The Weekend Newds 5/23/09

• 89 year-old Jo Wallace remembers when fundraising was done in formal wear, but now she has posed nude for a calendar to raise money for a local women's shelter.
• Members of the Dunscar Golf Club in the UK raised £10,000 for breast cancer by selling a nude calendar.
• The nude body of a man has been found floating in the waters east of Wreck Beach in British Columbia, Canada.
• James Martin explores places to get naked in Europe.
• Nick Sortal of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel got naked for a yoga class. Instructor Ray Whetstone said, "If you can stand in front of a mirror naked 15 minutes a day and deal with the issues, you're going to be a very healthy person."
• Illinois has become the latest state to make "sexting" a crime.
• I'm not so sure I understand this story. A size 12 Cambridge student is in the finals of a modeling competition because "Studies have shown that 63 per cent of girls would rather be a topless model or lap dancer than a doctor, lawyer or teacher...I want to use this opportunity to show young girls that education is important, as someone that has prioritised my own education and worked really hard to get into Cambridge and get my degree." So...she's trying to put a stop to female objectification by posing in her bikini?
• Tom Lubbock critiques the great painting "Reclining Nude" by Jean-Francois Millet.
• A 12-year old boy in Dallas could face obscenity charges for having a nude photo on his cell phone.

  "It makes me uncomfortable to think about that," said Scott Mauro, a school counselor. "I mean, these are just little kids. I think it's just a cry for attention, just looking to give them attention."

• Time Out New York promotes the World Naked Bike Ride event through Central Park on June 20.
• I'm not so sure that this letter to Annie's Mailbox is legit.

  I looked around and saw a man in a hot tub. I assumed this was the guy, so I kept watching. Five minutes later, he got out of the hot tub and really was naked. I instantly got a headache and my eyes burned. I want to do something to prevent children from seeing him. I know he was in his own backyard, but you could see him clearly from the field. Would that count as public nudity? Do you think I should report him? — Scarred for Life

• You want to run around naked in public? Apparently all you have to do first is declare you are doing it for charity. 21 year-old Roy McGuinness was cheered on by family, friends and spectators has he rode "The Naked Bus" in Ireland to raise money for the MS Society.
• Model Amy Houlton, wearing only the paint of an artist's design, walked through downtown Toronto to promote the Canadian Bodypainting Championships.

  Amy poses next to the main doors, below huge images of CBC’s best-known presenters. Peter Mansbridge’s stern, 20-foot tall face seems to disapprove. Inside, an encounter with a school group elicits a mixed reaction. One girl dismisses it as “disgusting,” but some of the teenage boys can’t believe their luck: “Oh my God, was she naked?!”

• A poster of a toddler pretending to breastfeed her doll is eliciting both scorn and praise at a hospital in Manchester, England.
• 25 actors had to take off their clothes for 25 days during the filming of "The Girl Who Lived", the story of a young woman who survived the Auschwitz death camp during World War II.

  The volunteer cast and crew worked from 4pm to 4am to avoid work and study commitments and spent months taking part in trust exercises and workshops so the nude scenes could be filmed with ease.

• Former Albion mayor Michael Hadick, when asked about nude photos of him posted on a website, declared, "I am naked every day. It isn't a big deal."
• Guy Adams, commentator for The Independent, cannot understand America's strange morality laws.
• A Munich art exhibit celebrates 150 years of body images in photography.
• A Denver prosecutor says that a woman flashing her breasts in public is not free speech as protected by the First Amendment.

The Daily Newds 1/28/09

• Kudos to Amy Winehouse for enjoying topfree equality, and looking healthy.
• NBC has nixed a PETA Super Bowl ad for containing a "level of sexuality" which exceeded their standards, but naturally you can see it on the Internet here.
• Caliente might have lost the Lingerie Bowl, but dancers in the 43 strip clubs around the Tampa area are looking forward to big bucks from the Super Bowl. Officials say that there will be no stepped-up enforcement of the six foot rule.
• Here's a rare article supporting Facebook's banning of breastfeeding photos.

