the state university's medical school and consulting physician for the hospital's pediatric psychiatric ward, whom the principal asked to speak about the development and psychology of adolescent males. After the lunch, the group was joined by the headmaster of the Academy and a younger male math teacher who was one of the teachers who chose to teach, work, and live nude (but he was clothed for this occasion).
The group spoke about the serious problem with bullying and sexting and the deceptive and incomplete solution of prescription medications. The teacher and parents agreed that the atmosphere of the school had deteriorated from the time before the pandemic and disruptions; the pediatrician and father could speak about the real threats to mental and physical health that were looming, and the psychology of male adolescent sexuality and physical development. The parents of the athletes agreed that practice and competition alongside nude males had not interfered or distracted the "clothed" athletes (speedos or running shorts), and that their sons' friends at the Academy seemed to have adjusted readily to living nude.
Finally the Academy Headmaster Raadengaard and teacher provided several "lessons learned" from their experience: communicate clearly, separate the boys from the girls at the meet when the new policy is announced; give practical advise about introducing such nudity in the home, and concluded with a few tips about handling anxiety, embarrassment, erections, and masturbation. They reported that the Academy had after some discussion had cleaned up an attic room in one of the oldest hospital outbuildings, above a custodial garage, and furnished it with mattresses and bean-bags hairs as a "masturbatorium" where boys could go when they felt over-stimulated. They also were aware that some gay sex was happening there, but that seemed merely likely outcome from the presence of so many randy, nude teenage boys.
The group agreed to present the idea very quietly to a closed meeting of the parent teacher organization, and to organize groups to implement the policy like the Academy had used. A parent who was influential with CHSPA presented the proposal there. In response, the arts faculty's experience with nude boys from the Academy was so positive that they welcomed more nude boys from the high school. With forty students now attending from the island, the schools could charter a regular boat to transport their students from town dock alongside the ferry terminal to the directly to the back door to the school on the pier across the harbor, avoiding traffic and not attracting attention. The schools' athletic director agreed with the program and began to work out the details for competition with other schools; the soccer club found two teams on the mainland they could play regularly, both comprised of gay high school and college boys. The Iranian-American mother began to move her community, the Indian-Americans, and the Korean-Americans: they all wanted high achieving sons, and if nudity could assist them achieve more, they were all for it: whatever it would take. That left some way needed to persuade the parents of about 50 African American boys and the parents of nearly one hundred Latinos. A married gay couple who were artists, one Latino and one Black, found ways to speak to those parents persuasively. Implementing the policy had moved from possible to likely to virtually certain. In a closed executive session, the school board authorized the principal announce his decision at his discretion, and gave their full support.
Timing was all, advised the Academy headmaster, who completely supported and encouraged the project. He also advised how to deal with bumps along the road: how to handle tattoos and where they were placed on boy's bodies; cock rings; and boys who seemed to be experimenting with erection-enhancing drugs. For example, one boy had an elegant, elliptical design tattooed on the shaft of his penis, a look that attracted a lot of attention whenever he had a public erection. One student with mild ADHD symptoms could not seem to keep his hands off his penis in any situation. Several nude teachers had experienced public erections when working with boys who had erections; erections turned out to be something of a social phenomenon and if one boy had an unexpected erection in front of class (at the board, for example), others were sure to follow. Several boys had erections so consistently that it suggested some kind of chemical assistance.
All this process took time, but the principal finalized the decision in late April. Contracts were signed to alter the buildings over the summer: removing a wall so the boys shower room and locker room could be viewed from gymnasium on one side and a corridor through full-length windows. Similar windows were replaced around urinals; the boys toilet stalls alone afforded complete privacy. Fixtures were installed to allow (or encourage) the boys to wash their genitals when they felt necessary, all within full view of anyone in the hallway. A boys-only room adjacent to the gymnasium and shower was created to facilitate individual or group masturbation (or boy-on-boy encounters) with direct access to the showers; the room was viewable through one-way glass, on one side from a teachers lounge, and on the other side from a corridor. All this carried out the pediatrician's firm recommendation: the boys must allowed only minimal "genital privacy." The fact that they were always exposed, always on display, mandated their responsible behavior. The kind of behavior that resulted in bullying and sex performed in secret was made next to impossible. They would live completely exposed, and be sexual essentially in public.
