The Weekend Newds 1/19/08

• Lady Godiva rides again, this time to promote a new film. [Manchester Evening News]
• A visit to a nude photo exhibit leaves a South African woman feeling uneasy.

  I decide to move past my initial awkwardness and view the anonymous breasts and buttocks as the art pieces they are intended to be. Or more for the interesting issues they might highlight about the ‘lookist’ era we’re all living in — where the female form is a highly politicised subject, and the right body measurements could make one seem like a better person. [thetimes.co.za]

• A local bar hired two topless dancers, which prompted the City Council of Grafton, North Dakota, to begin regulating strippers.

  "My problem isn't the idea of strippers, it's the negative collateral effects that come with stripping that I want to keep out of town," he (Mayor Todd Burianek) said. "It's the increased drug trafficking and immoral violations of law that have shown to coincide with strippers.
  
  "I'm not some prude who hasn't seen these things," he said. "It just feels creepy in my town." [The Jamestown Sun]

• A New Zealand photographer has had his artwork selected for a New York gallery showing.

  "In my images I challenge the view that the contemporary queer nude male is a specimen of physical perfection," he explains. [gaynz.com]

• A flasher who claimed that his penchant for exposing himself in public is the result of an obsessive compulsive disorder has escaped a prison sentence. [dailypost.co.uk]
• Dadaism meets burlesque at a new Toronto show.

  "In a traditional show, where there's a big reveal, you go to nude. With this, we start the whole thing off naked. There's still some traditional burlesque. But we've moved on." [thestar.com]

• What's more exciting than nude swimming? Doing it with a shark. [ocregister.com]
• A Massachusetts man who used faces of 14 year old campers and pasted them on images of adults engaging in sexual activity had his child pornography conviction overturned by the State Supreme Court.

  "This case really is about thought control and not about child pornography," said assistant appellate defender Theodore Lothstein, who argued the appeal before the Supreme Court last summer. "It doesn't give license to do much of anything but look at things in your own home. . . . The behavior it protects is by its nature behavior that nobody knows is happening." [nashuatelegraph.com]

• Bette Midler is beginning a two year run in Vegas.

  “I’d like to have nudes,” she says about her show, with a mischievous grin. “Not nude nudes, but a new kind of Vegas nude. A showgirl who can do a lot of things. A little bit naughty, but pretty nice all around.” [parade.com]

• The world's most famous male nude statue could be getting a new home. [chron.com]
• A Nigerian student condemns the use of nudity in worship.

  ...the nude person is treating God with contempt and abusing his mercy and grace. This is especially because the Bible reminds us that our bodies are temples of the holy spirit and that God lives in them. On the other hand, a person who goes nude is not only treating his/her self with disrespect but he/she is denying him/herself the desired dignity of the human person. [thetidenews.com]

• If you are in New York City and have an extra forty bucks, you can partake in the "Naked at the Met Scavenger Hunt" which involves searching for artwork containing nudes throughout the museum. [nytimes.com]
• A substitute teacher in Connecticut was fired for showing "The Simpsons Movie" to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. The movie has a brief glimpse of Bart's cartoon penis, as well as a scene where two male police officers share a kiss. The teacher is suing the New Haven school board. [foxnews.com]

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