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 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.

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LALEH AND SUE

Introduction: Laleh is Cy's (Cyrus') mother. She was born to Iranian refugee parents (they prefer to call themselves Persian) in 1982. Her parents fled Tehran in 1979, opponents of both the Shah and the Ayatollah and wound up in Madison, Wisconsin. Laleh married Jai in 2006 while they were in graduate school. She teaches communications and social theory at the state university; Jai teaches Asian history there. Jai (pronounced "jay") is Dutch and Indian, and was born in Leiden in 1979. As highly educated parents, they have very high academic expectations for their children, Cyrus (born 2011) and Parin (born 2016).

In late 2027 Cyrus is in 11th grade and Parin is in 6th grade. Cy began to live nude when he entered 7th grade in 2023 in the public middle school. Laleh's mother Ariana lives in the household (Laleh's father died several years ago). Far from old fashioned, at the age of 75 Ariana is Cy's champion, and she celebrates his nudity as a "Persian warrior" (this amuses Cy, but he secretly likes the idea and loves his grandmother very much). Parin was entering 2nd grade when Cy began to live nude, and at first made fun of him. Parin is very outgoing and socially very quick; Cy is very studious and has been at times painfully shy. (More about Cy appears in the part 2 of these 2-part conversations.). Both Laleh and Ariana have remarked the Cy seems not to realize how beautiful he is.

These two interviews (below, and next) include contributions by Laleh, Cy, and, and Sue (Sung), an immediate neighbor who is mother of Jason, a Korean-American boy who is runner, and Cy's oldest and closest friend. All four participants have agreed to publication using their real names and information. Each speaker has been specifically identified below as relevant.

Thank you for taking part in this project. You (Laleh) were one of the people that the Principal of the High School brought together in November 2022 to explore a new policy requiring adolescent male nudity, beginning in the following academic year. What did you think about this new idea then, and did you think it would work?

We have numerous friends who send their children to the Academy, so I knew what was happening there, and saw what a positive impact it had on the boys, the girls, and the Academy as a whole. I have a good friend here who is also the wife of one of the Academy faculty members, who reported her husband's far greater satisfaction with the students' work and the wonderful cooperation of their parents. I also knew that my son Cy had been swimming with nude team-mates from the Academy and reported that there were no issues regarding the boys' nudity on the teams. So I considered this idea very positively, and welcomed the chance to discuss implementing it at the Middle & High School.

Did I think it would work? I knew there would be challenges and that a public school is very different because the state mandates that children attend school. I was already very committed to this policy in principle, and I vowed to do what I could to bring it to the public school in a successful manner so that it would endure for the foreseeable future.

Why were you so committed to this new policy already in 2022?

I was committed to it in 2021, when I first heard that it might be considered in the Academy. The disruptive and destruction relationship between boys and girls, as groups, had for so long reflected the sexist character of American and world society, and had become so much worse since the isolation and social restrictions required during the pandemic. I saw this in the behavior of boys and girls towards each other in the school. My own son Cy was bullied by boys and girls, as was any other boy who did not conform to a very narrow idea of a so-called real boy.

In my work, I study how public views can seem to shift suddenly, and social policies and practices can suddenly change, in an entire society, both for good and bad, and both in revolutionary contexts and in contexts that desire renewal and reform. The fact that the #metoo and the racial justice and reparations movements came to power so quickly in the previous years was no surprise to me: many social changes have occurred in just that manner, even before the development of social media.

Why do you think the idea of required or expected constant nudity for pre-teen, teen, and even college-age males has become so prominent so quickly? (Note: In what follows, Laleh later expanded in writing what she said more briefly in verbal conversation.)

This idea took off because it re-frames some very basic assumptions about human behavior that had become untenable and indefensible. Very few wanted to go on with life as previously known, but very few realized that clearly.

Male nudity in general, and especially nudity for boys older than ages 7 or 8 until 24 or 25, completely re-orients social interactions and personal expectations and self-expectations for men, women, and gender-queer.