The school also arranged for a room in the ferry terminal where male teachers from the mainland who chose to teach nude could leave their clothes securely in the morning, and reclaim them on the way home. While these men were encouraged to live nude at home and elsewhere as much as possible, the school recognized the limitations of wider society in the metropolitan area.
In May 2023, rumors were flying on island that the public middle & high school was going to institute adolescent male nudity, but Principal Fitzpatrick and superintendent steadfastly refused to confirm or deny it, and no one else could speak authoritatively. The May honors presentation was a more limited affair in the public high school than the Academy, but final day of school year featured a school-wide picnic. That was when Fitzpatrick made his move. He made sure that as many parents as possible would attend; students knew something was up because in other years the parents rarely attended this event. The principal stood on a low platform to give his usual thanks to the staff and faculty for a great year, and then told the girls to gather in the school auditorium, and the boys to gather on the bleachers in the gymnasium. The principal went with the boys; the assistant principal (female) went with the girls.
When the boys had gathered in the gymnasium, Principal Fitzpatrick began to speak:
We have all learned a lot these past several years, and finally school has returned to something like normal. Behavior has not really recovered, problems with social media have grown worse, and many of us will carry the anxieties and pressures of these past years of pandemic for a while yet.
I have determined, following the advice of numerous parents, specialists, and educators, that next year this middle & high school will adopt the same policy that the Academy instituted a year ago. Starting July 1, all school activities will require all male students entering the 6th to 12th grades to be nude for all classes, practices, meets, events, activities, and performances. Clothes will not be allowed, except for safety, at any point of the day, except sandals, hats and a few minor items. Male students will be nude every day, side by side with appropriately clothed female students.
The point of this new policy is to equalize the playing field between boys and girls, to limit male aggression and harassment, and to teach all the boys what it is like to live in a state of vulnerability and exposure. This is not punishment, but a change that will encourage new thinking and ways of behavior. Your bodies are not weapons in a fight but vessels for kindness; your human, male needs and vulnerabilities will be readily apparent to everyone, and you will learn how to live and behave as a member of the human race and not as master of the universe.
Details about this new policy and what will be allowed, required, and expected will be sent to your homes. Your parents have already given their written consent for each and every male student to be required to be nude. I have urged your parents to begin to require you to be nude in the house, on vacation, and in town as much as possible, including during summer athletic practices. It is time to change the script of female and male interaction, and we know that this works. The entire island and town will point the way for all those in our country to dare this dream.
If any boy here today wishes to strip immediately, I invite him to do so. Male teachers will decide whether they wish to continue to teach clothed, or begin to teach nude, a serious decision that will bind them for the entire year. You have a big challenge ahead, and I know that you will each rise to the occasion.
His announcement was met with silence and some anxious or embarrassed looks. The parents applauded loudly in support. The president of the parent teacher organization said simply, "All the parents and teachers agree that this new policy will be followed carefully. We know this is a huge change, but in time we know that you will prefer to live nude. Our psychologist reminds us that boys and men have a deep-seated need to display themselves and to see other boys and men. This will encourage honesty, reality, compassion, and physical fitness. We know that every boy is not beautiful. The point of this is to change the script so that all boys will be considered "real men" on the basis of their actions and conduct, not just because of a certain kind of body, skin, or muscles. You are all real men, and the masculinity will be visible, exposed for everyone to see."
The message was clear: change begins now. Other boys fled in confusion and anxiety. The event broke up in confusion. Some boys talked about resisting the new policy, but such brave talk petered out over the summer as they began to live nude at home and in the town.
The girls, meanwhile, gathered in the auditorium and the assistant principal spoke to them:
Right now the principal is telling the boys about the new policy starting July 1 that will require all of them to be nude all the time. Their parents have already consented, and the boys will begin to live nude at home through the summer immediately. Today some have already stripped off their clothes forever, so you will see some nude classmates on your way out today.
This drastic change is the best chance we have to change the script and the atmosphere of the school. Many of you have been victims of sexting and faked videos; a few of you have also been perpetrators. Boys must learn to respect girls and women as equals and collaborators, not as slaves, servants, or masters. One of the only ways to bring about the deep change in behavior that is necessary is to require boys to become vulnerable, liable to embarrassment, and exposed. Living and going to school nude will provide this necessary condition. Some of the boys will not like this, and I remind you that many of the boys are not especially good looking nude. That's not the point, and learning all the differences of male bodies and body parts is part of becoming realistic about what men and women can become. I hope that their nudity will lead some boys to exercise more.