  Think about what would become of our favorite social site if Facebook started making exceptions in their policies. We don’t need a domino effect of cases defending themselves against the nudity rule.

• The Yorba Linda chapter of the Red Hat Society have jumped on the nude calendar bandwagon.

  The Red Hot Tomatoes did it, 12 photo shoots, all very discreet, and (photographer) Gordon pretended to be blind. At the end of the day, everyone had forgotten all of their nerves and their shyness, and we had laughed away the ills of the world.

• The Florida Players, a student-run theatre company, is seeking an event permit to stage a production of "Hair" with the original nude scene.

  Although the scene has been considered controversial, (director Jennifer) Shorstein described it as a beautiful and powerful moment.“It is shocking not just for the sake of being shocking, but to show that the body can be beautiful in a not sexual way,” she said.

• In conservative Singapore, a couple went on a 15 minute nude stroll in a section of the city with many nightclubs. "They looked really comfortable walking down the street, which led to many curious stares," wrote blogger Leonard Tan. "Singapore is getting more and more exciting."
• An attorney declares that the Boulder Naked Pumpkin Run is perfectly legal and that participants should not be prosecuted.

  The police had no probable cause for arrest. Boulder, unlike Colorado Springs, has no ordinance against public nudity, except within 500 feet of Coot Lake. The district attorney's office should not have charged the runners with a sex offense, and should not have used the fear of a sex offense conviction to extract pleas to an irrelevant charge. The prosecutor wisely exonerated some runners that carefully questioned whether the police reports contained probable cause for arrest. Unfortunately, the prudish police may have won the war because Boulder citizens are worried about participating in next year's run.
  
  The Pumpkin Run is a great community tradition. Running naked with elaborately carved masks is a form of artistic expression. It is a tradition far safer than Spain's Running of the Bulls, and it is more fun than a typical parade. We should make sure that the tradition continues, and we should never allow the police and prosecutors to squelch a legal form of expression enjoyed by thousands of participants and spectators.

• Catherine D'Lish holds more than 30 titles in the striptease industry, including Miss Nude USA, Showgirl of the Year, and Miss Nude International.

  "There are many people that will stand on their soapbox and sanctimoniously proclaim that the neo-burlesque performers are superior to modern strippers headlining in strip clubs and more true to the burlesque performers of the past. I have been privy to the secrets of both worlds," D'Lish says, avoiding comparisons between the two.

• Whatever happened to sex in Scandinavia?

  During the late ’70s and ’80s, as both those feminists and many of the male activist/artists represented in the Oslo exhibition moved into positions of political and cultural power in what by then had become the mainstream culture, their disinterest in or even hostility to sexual liberalism came to be the new norm. And so we end up with a renewed reassertion of state investment in its citizens’ sexual behavior, and with the concomitant efforts to ban cable channels that broadcast pornography; laws that empower the internment, without a criminal trial, of people with HIV who have unprotected sex; and that criminalize consensual sexual activity between two adults if one of them receives remuneration.

• Gersh Kuntzman was seen nude by forty people last week.
• Finally, some common sense in the sexting phenomenon where kids exchange nude photos of themselves with cell phones. The Utah House voted to reduce the penalties for those younger than 18 to a misdemeanor. It shouldn't be a crime at all, but at least this is a step in the right direction.
• Members of the indie band Black Lips had to cancel their tour and flee India after guitarist Cole Alexander stripped naked and jumped into the crowd.
• Several British rugby players have posed nude for Powerade ads "to illustrate that what players put inside their bodies and how they prepare - their InnerGear - is just as important as their sports kit."
• The economic downturn has not affected the cosmetic surgery industry, with more people than ever in the UK seeking body modifications.
• Yet another nude calendar project will raise money for Epilepsy Action.