What is the source of masculine power, pride, and self-understanding? Clearly the phallus, the most male part of living as a biological male, and one of the deepest symbols of all human societies. What does western society do with the phallus? Society hides it and allows it to appear only in specific situations, both privately and socially, that have tended to associate a phallus with power, domination, and aggression. Think of the very terms we use: hard power, hard requirements, hard-charging, hard-headed. What's the opposite? Soft power, soft touch, soft edges, soft words, becoming soft on something. How do we describe penises? Soft, hard, and a hard penis exhibits more power, aggression, and penetration than a soft penis. Think of the difference between a penetrating analysis and soft thinking. And what we do with the physical source of this difference? We hide it away, to be brought out only in "safe" circumstances, which means invulnerable, where the social power and authority of an erect penis will not be challenged.

What are two of the biggest concerns a biological male has about his penis? The typical male. The first worry is that he will get "hard" at the wrong time, for the wrong reason. He might get hard when he is with males in a non-sexual situation such as a locker room or shared shower. He might get hard when in some kind of physical contact with another male that is assumed to be non-sexual, such as sports. He might get hard at the wrong time if he is wearing clothing that makes his erect penis difficult to hide. The other big worry? He will not get hard at the right time: with a sexual partner, especially, or when he thinks he should, such as social, sexual situations and interactions. Most "straight" males fear above all becoming erect with the stimulus of another male. That would make him "gay" and that is too frequently still a word with very negative connotations. A male might even say, "I'm bisexual" as a way of saving face, primarily to himself, because his penis is so fundamental to his self-understanding. He cannot risk "betraying" himself because of the simple fact that his penis became erect at a time when another, more conscious part of his persona did not desire that.

Erections are not a voluntary action, they are an involuntary physical response that depends upon a complex chain of stimuli and physical changes. A biological male cannot really control his penis, so he seeks situations which will not make his lack of control problematic. Hence he wants to assure that he will receive only the right kind of stimuli, in the right kind of situations, and that means he has to be in control of all those things. The social result is male domination and aggression, ultimately to make sure that his penis will not respond in a wrong way, or fail to respond as he desires.

Adolescent male nudity strips all this away. What do we see when we see a nude adolescent boy? We usually see a soft penis and testicles. His testicles ideally should be at a certain temperature, about 95F or 37 Celsius, just a little cooler than his body, so his testicles are in a loose sac so that they can be more readily cooled. His penis is very soft: not just pliable, but with a soft texture, flexible and small. His penis head is the softest skin on his whole body. This is especially true when a penis is intact: his soft, spongy head is extraordinarily sensitive and remains springy to touch even has his penis has become engorged and full erect. A male's pre-ejaculate simply reinforces this sensitivity. So a biological male's body has a riddle: his hardest skin (rigid to touch when fully erect) conceals his softest skin.

This very male softness is double true for a boy's testicles. An adolescent boy sees that his testicles have grown, and become very mysterious. Testicles are symbolic for a man the way a womb is symbolic for a woman, not only of his virility of masculine strength, but his creative energy. Like the softness of a penis, the testicles are so sensitive! Each one soft with a sensitive globe, often hanging low by his penis to keep cooler. His most sensitive secret is exposed for everyone to see and touch. Like his penis, his testicles are involuntary and respond to all kinds of stimulus, and show his secret self to the world. It is very important for a boy that everyone around him sees and acknowledges his beautiful testicles, because they make him truly a man.

When fully erect and secreting pre-ejaculate, a penis links up with a male's very sensitive testicles and equally sensitive prostate to move him towards ejaculation, which is another involuntary act that he cannot really control, although many males think they can. The words here get it all wrong: a male does not have an orgasm, an orgasm takes him. He does not ejaculate as an act of will so much as he is ejaculated by his profound physical response. No wonder the French call orgasm and ejaculation le petit mort, the little death. The inescapable sense that he is ejaculated is the root of all the mythology, folktales, and legends about the magical power of human ejaculate.

