The Daily Newds 4/8/09

• There were 44 videos uploaded to the World Nude Day 09 site. Click here to see them all.
• It's confirmed: Bay to Breakers will feature the usual assortment of body freedom participants.
• A tongue-in-cheek article exposes the ridiculousness behind the banning of nude sunbathing on Bird Island.

  It is a known fact that nude sunbathing is a gateway activity that leads to more serious civil breaches. For purposes of modesty, I will not dwell on the issue of visible cleavage in the workplace, but we all know it costs the nation more in lost productivity than the NCAA tournament.

• A letter to the editor in Florida claims that law enforcement is "clueless" about the law, and "completely unaware" of naturist values.
• William Saletan of Slate Magazine regrets once supporting body scanners in airports.

  Now I'm having second thoughts. I still like the technology. It's the people behind it who worry me. Yes, the scan is less invasive than the pat-down. But TSA has just demonstrated its ability and willingness to move the goalposts. When TSA offered pat-downs as the alternative to body scans in secondary screening, the scan sounded pretty good. Now TSA is offering pat-downs as the alternative to body scans in primary screening, and again, the scan sounds better. And if TSA announces tomorrow that pat-downs are the new alternative for all train or bus passengers, body scans will seem preferable there, too. Anywhere we're threatened with pat-downs, we'll settle for body scans. Where does it end?

• Sexting Roundup: Dr. Paul Rapoport writes, "If Pennsylvania wants to reduce sexting, especially in cases where there is no victim, it should not turn to the police or the courts. The keys are education about technology's relation to sexuality, and about society's body phobias and sex obsessions." A nude photo of a teen is causing a "big stir" in Glen Rock, New Jersey. Mike Galanos of CNN writes, "There is no control over that image or video once it gets out. But that doesn't mean little Suzie should be charged as a child pornographer." And the Wall Street Journal asks if the worry about teen sexting is the real epidemic.

  "Most of the mainstream media uses semi-nude models to sell us things -- so why is it surprising if teens have modeled this?" says Terry Humphreys, an assistant professor of psychology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. "I would want to see the results separated for semi-nude and nude before I get too anxious about what our teens and young adults are doing with their cellphones."

• A sculpture of a naked woman on a cross is offending the Christian establishment.
  

  Living Way Church Pastor Lanil Gunasekara was outraged by the sculpture.
  
  “It is a blasphemous insult to the image of Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross,” he said.
  
  “There is something wrong with an artist who produces something so insulting to Christians.”

• Carol Muske-Dukes recalls her stint in a French production of "Hair" in the 70s.

  Then we all rallied for the final scene before the break - the famous nude scene. I'd never taken my clothes off for this climactic moment before - now I felt the time was right. I had "laid bare" the essence of HAIR, I thought - this was a breakthrough. I stood with my fellow cast members, shivering a little in the garish lights, naked. Then the great velvet curtains closed and I turned to pick up my bell bottoms and "pull-over-aire". They had vanished. The French cast had hidden my clothes.

• The Keys chapter of South Florida Free Beaches is lobbying for a clothing optional beach.
  

  The two prime candidates for a clothing-optional beach would appear to be a portion of Higgs Beach, which is owned by the county, separated by the main beach by the West Martello Tower; and Rest Beach near the White Street Pier.
  
  Haulover Beach in North Miami drew 1.3 million visitors in 2006 and, including direct and indirect revenue and things like sales tax, generated $179 million, according to Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation Department data.

• A Calgary women has received an "avalanche" of hate mail over her stand on public breastfeeding.

  "I've been called a pedophile, I've had people threaten to perform obscene acts on me," said Gemma Kelsall, describing the messages that have been sent to her Facebook account and on the websites of various news sites that featured her story.

• And congratulations are in order to the editors of the Eureka High School in California for winning the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for taking a stand against school censorship. A nude drawing had been published in the school newspaper, prompting the principal to order the custodian to round up all the remaining copies.
  

  The law is on the side of student journalists when it comes to censorship, said (editor Drew) Ross. Right away, his publication received calls from the media, including the Student Press Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU sent the Redwood Bark legal information about their rights.
  
