The Naturism of Rising Sun Farm in River Falls, Wisconsin

Heavy Table has a wonderful profile here.

Emily’s working half-naked; Christopher’s working naked; Roger’s working naked. A small pang of panic wells-up in my gut — brought on only by me — and I realize that if I don’t lose the denim now, I never will. It’s similar to the feeling of jumping off a cliff with your buddies: You walk to the top, watch them jump into the water, and consider whether it would be less… frightening to just walk back down the rocks. It’s either that or leap.

Taking off my jeans and Jockeys can at first be described by about 1,000 different words, among them: scary, liberating, strange, natural, different, fun. Not that any of those present really cared to know or label the adjective of my experience. I realized then, that at Rising Sun, it’s not about the parsing of clothes that matters, it’s the stripping of judgment.

The Daily Newds 2/23/09

• The nudism movement is growing and gaining in acceptance in Chile, and there might soon be an official nude beach.


• Model Sara Stockbridge once did the catwalk in the nude.
  

  "I've never had a problem with my body. I went down the catwalk naked once. There was an encore and I'd already gone off and started taking all my clothes off and I was naked, and they were like, come on, come on, there's an encore', and so I ran back on in just boots with nothing on. I have no problem with being naked. There are much more scary things than being naked. Like singing karaoke."



• Wisconsin is about to become the 42nd state to bar anyone from interfering with breastfeeding mothers in public.


• Andy Golub takes bodypainting to a new level.


• A 60 year-old man is the oldest nude artists' model in Changsha, China, and is paid much more than a local migrant worker.


• Two artists have removed all their works from a Modesto art gallery when a couple of their nude studies were taken down because a "couple of visitors voiced objections to gallery staff members."


• This news article states when two female NYU students removed their shirts during a takeover of a campus cafeteria, it "raised the protest to yet another level", and the school will be evicting some of the protesters from their university housing.


• Beth Ditto's nude photo on the cover of Love Magazine is seen as a "stand against bland perfection in fashion."


• Are sexting teens "the new pornographers"?


• Can nude art modeling be a little "dirty"?
  

  (Kathleen Rooney) argues for modeling's legitimacy over lunch with her Catholic mother, trying to explain "that, despite the popular past association of art models with depravity, in the twentieth century, it actually became kind of glamorous." (Her mother's response? "It doesn't sound glamorous, Kathy, it sounds dirty.")
  
  Her mother is right. Despite its pretensions, it is kind of dirty, and Rooney is frank about the psychosexual kicks. "There is," she notes, "a subtle perversion at work -- this combination of my naked vulnerability with the impossibility of my actually being touched -- that makes me love modeling so much."



• A new study shows that men view half-naked women as objects.

The Daily Newds 12/31/08

• Lily Allen has to be the celebrity who is most comfortable with topfreedom.
• Helen Rittelmeyer has a nice appreciation of Bettie Page.

  The battle between permissiveness and modesty has become mechanical, but while the rest of us were dancing like we've danced before, Bettie Page was asking why the human body had to be treated like a totem, either of liberation or shame. She never became trapped in the sick symbiosis between exhibitionist and voyeur — one relishing the frisson of the forbidden, the other eager to subvert it, each dependent on the other. Like her, we should all give thanks that creation grants us the gifts of beauty and sex — and the wisdom to know the difference.

• University of Salford students have stripped for a fundraising calendar.
• A Wisconsin state appeals court has ruled that a person who is voluntarily nude in the presence of another still has privacy rights which protect against being secretly photographed.
• British Naturism is fighting a local council which is planning to close a nudist beach.

  "They are saying other people and families can't use the beach, but that is nonsense. It is a clothes-optional beach. We found that statement very offensive and, in particular, naturist families found it extremely offensive. We are not getting anywhere with them."

• The New South Wales government in Australia says that the call to ban topfree sunbathing will not be heeded. Labor MP Paul Gibson, a supporter of the ban, said that topless women made people "uncomfortable". "If you're on the beach do you want somebody with big knockers next to you when you're there with the kids," he said.
• Former Mrs. Paul McCartney Heather Mills is being sued by a former nanny who claims that she was forced to do "unsavory" work, such as giving a spray-paint tan to a nude Mills, and (gasp) blow-drying her hair before normal business hours.
• 130 naturists have gathered in New Zealand for their 57th annual festival. June Campbell-Tong, of Whitby, has been a passionate supporter of nudity for 45 years. "It's beautiful, it's wonderful," she said. "I can't wait to come out here it's a stress release. People can come here and forget the outside world." Here is the link to the story with uncensored video.

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

The Daily Newds 12/8/08

• MSNBC lists the best places to get naked.
• One of Britain's first nudist beaches is in danger because of coastal erosion.
• Pinup icon Bettie Page is reported to be in a coma due to suffering a heart attack. Page is 85. Click here for the official Bettie Page web site.
• A letter to the editor in Flint Michigan says that the 14 year-old girl who took a topless photo of herself with her cellphone is "immoral and disgraceful" and deserves her suspension and other consequences.
• Eat naked...eat green? Click here for uncensored video.
• Kate Beckinsale had to beat up a bunch of friends when she was 10 because of taunting over her mother's televised striptease.
• Kate Winslet believes in realism when it comes to her on-screen nude scenes. "It was important to me to look real. I really don't believe in this notion that actors and actresses should look untouchably perfect."
• Parents of a Wisconsin teen are furious that their 16 year-old daughter was kicked off the cheerleading squad over a nude photo. "And to me, it's outrageous that a government would come in and attempt to punish my daughter or myself for activities -- legal activities -- that we do in our own home," said (the girl's father Ed) Nielsen.

