Smile! You're on Someone's Camera!

A Kansas State student seems somewhat stunned to discover nude photos online of Tufts University's Naked Quad Run participants.

Public nudity Web site Coccozella.com has posted hundreds of pictures of students participating in Tufts' 2007 Naked Quad Run (NQR), clearly exposing the faces and nude bodies of undergraduates as they dash through the residential quad.

It seems that this some people are simply not reading the Constitution of the United States, which is as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Many people argue that the Constitution implies a right to privacy, which is where the Roe v. Wade has it's foundation, but if you are in public, even running around naked, you have no right to privacy. Anyone can take your picture, post it on the Internet, and send it around the world. The Constitution does not define the word "press", but there has never been any restriction on anyone from declaring his or her self a journalist and publishing a newspaper, operating a radio or TV station, or even writing a blog. This is the era of the "citizen journalist" where basically anyone with a cell phone or camera can record events and publish photos and reports.

As information sharing becomes easier and easier, our society becomes much more aware and forgiving of activities that would once have been unforgivable transgressions. When Kennedy was President, the press knew about his sexual proclivities, but it was not reported because it would certainly have resulted in his immediate resignation. Less than four decades later, we had a President actually survive a sex scandal while still in office.

Nixon could not survive the Watergate scandal, but Reagan survived Iran-Contra, and Bush has survived through Iraq, Gitmo, torture, spygate, Katrina, and more. Bush was also elected even though he was an alcoholic and notorious frat boy party animal, and Barack Obama's past drug use has not even been an issue.

The point I am driving at is that having a nude photo of yourself on the Internet or in a magazine will soon prove to be inconsequential. Teens are sexting nude photos of themselves to each other at an epidemic rate, Facebook and MySpace are filled with sexy photos of people looking to hook up, airline security is virtually stripping down passengers with X-Ray machines, and celebrities seem to be naked wherever they can be found.

It will simply get to the point where so many people have a naked photo somewhere, that it will cease to be shocking. The sooner we get used to the fact that we all have human bodies the better.

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