Why men of a certain age love to get naked

Something very strange happens to men as they get older: they like to go nude. I don’t mean they become practising nudists who seek out and enjoy the company of others of their kind. But unlike most younger men, they feel no embarrassment or regret at being seen naked.

Consider the recent battle between one nude man and his neighbour. Simon Herbert (54) was in his Oxfordshire garden mending a fence when he spotted his next-door neighbour — Air Marshal Andrew Turner (54), the RAF’s second-in-command — strolling naked in the paddock of the cottage Turner shares with his wife. Herbert says that his partner and stepdaughter caught an eyeful of the nude air marshal too. The ‘shocked’ Herbert family are demanding a ‘proper apology’ for the distress they’ve suffered.

The naked air marshal is in good company. While staying at the White House as a guest of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the second world war, Winston Churchill, who had just come out of the bath, appeared naked in front of FDR. It’s said that Churchill was making a joke about the special relationship. But the American president was not amused. To paraphrase FDR, there are things we have to fear more than fear itself — and one of them is the naked older man.

You know when nudists are about: their territory is well marked with signs and warnings. Not so with a naked man. You’re going about your business when suddenly up he pops. He can be your husband, your dad, a friend of the family or even a stranger. Such men may not have the malicious intent of the flasher or the lechery of the masher, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally harmless.

Just one accidental peek at their privates can cause extreme emotional distress or a near-lethal surge of embarrassment.