I know that some of you will be embarrassed by their nudity and exposure, but everyone will get used to it and it will become normal. You will come to appreciate how easily boys get erections, how unpredictably, and how their erections are impossible to control. You might be tempted to laugh, but we are asking all girl students to be kind and generous. Imagine if the roles were reversed and all of you were required to live and come to school nude. Involuntary erections simply remind that a boy is that he is human, has normal needs and desires, and is not really in control of himself all the time.
Many of you have brothers or boyfriends whose parents and school now require to live nude. Be kind to them. Remember that this is all new and difficult ; they will feel particularly exposed to your laughter and mockery. Some of your brothers younger than eleven will want to live nude as well, and they are permitted and encouraged with their parents' consent. Some of the male teachers will also choose to teach and live nude. They will still be your teachers, and you will need to pay attention to what they say and require. The experience at the Academy has shown that academic performance improved significantly when they began to require male nudity.
Enjoy the bodies that you will see: some of them will be beautiful. And enjoy your summer.
There was an immediate buzz throughout the auditorium: some girls were surprised, some grossed out, and many were anxious. What it would it be like to have so many nude boys around all the time? But underneath all those emotions almost every girl felt relieved, even vindicated. The playing field would be leveled: boys and girls would be true equals together, and if male nudity were what it would take, then let the boys be nude all the time.
A special assembly was called in each of the four elementary schools for the students rising from the 5th grade. Those boys would begin middle school nude; they would never know any other way of attending middle school. They were also particularly vulnerable because of the various differences in physical growth and emotional maturity. The principals assured the boys that all the older boys would be nude, and they would want to be considered part of the older boys, not the elementary boys any more. Meanwhile, each boy should begin to live nude at home, and the sooner the better. All their parents consented and encouraged the boys to be brave and bravely nude.
The school distributed the same guidance and best practices for families to begin regular young male nudity, and this guidance also encourage boys of any age to remain nude if they felt so inclined. The policy details and FAQ incorporated the lessons learned from the Academy, and added certain further requirement and expectations: all boys were to complete a full physical exam with their medical providers by September 15, and all athletes before August 1. The school gave careful guidelines about what kinds of body art and piercing was acceptable and not acceptable. (If a boy wanted an acceptable tattoo on his penis, he could still get one!) Cock rings were not recommended because they could injure a penis, but could be worn with permission of a physician. Body piercings followed standard policy, but no Prince Albert piercing was allowed. A fair-skinned boy should also be sure to put a tube of sun screen SPF 50+ in his backpack. Under no circumstances should any boys experiment with erection enhancing drugs. (This policy was less than successful and the school gave up trying to regulate it within a year.) This last regulation meant that, of course, boys did exactly that, with predictably durable erections. At least this had the effect of reducing a boy's embarrassment at home when he experienced a spontaneous or unexpected erection, because he had an erection so often.
The town, meanwhile, became used to so many nude boys between the ages of 11 and 18. Boys under the age of 11 could also go nude with permission of their parents, and many did. Even some fathers began to live nude more often, to encourage and reassure their sons. And the tenor of the town did change: men were more patient and much kinder; women spoke up more freely and expressed their power and authority with nude boys and men. Cyber bullying and sexting became a thing of the past: why bother with sexting when so much skin can be seen every day?
The summer went more smoothly than anyone predicted; parents and families whom the principal expected to resist turned out to be very supportive. The entire community was very concerned about its young people, and its boys in particular. This project had tapped into a rich vein on public concern and compassion. The principal was always quick to give the credit to others, especially to the Academy for pioneering the way, but in fact much of the credit was his for the adroit and politically savvy way he went about raising and implementing the change.