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

The Key to a Successful Nude Calendar

Ever since the original Calendar Girls in the UK stripped off for charity, making news and having their exploits turned into a movie and a stage play, there have been countless copycats. But it turns out that a successful nude calendar should not actually have any actual nudity in order to be successful.

Queensland's Yummy Mummies Bare All calendar was successful because they presented themselves as children with toys, teddies and pigtails but covered their genitals and breasts, Dr (Pamela) Turton-Turner says in her thesis Naked Charity.

"Experience has shown that in the successful calendars the bodies must be sanitised - non-erotic, maternal, coy and covered," she said.

"That is, they are de-eroticised because they are accepted as maternal, giving and nurturing."

Dr Turton-Turner also warned potential charity calendar nudes they risk ridicule...For example, the Bare to be Different calendar, created by the elderly women of South Arm, Tasmania, to raise funds to buy red velvet curtains for their town hall was a success.

It worked because their ageing, wrinkled bodies were on show but nipples and pubes were covered humorously with tea-cups, flowers or prudent framing. They raised A$100,000.

I don't know...the women posing with "toys, teddies and pigtails" sounds a bit fetishist to me. You can't argue with success, but maybe AANR or TNS should test the waters with a real nude calender for charity and see if Dr. Turton-Turner's thesis can be proven incorrect.

Here are a bunch of recent calendars featuring nudity:

Grand National Winner Supports Nude Calendar
Jennifer Aniston's Racy New Calendar
Calendar Uncovers a Community's Spirit
Villagers Strip Off for Fundraising Card
UEA Students' Naked Calendar
Artists Strip Naked for Sexy New Calendar
Sixty 5 Roses
Brailes Naked
British Stars Get Really Naked for Charity Calendar
MCC Students Pose for a Calendar and a Good Cause
Shop Workers Strip Off for Fundraising Calendar

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

The Sunday Newds 11/30/08

• Women in Manchester, England, are getting breast enhancements at twice the rate as women in London.

  "Oh, women have massive boobs in Manchester," my 22-year-old law student cousin, Sarah, who lives just outside the city, tells me breezily. "There’s a lot of money around and it’s that Manchester look, isn’t it? Low cut tops, perma-tans, hair extensions. If you go out in town on a Saturday to places like Tiger Tiger or Circle Bar everyone is dolled up. Big breasts are just part of the look."

• Thanksgiving is celebrated at the Riverside Ranch the same as everywhere else, with the exception of clothing.
• British rugby teams are rivals on the field, as well as with their competing nude calendars.

  (Flanker Andy) Hazell said his team mates did not need much convincing to take their clothes off for charity.
  
  "It's just a bit of fun and we thought it would be good to do something like this," he said.
  
  "The boys are always willing to take their clothes off and pose around, so it seemed a logical thing to do really."

• When Suzanne G. Fullam proposed a nude calendar project to benefit a local library, she was told that it would be impossible to get a group of men to pose naked.

  A few months later, a contingent of firefighters pulled up for a photo shoot, jumped out of the truck and stripped down. Mr. (Cortland A.) Gariepy was stunned and told them to put their clothes back on until he’d set up the shot. “They were definitely the most comfortable. I saw a lot of things I didn’t want to see,” he said. Now, an image of several firefighters, including Chief Joseph Rogowski, with strategically positioned axes and hydrants graces one of the months in the newly released calendar.

• A German caregiver at a day care center allowed a small group of children to play naked in a separate room after they had repeatedly removed their clothing on their own.

  The nude frolicking of some of the children first began after the summer holidays. The fact that other children were disturbed by the lack of clothing did not put an end to the practice. Staff decided to put the nude kids in a separate room, where they could play, under supervision, in all of nature's glory. While the parents of the kids playing au naturel were informed, other parents were not. And when word got out, parents were incensed, talking about "pornography" at the day care centre.

• Parents of a Michigan teen suspended for sending a topless photo of herself to classmates are considering a lawsuit for gender discrimination because male students take photos of themselves topless all the time and are not suspended.
• The Watford Naturist Swimming Club in Great Britain is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
• Artist Melissa Sharplin has been painting nudes since she was 15 years old, and drew her inspiration from a stack of old Playboy magazines.

  "I went to fashion school and always loved fashion advertising and women's figures and trying on clothes. I have always loved the female nude", she says.
  
  "In the 70s it was about free love. It was about beauty and natural beauty."

• AP reporter Hugh Mulligan has died.

  Competing with AP colleagues in New York for choice feature assignments, Mulligan drew the short straw — a weekend in a Pennsylvania nudist colony.
  
  Oh, great," his hostess-to-be said by phone. "You'll be here in time for the square dance."
  
  Mulligan later described her as "5-feet-2 in any direction and barefoot all the way up to her harlequin sunglasses" and said the July 4 barbecue was "about the same as any other place except that people tend to stand a little further away from the fire."

• Seven students were suspended from a Michigan high school for nude cell phone photos, but any potential criminal charges are uncertain.

  Since the girl who took and sent the picture is under 18 the picture is considered child pornography, a felony, and anyone involved in having or sending the picture could face penalties that (Grand Blanc police Det. Robert) McFadden said range from seven to 20 years in prison. "Honestly I don't think we're going to send any kids to prison for 20 years, or even seven," McFadden said.

• I've said time and time again on this blog that if nudism can actually become a thriving capitalist profit cash cow, it will gain more widespread acceptance. Richard Mason, the president of the Florida Naturist Association says it's time for the state of Florida to "grow up" and create more nude beaches, which would create revenue from parking fees and help with state revenue problems. "Naturists like to be around the ocean," he said. "You put one of those beaches in Palm Beach County and it will draw a lot of people."
• Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls band ended up topless on stage after challenging the audience to donate some money to charity.

  "i made a joke from stage the other night during the collection for the danger ensemble (because steven pointed out that i looked like i was about to take my bra off). i joked that i would take my top off if someone donated $500 to the danger ensemble. and [expletive], some generously crazy person went to the club ATM and gave steven five $100 bills. so i had psycho crank up the painful techno remix of coin-operated boy and we had a topless rave (well, it wasn't much of a rave, and i was the only topless one, but we definitely all danced to flashing lights and bad techno) to end the show. i'd say the offer stands, but i think i'll tack on an extra hundred-dollar donation bounty for anyone who wants to see the topless rave again."

• Rosario Dawson is proud of her body, in part because her mother took her to nude beaches when she was young. "She'd say, 'I hate tan lines,' and off our bathing suits would go."

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

The Sunday Newds 11/23/08

• A dance concert at Macalester College in Minnesota features nudity.

  "I started with nudity as the subject matter itself rather than the effect of some other concept, because I was-and continue to be-interested in it as a social experiment," (Emily) Gastineau said. "It's been very specific to the context of Macalester, because in some places a naked dance would be totally unremarkable and in others it just wouldn't be done, but we're somewhere in the middle."

• A couple of radio hosts did their show in the nude in honor of Australian Nudist Federation's National Nude Week.
• The Chicago Tribune features two stories on nude recreation here and here.

  Some people who haven't tried nudity say, "I wouldn't want to see that person naked on the beach." I overcame that attitude. Most people are flawed, but nudists don't care what size or shape bodies come in, so the experience equalizes fat and skinny, old and young, gorgeous and not so gorgeous. Everyone's just there to have fun, to tan, to chat or to relax. Since I could forgive them their supposed flaws, I forgave myself my own. My confidence blossomed in all areas of my life. My appreciation of people for all their differences expanded.

• An Illinois man was cleared on 5 counts of creating child pornography.

  The former manager of the Discover More! Store at the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal was charged because of photos of five naked boys he took at a 2006 birthday party for his son at his home.
  
  While Shoemaker admitted in court that taking the photos was inappropriate, he denied directing the boys. He also said didn't think the six photos were lewd, just young boys displaying locker room-type behavior.
  
  The appellate court agreed, saying in its ruling "the photos ... appear to be examples of nudity without lewdness and not child pornography."

• An article in the Cape Cod Times equates nude sunbathing and streaking with public masturbation and sexual intercourse as problems being faced by local police.
• More nude calendar stories here and here.
• Body painting is part of the Taboo Naughty but Nice Sex Show, but artists and models claim it's less about sex than it is about art.

  "You're a canvas for someone's art and we get the pleasure of wearing someone's art," said the professional model.
  
  "We don't want to walk around and say, 'Hey, we're naked.' We want people to look at how well these people can do their job."

• Three nightclubs at the nudist community Cap d'Agde in France have been destroyed by fire, and investigators suspect arson resulting from mounting tensions between traditional nudists (naturists) and those who want to live a swingers lifestyle (échangistes).

  “We don’t want to put the échangiste places out of business,” said Gilles Beaumont, a naturist and regular at Cap d’Agde. “It’s true that we don’t like being mixed up with the swingers. But we respect other people and their right to behave as they please.”

• A couple is suing McDonald's because they left a cell phone with nude photos of the woman at an Arkansas restaurant, and the images ended up on the Internet.
• Lawsuits have been filed in Seattle against a school district over nude photos of cheerleaders distributed by cell phone.

  Both lawsuits, filed Monday in King County Superior Court, accuse school administrators of violating the girls' due process rights, needlessly sharing the photos with other school staff members and failing to promptly report the matter to police as possible child pornography.

• Naturist activist and attorney Allen Baylis will be lecturing at California Polytechnic State University on "Recreational Nudity - With Impunity".

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

The Weekend Newds 11/1/08

• Two Polish women have been put on trial for indecent exposure after they sunbathed topless on a Baltic Coast beach.
• The government is getting into the strip club business.
• A nude calendar hopes to raise awareness of global warming. "How do you grab somebody's attention?" asked Sigi Psimenos, Miss September. "You get a bunch of people together and have them take off their clothes." And if you're still hot, you can hire Symon Spinks of Spaulding Air Conditioning Services who is one of 12 businessmen in the UK who posed nude for a calendar supporting Cancer research. And don't forget to check out these calendar girls from Ulster.
• It is estimated that Pasco County has 12,000 "nude votes", and it is possible that the supervisor of elections will consider a clothing-optional polling place after redistricting in 2010.
• 54 percent of New Zealanders polled are in favor of nudity on designated beaches, and 29 percent think it should be allowed on all beaches.
• Sometimes nudists and army tanks co-exist on San Onofre beach.
• Women at Canada's nude Tower Beach are demanding more police presence to crack down on masturbating men.
• The recently passed anti-porn bill in Indonesia threatens to force some tribal natives to put on clothes.
• Caliente Resorts is on trial for bait-and-switch sales tactics.
• Sean Combs has released a family photo in which his two daughters are nude. It's a beautiful photo, but naturally there is plenty of fake moral outrage.
• Two photos depicting nude men won first and second place awards in the "Art for the Health of It" competition, but were denied a spot in the final display because the "subject matter was not appropriate".

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

Nordic Nudes

Since their funding was cut in half, five women from the Canadian National Biathlon Women's Team have posed nude for a fundraising calender.

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

The Daily Newds 10/22/08

• San Francisco could become the first major US city to decriminalize prostitution.


• If you are in New Zealand this weekend, the Southern Naturally club is having an open house. If not, perhaps South Africa's naturist resorts are on your itinerary.


• Is Naked News pornographic?
  
  

  A visit to NakedNews.com, with its amateur audition videos and soft-core picture galleries, does nothing to discourage critics who dismiss it as porn. But watch a broadcast and it’s a different story. There are no bump ’n’ grind theatrics. The anchors simply disrobe, read the news and call it a day.



• Model Sophie Anderton has overcome cocaine addiction and bankruptcy, and is reported to be happier naked than in clothes.


