Nudity Does Us All Good

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Jemima Lewis, writing in The Telegraph, makes a strong argument that nudity is not only OK, it's a necessity.

Going naked in front of your offspring is one of the duties of parenthood. Studies show – and common sense suggests – that children from households where nudity is commonplace grow up to feel more comfortable in their own skin. We need the background scenery of other people's bodies – dumpy, scrawny, dimpled or lean – in order to be reassured that our own peculiarities are normal.

Lewis' essay was prompted by some of the negative backlash against nude life drawing classes being broadcast on British television in the daytime.

The Daily Newds 4/13/09

• Organizer of the Glade festival in the UK are seeking legal advice over the request of 30 Germans who want to attend the event in the nude.


• A man sneaked into a Ball State University life drawing class and snapped a photo of a nude model, and then ran away.


• An article on the Bird Island nudist controversy approaches the subject in a fair and neutral manner, concluding that it's all basically a "non-issue" in the first place.


• At Lolo Hot Springs in Montana, it's clothing optional after 9 PM.


• The Singapore woman charged with indecent exposure for her nude public walk with a Swedish friend is a member of Mensa and is persuing a PhD in infection biology at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.


• The Bare Buns 5K run is scheduled for 1 PM on Saturday, April 18, at Star Ranch in Texas.


• "Calendar Girls" has opened in London's West End, prompting critic Michael Coveney to examine the evolution of nudity on stage.


• Nudism seems awfully tame next to some social phenomenons, like fetish parties.


• Sexting Roundup: Ohio introduced a bill to make criminals out of teenagers, while Vermont indicated that it would totally decriminalize consensual exchanges of nude photos between two people 13 to 18 years old. Warner Todd Huston of the American Daily Review says that rushing to enact new anti-sexting laws in the wake of the tragic suicide of Ohio teen Jessica Logan is bad legislation.


• I think that child beauty pageants are a bit creepy, but one legislator wants the government to oversee the events, even to the point of regulating "excessive makeup".


• Padma Lakshmi, Chelsea Handler Eliza Dushku, Lynn Collins and Sharon Leal have all posed for Allure's nude issue.
  

  ALLURE: Are you comfortable with nudity?
  ELIZA DUSHKU: "I grew up with three brothers, and I was never shy about covering up. It got to the point where my mom was like, 'OK, honey, it's time to put some clothes on now.'"



• Joe Shuster, one of the creators of "Superman", drew underground comics in the fifties which contained "naked women with whips, brutish men brandishing red-hot pokers, exotic torture and politically incorrect spankings."


• The New York Times studies the legal challenges facing communities that want to outlaw saggy pants in public.


• A British poll finds three out of four adults are willing to pose nude for 6500 pounds. Everybody has a price.


• This article is a bit satirical on the subject of topfreedom, but the point is serious.
  

  If we took away the taboo of the bare breast, it might allow us to unclench just enough that we realize that it isn’t going to kill anyone, or turn our children into depraved maniacs. Then maybe we can start focusing on things that are really critical to mankind’s enlightenment.



• Finally, nudity comes to daytime TV in Great Britain as Channel 4 is broadcasting life drawing classes featuring nude models so people can sketch from home.
  

  John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the Commons culture select committee, said that, in principle, he would not object to nude life drawing classes before 9pm if they were in an “educational context” and avoided “gratuitous titillation”.

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."

"Perceived Potential" Kills Life Drawing Class

A Life Drawing for Adults class at the State Museum in Albany, New York, has been cancelled. The artists decided to discontinue the class because a scheduling conflict would have potentially put the nude models in view of school kids, so the museum wanted to drape towels over their genitals.

(Museum education and public programs director Jeanine) Grinage doesn't have a problem with nudity personally and staff members were divided on how to address the modeling The decision to cover up private parts and eventually to cancel the program came out of a perceived potential for complaints by parents with young children.

The museum staff is not prudish, Grinage insisted. For instance, a life-like Native American diorama features bare-breasted women planting crops. Also, the Bank of America Great Art Series occasionally includes nude photographs, erotic paintings or sculptures from New York City museum collections. Those have not drawn complaints.

"We always have to keep in mind that we are a family museum," Grinage said.

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Naked Fear

A man in the UK is facing a new fear each day for a month in order to raise money for Discovery camps, which challenge teenagers to overcome fears. When Grant McNeil posed nude for a life drawing class, he rated the fear factor as being only a 4 on a scale of 10.

"I feel like I could take on the world and I think the hardest part of this challenge was staying in the same pose for 10 minutes.

"It's a real shame that I look at the photos and instead of going `oh my God I'm naked', I go, `oh my God I need to get to the gym'."

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