Kate's Exhibitionist Journey
Chapter 1 - WWRGD
In which Kate starts off watching Netflix and ends up on a nude beach in very little time at all, all things considered.
I blame Jennifer Aniston.
Ok, that's not quite fair. More accurately, I blame Rachel Green.
Ok, that's not fair either. But she was the one that lit the touchpaper inside me, that caused me to realise something about myself I'd never known about. That sent me on a journey of self-discovery that I'd never have thought possible.
I should probably explain.
Being born in 1999, I'm not old enough to remember Friends from its first airing, but thanks to the miracle of streaming services, people like me now have the chance to binge the whole series on Netflix. Truth be told, I wasn't blown away. It was fine, funny enough for the most part. But I guess after hearing my parents talking about what a seminal TV experience it was for their generation, I guess I was expecting something more than what I got.
Except for what I got in Season 5, Episode 23.
In one particular sequence in that episode, Rachel finds herself alone in her apartment for the night. And, after having had the idea suggested to her by Phoebe in an earlier scene, she decides to have some fun and experiment with being naked in her own home.
In a flash (no pun intended), she pulls off her bathrobe, and starts to walk around the apartment nude. Of course, this all leads to a 'classic sitcom misunderstanding' with Ross, but that part of the episode didn't interest me all that much. Instead, the scene of her, alone in her apartment, just hanging out in every definition of the word, had the weirdest effect on me.
For days afterwards, I could barely think of anything else. About the idea of being so completely and so casually naked like that. I had no idea why a silly sub-plot in a random sitcom episode had apparently affected me in this utterly profound way. But I couldn't deny that it had. Whenever I thought about it, I felt a distinct tingle of excitement deep inside.
So, I began my own experiment.
It actually started as a complete accident. One morning, with the curtains of my apartment still mercifully closed, I was getting ready for work as usual. I finished showering, wrapped a towel around myself, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. Then, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other, I headed for the living room. Only for the knot in my towel to slip. With both hands full, I was powerless to stop it from falling to the ground, leaving me standing naked in my own hallway.
I felt myself blush, despite the fact that I lived alone and so was sure there was nobody around to see my predicament, and turned back to the kitchen to set the cup and bowl down and free my hands in order to rescue my towel and reclaim my modesty.
And then I stopped. My mind immediately went to that scene, the one that had stayed with me so much over the last few weeks. In my mind, a silly question popped into my head. What would Rachel Green do? WWRGD?
And in an instant, I went from feeling slightly embarrassed at my clumsiness to intrigued at the opportunity to act on my recent urges that had presented itself. So, I headed to the living room, breakfast in hand, leaving my towel where it was. I happily ate my breakfast on the sofa while I watched TV. Completely naked.
It was an odd sensation. And I don't just mean the feeling of the rather coarse material of my rented flat's old sofa on my bare skin. But the simple act of being nude while completing such a mundane daily activity felt strangely freeing. Almost liberating.
And so, that became my new routine. Every morning, I would wake up, shower, and towel myself dry. Then I would walk down the hallway to the kitchen naked, fix breakfast naked, walk to the living room naked, and eat breakfast while watching TV naked. For twenty minutes or so every morning, I had a little bit of Rachel Green-style nude time.
Sometimes, after I'd gotten substantially more clothed, I'd question what I was doing in those moments. Because actually, what the hell was I doing? Was this a sign that I was a closeted nudist? Had an episode of an old 1990s American sitcom unlocked some sort of innate desire for a huge lifestyle change from deep inside me? Was I some sort of deviant? Someone who got some sort of perverse kick from being nude like that? Or was I just a simple kooky weirdo who, for some reason, liked to eat cereal with her boobs out?