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A lesbian feminist heads to the wilds of Alabama on this week’s “Naked & Afraid”

This Sunday night, Discovery Channel’s survivalist challenge TV series, Naked and Afraid, returns with an all-new season, and one of the competitors trying to stay alive for 21 days in the wilderness is out recreational therapist Chalese Meyer. Paired with artist Steven Hall, Chalese says she stuck out the full three weeks in an Alabama forest by having the willpower and wherewithal to let go of any kind of discomfort surrounding her nudity and instead focusing on the tasks at hand, like fending off rattlesnakes, braving rainstorms and foraging for food.

We spoke with Chalese about the experience and what viewers can look forward to on Sunday’s premiere.

AfterEllen.com: So the initial question, why would you want to do this?

Chalese Meyer: [laughs] You know I didn’t know what I was setting myself up for. I don’t have cable; I’ve never seen the show. It kind of just fell in my lap and I thought I’d win a free trip. But once I figured out what it was, I thought, “This is kind of a rad experience that not many people get to do.” And it was exactly that. It was life-transforming. I figured if I could do 21 days in the wilderness naked, I could do anything.

AE: Are you the kind of person that likes the outdoors anyway?

CM: Huge. I have no military background; I’m not a wilderness survival expert. But I live in Utah, and I ski, climb, backpack, hike, I’m a marathon runner. So I’m definitely an endurance athlete.

AE: I can’t imagine a glamping type would do too well at this.

CM: No I’m more of a “chapstick” type.

AE: So you’re an out gay woman, correct? That’s how you identify?

CM: I’m out now. Before I had gone on the show-I’d never with a woman before. I was with a man and had been engaged for eight years. And I had fallen in love with my best friend, so I left him, and I’m with my partner right now. Before the show [started], I had come out to my mom and a few friends, but during the process of the show, they wanted us to be open and vulnerable, I kind of just came out, all the way. So the show will kind of show that. And then when I got home before the show has aired, I’d come out to everybody else in my life.

AE: How nerve-wracking was that for you to come out to the world on television when it sounds like you were coming to terms with it yourself?

CM: Yeah, it’s a little scary because co-workers don’t really know. I kind of keep my private life my private life, so it is gonna be-everybody who follows me on Instagram knows, but they don’t really know, you know? It’s intimidating, but it’s also really freeing. I just don’t give a fuck, you know? And it’s good to not feel that way anymore.

AE: There’s a myth that lesbians are all pretty great at camping and going into survivalist mode. Do you feel like that gave you any kind of leg up?

CM: Well it did, I think. Me and my partner got along amazing, but I think they thought we were gonna clash because it’s the macho guy who calls me baby. I think they thought I was just this huge feminist that was like “I’m going to take care of myself!” But we actually got along amazingly. It’s funny because he didn’t know my sexuality until five days into it when I had to tell him. He was like, “I knew that.” I was like, “No you didn’t, I’m naked.” All lesbians look different. I’m not feminine, but I’m kind of a little bit of a tomboy with long hair. My skillsets are my camping, and I’m not afraid to get dirty-but I also like to wear a dress, too.

AE: What were your first impressions of your partner on the show?

CM: I hadn’t seen a penis in a while, so when I said those words, he thought I was a nun. I just started giggling. I was really stoked he was a young, fit, attractive guy because even though I like women, it’s still nice to be around someone who is fit and good looking. But yeah, we got along amazingly. It’s just so funny.

AE: Was there anything that surprised you to learn about yourself in this process?

CM: Yeah, I’m just really not a very vulnerable person so having my camera interviews and having him talk about my partner, and really coming to terms with myself was really hard to be vulnerable. I kicked ass. I just really thrived; he and I worked well together. I’m a really dominant person, so I like to take charge a lot so being able to step back and work with someone as well as I did was really surprising.

AE: It seems like some days would really, really long.

CM: Almost every day. The first week went by really fast. I had put 10 pounds on to go on, so I was feeling really good. And then I started dropping weight-I lost 25 pounds-so I became a smaller person. So as soon as my weight started declining, my energy started declining. The days were just so long. Sleeping naked-like, we hardly slept. Maybe a half hour at a time. But we also had fun with it. We played games; we bathed each other, I made soap and shampoo. But it was hard. I missed seeing my girlfriend a ton.

AE: What did she think about this? Was she at all worried about you being alone in the woods with a naked dude?

CM: I think she was at first, especially because I’ve been with men before-she’s the only female I’ve been with. But she was not surprised. She’s like, “You do shit like this all the time.” We have been together for five years, but we’ve only been out for about a year and a half, so we have never been apart from each other without communication for more than a month, so that was really hard.

AE: What do people usually want to know about this experience?

CM: Well they always want to know, people who don’t know, if I lasted 21 days because you can tap out at any time. I keep getting the question “Was there any romance between you and Steven?” Because if you’re naked with someone, they automatically are of the mind that we hooked up which is definitely not the case. Then what we ate-we ate rattlesnakes, we ate possums. I get random weird questions, like if I started my period, how that worked. Really random things.

AE: Could a vegan go on this show and survive?

CM: No. I mean, we did everything possible. We cuddled; there were no boundaries. A person who goes out that is vegan-they’re at a disadvantage because it’s about survival. I’m not a hunter; I don’t like killing animals, but you have to. You do whatever it takes because it’s 100 percent real and it’s hard. You can’t just live off fruits and nuts, which we didn’t even have a plentiful source of any of that stuff.

AE: What was the most surprising thing that happened to you while you were there? Anything you did not anticipate?

CM: There was this huge storm that had hit and everything was smooth sailing-we got along, everything was really easy. I was like, “Damn, this is actually really easy! I’m surprised how good I’m doing. I’m a camper.” Everything went smoothly and then this huge storm hit on day 13 and wiped out our camp. And we were sitting soaking in puddles for 10 hours and it was just miserable. We were close to hypothermia. We had to just keep sitting on each other’s laps for body warmth and the next morning the shimmer of sun was just the best feeling. I said to my producer, “You know, if it rains like that again, I’m not sure that I can do that.” Because I’ve never experienced cold like that and being wet for so long in my entire life.

Naked and Afraid airs Sundays at 10pm on The Discovery Channel

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