In a fundamental way boy is his cum and his cum is himself, in colloquial terms. Therefore his ejaculation has to be received by his partner in the correct place: the vagina above all, but also his partners rectum, face, or mouth. The ancient traditions speak of Onan, who "spilled his seed," who left his ejaculation on the ground, and this was the basis of labelling masturbation a sin for centuries. We now know, of course, that the male who masturbates often is likely to be more healthy than the male who masturbates little. This was also the basis for the disdain for the secret pleasure to be found in a male's prostate and anus, intensely pleasurable for often totally undiscovered for many men, who equate finding this pleasure with penetration and reception of a partner's ejaculate--in other words, failure, dishonor, and disrespect.

We usually see an adolescent boy's soft penis, but when his penis is erect, and when he ejaculates, we see him becoming male in another sense, which we also see when he accepts penetration orally or anally and receives his partners ejaculation.

When an adolescent boy is nude, the basis of his character and developing power is visible to everyone, especially to himself. He cannot evade or conceal his responses. His erection is not his to control, and will shape him rather than he will shape it. His ejaculation is his fulfillment exactly because he completely loses any control. Rather than keeping his penis and testicles secret, hidden in clothing, a nude boy must display them to the world, and his new character depends upon his complete surrender of what has been called "genital privacy." Instead, his penis is almost common property, others can touch and often will want to touch it. Others will want to feel and caress his testicles. These really are the boy in a special way.

An erect penis is amazing, mesmerizing, magical, and and adolescent boy with an erection is at his most powerful and vulnerable, equally and at the same time. Rather than his erections simply being visible to everyone, that visibility is the point. An erection makes a boy's penis visible; it demands attention. The boy comes to want to display, fondle, and prolong his erection. In a very deep way his erection, his testicles, and his very soul are one, if I may use religious language.

Back to your question: the movement for required, mandatory adolescent male nudity found such ready social acceptance and swift popular adoption because it fundamentally re-defines masculinity and biological male-ness, and that can happen only when a boy is completely nude and his penis is constantly exposed before others. This movement only works because all adolescent males, or as many as possible, adopt nudity permanently and together. The cultural phallus moves from hiding to exposure, and from denial to acceptance, and in accepting the phallus publicly, its power to hurt is stripped away, and its power to heal is revealed to everyone. Before 2022 or 2023 many people felt this problem, but few had any idea how to address it successfully.

Do you think the pediatric specialist in that first group with the principal agreed with you?

Oh yes, we spoke before the meeting, and several times since; he lives on the other side of the island and I see him on the ferry some days. We have become good friends.

If I may go on: he has studied the psychology of young males and the development of a boy's brain and nervous system before, during, and after puberty. He is convinced that puberty shapes a boy's brain profoundly, he has this term "neuroplasticity," which means that a boy's brain shapes and in turn is shaped by his behavior, experiences, and way of life. Above all, hormones affect a growing boy's brain with emotions, physical drives, and imagination. We all know adolescent male drama. What a boy is enacting emotionally and physically is shaped by his brain development, grey and white matter, but also shapes how that matter develops, what really lasts. His behavior and his body are really a sort of feedback loop.

A boy's emotions and physical sensations change how he will be in the world. If he must cover up and never admit his vulnerability or need for love or show his sexual desire, that can affect his brain negatively. A nude boy going through puberty with his penis in front of everyone cannot hide any of these things: his penis is not under his control, his emotions are not under his control, he has needs to touch and be touched, to love, to feel emotions he doesn't understand and that challenge the way he lived when he was younger. Out of the hormonal storm of puberty comes a new boy, a young man with a new way of behaving, showing and receiving love and affection, expressing his physical desires. When he is nude, he has to share all his inner journey with those around him, those who love him. His body will show them what is really happening even if his mind does not want them to know. His penis shows everything, all the time. When he first ejaculates and then most likely ejaculates daily, he is reorganizing his brain. A boy in puberty really should be nude so that he does not feel so alone. He should experience orgasm often, so that his brain will be shaped by the power to ejaculate the boy's very essence. An adolescent boy in puberty should masturbate and ejaculate at least once a day, better several times. By fulfilling his nearly constant, raging need to ejaculate, he is forming the basis for strength, patience, and wisdom as a man.

