Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • Although the strippers are delightful, ultimately people go the Penthouse Executive Club in New York City for the steaks.
  • If nudist resorts are a little too tame, perhaps you might like to try the Bondage Ball.
    The thing that I love most about these types of events is that a 60 year old man in fishnets, nipple clamps and a feather tutu can stand next to a guy in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and neither one feels out of place. Does not the rest of society have something very important to learn from these people?
  • A former UK teacher who was fired for having a sexual affair with one of her students is back in the academic world as a nude artist's model.
    One student said: "She was at the art school for a few months before any of us knew who she was. Then tongues started wagging."
  • An artist in India is looking to paint erotic images of nude male models.
    "It started when someone I knew casually called me up and asked if they can stop by my studio to be painted in the nude. I was shocked and felt very betrayed — if they were strangers, it wouldn't feel like 'Is this how you have perceived me all this while?' Disgusting!" But as she pondered it, Suchitra (Krishnamoorthi) said, the artist in her took over. "I asked myself why is it that when women get treated as sex objects, there's always a reasoning and logical dimension given to it. So as an artist, I decided to reverse the roles and asked how men would feel if I made them sex kittens?"

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • Royal Opera House singer Suzanne McNaughton (above) performed topless and was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
  • A student in Maine "gets it" when it comes to non-sexual nudity.
    Whether or not bodies are useful or attractive in the bedroom seems to be the only criteria we have, even for ourselves. As a result, everyone is suspicious and resentful of the perfect bodies we presume are lurking beneath other people's layers of clothing. Taking sex out of the picture, a person can take an objective look at his or her body, finally seeing it for him or herself instead of through the eyes of sexual rejection or acceptance. What would happen if we looked at our naked bodies in a nonsexual way?
  • A University of Virginia student also "gets it", comparing the competition in the gym to the non-judgemental atmosphere of an "underwear party".
    In an extreme contrast to the gym environment, two weeks ago I witnessed a large group of people socializing comfortably in their underwear without a single mention of being in or out of shape. I'm now convinced everyone should at some point attend an underwear party (It's pretty much how it sounds). For the most part, you don't see people hanging out in their underwear except in ads, but I think a lot of people would benefit from putting down "Shape" and "Men's Health" and seeing how real people actually look. No one at the party had the perfect body, but they had fun nonetheless.
  • Christina Ricci has become a nudist because of her mostly-naked experience filming "Black Snake Moan".
    Ricci says, "I'm a prude and I do not like walking around naked and I was in my bathroom about two months after the movie finished and I was brushing my teeth and I was in my underwear and I looked down and was like, 'Oh, God, put something on.'"Then I just stopped and thought, 'Oh my god, I was half naked for two months and my ass was on camera.' "I called my sister and I was like, 'Is it OK to wear nothing around the house? I'm freaking out.'"
  • Opposition is growing in New Zealand against the "Boobs on Bikes" event scheduled for this Friday.
    Over 100,000 people lined Auckland's Queen Street for the Boobs on Bikes ride last year after Mayor Dick Hubbard declared such a display "morally repugnant" and councillors attempted to ban the parade. Anglican Dean of Christchurch Peter Beck said he agreed with Moore. "This sort of thing debases the human body, which is a beautiful thing..."
  • Kudos to the UK Military Police who did not dismiss a female soldier who posed for a nude photo, issuing just a warning.
  • A Florida naturist resort is hosting a political candidates debate.
    "There's nothing weird about it," said seat 2 candidate Bill Louda. "It may be cooler, so we can expect clothes, and if you see some people around the pool, whatever, let them do their thing."
  • Worldwide interest in nude fitness has been sparked by the Netherlands gym that is offering naked workouts.
    Gym owner Patrick de Man says he has been approached from people from the US, UK, Germany and Belgium since he announced his plans at the beginning of this month..."The thousands of responses on my gym's website show that naturists have been waiting for something like this for a long time," he said.
  • An exhibit of nude photographs has opened in conservative India where many believe nudity to be taboo.
    Q: Normally in India such exhibitions are a hush-hush affair?

    A: "What hush-hush affair? This is a country of Kama Sutra and 12th century masterpieces of erotic sculptures. They are open on the temples. So what is this? This is very little expression. These are just beauty and aesthetics of a woman's body."

