The Sunday Newds

• Bums the Word: The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is holding a Naked Portrait exhibition which opens in Edinburgh this week, and a journalist stripped down to be an artist's model as research for an article on the event. Author Sarah Phillips gave him some insight on the process.

  "Obviously, if you're an artist drawing a naked body you have to look at the genitalia, which goes against how we are trained to use our eyes," says Phillips. "And so we have certain questions. How long can you look at a model's penis before you cross the line and it becomes sexual?" It sounds like a joke, with no punchline. Phillips thinks the answer is one of degree. "Most models I spoke to admitted it's sometimes sexually arousing for both the artist and model during a pose," says Phillips. "That was generally fine with the models as long as it produced decent artwork. But if arousal becomes the end rather than the means, that's no longer acceptable."

• Naked Boy, 12: A New York boy heard his grandmother screaming, so he jumped out a second story window with his cell phone to call police, who responded and apprehended the intruders. Nobody was hurt, but why did all the news reports on this heroic boy focus on the fact that he was naked when he made the jump? Does that make him more heroic, or is it just exploitation or prurient interest? I pity the kid when he gets back to school - he won't be the hero, he will be the naked kid.
• Under the Kilt: More than 1700 Scots were polled about who they would most like to see naked. The intent of the poll was to gauge public attitude to nudity, but instead it turned onto a sex and pop quiz.
• Momtroversy: Newsweek has a good article on the growing efforts to pass laws protecting a mother's right to breastfeed anytime anywhere.
• Maggie May: Maggie Gyllenhaal has been photographed breastfeeding in public. Leave it to the paparazzi to turn a loving moment into a celebrity nipple slip.
• Gods and Warriors: Australian photographer Garrie Maguire prefers to concentrate on the male nude in his new exhibition. In today's homophobic society there is some reluctance on the part of men to pose nude.

  "I find it quite intriguing; in Australia, the culture I grew up in and always lived in, a weird sense that it's okay to go almost gay, providing no-one thinks you have sex…up to that point you can even shower together, that's perfectly acceptable…you're allowed to be affectionate when you're drunk and when you're playing sport.
  
  "In the words of Roy and HG, is there anything as attractive as grown men sticking their heads between the buttocks of other grown men?"

• Juiced Up: In New York State it's illegal for women under 18 to dance nude in establishments serving alcohol, but not in juice bars where girls can be as young as 16. Lawmakers are in the process of closing this "loophole".
• McPorn: An Alabama man has been arrested after a six month investigation and has been charged with providing obscene materials to a minor. Apparently he was looking at some nude or pornographic web sites at a McDonalds, and although no children actually saw the images on his computer, it has been determined that the potential was there for underage children to be exposed.
• Paint it Red, White and Blue: A politician in Saugatuck, Michigan, has voted to have a statue of a little boy removed from it's current location near city hall. It's not because of the nudity, or because the boy is depicted as writing "Who's responsible here?"- it's because it's not patriotic enough.

  "I feel like it's an opportunity in front of city hall to be patriotic and I think the artwork in front of city hall should be about patriotism," said Jane Verplank, Councilor.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked