The Daily Newds 5/18/09

• British model Katie Price faces possible arrest for nude sunbathing in the Maldives.

  Foreign Office travel advice warns: "Nudism and topless sunbathing are prohibited throughout the Maldives including on resort islands. "The Maldives is a Muslim country and serious violations of law may lead to a prison sentence."

• No disciplinary action will be taken against six students who streaked across the stage at the Green Mountain College commencement in Vermont.

  It's sort of become a new tradition at the school, one that is not encouraged but not "stamped out, either," (communications director Kevin) Coburn said. "It happened at last year's commencement," Coburn said, hours after Saturday's streaking.

• Married for 43 years, Ian and Nancy Watters love the nude lifestyle.

  "We do everything in the nude; mowing, mulching, gardening. We always seem to have a lot of laughs and that’s good for your health."

• A sex theme park slated to open in October has been torn down by Chinese authorities because it was "vulgar, ill-minded and misleading."
• A South Texas town is debating whether or not to ban "nude sketch classes" in the Arts District, due to its proximity to schools and day care centers.
• Laurie Penny says that burlesque today is nothing more than a "misogynist scam."

  I began to realise that what really differentiated my act from that of your average stripper wasn't the performance, or the costumes, but simply class. Like the majority of women who choose to get involved with burlesque, our troupe was made up of middle-class girls, with the act offering us an opportunity to indulge in raunchy exhibitionism without feeling "cheap" (at least initially). Burlesque serves up misogyny in a tasteful package of feathers, while the explicit nature of the shows increases each year. When I was performing, complete nudity was frowned on, but burlesque acts such as Satan's Striptease and Empress Stah have since started offering full-frontal flashing.

• Why are law enforcement officials targeting Craigslist for censorship? It's "good politics."
• A teen has been suspended by his fundamentalist Baptist educators for attending a prom at another high school because there was "dancing, rock music and hand-holding."
• A group of Belgian actors rode nude on bicycles at the Cannes Film Festival to promote their movie.
• The Christian Action Network in Cape Town, South Africa, want to criminalize pornography and other forms of adult entertainment after a recent Sexpo event. Miss Nude South Africa says that Sexpo was not exploitative.
• 80% of Key West tourism-based businesses support a clothing-optional beach.
• A Lutheran pastor has denounced Miss California USA Carrie Prejean as a hypocrite.

  "(In) America, according to this girl ... it is totally immoral for two people of the same gender who are in love to enter into a lifelong, faithful, monogamous union, (and) apparently not a problem at all for a 17-year-old girl to be photographed half-naked for the expressed purpose of sexually arousing millions of heterosexual men to whom she is not married and who are not married to her."

• Dita Von Teese was ordered to show "less cleavage" during the Eurovision Song Contest.
• A nude sketch of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is up for auction in Paris. Imagine if a similar image of Michelle Obama went on sale in New York City, and you can clearly see the cultural divide.
• Does a teacher have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" for files stored on a school computer?
• The producer of a Danish TV reality show has apologized for shooting a nude scene on a Malaysian island.
• If you think nudity has caused some trouble through the years, consider these instances where articles of clothing caused riots.
• Kenyans want the statue of a nude boy in front of a court house to be demolished claiming it "encourages pedophilia."
• One woman ignores the "naked baby police" and lets her kids frolic nude in a wading pool.
• Striking a balance between "nudists and prudists" has been difficult at North Lido Park in Sarasota, Florida.
• The Calgary Music Festival features bands, nature, and a "nude slip-n-slide."
• Helena writes, "stop being so prude and get your kit off" after witnessing women showering in their bathing suits at the local gym.

  Being a Swede, where nudity is something natural, this is incredibly strange to me. When I'm in the communal showers I notice that these women are still wearing their swimmers but had they been naked I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Why is it that some women, depending on their upbringing, culture or religion, cannot get undressed in front of other women. We all look the same. And when I'm in the shower I don't look at what your bodies look like. I'm busy trying to squeeze out of my wet, too tight bathing suit and just wash myself. I have no interest in looking at other women. So please, just get your kit off and feel that it's ok to wash yourselves properly. Because you can't really reach all your bits when wearing a Speedo!

• A new naked tribe has been found in Nigeria.
• William Cook, who founded the Eastwoodhill Arboretum in Gisborne, New Zealand, was an avid nudist.

  ...he often did his gardening unimpeded by clothes, apart from the boot he wore to help with digging holes, and visitors soon learned that it was a good idea to phone for an appointment.

• Attorney Scott H. Greenfield calls the criminalization of teen sexting as "the stupidest thing ever."