Monday, February 26, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • British Naturism has given a top award to Eastney Naturists in recognition of the group's efforts to keep open a nudist beach.
  • A New Hampshire columnist takes on the moralists who seek to "protect the children" from the word "scrotum" and nude sculptures in art museums.
    I won't say that we as a nation are slightly unhinged about "protecting" our children from reality, but we have among us a fair share of nut jobs. To use a technical term.
  • Photographer Justine Kurland currently has a show in New York called "Of Woman Born", a series of images of naked women in classic American landscapes. Her subjects sound like born nudists.
    Persuading strangers to pose, often without their clothes, has never been a problem for Ms. Kurland. “I can always spot people,” she said. “It’s, like, really one of my superpowers. I can always tell which teenage girls would love living in the woods with their friends.” Finding mothers was equally easy. “It’s like with teenagers,” she said. “You find one mom, and you get 10.”
  • A Morality Activist group is putting pressure on Ohio lawmakers to further regulate adult businesses.
    “Some other Ohio business owners should ask themselves, ’Am I going to be next?’” she (Angelina Spencer) said. “How long will it be before CCV decides it doesn’t like people dancing so close to each other at nightclubs and use some loophole in the law to perverse an act adults enjoy.”
  • An Austrailan nudist group is inviting the public to help them clean up a beach in an effort to keep it clothes-free.
  • A woman in Oregon writes a letter to the editor in opposition to the use of an "obese" nude woman in a Dove soap ad.
    When the exposed belly thing came out, it was just skinny girls wearing the style. Then it progressed to those with, shall we say, “more body mass.”So I guess it comes down to, why is flaunting an obese nude lady beautiful?...being obese has so many problems that follow. There are the obvious heart issues, high blood pressure, diabetes, knee problems, acid reflux, etc.
  • New Zealand police have no plans to prevent a topfree protest because "it is a moral issue, not a criminal one."

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

The Weekend Newds


  • On the eve of the Oscars, best supporting actress nominee Rinko Kikuchi comments on her very nude scene in "Babel".
    “I LIKE THE NAKED BODY. It’s beautiful. I think the more we try to cover ourselves, the more we lose an essence of ourselves.”
  • This article on nudity is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it makes some valid points.
  • A blogger recounts a typical day in the life of a nudist.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Airport Security Strips Passengers Naked

The airport security x-ray machine that strips away clothing to reveal the nude image of the human body underneath has debuted in Phoenix. This new technology effectively signals the end of personal privacy.

On one hand, the government is enacting legislation that restricts or criminalizes nudity, and on the other hand it is sanctioning the viewing of nude human bodies by airport personnel in the name of national security.

Although initially the system is being sold as being "100% voluntary" and that no images are saved for future reference, don't assume that this technology will not eventually find its way into courthouses, government buildings, schools, museums, etc. And while it does appear that this scanning is being done out in the open, there is no way to know for sure if the x-ray system is being used in secret.

If the system proves to be effective, it is a virtual certainty that EVERYONE who wishes to board an airplane will have to be subjected to the naked x-ray. The reason given will be that it will speed things up and make everyone SAFER. It's all about feeling safe, feeling protected. When people are afraid they will give up basic freedoms, and little by little we are losing our most fundamental rights to do as we please with our own bodies.

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It Must Be the Apocalypse...

...because there seems to be an epidemic of anatomically correct statues in public places all over the world. The brouhaha over the bronze dog statue in Colorado prompted me to go surfing on the Internet (after all, it is Friday and nobody wants to work anyway), and I found these sites:

You get the point. Quite frankly, all those life-size bronze bull testicles put that puny Great Dane statue in Colorado to shame.

Laughing Stock of the World

America must indeed be the laughing stock of the world with its Puritanical attitude regarding anything having to do with sexual matters. And now the trend to censor anything and everything that has something to do with sexuality has extended to the animal kingdom. Not only are prudish idiots banning books with the word "scrotum", they are now shocked and disgusted at anatomically correct statues of animals.

In Colorado a bronze statue of a Great Dane purchased by the Manitou Springs Arts Council was put on public display, and them almost immediately removed because the statue's penis proved to be too upsetting to some passers-by. The sculptor, Louise Peterson, exclaimed, "But he's a dog, for heaven's sake!"

Are we really this ignorant? Has our society degenerated to the point where we actually live in fear of our own bodies, and the bodies of the other creatures of the world? Is the next step to clothe our pets as well as all the animals in the zoo?

The dog statue will eventually have his "day in court" to determine whether or not he will be restored to a place of public viewing, but the artist is now concerned about vandalism due to all the notoriety.

Also, the Arts Council made the unfortunate decision to now present all new artworks to the general public for review and approval. This is a huge mistake, because now any work that depicts nudity will have the moralists screeching and hollering "indecency", and it's likely that even a statue of Donald Duck will need to be fitted with trousers.

Stupid is as stupid does.