  Ross said the ACLU told him his paper had a very strong case against school censorship. Steffen violated a state anti-censorship law that prohibits a person from taking more than 25 papers off any newsstand, said Ross. “This is a huge crime,” said Ross. “A person could be fined or go to jail.”

The Daily Newds 2/28/09

• I've always said that when it comes to nudity, there's safety in numbers. In a recent sexting incident at a Connecticut junior high school, charges are not being filed in part because "so many people were involved in disseminating the photo."
• Southwest Airlines is taking heat from some passengers because they are offended by flying on a Boeing 737 painted with the image of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Don't these people ever go to the beach?

  "Does anyone else find this kind of trashy for Southwest?" asked one customer on the carrier’s blog. "Having a woman in a bikini on the side of the plane hardly seems like the epitome of the friendly, down-home airline I’ve grown accustomed to."

• Organizers of the Bay to Breakers event have backed down on banning floats, nudity and booze because of an effective opposition campaign.

  Ed Sharpless of the group Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers said they got everything they wanted. “We’re pleased with the outcome. I think it’s a victory,” he told the Guardian. “When you have over 20,000 people join your group in two weeks, it’s means something.”

• Has it really come to this? A columnist instructing people on how to shoot better photos equates innocent childhood nudity with porn.

  Photo labs will report any photos to the police that might be of a questionable nature. Questionable photos that people may take of children are particularly scrutinized these days. Under no circumstances should you either take, or circulate photos that might, in any way, be interpreted as pornographic or suggestive. I would think that would certainly include any and all nude photos of minors. The days of those baby-in-a-bathtub shots are long past!

• What's it like lying naked for a Jack Gescheidt TreeSpirit project?

  My friend Maria Tonione from the East Bay was on her stomach next to me, her head on my calves and one hand between someone’s legs. The pebbles dug into my hip and I shifted onto my stomach. Toes wiggled against my leg. “I feel the wind,” Maria whispered. Knowing what part of her body she felt the wind with, I laughed and it hurt a little.

• Naked female breasts are causing way too much commotion in Vassalboro, Maine.
• Robin Weiss is obsessed with pubic hair.

  Weiss visited zoos to peer at the groins of our closest relatives. He noticed that in other great apes, hair in the pubic region was if anything much finer and shorter than elsewhere on the body - the opposite of the human situation. It supported his argument that human pubic hair is different and probably unique, both in its evolution and in its physical appearance and purpose.

• "Skin tax" proposals are increasing as politicians seek new ways to pad their revenue coffers, but the First Amendment protections of free expression have stalled legislation.

The Daily Newds 2/27/09

• An 18 year-old man who streaked naked through a shopping mall says it was a "stupid move".
• The DA of Centre County, Pennsylvania, sees the latest teen sexting case as an "opportunity" to give a verbal warning to students and parents before pressing charges.

  "It's potentially against the law. It's potentially a criminal record and I want kids and parents in particular to know about it. At some point we'll take a stronger law enforcement approach after the proactive one," said (District Attorney) Madeira.

• A life drawing model at the University of Arizona finds that students are not always prepared for full frontal male nudity.

  "I had a guy come into class, and I was up on the podium in the classroom, and he looks and goes, 'Oh, a dude! Man, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this!' And he ended up staying in the class, and he toughed it out and manned up."

• A new Rhode Island law expands current legislation which protects a breastfeeding mother from indecent exposure prosecution. Mothers will now be allowed to breastfeed a child in any public place and permits a woman to allege a violation of her civil rights if she is interfered with.
• Bay to Breakers organizers have given in to allow floats back into the event, but also announced a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol. No word on whether or not nudity will be allowed, but police have previously stated that they will not be issuing citations for indecent exposure. It looks like there will be some compromise because organizers really just want to improve crowd behavior, asking participants to be courteous and not urinate in public places.
• Tom of West Penn Naturist group has a report online about his weekend at White Tail Resort in Virginia, and observes that there is hope for involving younger people in the naturist lifestyle.