My pediatrician friend is convinced that requiring adolescent boys to be nude before, through, and after puberty will help them to accept themselves soft and hard, giving and receiving, penetrating and being penetrated. Boys who can accept that will grow into men who will be the men that we need in the world--strong, giving, receiving, emotionally connected, creative and procreative. So-called primitive societies recognize this journey, but we moderns seem to think it just disappeared when all it did was go underground where it does a lot of damage in secret. He says a boy's penis must not be hidden away, and that "genital privacy" is a misleading trap. The more a boy's genitals are public, the easier it will be for him to contribute his positive, sexual energy to the world around him.

A boy also wants to receive, to take another into himself. When a boy nears being ejaculated (his cum is his self or soul), he often will open his mouth in such a way that he can receive another boy's penis. Most boys long for anal penetration, to be taken, filled, and controlled by another penis, especially by a mature man. A nude boy must come to terms with his desire to submit to possession and control, as well as his desire to possess and control another. A nude boy can be a complete boy: he wants to penetrate and be ejaculated into another; he wants another boy to penetrate and ejaculate himself into him. This is why so many ancient religions and deities are bisexual, because they are complete, and desire that men and women become complete as well. And it explains the profound bond between a dominant, adult male and an passive, adolescent male. The man wants to take the boy, and the boy wants to be taken by a "real man."

(She laughs.) Ok, the professor is now done. I'm a mother, too.

So you helped the public school move towards required male nudity; how did you overcome or speak to objections (or possible objections) in specific ethnic communities on the island: Iranian-American, Indian-American, and Korean-American?

First of all, all these people are Americans, and are only partially characterized by the hyphen. I think of myself as an American Persian, and Persians live in several countries in the world. My husband is more Dutch than Indian; the Indian part of him is his skin and complexion, and his dark skin has caused him to receive ill-treatment from time to time. The Dutch part is his energy, sense of humor and joy, and acceptance of love, and especially his height: he is six feet and four inches. My friends who are Americans of Korean ancestry or birth embrace this country and culture fully. Almost all were born in the USA and merely look Korean, but in a world of differences, that Korean-ness is visible.

It may be that all these cultures have scant traditions of male nudity, but each has some male nudity in myths and legends, especially about the origins of powerful warriors. Be those as they may, these Americans want absolutely the best for their sons: high academic achievement, secure incomes, and a large measure of personal happiness. I am convinced that adolescent male nudity helps a boy focus on his studies, and enhances his physical and emotional growth, because his physical growth is not a problem but an opportunity, and carries with it his vulnerability, growing power, and charm. When I explained this to parents, they were all in favor of requires adolescent boys to be nude, and their nudity has paid off academically and socially in so many positive ways. I explained to my mother why Cy would live nude in the same way, and she advocated even more strongly for Cy and accepted his nudity and physicality immediately.

That brings us to Cy. How did that first summer go, especially because he was in the midst of puberty, rising from 6th to 7th grade?

I must be honest: at first it was very difficult for Cy. He was growing tall fast, from just over four and a half feet on his eleventh birthday to five feet two inches on his twelfth, and by his thirteen birthday he was another six inches. He quickly became taller than other boys, and still very thin, but his voice hardly changed, his grew rather little peach fuzz and no pubic hair or armpit hair until he was almost fifteen. Cy was a walking hormonal storm, and often very emotional in an introverted character.

That first day, when I walked home from the middle school with him, he was quiet the whole way until we came to our lane, when he asked me quietly, "Do I have to do this? Are you really going to make me do this?" I said, "Yes, Cy, for your own good, and it's now the school's rules, and it will be easier for you when you go back, if you begin to live nude with us and your friends and your team now." When we entered the house, my mother greeted us, and gave me a wink to tell me she had taken all his clothes and put them away somewhere else. When Cy went to his room, I heard a groan and a "what the . . . "--he was looking at his empty closet, his empty drawers, just socks, a couple of caps, his rainbow sweatband and armband, and his dark glasses; we keep our shoes by the front door. He gave me an imploring look, and I said, "Yes, now." He sighed and began to undress without a word, and just put his clothes on the floor. I said, "Now pick those up and fold them and hand them to me." When he was nude, he turned away from me, but I told him to turn around, and I said, "you are very beautiful, all of you is very beautiful," and I left.