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The Daily Newds


  • Naked animal rights activists braved sub-zero weather to protest the slaughter of seals in Canada.
  • Cabaret at Montclair State University features full-frontal nudity.
    Those who were cast and selected to be nude in the show would ultimately have to bare it all for their role. Cari Jones, 20, a sophomore B.A. theatre studies major, is one of those chosen for a role requiring nudity. Although one would think that this task would be quite daunting, Jones says that she is not nervous and that she'd "rather have the experience now." Justin Long, 22, a senior B.A. theatre studies major, was chosen to play the role of the Emcee, one of the show's lead roles. Like Jones, Long's role demands onstage nudity, which he is also not worried about.
  • Sienna Miller says that she has a European mentality when it comes to sunbathing topfree and would find it "strange" to wear a top at the beach.
  • A "nurse-in" is being planned at a Pennsylvania shopping mall to protest an incident where a breastfeeding mother was asked by security officers to cover up or stop.
  • A "Wired" columnist defends the Connecticut teacher who faces up to 40 years in prison because children in Julie Amero's class were accidentally exposed to Internet porn on the school computer.
    Julie is taking the fall, but many other people failed before a porn storm burst into that classroom. The IT department failed to keep content filters and anti-malware software up-to-date. The school failed to enforce a security policy, allowing substitute teachers to use regular teachers' network credentials to access the internet. The administration failed to ensure that all teachers, including substitutes, had the necessary skills and training to handle internet surprises -- and the savvy to respond quickly in a crisis. And the community fails to Protect The Children in the example it's setting. What should have been a wake-up call for the district employment office -- and for IT -- has spiraled embarrassingly out of control.
  • The Body Related Issues Discussion Groups Education Support (BRIDGES) is sponsoring a gallery showing of "The Century Project" to offer support and education to students with eating disorders and negative body image issues.
    Photographer Frank Cordelle created the Project about 20 years ago after finding inspiration at a spa in Europe. "About half the people there were running around with no clothes on," Cordelle said. "It wasn't a nudist camp; it was a regular place in town, and it was a hot summer day, and people were just comfortable doing that. It was so natural for them to behave that way. Nobody thought twice about it; it was perfectly accepting." With this new understanding of how non-Americans view the human body, Cordelle wanted to display the beauty of women of all shapes and sizes in a nonsexual way. Many countries in Europe have a much healthier attitude toward the naked body, he said."I wanted to give American society perhaps a normal healthy opportunity to see things like this," Cordelle said. "We don't get that in this country. There's no such thing, except for nude beaches, as nonsexual nudity."
  • A Maryland Republican lawmaker is seeking a ban on giant plastic gonads which dangle from truck trailer hitches.
    The bill also would ban depictions of naked human breasts, buttocks or genitals, with offenses punishable by fines of up to $500..."The legislation is overly broad, and would probably make it illegal to have a sticker on your car of the Venus de Milo from an art museum," ACLU of Maryland spokeswoman Meredith Curtis wrote in an e-mail.
  • MySpace keeps deleting a photo of a woman breastfeeding her child because they consider it "sexually suggestive".

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Nudism Under Attack in Kentucky

The Naturist Action Committee is calling upon all residents of Kentucky to take action against House Bill 438 which would criminalize non-sexual nudity in the presence of a child. Full details here.

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The Daily Newds


  • A South Carolina family received "the shock of their lives" when they discovered a photo of a nude woman on their cell phone.
    “My wife won't touch it because according to these pictures we saw, we have no clue where this phone has been,” Roger Wilson said. He said it is a very serious concern for his family. His wife is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and has a weakened immune system. “She can get sick really easily so you don't even know where that phone's been,” Daniel Wilson said.
  • There will likely be a showdown between the FCC and television when Ken Burns' new documentary on World War II, which contains some authentic vulgar language, is shown this September on PBS.
    "There are young men, 18 or 19 years old, who, in order to save the world that we enjoy, are placed in situations where they had to employ strong language, using words they wouldn't necessarily use in front of their mother or grandmother," says Burns. "I forgive them for that. I would hope my government does, too." There was far worse language in his acclaimed 17-hour series "Jazz," Burns says. "There was full frontal male nudity in 'The Civil War,' and no one said anything about it. It's absurd."
  • Kentucky joins the growing list of states enacting overreaching and unnecessary regulations on nudity.
    It would allow employees of adult businesses to be in a "semi-nude" state only if they remain 6 feet away from patrons and on a stage at least 18 inches above the ground. Denton has said the bill is designed to protect women and reduce sexually transmitted diseases.
  • 20 teenage girls from an Australian Catholic school are "under investigation" for skinny-dipping.
  • A North Carolina man purchased 150 acres of land near a Methodist Church and erected a large sign announcing the coming of a nudist resort. Apparently the $850 sign was just a joke, intended get a rise out of some religious conservatives.
  • TMZ is reporting that one of the criteria Britney Spears had for potential nannies was that they were able to deal with her frequent nudity.
  • A London arts show will have so much nudity and sex that anyone under 18 will not be admitted.
    Kate Bush, the head of the centre's art gallery, said that it would be "scholarly and serious". It would also demonstrate how other civilisations had more open-minded attitudes to sex while the British, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, were prudish and confused. Miss Bush said: "It's a no-holds-barred exhibition but it isn't a sex museum type of show. It is serious art history."
  • Are Amateur Female Jell-o Wrestling, the Pillow Fight League. The Gotham Girls Roller Derby and The Fun Female Fight Club legitimate fringe sports, or voyeuristic displays of flesh?
    Despite the intensity of those involved, confusion often rises over whether this is legitimate sports entertainment or an upscale and organized excuse for men to hope for a “wardrobe malfunction” and get a nipple flash. Although women have co-opted the activities once used for male amusement, strip clubs continue to host oil wrestling and kinky pillow fights with women in negligees.
  • Painter and muralist Daniel Gulick is organizing an erotic art show in Oklahoma.
    "It's like the body on the side of the road," Gilick analogized. "You're driving down the road and you don't want to look, but when it comes down to it, you're going to look. It's human nature. People avoid talking about sex and eroticism, but, when it comes down to it, they're going to look. They're going to attend because they want to know, and that's the fun part about it." Besides being fun, the show opens people up to the idea that the human body is art, that nudity isn't taboo. It helps people open their minds to what art is and what can be art.
  • A group of breastfeeding mothers gathered at the Texas Capitol to show support for a bill that would allow nursing anywhere, anytime.
  • Vaseline has a new ad campaign featuring nude models, and while the ads are being shown uncensored in the UK, there will need to be "adjustments" for them to be seen in the U.S.
  • Universal City Studios is suing blogger Perez Hilton for letting the world know that Jennifer Aniston actually has nipples on her breasts.