  Saturday night was the talent show and a dance... There were about 20 youth here from JAANR, Junior American Association of Nude Recreation, http://www.aanr-east.com Their theme is "Winter in JAANRville" There were songs skits and lots of laughs. It was really a first time experience for me to see this collection of 20+ youth, not only able to get up in front of the crowd and perform, but to do it nude. Can't honestly say I could have done it at their age. It was quite an event.

• Nudity is in vogue during London Fashion Week.
• "Assume Nothing" is the title of a photo exhibition by New Zealand artist Rebecca Swan includes both clothed and nude portraits of individuals who identify as both male and female.
• An Australian resort referred to as "nudist" in this article is sold out for a full month, where 250 people will engage in anything goes sexual activity.
• Struggling moms are turning to stripping in order to make ends meet.

  "I'm telling you right now, with two kids, a $13.85 an hour job is not going to help you out with anything. I'm sorry. That might pay your rent and that might pay your gas to get back and forth to work, but it's not going to pay for groceries. It's not going to pay for anything they want. It's not going to pay for health insurance. Who wants to live like that?...I come [to the strip club], work 6, 7, 8 hour shifts and leave with more than $500."

• Kathie Lee Gifford admitted to sleeping in the nude during the fourth hour of "Today", which prompted co-host Hoda Kotb to poll the crew on how many of them also slept in the altogether. Many of them did.
• An Olive Garden restaurant is being sued by a mother claiming that she was not given a proper private place for her to pump her breasts.

  According to the suit, a female manager told Gray that she would not be able to pump in private, leaving her with the choice to pump in an office with a manager present or in a bathroom stall. The same manager expressed her disapproval of breast-feeding, calling the process "disgusting."

• 29 of the 35 members of the Geelong Harmony Chorus in Australia, ranging in age from the 20s through the 80s, have volunteered to pose nude for a fundraising calendar.
• 45 year-old Lisa Rinna is most comfortable in the nude and has posed for an upcoming issue of Playboy.

  "I don't get all the fuss our society has over people's weight...I want to encourage other women to be proud of their bodies no matter what age or size."

The Weekly Newds 2/23/09

Catching up with the newds of the past week...

• Like social nudism, discussing menstruation in our society is taboo, but "My Little Red Book" seeks to spark some open dialogue on the subject.
• Samba dancer Dani Sperle has broken Rio's Carnival record for the least amount of clothing ever worn during the event. Sperle sported only a 3 centimeter patch of cloth.
• A Virginia Beach singer will spend a year in prison after receiving a nude image of a 16 year-old girl on his cell phone.
• An official from Denny's restaurants has apologized to a North Carolina woman who was told to conceal herself while breastfeeding her child while dining at the Asheville establishment.
• A 15 year-old Pennsylvania girl has been charged with possession of child pornography, distributing child pornography, and creating child pornography for sending nude photos of herself to a 27 year-old man she met through MySpace. In Michigan, a 14 year-old girl is in a juvenile court diversion program for youthful offenders after admitting responsibility to one count of "displaying a human form indecently" by sending nude photos of herself with her cell phone.
• The Minnesota town of Zumbro Falls is doing all it can to shut down a nude dancing club.
• Lily Allen is not afraid of posing nude. She said: "I'm just very comfortable in my body. I wouldn't do it in a 'Hey-Look-At-My-Boobs' kind of way."
• A Filipino activist staged a nude protest against man-made environmental damage, and was not arrested, but a Filipina woman was fined $1000 for exposing her breasts in Singapore.
• Photographer Rodney Braun, a devout Mennonite, specializes in artistic nudes, but it took some convincing from his wife Sonya to move from weddings and family portraits to nudes.

  It all started when Sonya booked a pregnant woman into the studio for a maternity shoot.
  
  "I said, 'Call her back and tell her I don't do that,'" Braun recalls. "But Sonya said, 'This is God's ultimate creation. Why wouldn't you want to do that?'
  