A few minutes later I heard him crying, weeping, and I nodded to Mother, who went in to comfort him; she has always been able to do that. She took him in her arms and rocked a little like she used to even though he was now so big. She held him in her arms and then told him to lay on his bed, and she took his head and kissed his eyes and his chest and said, "I still love you, all of you, every inch of everything you have." He calmed down --Grand-Mère has always been able to do that. She said, "Come to the kitchen and I'll make you a milk shake," always his favorite. He came with her and sat on a kitchen stool by the window, his legs all spread out, and looked like a plucked chicken, no real sense of confidence.

Unfortunately at that moment Parin came back from her last day of 1st grade, another girl's mother walked her home with them. She took one look at nude Cy and began to laugh and said, "eeewww, all his boy things, you look so funny naked," and immediately he ran back to his room and slammed the door. He would not even take Grand-Mère's milk-shake until she handed it to him when he opened his door a crack. I was very angry with Parin, as angry as I have ever been, but I calmed myself and said to her, "you must learn not to say every word than comes into your mind." She said, "well, he does look funny and his penis is really small," and I said, "and how would you know that?" She was silent, and I went on, "he's just been asked, required, to make a very difficult change for him, he's really scared and upset, and you just made it much worse for him." She was very quiet, and I said, "you must tell him you are very sorry and will never speak like that again." She knew she had to do this, so I walked her to his door, and said, "Parin has something to say to you." Cy knew this has been our rule. I said "Cy, you must open your door, you know what our rule is." He opened his door, and his face was still wet with tears and he sobbed, and she took one look at him and changed completely. They really are very close. She said, "I'm so sorry I hurt you, I will never hurt you that way again, you're my big brother." And she went to hug him on his side, carefully avoiding his penis, and they just stood there hugging each other as he cried and then his tears slowed. "Thanks," he said, and I told him, "Parin, come out, I'll shut your door now, and you can do whatever you have to do, and when you come out, we will all be very happy to see you."

When he came out of his room, about an hour later, he took a shower and felt much better, and of course he had his phone, and he had been texting the other boys, and they were all telling what it was like to them to be nude with their families or friends for the first time. So he knew others were going through it, too. He said to me then, "I still don't want to do this, but all my team mates and friends are doing this too, and I have to do it with them. Together we will be strong." That is so like Cy: when he feels bad, he naturally thinks of others. So I felt tears in my eyes, and my mother said simply, "Cy, everyone will fall in love with you. You are so beautiful, and you will be just the same Cy that you always have been." Leave it my mother to find the word that heals. She has been through so much, the revolution, poverty in Wisconsin, suspicion in her job after 9/11, and still she finds her strength. She is a survivor. Cy has that same strength, that is her legacy to him.

Jai came home late that night, after meal, he had to finish grading exams. He saw his son, nude now and a little more comfortable, and just said, "That's my boy. You are our leader now. You are leading this change in our town." I could see Cy processing this, standing up now a little taller, no slump: as if he said, yes, I can lead, I will be nude for the others' good. So a day that had a real disaster in it turned out well. I was exhausted. This change to living nude was hard for the boys, but it was exhausting for their parents.

How did the next few days go for Cy?

Wisely, Cy's swimming coach gave his boys the day after the end of school off, because from the Academy boys he knew not to push too hard too soon. Cy withdrew to his room. I'm pretty sure he was terribly worried about getting an erection in front of the family. That happened that evening: he came out for supper on our back deck--his first time outdoors nude--and really began to relax, and then after supper sat with his phone playing digital chess with his friend Jason, next door. There's a hedge and a wooden fence between our two side; we share a condo double. I said to Cy, "do you want to go over to Jason's and get in their jacuzzi and play?" Because he and Jason had done that a lot. I received back the teen look of disdain, "no mom, and he hasn't asked me." But I know Jason was now nude also, because that morning I saw his mother in the driveway and asked her how she and Jason are. She just said her typical "Oh." I supposed that they had had issues as well. Probably Jason was sitting in his back yard about fifteen feet away from Cy, but in his yard with the hedge between them.