The town tennis associations altered their dress codes to require boys under the age of 18 to play nude, and strong recommended nudity to all males 18 to 30. Male nudity became the norm at the town--school pool, and the restaurants and bars, which in the island climate have mostly outdoor seating, accommodated nude males outdoors very easily. A napkin might easily cover a penis during a meal if anyone objected, it was also useful in the event of an unexpected erection. Unlike the 19th century, this male nudity did not have female confinement as its mirror commitment: women dressed as they wished, from business casual to provocative, knowing that whatever physical response they might generate from male attention was exposed for all the world to see. The town's pharmacy saw an immediate and steady decrease in the number of prescriptions for anti-depressants for adolescents, both male and female. The town public safety officers recorded fewer encounters with drunk or impaired young people. Where public, adolescent male nudity would have been unthinkable in 2020, by 2024 the island thoroughly supported the practice, and it was rapidly gaining acceptance elsewhere in the warmer climates of the country.
When school began in late August, activities and events to normalize male nudity helped to settle the school down for a very productive academic year. With the urinals and male washrooms exposed to public view, many boys felt much more comfortable simply peeing, something they were reluctant to do in the old, closed, intimidating (and smokey) boys rooms. Smoking and vaping decreased, because there was less room to do it. Public exposure meant public accountability.
The boys' "masturbatorium" (often just called "the room") was monitored for healthy interaction and cleanliness, and the view for teachers through the one-way glass greatly increased their sympathy for boys' attempts to control their sexual drives. Many boys used it every day, not a few of them more than once; almost all the boys visited it from time to time as they felt the need. The room was a plain, cinder-block, tile-floored room with skylights for indirect lighting and LED lights, which were kept off except on the few cloudy or foggy days when the light was kept very low. Plain wooden benches lined the walls, and several drains allowed the bare floor to be hosed or washed if it became slippery with semen; boys usually used the adjacent showers to clean up after ejaculating. The minimal furnishings encouraged some boys to ejaculate quickly and leave, but others liked to linger, watch other boys, and masturbate a second or third time. At one end a doors at the corner led to the corridor to the middle school, another to the high school and a third to showers. The diagonal corner became "gay corner," where some boys (not necessarily self-identified as gay) interacted with each others, usually mutual masturbation or fellatio, sometimes with deep kisses and extensive body contact. While boys who could ejaculate predominated, a surprising number of pre-pubescent boys used the room to reach dry orgasms in an accepting atmosphere, and they enjoyed watching older boys ejaculate and finding out what that was all about.
Teachers and administrators noticed that some of the quieter boys used the masturbatorium the most often. About 50 boys (of the 376 in the high school) seemed to be erect or half-erect almost all the time, with very little tactile stimulation. These boys were neither automatically the producers of the largest amount of ejaculate (anecdotally) nor pre-ejaculate; other boys produced copious pre-ejaculate without even appearing to be erect. By contrast about about 60 boys of the 284 in the middle school were erect very frequently, from those with well-developed adolescent penises with pre-ejaculate, to those pre-pubescent boys whose penises projected straight up or out with a pencil-like hardness. Boys on the cusp of ejaculation, or who were several months past their first ejaculation, had by far the most spontaneous erections and spontaneous ejaculations. On the other hand almost all the pre-pubescent boys could and liked to experience trembling dry orgasms, some daily, and their penises, nipples, and feet seemed the most sensitive to touch during and after these episodes, especially if they had been left intact.
The experience of growing through puberty nude, in plain view of girls and adults, proved to be formative, and such boys continue to be excellent examples of well-adjusted, thoroughly sexualized boys very comfortable in their own skins. Many boys experienced a "gay period" and intense episodes of erotic love and longing for one or another boy in particular. Most boys who experienced such times moved on to hetero- or bi-sexuality, but a strong minority identified as gay and continued to do so subsequently. These would then encounter boys whose emerging identity as gay, bisexual, or non-binary became clear in later adolescence, older then 14. Some boys exhibited a clear preference for anal sex, mostly as bottoms, and it was unclear where they learned this preference. Adults noticed the lively traffic of boys having sex with boys outside the school, where it was difficult to form a clear picture of what was going on, and with whom. By 2024 it became clear that some older boys enjoyed initiating sex with younger boys, and often these same older boys had been initiated earlier by the boys older than they. The younger boys loved the attention they received from these friendly older boys.
