The Weekend Newds 9/22/07

• Isn't It Ironic: The PETA ad featuring a nude Alicia Silverstone has been banned in Houston, while at the same time ex-porn star Jenna Jameson was given a V.I.P. tour of Washington D.C., including a visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital to visit wounded soldiers.
• The Naked Portrait: A UK art gallery is featuring an exhibition of 15 nudes by many artists including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Pierre Bonnard, Helen Chadwick, Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Robert Mapplethorpe, Alice Neel, Eduardo Paolozzi, Marc Quinn, Auguste Rodin, Jo Spence, Wolfgang Tillmans, Alfred Stieglitz and Sam Taylor-Wood.

  ...naked portraiture engages with the specific identity of an individual sitter and subverts portraiture’s usual concern with the social façade, and the way status and self-image are communicated by what people wear.

• The Sword is Mightier than the Pen: In India, a dealer has been arrested for selling "obscene material".

  “They are called projector lighters and projector pens. One can use them as lighters and pens. But at the bottom of the lighter there is a lens which projects the image of a nude woman on a wall or paper when its button is pressed,” said police commissioner D N Jadhav.

• Down Under(wear): Two Australian female college students apologized in court for streaking during a soccer match.

  "We kept our underwear on and we were considering the kids and people around so we didn't go totally nude."

• Exposing Horrors: Guatemala's Regina José Galindo uses her naked body to protest the systematic violence towards women in her country.

  Galindo has over time shown herself naked while being pummelled by a high-pressure hose, drawn blood by biting her nails, and whipped herself the same number of times – well into the hundreds – as women have been murdered in her country.

• Sweden Topfreedom: Two young women who were banned from swimming topfree in an Uppsala pool have taken their case to the Equal Opportunity Ombudsman.

  ...they saw no reason for men an women to be treated differently. If anything, a bikini top could be accused of drawing unnecessary attention to a woman's breasts. "It's a question of equality. I think it's a problem that women are sexualized in this way. If women are forced to wear a top, shouldn't men also have to?"

• So Long to Sandals: Wisconsin Dells School District Administrator Chuck Whitsell is cracking down on t-shirts and sandals for teachers and support staff.

  He described how he first thought one of the district's bus drivers was topless until he took a closer look and realized she was wearing a tank top. It was the type of dress the district is trying to avoid in the classrooms, he said.

• Library Larceny: A woman in Maine was so upset by depictions of normal human sexuality in an acclaimed sex education book published 14 years ago, that she decided not to return the books to the library.

  "Since I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and the sexually graphic, amoral abnormal contents, I will not be returning the books," JoAn Karkos wrote the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last month.

• Nudists Nabbed: Police in Provincetown are coming under criticism for using sneaky tactics to fine people for nude sunbathing.

  "It was crossing the line as far as I am concerned," said Susie Maguire, a summer visitor. Maguire said she and a friend were walking up South Pamet Road in Truro on July 27, fully dressed, when a young park ranger drove up in his truck. “He got out, walked down to us and as he was walking said, ‘You two just hold it right there. I’m giving you a ticket for public nudity.’”

• Indecent Exposure: A professor explores the complexities of English law.
• Not a Polish Joke: A women's political party in Poland has launched their campaign with a nude poster of themselves.

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