dle-aged woman humorlessly points her camcorder directly in my face and keeps it there a while. This is a wedding on Little Beach. You know, like, the nude beach in Makena State Park. According to its website (www.littlebeachmaui.com), it’s a “place known internationally as one of the top nude beaches in the world.” As I was handed my second plastic champagne flute, I struck up a conversation with a man who introduced himself as Sasha Lessin—“I’m a shrink and I teach tantra plus I marry people,” he quipped—and his wife Janet. Lessin is something of an expert on Little Beach. He immediately launched into a blistering, rapid-fire oral history of the community. “This all started in the sixties, before there were even roads here,” he said. “We used to drive the cars over Big Beach, people used to camp out here for weeks, months. It was a real beautiful thing, no problems. Then it got all messed up when the state got PHOTOS: SEAN M HOWER
Robert and Cindy (not their real names) are getting married. Surrounding them are family, friends, wellwishers and even some strangers. The sun is setting, making the whole scene rather picturesque. Robert, looking keen in his black slacks and distinguished white shirt, kisses his bride. The wedding is, at first glance, indistinguishable from any other. Then the throng of guests bellows—in unison—a low chanting groan. “Uhhhhhhhhhh…” Then a topless young girl who looks 12 hands me a piece of chalky, frosting laden wedding cake. She stares at me as I try eat it with no plate or utensils. A few people sit on their haunches surrounding a small collection of assorted fruit on a blanket. A naked, mid-
matter, you know… what you, like, look like man, it’s like, your chakra, the vibes, like, you’re putting off”—but the reality is a group of white people from the mainland. On one visit I asked 40 or so people where they were from, and not one was actually from Maui. There were a lot of California’s, Chicago’s, Seattle’s, Oregon’s, D.C.’s, Jersey’s and even some Israel’s, Prague’s and Brazil’s in the mix. Indeed, the only diversity I saw was in the spectrum of nouveau hippies loafing around. Dour-faced Hari Krishnas, organic food faddists, sharp-elbowed vegans, Rastafarians, deadheads, pacifists, Indiaphiles, American Indian wannabes, Buddhists, reformed ravers, even a few octogenarian ex-hippies. In the middle of this love fest were some wide-eyed Canadian backpackers, wayward tourists, swingers and other adventurous consenting adults. While many expound the advantages of sunbathing naked and the distinctively non-partisan nature of nakedness of Little Beach, it remains a fact that where there are naked people, there’s a sexually charged atmosphere. In the case of Little Beach, a
Naked
&Naive
What really goes on at Little Beach
“Clothes are masks,” one girl sneered. “They inhibit ourselves from our true meaning. Stand in nakedness and look at each other with the eyes of God.” 10
SEPTEMBER 30, 2004
COVER STORY
involved. We had to go through various lawsuits and legal procedures. It got pretty hot for a little bit. After [Linda] Lingle came in, things calmed down a bit though. This is an important place for us, like a place of refuge from the modern world. When 9/11 happened we all gathered here and right then and there decided that if the world was gonna end, there was no place we would rather be.” If you want to see Little Beach in full effect, you’ll have to visit on a Sunday. “Sundays are like the day, man,” one girl told me. “Like, all this stuff you do, like, during the week. All that is done, man. Sunday is the day you can just… be cool. Yeah.” She paused to reflect on the complexity of this statement, then looked at me and nodded. The locals try to dress up the scene within the context of wispy, post-1960s liberalism—“It’s like, it doesn’t
contingent of voyeurs lurked in the trees adjacent to the beach, sitting on the branches like a tribe of horny chimpanzees. While the peeping toms may feel that unrestricted viewing of naked bodies is titillating, it is a phyrric victory. I’m not alone in thinking the human body is decidedly more sensual clothed than bare. After all, nakedness provides no mystery or challenge. When there exists the tantalizing eroticism of clothing, the curvature of the breast or the shape of the buttocks take on a more profound symbolism. Naturally, Little Beach nudists don’t see things that way. “Clothes are masks,” one girl sneered. “They inhibit ourselves from our true meaning. Stand in nakedness and look at each other with the eyes of God.” Such sentiments have a long history in Western society. Dismay towards clothing has often been explained as a kind of erosion of purity. Clothing and