• A billboard in Australia promoting an art gallery show "The Naked and the Nude" will not be taken down despite complaints that it features a painting of a naked woman with a breast and nipple exposed.


• The naked man found stuck in a chimney was definitely not Santa.


• Participants in the Put Your Best Breast Forward fundraising calendar were shy at first.
  
  
  

  "We were all co-workers [at a photography company]," said John, aka Miss July. "And when you work together you don't necessarily walk around topless all the time." At first, John and her friends were embarrassed. "But then, after the shoot was over, the ladies just sat around with their tops off. It was very empowering."



• Gok Wan is presenting a 6 part series on the BBC entitles "Miss Naked Beauty 2008".


• More than 10% of the population in the village of Clawddnewydd in North Wales have posed semi-nude for a fundraising calendar.
• Here are five simple things you can do each day to maintain your sanity.
• Actress Gwyneth Paltrow says that she has never had a problem with being nude on film.

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

The Weekend Newds 10/17/08

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Sunday Newds 10/12/08

• A little too much wine helped a group of tradesmen decide to go nude for a fundraising calendar.
• An interview with a Raelian guide reveals plans for "an enormous topless event" next year.
• A Catholic writer equates nudity with the fall of civilization. I'm all in favor of a serious discussion on nudity and shame, but when the foundation of an argument rests upon the Adam and Eve fairy tale, it's hard to rebut fiction.
• A girl is shocked to discover that her friend is a naturist.

  It’s one thing to get together with a group of like-minded people who want to change the world, or learn Spanish, or gossip about Brangelina. But naturists are united by nothing more than the fact that they have bodies. Once they’ve gotten nekkid and walked about a bit, what else is there to do? You’re not even supposed to be judging anyone’s looks.

• A mother discovers that her 16 year-old daughter is sending nude photos of herself to a classmate, and seeks advice from a parenting expert.

  For all you know, this is something all the girls are doing. That doesn't mean it's OK. (If that's the case, it's something you need to brainstorm with other parents about it.) But you need need a way into her thinking and you are more likely to get that with genuine concern and interest than with angry, punitive responses.

• A New York Times fashion writer notes that seeing naked people is just part of his job.
• The curator of an art exhibit called "Naked" has refused to close down the show in light of some complaints, and has been backed up by the museum's trustees.
• A writer argues that our current definition of "beauty" needs a lot of work.
• Britney Spears gets naked in her new video "Womanizer".
• The Kaiser Chiefs don't appreciate it when members of their audience get naked.
• Artist John McKaig is asked about the pros and cons of being a nudist.

  Americans seem to have a particular problem in this area. We seem to be ashamed of, and at the same time, intensively interested in the human body and sexuality. It’s this strange combination of Victorian era mentality coupled with daily use of internet porn.
  
  The problem with porn, I think, is that it “de-contextualizes” the human body. It over-emphasizes one aspect of the human body, and does so in way that even doesn’t require nudity, but implies that it is. It also turns something that is inherently beautiful and wholesome (sex) and turns it into something that is forbidden and sleazy.
  
  There are, as you may know, many areas of the world that do not have this contradictory attitude towards the human body, and consequently these other countries don’t have the problems that Americans have with body/self esteem issues (especially in girls or young women), and don’t have the same problem with sexual crimes and disjointed attitudes (mostly by men) concerning what is proper behavior in a sexual relationship, etc.
  
  I also think that this relates to the many men’s extreme homophobia – They have this reinforced, disjointed view of what is expected of their role in a sexual context, and of what the body is “used” for, that when they are confronted with someone who does not fit this stereotype, they overreact.
  
  The overemphasis on hiding the body has, in many ways, resulted in more problems related to people’s attitude towards the body. If it was a matter-of-fact situation to see someone nude in a park or a beach or at home, than the depiction of the human body wouldn’t be “used” in ways that de-contextualize the actual beauty and wholesomeness of the body.

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