Victory for Topfreedom

Vancouver police will be sending out a memo to all officers that it's perfectly legal for women to be topfree in public. The move is apparently as a result of the efforts of Linda Meyer who has been a topfreedom activist in British Columbia for years.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Who Owns Your Body?

You might be under the assumption that YOU own your own body, but if Texas Republican Representative Bill Zedler has his way, the government will own your body. The Naturist Action Committee reports that Texas House Bill 1466 seeks to prohibit any and all nudity by employees or customers of any commercial enterprise. While aimed at clubs that offer nude dancing, the wording of the bill would prohibit nudity at nudist resorts, tanning salons, spas, pools and gyms. Forget about taking a nude shower at the YMCA anymore.
Rep. Zedler has a history of sponsoring legislation that reflects his fascinated focus on regulating and criminalizing the bodies and body parts of others. As the late political commentator Molly Ivins wrote a couple of years ago, "Zedler's against pubic hair. We still have a $10 billion deficit."
Although the NAC is not recommending any action at this time, all Americans who practice the nudist lifestyle need to pay strict attention to what the Religious Right is doing to control behavior in this country. The way this bill reads, it would be illegal to be nude in your own house if you operate a home-based business. Nudist groups would no longer be able to rent pools or bowling alleys for their recreation. And it would appear that all nudist clubs and resorts would have to either close or require their members to be clothed, or perhaps skirt the law by becoming a non-profit club instead of being a commercial venture.

Anyone wishing to help support the Naturist Action Committee in their efforts to protect our fundamental rights can click here to make a donation.