  "It was the most awkward photo shoot of my life. I just kept thinking, 'I'm way out of my zone and this is not what I grew up thinking was acceptable.' I really had to figure out where my moral line was.'"

• Beginning today, riders on the New York subway will see posters with real naked people advertising a new play "Reasons to Be Pretty". The tagline will be "Does this play make me look fat?"
• San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi is calling in Bay to Breakers organizers to "lighten up" and allow floats and nudity in the annual event, but keep the ban on booze.
• A British woman has been banned from competitive boxing because she has breast implants.
• The Century Project, a collection of nude portraits of women aged from birth to 100, is stirring up controversy at the College of William and Mary.

  “It should not be shown,” John Foubert ’90, a former education professor at the College, said. “I don’t think it’s right for William and Mary to pay money to a man who takes pictures of young girls in the nude. I think William and Mary can spend its money in better ways.”

• "I'll Catch the Sun" by Richard Langdon Cook, a retired Fortune 500 business executive, chronicles his worldwide adventures in nudism.
• Since attendance is down at the Sleeping Bears Dunes National Lakeshore, one naturist advocates consideration of the establishment of a clothing-optional area.
• A Malaysian legislator has quit after photographs showing her sleeping naked were circulated to the public via cell phones.

  "I have done nothing wrong. I wish to state that I am not ashamed of my sexuality as a woman and as a single person. I have broken no law," she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

• Peaches Geldof wears 20 tattoos and little else when at the beach.
• Maggie Gallagher is afraid, very afraid of the teen sexting phenomenon.

  After all, if the thought that their fellow students, their teachers, their employers, their college admission officials, the entire football squad, their mothers and the local district attorney may well see these cell phone photos is not enough to discourage teens - then we really have a problem on our hands.

• A woman finds that getting naked in a Louisiana spa is a lot less acceptable than doing the same in Hawaii.
• A former Ohio State University student recalls how legendary football coach Woody Hayes used to handle the press after a loss.

  "If the team lost or tied, he would conduct an interview in the nude. He was an ugly guy so it would clear the locker room out pretty fast."

• Newsweek contributing editor Dahlia Lithwick "gets it" when it comes to teen sexting.

  Judging from the sexting prosecutions in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana this year, it's clear that the criminal-justice system is too blunt an instrument to resolve a problem that reflects more about the volatile combination of teens and technology than about some national cybercrime spree. Parents need to remind their teens that a dumb moment can last a lifetime in cyberspace. But judges and prosecutors need to understand that a lifetime of cyberhumiliation shouldn't be grounds for a lifelong real criminal record.

• A real life streaker streaked a play in which he is portrayed by an actor.
• You can win $10,000 if your nude video is judged to be the best at http://www.worldnudeday.com/.
• Promoters for a Swedish television show "I'd Do Anything for Money" used a naked man as a publicity stunt.
• A Taiwan clinic and two of its nurses face fines and other consequences for nude photos used in an advertising campaign.
• Glasgow's "National Review of Live Art" lives up to its avant garde reputation.

  True to form, the first thing I saw on Wednesday night was an installation in which a man lay naked on the floor, his body wrapped around the carcass of a pig. Occasionally he twitched, but was otherwise motionless. So did the pig. A cameraman was filming the event, but don't expect to see it at your local multiplex any time soon. Downstairs, I watched a film in which the planets orbited a woman's breasts and, in a neighbouring room, I rather liked lying on the floor and putting on 3D glasses to watch Billy Cowie's hologram film of a naked dancer appearing to dangle from the ceiling.

• Lindsay Hansen exposes Orlando's Nude Nite.
• An "angry" Utah woman who exposed her breast outside an elementary school has been arrested. Granite Police Chief Randy Johnson said, "We could not tolerate this level of behavior, so we took her into custody."
• While going through an old crate of family photos, a woman came across a photo of her 20ish grandmother holding hands with her juvenile mother and aunt - all naked.

  My mother gleefully plucked it from the pile giggling to herself. "See,I told you that gramma and grampa went to a nudist colony". She put the picture far too close to my face. I flinched. "Uh, no. No you definitely did not tell me about this."