Well, I think Cy was worried about going over there and getting and erection in the jacuzzi. He's relaxing in the yard in the shade of the Douglas firs, and there's a very nice breeze from the windward side of the island, and Cy is engaged with his phone and gets an erection. "Boys will get an erection if a breeze blows," well it was true. (Laughs.) I was watering some of the plants at the back of the yard, I looked over an saw his erection for the first time as it was then, pencil thin and sticking straight up, almost five inches. He saw me, and tried to cover it with his hand. I simply said "I've seen erections before and that's a nice one. You haven't done anything wrong, it's just who you are. They happen. We're all fine with it, you can be, too." Again a look of disdain, but he stood up, walked back into the house with his penis sticking straight up, right past Jai, Parin, and Grand-Mère, who looked up but didn't say a word.

The next morning, he ate a banana for energy and after I made him put sunscreen everywhere, he went to swim practice with Jason. The two meet each other nude for the first time, sandals, caps, dark glasses, a towel and sunscreen, and bow to each other, funny. They walked down to the pool, and after a long practice they came home. "Brutal," he said, ate an energy bar, and fell asleep on the living room sofa. When he woke up, his penis was erect again, but this time he just went to hide in his room again and didn't care who saw him.

The only time we had a conflict those first weeks was one very bright morning that first week I made him put enough sunscreen on his penis. Sue had warned me: you don't want a sunburned penis. I supposed Jason had one. This meant he had to stroke himself to an erection and apply the sunscreen when he was hard. "Mom, like right here," he asked in the kitchen, and I said, "this is our home." And he did exactly as I told him, but with look of disdain. Such drama. I know he met some girls on the way there or back that day, Parin told me, but he said nothing. His behavior began to change the next week. After a month I did not get one disdainful look the rest of the summer, or ever again. He came back to being the sweet, quiet, smart Cy I always knew, and much more relaxed. He and Jason spent a lot of time together with there other team mates playing dungeons & dragons almost every night on one of their patios. Five nude boys, no fuss, and he told me once if one of them get an erection, they all do. He even saw him wrestling Jason in their jacuzzi once, and both wound up with erections. Erections became a fact of life.

That Fall I heard very little about school, his grades were always excellent, his coach was very happy with his times, and Cy seemed happier than he had been in 6th grade. He had his drama, of course, but only what I expected. He wore one of Jai's ties to Thanksgiving Dinner, tied around his neck, funny. It turns out his art teacher, a male, began to teach nude in later September, but I heard nothing about this until parent conferences, when I find him nude and very enthusiastic about Cy's work. A short, thin man, I think he runs to stay in shape.

Cy was growing and growing and that did things to his body and brain chemistry. Anything could be a drama for a moment at least. He seemed to stretch thinner and thinner, and as his penis grew, it became more prominent. That next summer we visited friends in Sweden, and Cy wore clothes for the first time in many months for travel, but in clothes he looked constrained. Just as well, it was impossible to find anything to fit him, since clothes for boys so tall and very thin always have a much larger waist. Cy was floating in store-bought clothes, so Grand-Mère fitted them for him. When we went to our friends' island in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago, Cy was nude until we had to leave. They have a son a year younger than Cy and a daughter, and they were nude all summer, too. The Swedes are so much more relaxed about nudity, and so much more healthy except for the time they let too many get sick with the virus.

All summer Cy had experiencing many spontaneous erections every day. He ejaculated the first time in school van on the way back from a fall invitational swim meet up in Costa Garda, in the back row right onto Jason. The other boys were very kind and Jason has never forgotten it. At first Cy was very embarrassed, although he told me about it that night. Then it began to happen more and more often, unexpectedly in class, before or after practice, when he was playing D&D with his friends, once just watching a stupid TV series with Parin. He couldn't seem to keep his hands off his penis. It's just as I said when I explained why I support this nudity: this was all visible, happening where others can see, as he grew from being a boy to a young man who is comfortable both hard and soft. This meant he could talk about it, even with me and Jai, a lot with Jai, who was remembering a lot about his own puberty in Leiden. After a few months the erections happened less frequently, but always very easily. An erection seizes him, more than he simply gets one. Often when he gets out the pool after a long practice, and always in a hot shower. The first time he was introduced to two swimming scouts who had been watching him at a group meet, he was so nervous he became fully erect right in front of them. He was worried that he would make the wrong impression, then worried that his erection had done just that. They were from Stanford, where he really wants to go. They're not so used to nude boys, but they accepted Cy completely. Jason says Cy gets erections in church and they accept him and love him. Cy is lovable, his gift. The children at the pool really love him. Everyone loves him, so thoughtful, tall, shy, brown and beautiful.