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The Daily Newds


  • A Woman in Mauritius calls for an end to hypocrisy regarding sexual activity.
    Three women and two men were arrested after the police made a raid at the Ritz Club in Baie-du-Tombeau. The three ladies were arrested because they were dancing almost naked on stage. How many of us were shocked by the news? Let’s make a bet… I am sure, no one! The court might rule that striptease is an illegal activity but the fact remains – apologies to those who might find it shocking – that it is healthy for a society to have such activities!
  • Artist Vanessa Beecroft's nude installation "VB55" both empowers and challenges women at the same time.
    Divorced from the art gallery context, "VB55" could well be described as a nudie "sting" operation designed to trap the voyeur in every onlooker. Guilt plays a major role. One woman felt particularly uneasy looking at so much female nudity while she herself was dressed up. This makes for an "ordeal" for everyone involved, audience as well as models, one critic noted.
  • A USC goalie recently mooned the crowd during a hockey game, and it turns out that his bare buttocks posed a clear and present danger to those that witnessed the incident.
    Rink manager Floyd Naegle was unhappy. We don't treat this as a funny incident," he said yesterday. ``We're a family oriented business. It's a one-time incident and we try to do what we can to protect ourselves."
  • Telus has backed away from offering nude images to it's cellphone customers.
    Vancouver's Catholic archdiocese, calling the pictures pornography, on Friday told about 130 parishes and schools to cancel their contracts with Telus
    Mobility. he church ramped up its fight with a 12-page special section in this week's edition of The B.C. Catholic, a weekly newspaper published by the Vancouver archdiocese. The Feb. 19 edition includes a front-page story about the church's fight with Telus in an editorial that scolds the company for hitching its financial future to the abuse-ridden and pain-filled pornography industry."
  • A UK naturist accused of lewd behavior on a nudist beach has agreed to an indefinite voluntary ban.
    ...faced with the prospect of imminent court proceedings Hodson agreed to the ban, which includes all of the trust-owned beach and the dunes the length of Ferry Road. National Trust services manager at Studland Emma Wright said: "This ban shows how serious we are about not tolerating illegal behaviour at Studland. We are working to develop a naturist beach area, which is safe and enjoyable for everyone.
  • An Alabama county is enacting legislation against nude dancing.
    "I realize the First Amendment protects the rights of people who want to take part in this activity, but it's not something I think we need in this county," Commissioner Michael Morgan said.
  • Dr. Who is getting naked?
  • 20 boys were barred from attending a Kenya high school because they were uncircumcised.
  • Miss Nude Winnipeg has taken control of an exotic nightclub.
  • An American Psychological Association report finds that sexualized images of females are having an adverse effect on women and girls.
    The report found that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women might cause women to experience problems with cognitive health, mental health, physical health and healthy sexual development.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • Eight Chippendale's male dancers have been released without bail in Lubbock, Texas, because police were unable to make a case that they violated any sexual ordinances.
    Jake's Sports Cafe owner Scott Stephenson is contemplating refunding ticket costs for his locale's three scheduled Chippendales shows but maintains the dancers did nothing wrong. Everywhere I have walked, people were saying 'Sorry, what happened?' talking about how outrageous it was for arresting everyone for being fully clothed and doing nothing, he said. The paper said that the sex ordinance calls for all nude or simulated nude dancers to either remain at least 6 feet from patrons or have the parties separated by a plastic of glass wall.
  • Amy Deming, a 36 year-old mother of three in Terra Linda, is looking for hot mommies for her Internet business MILPH - Mothers in Life, Passion and Health.
    "I hate to use the word sexy, but I wanted to create an arena where mothers are encouraged to feel beautiful," she explained as her 6-year-old, Robert, romped noisily around the room, over-amped by all the excitement. "I want them to feel confident in themselves, that they are women and individuals as well as mothers." How does her husband, Rob Simkins, a 37-year-old Marin contractor and developer, feel about his wife's seductive photos on the Internet, out there for all to see? "They're not naked pictures."
  • If you're a nudist in a cold climate, you know the challenges of keeping warm and trying to save on energy costs at the same time. Here is an article that explains how different body types react to a chill.
  • In Australia, nude water skiers gave the passengers on the Queen Mary 2 a little thrill.
    "We were just sitting there - the next thing these two went straight across the back of Mary as it was tying up and everyone was saying 'they're nude, they're nude'.
  • Even though video games with adult content are clearly rated, Indiana lawmakers are pushing a bill to levy fines if the games are sold to minors. Courts in other states have ruled that such laws are unconstitutional.
  • Nudists are very open about issues with the human body, and children who are raised in a nudist household have a healthier attitude about sex. According to Dr. Marilyn Fithian:
    "A child who has never been allowed to see his parents and brothers and sisters naked sees nudity as something shocking. Children will only have a sense of their bodies as something 'good' if they receive much tenderness and devotion from their parents from birth. In order to enjoy sex fully, it is necessary to enjoy one's own body naturally."
    So it comes as no surprise that a recent online survey in Australia found that most parents are simply not talking to their children about sex, in a world where sexualized images are everywhere.
    In view of what our children see and hear, talking to them when they are very young about sex is no longer an optional extra. It’s a must. The point is not just to pre-empt or contextualise the pornography and advertising they’re exposed to, but to instill healthy and informed attitudes to sexuality. A holistic awareness and understanding of sexuality in families should be part of the wallpaper from the time children are born. It’s not about coming up with the right moment or the right age to break the news that sex happens. Children
    should be able to look back and not even remember when they first heard about sex because it was always something they knew about, like cooking or driving or politics, even though they weren’t old enough to indulge in any of these at the time.
  • A mother has written an honest essay about her life with female breasts.
    ...I can see my relationship with my breasts coming full circle (or in my case, should I say, full oblong) when I look at my daughter. She has seen me use my breasts to feed her brother. She has seen me cover them up with "breast bras" as she calls them, and she has made various comments about when her breasts will begin to grow. She is probably viewing my breasts in much the same way I saw my own mother’s. My hope is that she will be comfortable with her body and embrace her shape in a way that is smoother than my experience. I also trust that while she may never have the same breasts as anyone else, including me, she will value her individuality.
  • The Danish government is using bare-breasted women in order to educate young men about the dangers of speeding. A spokesperson for the Women's Council in Denmark said "Young naked women are used today to market all sorts of things. Now the message is also speed limits. But honestly, I have a hard time seeing what naked breasts have to do with how fast we drive."

Monday, February 19, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • A mom and pop nude art gallery in the UK also sells beer.
  • A Virginia county wants to impose strict regulations on sexually oriented business with nude and semi-nude employees, even though there are no adult establishments in the area.
  • A scavenger hunt at Oberlin College involved a lot of nudity.
    “We spent most of the time at Michigan State. The others were basically stop, get naked, take a picture and leave,” he said. Teammate Herrine explained the fun Demars-Johnson had at MSU, saying he “destroyed one of their Frisbee’s teammates in a drinking contest.”Butche’s Welding decided to try and take it up a notch. Not only did they get naked on other college campuses, but they went for an additional 200 points by trying to persuade other students to get naked with them.
  • In a country where even the smallest sexual infraction is vigorously prosecuted, authorities look away when sexual abuse occurs among incarcerated youth.
    Many prison staffers at the West Texas State School complained about the abuse to their immediate bosses and to officials in Austin, the reports say. But, for more than a year, no one in charge did anything to stop it. Evidence was ignored or covered up. Two years after a Texas Rangers investigation concluded, no one has been prosecuted.
  • A Florida man has been jailed for posting a nude photo of his ex-girlfriend on the Internet, on charges of publishing unlawful pornography and promoting a sexual performance by a person under 18.
  • An Austrian designer being accused of "extraordinary bad taste" for snapping nude photos at the site of a Nazi concentration camp.
  • Proposed legislation in Alabama targets nude dancing as well as adult book and novelty stores.
    Commissioner Michael Morgan says he knows he can't outlaw nude dancing all together, but told the Montgomery Advertiser he wants to hamstring business owners to such a degree they "won't fool with offering that stuff here."
  • Contrary to popular belief, Rio de Janeiro's carnival is not about sex.
    "Here, nakedness doesn't only lead to sexuality, it leads you to aesthetic appreciation," said Roberto Da Matta, a retired University of Notre Dame sociology professor and author of the book "Carnivals, Rogues, and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma". "A woman is dancing but it's not pornographic," he said. "It's a collective experience of reconsidering bodies, like at the Olympic Games." Da Matta says his granddaughters watch the nearly nude samba dancers in TV ads during the run-up to carnival, grading them like judges at a gymnastic competition, or in the same way Rio's Samba parade is judged.
  • A female student at the University of Waterloo urges others to "give more credit" to strippers.
    I think stripping can be a perfectly acceptable way to make money — if the proper legislation is put in place. It’s really no worse than pin-up posters of sexy men or women — just with a lot less clothing. If the stigma disappears, then hopefully so will the atmosphere of desperation that surrounds stripping and people will choose to strip, as opposed to feeling driven to it. I know that I couldn’t do it — I hate my body way too much — but if you are comfortable enough with your body and sexuality, and are 18 or older, then I don’t really see what the problem is.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Let's Talk About Scrotums