The Daily Newds 5/14/09

• In the fallout the Carrie Prejean Miss California fiasco, a photographer contradicts her story that her breasts were exposed because the wind blew open her top.

  (Domnic) Petruzzi says he shot the photos on a "normal day" and it's ridiculous to blame it on a breeze. As for Prejean's claim the pics were taken between shots for the modeling session (she was posing for Bliss Magazine), Petruzzi says -- "she was totally posing and looking into the camera."

• The co-executive director of the Miss California Pageant resigned yesterday saying she no longer believes in the organization because Prejean was allowed to keep her crown, despite apparent violations of her agreement.
• Yet more Prejean news. The Baptist Standard reports that conservatives are split over the beauty queen and if she is the appropriate role model for Christian women.

  Writer Dave Welch added comments on the conservative website World Net Daily in his article, "Is Carrie Prejean Really a Hero?" "I respect Miss Prejean for her stand and her willingness to testify of her faith," Welch wrote. "However, I much more highly admire, respect and esteem my wife, my daughters and all the girls and women who have chosen the higher road. They are determined to show that their worth is not in how they look in a bathing suit but that they are wonderful creations of a loving God who designed them with meticulous detail as they are."

• Is Gok Wan "genuinely interested in changing the perception of beauty", or is he just exploiting ordinary people with his contest "Miss Naked Beauty"?
• A clear sign that mass media and cultural pressures are destroying the body images of yet another generation, British swimming champion Rebecca Adlington, age 19, thinks of herself as "unfeminine".

  "I think there is a problem in that girls don't think it's cool to be sporty. I had that feeling when I used to trudge into school after training with my hair wet, smelling of chlorine, with no make-up on and thinking, 'Oh God, all the other girls look fantastic.' We need to change the view that you can't be a sportswoman and be feminine. I am certainly feminine outside the pool.'"

• Radio talk show Michael Smerconish puts his ass on the line. Literally.
• A Nevada assemblyman was reprimanded for viewing pictures of "scantily clad women" on his own personal computer.
• Legal challenges continue in Virginia over the constitutionality of regulations defining nudity in adult establishments.

  The ABC board revised its own regulations, which prohibit the display of "genitals, pubic hair or anus by an entertainer, or any portion of the areola of the breast of a female entertainer."

• In the face of mounting legal pressures, Craigslist will no longer offer an "Erotic Services" category, and will create a new one titled "Adult Services". That should do the trick.
• Julie Hilden, writing on FindLaw, says that prosecutors should not charge sexting teens with "contributing to the delinquency of a minor".

  It would be absurd, for instance, for two sixteen-year-olds who are dating to be deemed criminals because each sent a nude photo of him- or herself to the other, while meaning for the photo to be kept entirely private. Teenagers do have First Amendment rights – and, with the exception of obscene (and in this context, obscene-as-to-minors) speech, sexual speech is protected.

• Auburn, California, seeks to crack down on nudity and "lewd acts" on a remote stretch of the American River.

  Council members say the beach has long been a destination for nude sunbathers without a problem. But it's recently become known for sex encounters after it became more accessible to boaters with the opening of a new section of river last year.

• A 35,000 year old figure of a voluptuous nude woman is perhaps the world's oldest sculpture.

The Weekend Newds 5/8/09

• Since Spencer Tunick's Irish installation will not be exhibited in that country, the work will be put on a web site beginning on June 8 and lasting four months.
• A secluded clothes-free beach in California is being threatened by illicit sexual activity solicited on Craigslist.
• "When Breastfeeders Attack" is must reading.
• A California music teacher will not be charged for allegedly possessing child porn on his work computer. Although police have provided no details, my hunch is that the images were of a naturist variety.
• A former prosecutor called the felony conviction of an Ohio man "a misuse of the computer hacking law." Richard Wolf was fired from his position at a wastewater treatment plant after a nude self-portrait was discovered on his computer, leading to an investigation which found he uploaded the images to the Adult Friend Finder in order to connect with women. Had he been buying crap on eBay, he would have probably received a slap on the wrist, but once human sexuality enters the mix, it becomes a felony. Sure the guy was wrong and stupid to use a work computer, but if being a lonely guy looking for sex is a crime, then they had better start rounding up half the country.
• An Australian woman is entering a painting of a nude man in a local art show in order to challenge a new "sensitive art policy."

  “Let’s see what they do with it,” she said of her nude entry.“If they knock that back they don’t even know what art is.”

• Tennessee State Attorney General Bob Cooper warned that a proposed "saggy pants" bill could be unconstitutional.
• 13000 people signed an online protest, forcing a British department store to stop charging customers more for oversized bras.