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

The Daily Newds 12/1/08

• Another article on the "Bare Men of Barre" calendar has a priceless quote:

  (Suzanne) Fullam said she has been asked repeatedly if she will produce an all-female calendar next year, but she doesn't think so.
  
  "Women want to have their hair done, get their makeup," she said.
  
  "Men just take off their pants."

• UK television viewers were apparently shocked to discover that fans shout obscenities in the stands, and soccer players are naked in the locker room. The network was forced to make two apologies for broadcasting the incidents.
• Dr. Sketchy's "anti-art school" sessions use fetish enthusiasts as models in an attempt to restore art's bohemian roots.

  With that goal, Dr Sketchy's encourages drink-drawing, raucous art competitions, rude jokes, and flamboyant behavior. Most important to the concept are the models, described by Crabapple as "sideshow freaks, rocker chicks, Derby girls, fetish models."
  
  "At Dr Sketchy's, everyone's a serious artist but it's a way of engaging in a fantasy, a version of what being an artist was about," Crabapple said.

• Paul Sunstone asks "Why Bother to Promote a Healthy Attitude Towards Nudity?"

  Of course, I’m not of the opinion that nudity should be forced on anyone, or that everyone should go nude. Some people — for whatever reasons — have no use for it and should not feel obligated to indulge in it. Yet, despite that, it seems worthwhile to combat the notion nudity is unhealthy, immoral, or dangerous. After all, is there any sane reason a significant portion of society should live in fear of seeing Janet Jackson’s nipple?

• The Naked Clown meets The Naked Cowboy in Times Square, and the world does not end.
• The New Burlesque hits Milwaukee, but don't call the women "strippers" because it's all about the art of the tease, and they don't get naked.

  It's attracting all types of women."Age doesn't matter, size doesn't matter, what you do at home doesn't matter," DeVianti says.
  
  Kai de Vicious is the newest Alley Cat. She's also a mom!
  
  "It brings real women, real women representing real women," de Vicious said.
  
  "It's all about being comfortable with who you are, and being ok with that," Valentine said.

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

"No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy"

That's the contention of the defendant, Mark Jahnke, accused of videotaping his girlfriend in the nude, in a case brought before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

"It is unreasonable and impossible for an individual to walk around nude in front of another person and claim an expectation of privacy with respect to that person," Jahnke's attorneys argue in a brief to the court.

The state Department of Justice counters that shared intimacy is not an invitation to roll the tape.

It seems unlikely that the court will overturn the conviction. Intimacy, even involving full nudity, is not a licence to take photos or video without consent. The ultimate issue here is defining what is, or is not, a reasonable expectation of privacy. As technology leaps forward, and there are cameras in every hand, in every home, on every street corner, and even in the sky, that definition will change.

Does the choice to fly on the nation's airlines bring with it a reasonable expectation of privacy? The government will soon say no as it continues to add full body-scanning machines which graphically strip away the clothing of all passengers.

Have you used the Google Street View feature of its maps? I found my house in seconds, and when I rotated the image to show the other side of the street, there was a picture of my neighbor sitting on his front porch.

People will eventually come to the realization that privacy is becoming a thing of the past.

UPDATE: Here's a good essay entitled "The New Privacy".

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

The Daily Newds 1/17/08

• A Vietnamese artist has won two gold medals at Japan's International Asahi Shimbun photo contest, both for nudes. Quoc Dinh ignored the advice from other photographers who advised him not to focus on nudes because it was a "sensitive" subject matter. [Vietnam.net]
• A junior high school soccer coach in Japan who made students run laps in the nude has committed suicide. [myfoxstl.com]
• One of the top ten Miami activities is to take it all off on Haulover Beach. [southbeach-usa.com]
• Nude artists' models in Italy are protesting poor wages by putting their clothes back on. [Yahoo! News]
• Sienna Miller has won a court case against a photographer who distributed nude photos of her taken on a movie set. [Yahoo! News]
• A Wisconsin town with no adult businesses has joined the long list of jurisdictions to pass an anti-nudity ordinance as a preventive measure. [postcrescent.com]
• A senior at James Madison University explores the art of the nude female form in different cultures.

  “In the contemporary college setting, I think we’re constantly bombarded with marketing which uses the body and sex to advertise objects which are completely unrelated,” Stewart said. “So I became interested in how past cultures used the female body in visual media, and to what ends.” [The Breeze]

• A Florida teen could face felony child pornography charges over nude photos of juveniles found on a MySpace page. [firstcoastnews.com]
• No longer "Banned in Boston", full male nudity takes the stage in three productions at the Boston Center for the Arts. [bostonherald.com]
• A Vancouver Federal Court judge has ruled that Canada Post cannot refuse delivery of a Sex Party pamphlet even though it contains an image of an erect penis. [xtra.ca]

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