I have a scrotum. I know that will come as a surprise to any right wing Christianists who might be reading this blog. I have a scrotum, a penis, an anus, and lots of other biological parts that the maker bestowed upon me in all his/her wisdom. If you've seen "Borat", you might want to call it my "testes satchel".

Dogs have scrotums, too. Ever notice how a dog will contort his body and lick his penis and scrotum for what seems like hours? As George Carlin once noted, "If I could do that I'd never leave the house".

And now a children's book has a scrotum (registration required). More specifically, a little girl in a children's book overhears a conversation that describes how a dog was bitten in the scrotum by a rattlesnake. Shit happens.

It turns out that the children's book, written by a librarian and geared to the 9 - 12 age group, has won The Newbery Medal, the literary equivalent of a film winning the best picture Oscar. It also turns out that since the book won the award, people are dissecting every word on every page, as would be expected when the spotlight is focused so brightly.

When "the word" was discovered, librarians all over the country began banning the book.
“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”

Susan Patron, the author of "The Higher Power of Lucky", based the passage in the book on a true incident involving a friend's dog.
And one of the themes of the book is that Lucky is preparing herself to be a grown-up, Ms. Patron said. Learning about language and body parts, then, is very important to her. “The word is just so delicious,” Ms. Patron said. “The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It’s one of those words that’s so interesting because of the sound of the word.”

The repulsive outrage over this biological term for a canine body part is symptomatic of the mass hysteria created by the Christianists who are trying to de-humanize society, to make people into sexless, God-fearing zealots. Scrotum?? Scrotum???? If anything, there should be an outrage that the author used the word "scrotum" instead of the word that the kids almost definitely used in real life - "balls". The dog got bit in the balls, and it probably hurt like a bastard.

When is it OK for children to learn that humans and animals have genitalia? Are we now to start putting diapers on little Fido so that when he starts humping daddy's leg, we can explain it away as something like, "little doggie's doing his exercises"? Are we now to start putting blinders on children who grow up on farms, so they cannot see copulating pigs, or, worse yet, a well-hung horse?

Grow up, America. This is the year 2007, we appear to the rest of the world as a nation of sexual retards, where pornography and graphic violence permeate the culture, yet we are grossly uncomfortable with the sight of a female nipple, or the mention of the word "scrotum". The damage that we are doing with this blatant double standard is beyond measure. Soon we will have an entire generation of children that shave their heads, get tattoos and shun rehab. Eventually all these mixed messages will confuse them so much that they will completely reject society, religion and politics, in exchange for some sort of counter-culture existence.

Organized religion is already losing its youth (Google it, I feel too lazy to find the facts to support this, but it's true), and the reason is that the messages coming down from the zealots have no basis in reality, and the kids are looking elsewhere for the meaning of life.

It all comes down to the word "scrotum". It's a perfect symbol of the nonsensical argument that censorship is necessary for the "sake of the children." I can tell you first hand that a 9 to 12 year old kid is fully aware of what a scrotum is, boys check out boys, girls check out girls, boys check out girls, and girls check out boys. It's called normal sexual development and curiosity. It's not "dirty", it's healthy to want to know what those funny little parts between out legs are designed to do.
It is not the first time school librarians have squirmed at a book’s content, of course. Some school officials have tried to ban Harry Potter books from schools, saying that they implicitly endorse witchcraft and Satanism. Young adult books by Judy Blume, though decades old, are routinely kept out of school libraries. Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo., said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her stance. “I don’t want to start an issue about censorship,” she said. “But you won’t find men’s genitalia in quality literature.”
“At least not for children,” she added.

It's a dog scrotum, lady. A dog scrotum. If you really believe that there is any kid alive that has not seen a dog scrotum, then you are completely detached from reality and need to get to the planet Tralfamadore immediately where you can put all the stark realities of the world behind and live in a fantasy bubble of your own design. Or perhaps you are already there.