  The campaign on Facebook was started by Beckie Williams, 26, who wears a 30G bra, after Marks and Spencer failed to respond to her complaints about the STG2 ($A4) extra charge on bras bigger than a DD cup. The group, Busts 4 Justice, condemned the policy as "criminally unfair" and urged "busty ladies" to "join forces to end this blatant discrimination".

• New Hampshire has become the latest state calling for censorship on Craigslist.
• The Washington Post covers the teen sexting issue.

  Sexters are often "the good kids," police said, with strong grades, involved parents and no criminal history. Many send photos without grasping that they could be widely circulated or posted on the Internet in view of strangers, predators and potential colleges and employers.

• The discovery of a cache of nude photos in a Texas city hall will likely not lead to any charges against the former employee. When contacted about the self portraits the man reportedly took the news in "good humor."
• Time Out New York has a nice little article about nude artists' models, with both clothed and unclothed photographs.
• Vietnamese "nudist" body painters are pursuing their art with passion, but still face great prejudice in a country where the line between art and photography is very thin.
• A German coastal town is fighting swinger sex on a secluded nude beach.
• The AANR Word Record Skinny-Dip on July 11 is very poorly organized. Just go to this link and try getting any meaningful information. UPDATE: If you have a Facebook account, there is a group set up here.
• An article on modesty touches upon the issue of nudity in the home.
• An unemployed English woman says her ideal job would be as a "topless motivational speaker."
• Apple is rejecting a newspaper app for the iPhone due to the fact that topless "Page Three" women are included.
• The nominees for the 1st Annual Naked News Awards have been announced.
• A nude calendar with strategically placed fruit over some body parts is being planned to boost tourism in Australia.

The Daily Newds 5/7/09

• 10 French women staged a topfree protest at a Paris swimming pool because women's bodies are considered more sexual than men's and that they are under greater pressure to live up to standards of beauty.
• Nudity is now legal on the beaches of the Kapiti District of New Zealand, as long as it causes no offense.
• An Everglades park ranger is being reassigned to Cape Cod for the summer and intends to enforce the law against nude sunbathing as part of his duties.
• A Dayton Ohio woman posted a nude photo of herself on Craiglist and was arrested for soliciting. In South Carolina, state Attorney General Henry McMaster has given Craiglist 10 days to "remove illegal content" or face prosecution. Personal ads have been around as long as I can remember, but these new government attacks on Craiglist are something new, showing an increased level of intervention into the private lives of citizens.
• This news video about the Running Bare 5k race manages to touch upon just about every cliche and misconception about nudism.
• Actor Shia LaBeouf says his mother and her friends "would be naked around the house" when he was a kid for "goddess-group time, where it’s literally a bunch of naked women tracing auras around one another’s bodies with incense and then sitting together and humming for prolonged periods of time".
• Georgia PTA leaders will ask state lawmakers and school boards to add a class about crime and punishment to the curriculum of middle and high schools because many "things that a kid may have been dealt with harshly by his coach or principal for engaging in, now [school officials] are just picking up the phone and calling the police and the kid is getting arrested." More and more parents and teachers are abdicating their responsibilities to the government. "1984" and Big Brotherism is just coming a little later than predicted by Orwell.
• Steven's Point Brewery's Nude Beach Summer Wheat ale will not be sold in Michigan because the implied nudity on the label has been deemed "detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the general public" by the Liquor Control Commission. Who are these people?
• At the age of 70, artist Brian Dunlop has painted his first nude. His muse is classical pianist Janine Carstein.

  "It's a secret wish. I've always wanted to paint the naked female form. I told her I'd really like to see her body." Her reply? "She didn't flinch."

• Burlesque dancer Tanya Cheex picked up her penchant for undressing from classic Hollywood films and 50s pin-up magazines.

  Cheex pinpoints the resurgence of burlesque in the '90s as a kind of backlash against the overload of explicit pornography available online. "As the World Wide Web phenomena really took off and the Internet was more accessible to everybody, porn was more accessible," Cheex says. "Everywhere you looked, anything you wanted to see, or you didn't want to see, was available. The burlesque revival was almost like a return to innocence."

• An Alaska man was celebrating turning 21 by taking a hike in his birthday suit. Police say the man was unable to give a good reason for being nude. I was unaware that "having a good reason" was a requirement for being nude.
• When Japanese megastar Tsuyoshi Kusanagi was arrested for running nude in a Tokyo park, the initial backlash was severe, but the tide of public opinion seems to be turning.

  His misfortunes have generated brisk sales of a T shirt with his most famous recent words emblazoned on them, "What's wrong with being naked?" In further good news, the police have decided not to press charges against him.