He has had several girl friends, nothing serious. I think he intimidates them somehow although he such a sweet, humble boy--he's so tall, serious, and strong though he has a gentle, quirky sense of humor. I think he has had one boyfriend, too, but he said little about him. This was when Cy was in the 7th grade and the boy was a high school senior. I guessed it when they began to sleep over at each other's houses, together in bed. We just accepted that Cy will do what he feels he has to do. Jason knew about it and was a little jealous, I think, but they stayed friends. That relationship evolved and cooled naturally. This boy is older and at college now, but is still a good friend. Right now (November 2027) Cy learning to drive. His teacher is a middle school teacher who is also nude, but Cy knows will have to wear clothes for the driving test, so he has actually practiced driving with clothes on so he's less distracted by them. Last month he received an offer to be a model for a mens fashion designer, after he swam at an invitational on the mainland, but he told the agent, "I don't think I'm right for that, I don't like to wear clothes."

How has Sue experienced this same change?

You must ask her about that.

(Lelah called Sue, who came next door and spoke for herself.)

Sue: Well, this change was a big challenge at first. Jason's father's family was big in the military in South Korea, so Jason always imagined himself as some kind of warrior, now a nude warrior, like the ancients. Jason is so strong and so energetic, his puberty was so intense and seemed to pass swiftly. He brings out Cy, and Cy helps to center Jason. They have been so close since they were young boys. They really complement or complete each other.

Do your or his Korean relatives understand any of this?

No, they don't. Crazy Americans. They can't imagine. Jason has been very nice to them, but he doesn't speak Korean, so he doesn't really understand what they're saying. This has been with video chats, and I have always been careful that Jason chats showing only his shoulders. They are proud of him as a runner, but think that only when he joins the Korean Army will he become a man. He has no intention of doing that. He's not an Army kind of guy, and I think he would suffocate in Korea. Such narrow expectations. (Note: Jason is an American citizen and is not subject to Korean conscription.)

How did you adjust to Jason's nudity?

It was a big adjustment. (Laughs.) Jason pouted for a week, but Cy helped him out. I fretted that girls on the island would not treat him nicely. But they all have. I think being nude has really helped Jason with school, and that is a very good thing. He's an only child, so he gets all our attention, and sometimes we're probably too demanding. Being nude has put a little distance between us, and I think that's a good thing.

Do you think going to school nude has helped him to focus, and how has it done that?

Yes, it definitely helped him to focus. Not just going to school nude, doing everything nude, everywhere as much as possible. In 9th grade his art class took an all-day field trip to the university art museum, so he had to wear clothes. I had to buy new ones because he had outgrown everything he used to wear, and I wasn't sure what sizes, so I had to measure him first. He would not go to the store with me but he gave me very clear directions about what he would and wouldn't wear. At the museum, he says they're looking at so many paintings and drawing of nude women and nude men. "Why can't we just look them while we are nude?" he asked me. Good point, but the rules are the rules. Anyway, his grades and comments have always been very good and even better since he began to live nude in 7th grade.

I'm not completely sure how it helped him focus. That's Lelah's speciality. (Both laugh.) His body was so present in everything that in a sense he could forget about it. He says that now he's not aware of being nude most of the time. I think that the honesty and vulnerability that nudity requires has helped him to develop personal skills with challenging situations and time management. That's been some of the effects, anyway.

Sometimes Asian males suffer from a stereotype of being sexless. Has living nude changed that for Jason?

Oh, I don't know that. You should ask him. Jason keeps his overtly sexual things very private. He and Cy are studying now, if you want to go over to our house, you can ask him yourself.

(I thanked them Lelah and Sue, and went to Jason's house.)