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The Weekend Newds


  • Legislation in Montana has been unanimously approved to protect the rights of women to breastfeed in public without fear of prosecution for indecent exposure.
  • A survey of 1000 women seems to suggest that women value their clothing more than they value sex or a relationship, until you learn that the poll was paid for by consumer products giant Unilever.
  • 20 people gathered in Palm Beach to form a living nude peace sign.
  • Don't mess with Texas. A Chippendale's male revue at a Lubbock sports bar ended with 8 men under arrest.
    Police tell NewsChannel 11 the line was crossed when dancers half- naked were moving in ways to arouse those in the crowd...Tiffany Carrol says, "I think it's really unfair. No real rules were broken. All they were doing was going to be dancing around." Another woman says, "If you go to any bar in town and your gonna get some guy grabbing on you and doing whatever Chippendales have been accused of. That's fine, but if you pay for it apparently it's very bad."
  • 22 year-old Jaedyn Taylor of Great Britain is asking reader of Maxim to vote for her so she can have a chance to pose nude for Playboy.
    She said: "I'm such a Playboy fan, I'm really excited."She added she would not have a problem posing nude for the magazine, as it would be tasteful. "I'd really appreciate it if people would vote for me as it's so important to me," she said...On her own home page she describes her religion as Wiccan (a pagan religion) and one of her favourite foods as KFC.
  • Nudity as a Scourge Department: The "Naked Neighbor" in Oregon is fueling a drive for tougher "indecency laws" that would punish public nudity with jail time. Unfortunately, it seems that Jimmy Mack McKenzie is really an exhibitionist with a penchant for child pornography, so concerns on the part of the public regarding this man seem to be legitimate; however, changing the law to criminalize normal nudity because of the actions of one man is an overreaction. The police and the public have been watching this guy for 20 years, so why all the fuss now?
  • Nudity as an Asset Department: 71 year-old Marcia Townshend posed nude for the 2006 Dos Valles Garden Club calendar to help raise money for "philanthropic endeavors", and now she has been named Citizen of the Year by Valley Center Chamber of Commerce.
  • Daniel Radcliffe has a tight ass, you can see it here.

Friday, February 16, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • I've said it before on this blog that the reason young American males are reluctant to bare all in the locker room is due to homophobia. ESPN confronts the issue with Scott Goslin, an openly gay college football player.
    "That's one of the things that cracks me up when people talk about gay teammates," Guthrie says. "How is it that the straight guys are the ones who feel threatened? I mean, what do they think is going to happen, the guy is going to rape them or something? If anything I think it's the gay guy who would feel awkward in that situation."
  • A fashion show in Canada featured female models with bare breasts. Nobody died.
  • A reminder that Nude Night is this weekend in Orlando.
    The show was started clandestinely about a decade ago because there weren't (and still aren't) many venues that would let an artist show nude figures, not to mention law-enforcement harassment. Even the Sentinel won't print photos of many nude paintings, for fear they could offend someone. I've lived and worked in Europe, and they just laugh at the irony and hypocrisy of our leftover-from-the-Puritans attitudes toward anything the least bit sexual. I can't count the number of people there who told me various versions of, "You Americans produce film after film of blood and devastation, yet you perceive nudity to be more offensive. Bombs and carnage is OK, but the natural human form is deemed 'offensive'?"
  • A Bolivian soccer player has been fired for appearing completely nude at a press conference.
  • A New York cop is in hot water for taking a nude photo of himself and sharing it with others. Officials are trying very hard make this some sort of crime.
    A police spokesman said "no complainants" have come forward, but Internal Affairs investigators would like to hear from any members of the public who received the picture and found it offensive.
  • A columnist recounts a visit to the "nekked house".
    There was plenty to see. Right off the bat I spied a woman with a Mickey Mouse tattoo in a location that probably jumped Uncle Walt right out of his grave. Another gentlemen strutted about dressed as a gunfighter in a cowboy hat, boots and gun belt. That was all. Once the band tuned up, the naturalists began dancing. I’m here to tell you, dancing in the raw puts a whole new swing on the Texas two-step.
  • A Rice University student has an odd attitude towards nudity, especially when it comes to Daniel Radcliffe baring all on stage.
    I cannot accept Radcliffe’s “expanding acting roles” explanation is the only motive behind choosing this part. Fortunately for Radcliffe, society’s double standard on public nudity favors the denuding of men. Unfortunately, female nudity does not garner the same acceptance: A nude woman is considered a whore, while a nude man is perceived as an artist...Perhaps Radcliffe chose the play, not only because it reflects the suffocating industry that governs him, but also because it gives him an excuse to run around in his nuddy-pants.
  • The Arizona house rejected an amendment proposed by democrat Theresa Ulmer that would have banned the naked lady silhouettes seen on many truck mud flaps.
    "I personally am tired of explaining to my 11-year-old son why they (women) are depicted on mud flaps, but not all women are 36Ds. He's very confused by that," Ulmer said. "But seriously, this is about family values - what are we going to send out as a message to our children."
  • A British writer analyzes the uses of nudity on stage.
    What we need to put an end to is the smirking voyeurism of a commercial theatre that whets our appetite with nudity and then swathes it in shadows. By all means, let's have nudity on stage. But at the same time, let us ensure that it is guiltless, open and unashamed rather than constantly going off, as it were, at half-cock.
  • A San Luis Obispo writer laments upon the sterilization of an old tradition.
    I'm just a tad paranoid about the nudity ordinance that lurks under the city's surface for most of the year, popping up right before any Mardi Gras parties like a big, red zit on the smooth, white butt that is San Luis Obispo. It's organic clockwork. A biological imperative or at least it has been since the San Luis Obispo City Council, the SLOPD, and other decision-making leader types decided to threaten any public boob bouncing or wiener waving during the week with particular punishment a few years back.
  • In Brisbane, people are divided over the World Naked Bike Ride event scheduled for March 10. One councillor is on record as saying:
    “First of all, it’s breaking the law – that’s a police matter. It’s wilful exposure, so he is breaking the law. And some people in the community might just laugh it off and think it’s a bit of a joke, but certainly some people might be offended by it. He has a right to protest, of course, but other people also have a right to enjoy public places without being offended.”
    But the general public seems to have a more tolerant attitude.
    “We always need extremists to get us to the centre ground, and if these guys are capable of riding naked, and are happy to, then let them do it! Our kids have got a thousand other things to be terrified of rather than nude people on a bike!”
  • A naked man was spotted sledding in Kansas.
  • A UK software company used topless models to promote its cell-phone technology at a conference.
  • A woman in New York writes to an advice columnist about a breastfeeding mother on the subway.
    She then proceeded to expose her breast and feed the child - right there in front of everyone in the full car. I glanced around and saw men gawking at her, which really made me uncomfortable. I couldn't decide who was out of line, though: The mother or the men. Is it acceptable for her to have done this in such a public place?
    So who was to "blame" for this outrage? Why, everybody, of course. The answer:
    Discretion was missing. In this case, it was absent on both sides - with the mother who exposed her breast in public AND the men who didn't avert their eyes to allow the mother and her child needed privacy.
  • The executive director of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin made the following idiotic statement in opposition of a bill protecting nursing mothers.
    "Breast-feeding is very natural. However, I don't think that we need to have legislation that gives special sanction to it," Appling told the Herald. "Just because something is normal and natural, it doesn't mean we have to condone (it)."

