FFF: Get naked to reconnect with nature
By: Polina Lyapustina
Tags: Pornography, Ecology, Sustainability, Activism, Climate Change

FFF: Get naked to reconnect with nature

This interview originally appeared on NWind magazine #16 in October 2019.

15 years after the launch of the Fuck For Forest website — a members-only adult content website that uses its funds to support rainforests — its founders are not the same as they once were. They are older, bolder, and wiser, with all their memories, experience, and improved goals.

Community forest patrols in Mexico, 2018

In Central America, two Norwegian eco-porn activists — Leona Johansson and Tommy Hol Ellingsen — are now researching and educating others on how to live freely and in balance with nature.

Many years ago in Norway, when these young activists were enjoying their freedom, a conversation about how natural nudity was and how it connected people with nature started them on their life-long journey together.

“We are the only creatures on this planet who wear clothes, but also the only ones who destroy their own environment. We were talking about ancient people who may have been more aggressive but had definitely more respect for nature. But gaining civility we lost that connection to nature. By wearing clothes we separated ourselves from nature and, having lost respect for what was no longer a part of us, we began to use and destroy the environment. So, maybe this disconnection from nature and the problems we have with our own bodies have something to do with each other.”

They began by creating public performances showing people how they could feel natural and accept their bodies and their sexuality with no shame. Their initial idea was liberating the body to reconnect with nature. The documentation of those events became the first content for FFF.

“People have lost their connection with their own nature and can’t feel free about their bodies. We use clothes not only to protect ourselves but also as a form of censorship. Nudity is not publicly acceptable. You may think porn is a difficult subject, but nudity is way more contrary to social norms now.”

That is true! Watching or making pornography is not illegal, but you cannot stand on the street naked. But what is so bad about being naturally naked? When did people stop accepting their bodies and lose the feeling of their own naturalness?

Picture from the archives of FFF founders

“In the ’70s the first porn movies in Denmark, the US, and France were made to educate. This helped people accept their bodies and their sexuality. Sex education was in high demand. Since we had been ashamed of our own bodies for many centuries people wanted to discover more about it. Sexuality was something truly liberating and funny and nice in those movies. Porn was very positive.

In the ’80s the industry started to make a value of the human body — objectify it. What’s sexy? What sells better? They started to reflect the weakness and sickness of humanity. On a psychological level sex always reflects our problems and traumas. The industry used this knowledge to sell more. They stopped educating. And porn immediately earned a very bad reputation.”

And so, good and bad pornography separated. One day, Tommy and Leona asked themselves: Why can’t we simply return to the good old porn? Porn to educate people, to liberate them.

“We can accept and use our bodies for ourselves again. We don’t need money for our bodies, for sex. And if we overcome our fear of being naked, of showing our sex to other people, if we can make what’s called pornography, then we can use the money we get from this good and positive activity to protect our planet.”

They started to promote their ideas at different events and were very happy and proud to share their perspectives with others, but after seeing the word PORN many people lost interest in FFF.

But those people who did join FFF did positive and natural stuff only. It definitely looked provocative and meant to be emphatic and thought-provoking.

“Sex itself is great. Sex is beautiful. It shouldn’t be destructive or egocentric like the industry has made it. We wanted to make that clear for everyone. So we had to be public and we wanted to be public.”

One of the happiest countries in the world, their motherland Norway, didn’t accept their efforts. So, after a few years, they moved to Berlin.

Founders of FFF: Tommy Hol Ellingsen and Leona Johansson

“For 10 years we made erotic performances in Berlin. We filmed people having natural experiences with their bodies and with each other. Those people became our main contributors and our friends. We gave money to different initiatives working directly with ecological problems. But one day we became tired of the decadence of Berlin, which is another way to fight all those social rules. We wanted to work with nature, with plants, and the with earth directly.”

And so they moved another step forward on their long journey towards natural living — crossing borders, overcoming social and governmental resistance, through the liberating decadence of Berlin, and, finally, back to nature in the forests of Mexico. From the north to the south. Maybe just to feel better being naked under the southern sun, because actually, nudity is a seed.

“After years of performances and sexual education, working toward building a connection between people, their bodies, and nature, we found that we ourselves were disconnected. We had no idea how to grow our own food. We understood that if the infrastructure in Europe breaks down most people will be able to… what? Message their friends: We have no food. And the reply will be: We don’t either.”

In 15 years we lost a lot of faith in humanity, in friends, and even in love, but we still have a lot of faith in nature.

So here they are. In Mexico. Reconnecting themselves with nature. And, as always, they are ready to share their experiences with the world. They know sustainable living is not easy. Although Tommy’s father was a farmer, as a performer and activist himself, he had no proper knowledge of agriculture.

“We came here to understand farming, to learn, to live in harmony with nature, to destroy nothing, and to be sustainable. But also to work with the FFF website and with social media because we are a part of modern society and we need to reach other people.

If we want to save nature we have to work with humans. With this disconnection that humankind has developed. We came into this situation when wars and pollution are more normal for us than a naked person on a street. And this is an issue to be solved.”

Tommy and Leona live in Mexico. They are looking for professionals who are ready to join them and help them build a sustainable community based on the same principles as FFF.