Athletes and boys attending CHSPA faced the biggest challenges, since in those situations they were often the only nude boys in a space of otherwise clothed boys and girls. They learned to carry themselves confidently and answer questions easily, such as "aren't you embarrassed to be seen nude?" ("I was at first, but now its just how I am") or "what happens when you get an erection?" ("Everyone sees it, I don't try to cover it up, but enjoy it and enjoy feeling exposed"). Dancers, actors, and athletes did the most pre-event or pre-practice stretches, in which a boy might wind up exposing his anus, perineum, or testicles in particularly vivid ways. The dancers and actors learned how to shape their roles to exploit and express their nudity. All these boys learned simply to carry on, and others around them learned to accept what they were. These boys often shaved all their pubic hair, armpits, and other body hair, began the fashion that swept through both schools of boys keeping their pubes shaved and bare. Those who enjoyed pubic hair were disappointed, but the overall effect was if anything to make their flaccid penises seem larger. "Starting to shave" began to meant something other than the stubble on older teenage faces.
A few weeks after school began, swimmers and runners began to wear special cock-and-scrotum rings that were contour-curved and shaped like a wide keyhole. These were very light stainless steel, came in a variety of sizes and colors (even a multi-color "rainbow"), and effectively presented a boy's testicles and penis "in front" more than "under" or "between." They did not wear these while running or swimming, but the runners in particularly liked them at all other times because it decreased friction and inhibited chaffing at other times. It became a mark of athletic or artistic distinction to wear such a ring, and could be worn daily all day since the rings did not impede any flow of blood to a flaccid penis. On the other hand, if a boy sensed an erection starting while wearing one of these rings, his penis would stay harder for a longer time, and become even more prominent both visually and tactilely. These were the only rings that the team physician allowed boys to wear, since others might lead to injury or loss of feeling. The African American boys especially loved them.
At this writing (late 2027) none of the boys in grades 6-12 in the Academy and 6-11 in the public middle & high school have had any post-primary school experience other than nude. Nude is the norm for them. The initial experiment has been assessed a striking success. In addition to improved academic performance evidenced by test scores (for the few that take them), grades, college admissions offers, and re-accreditation reports, indirect observations support such a positive view. The reputation of the town and the schools has caused some families to seek to move into the district despite other relative disadvantages, such as distance from the urban center and relative isolation. The physical and mental health of the community has improved dramatically, especially among the young, evidenced by declining antidepressant prescriptions, and improved mental health examination scores verified by an independent group of school psychologists. The one church on the island, an Episcopal parish, has confirmed boys nude and incorporated them in its liturgy in several ways, with the full support of its bishop. Ethnic festivals have also incorporated nudity into their evolving celebrations, where previously it was non-existent or proscribed. African American boys have at last turned back the stereotype that they all have large penises (clearly some did, but not all!) Asian boys that they are asexual or "effeminate" ( a word now approaching obsolescence), and Latino boys the stereotype that they are consistently oriented towards sexual performance. A far easier camaraderie exists between boys and girls, and between different kinds of boys such as athlete and non-athlete, or gay, bisexual, straight, or non-binary. Many young boys now begin to live nude by the time they are enter the 2nd grade, or even have lived nude essentially from birth (or toilet training). Their fathers and grandfathers are much more comfortable nude--a case of the young teaching the old.
Much like the revolution in racial relations that began with the protests of 2020 and the formal initiation of social and economic reparations in 2022, this movement towards adolescent male nudity has altered the topography of sexual and gender roles and relationships quickly and irrevocably. There will be no return to the old days of male bullying, arrogance, and dominance. A sense of basic male honesty and forthright behavior has been established that turns back uniformed patriarchy from within. Nudity for boys and young men is here to stay, spreading not only even to colder climates but extending in some cases into college and graduate school. Soon these nude men, once nude boys, will be entering the workforce and the professions. After so many false starts, progress has been shown to be not only possible but practical, enjoyable, and irreversible.
I have gathered over 70 personal testimonies and narratives from widely varied members of the island community. I will add (following) a number of personal testimonies and narratives to this article, as they have been sent or presented to me by boys, girls, teachers, parents, and members of the wider community. Most are distilled from interviews. When this is published as a full digital book, I will add photographs of these boys as appropriate and legal. If space allows, I would like to publish all the testimonies of those who gave permission, but for now I will limit these to a reasonably representative collection of identities, roles, and points of view.