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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Daily Newds


  • A gay writer looks at the Thomas Eakins painting "The Swimming Hole" and sees something homoerotic. Fact is, nude male communal swimming used to be something normal. Young men today are already homophobic, afraid to let any other males see them naked even in locker rooms, and ignorant comments like this from the gay community only help to further the myth that homosexual men are predators.
  • A conservative writer warns against the dangers of censorship.
  • A film director seeks to expose Singapore's red-light district.
    Prostitution is legal in Singapore, a seeming anomaly in a country known for its restrictions: homosexuality is outlawed, public demonstrations banned, even chewing gum is restricted. While (Ekachai) Uekrongtham admits some Singaporeans may be shocked by the film's gritty portrayal of the sex industry, nudity and all, he also believes they should embrace this part of their city. "It's a place of worship, a place for pleasure seekers, sex-wise and food-wise. They coexist in a very harmonious way," he said.
  • White men can't jump, but in Arkansas they can play basketball in the nude, at least until the cops come.
  • They tore down Scollay Square years ago, but they didn't kill Burlesque in Boston.
    ...most of the Boston Babydolls have an advanced degree of some sort, a detail that makes them a fascinating study in all things Jekyll and Hyde. During the daytime, these women work as project managers, defense contractors — hell, one of them works at MIT. But when the sun sets, out come the glamour, the glitter, the false eyelashes, and the very real bodies — a classic brains/beauty paradigm, a contradictory combo that comes through loud and clear when one of these multifaceted performers begins to move.
  • Hindu activists staged a protest in New Delhi against Valentine's Day.
    "Valentine's Day promotes obscene cards and nudity and encourages our youngsters to be publicly affectionate in parks and other places -- this is against our ancient civilization," said Jai Bhagwan Goyal, head of Shiv Sena in the capital.
  • For over a decade, Jimmy Mack McKenzie has been seen nude on his property by many of his Oregon neighbors, but suddenly people are "fed up".
    "What about the children?" asked Susan (a pseudonym). "What about the innocence? Who's getting protected here?"The Columbia County Sheriff's Department has received complaints about McKenzie, but they say what he is doing is not illegal. According to the law, McKenzie can walk all the way down his driveway to his mailbox, stark naked if he likes, and it doesn't matter who sees him.
  • Praise the Lord, the naked California jogger has been caught and identified.
    Darryl Delacruz, 43, by all accounts an otherwise law-abiding Silicon Valley engineer, has paid his $95 fine and apologizes to anyone who may have been offended by his jaunts through Cupertino's Fremont Older Preserve.``I'll go back, but I'll be wearing clothes,'' the San Jose man said. ``I don't want people to have the wrong impression.'' While it is not illegal to take your clothes off in a Midpeninsula Open Space Preserve District park, it is an infraction to do so in front of other people.
  • Jennifer Aniston got completely naked on the set of her movie "The Break-Up", and now she is upset and lawyered-up to stop the distribution of photos on the Internet that show her breasts and buttocks. Jennifer knows perfectly well that once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there's no putting it back, all this false indignation is only designed to keep the story going and raise her asking price for her next film. They're just breasts, Jennifer, no big deal, and you know it.
  • Carmen Electra reportedly refused to sign a nude photo of herself, saying, "I feel weird signing nude!"

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