School Principal Defends Naked Student Farm Video

A group of high school students made a video for a "cabaret night" featuring "two bound and gagged naked women, a nude woman lying bareback on a horse and a half-naked man in a pig pen."

The school principal defended the video, saying "There's nothing wrong with being naked. That's still allowed... These nights are a way for the students to poke fun at themselves and be creative. I think the film is rather nice, actually. No-one is drunk; there is no alcohol, no drugs. It's just a bunch of naked kids having fun."

Now you would think that this story was some sort of satirical spoof, that no high school principal would dare to defend such student nudity. It's no joke, but it didn't happen in the United States, it happened in Sweden.

Had this happened in the United States, the students would have been suspended or even expelled, been subject to arrest for producing pornography, and perhaps even be put on a sex offender list. Outraged parents would be calling for the dismissal of the principal as well as other teachers who were involved in the scandal. No doubt the 24 hour news cycle would be all over the story, and Dr. Phil would be knocking on all of their doors.

I think it's a much happier world when society is more accepting of "a bunch of naked kids having fun."

Actress Malin Akerman Says Nudity is Natural

In an interview published today, actress Malin Akerman ("Couples Retreat", "The Heartbreak Kid") credits her upbringing with her relaxed attitude about nudity.

Q. You've done a few nude scenes in movies and television. Is it your Swedish
background that makes you so comfortable with nudity?

A. I would imagine so. In Sweden, nudity is natural. It's not considered sexual. We've grown up with boobies on television. People are topless on the beach. My parents would sometimes walk naked from the bedroom to the bathroom. You don't blink because it's so natural. I always think of my parents when I take a role. If I had been brought up in a prudish household, perhaps I would think differently. But, if the role is a good one, the nudity is not even an afterthought.

They Don't Get It

Swedish news is reporting that even though women gained the right to bathe topfree in Malmö's public pools, "bare-breasted female bathers have remained conspicuous by their absence."

To any topfreedom advocate, this is not surprising. It's never been about getting all women to take their tops off, it's about discrimination. No woman should ever be prohibited to go topfree as long as men have the right to take their shirts off in public.

Just because people do not always exercise their civil rights doesn't mean that those rights should be taken away. There are many women, and men, who will not take their shirts off in public for a variety of reasons, but knowing that the freedom exists is enough.

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• Swedish city legalizes topless bathing....at public swimming pools (inquisitr.com)
• Yay Sweden! Swedish Women Won Rights to Bathe Topless (neatorama.com)

The Daily Newds 2/12/09

• The Texas state comptroller's office has collected $11.2 million in strip club "pole tax" fees even though the action was ruled unconstitutional nearly a year ago.
• A woman hooks up with an old high school friend and discovers that Joyce and her husband live in a Florida nudist resort.

  Our friends preferred the au naturel life and appeared content. Joyce and Ivan had sampled the nudist life before relocating, after their children entered college.
  
  They seldom left the enclave except for shopping, appointments, travel or entertainment outings. They lived among their social circle and described their lives as comfortable and free. Only visits from their non-nudist extended families sometimes proved awkward for the visitors.
  
  I puzzle over their extraordinary lifestyle, but harbor no interest in living it. Maybe I'm too vain. I prefer to keep my faults under wraps.

• 400 participants are expected at Sunspot Gardens Family Naturist Resort's 21st Mid-Winter Festival.

  It's not all fun and games, though. Plenty of the world narrows its eyes at naturists, and naturists know this.
  
  A session called "Telling Friends & Family" allows nudists to talk about what it's been like telling friends and family they prefer to go unclad. "The Politics of Children & Naturism" discusses the challenges to children's participation in naturism: naturist youth camps, home nudity, photography of children, child protective services, and adults-only sites and events.

• Is South Korea about to have its first nude beach?

  Jeju provincial government will firstly examine whether the measure would entail any legal problems, and then install necessary facilities for nude sunbathing, including changing rooms, on beaches favored by foreigners. Potential nude beaches include Jungmun Beach, which is connected to luxury hotels in the Jungmun Tourist Resort Complex, and Hamdeok Beach, which is the most popular among vacationers.

• It's being billed as a Naked Wedding by the radio station which sponsored the stunt, but the bride will be concealed by a bouquet of 250 roses.
• Nude Sushi is coming to Baltimore.

  "It's a 400-year old Japanese concept,” said Michael Evitts of the Downtown Partnership, “It's worked well in world-class cities like Los Angeles and New York and Las Vegas.
  
  "I have no problem against it,” added City Councilman Bill Coles on the proposed addition to his district, “It doesn't violate any great moral problem I have."

• Chuck the Naked Saxophone Player is one of many participants in the XOXO Third Annual All-Mediums Nude Art Show in San Francisco.
• Apparently the only reason Julia Louis-Dreyfus has not done a nude scene is because nobody ever asked.
• The Buckeye Naturists recent clothes-free audience adventure got a mention in The Columbus Dispatch.
• Are makeover reality TV shows just cruel entertainment?

  Nudity is completely over-exposed. Flip around the TV channels (preferably not while you are eating) and you'll happen upon TV shows with the word 'naked' in them, or with lots of naked people in them; Miss Naked Beauty, How To look Good Naked, Dawn Gets Naked, The Great British Body, Naked Office.

• Even though they were off-duty at the time, nine Swedish police officers were reassigned to desk duty after they posed for nude photos at a cabin party.
• Internet users in China are dressing up classical nude images to protest the government's crackdown on "vulgar" online content.
• The sponsor of a Long Beach art exhibition ordered two abstract paintings to be removed because "some viewers might find the depiction of breasts offensive."
• Parents of junior high school students in Wisconsin are upset about the school screening of "Beowulf" which includes the animated nude image of Angelina Jolie.
• Mia Fineman wonders why Spencer Tunick doesn't get more respect from major art critics.

  The problem with Tunick as an artist—and the main reason, I think, most critics have ignored him—is that he doesn't seem to have anything to say. His installations are spectacular and attention-grabbing, but as for what it all means … well, to put it bluntly, I don't think it extends too far beyond, "Wow. That's a lot of naked people."

The Daily Newds 1/10/09

• In Belmont, California, it's illegal to smoke a cigarette in your own home. Dave Warden, the former councilman who supported the ordinance, explains his position:
  

  "You can't walk around naked in your house with the blinds open, or you'll get arrested. You can't shoot a gun in your house, can't do drugs in your house, can't play loud music in your house and bother your neighbors. It's illegal."

• Massachusetts at long last has passed a breastfeeding bill, with God being the only dissenter.
  

  Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill into law yesterday protecting nursing mothers from harassment, discrimination and prosecution for breast feeding in public. The only exception is in a church or place of worship.

• An Australian man has been placed on a sex offenders list for several instances of indecent exposure "for the protection of the public", even though there is no evidence of any sexual activity associated with his behavior.
  

  Sheriff Michael Fletcher said: “I don’t have much room for manoeuvre. The offence itself was a very strange one but not particularly serious in itself.”

• UK artist Edi Richter was given two years probation, ordered to attend a sexual offenders treatment program, required to register as a sex offender for five years, and was banned from working with children for possessing 39 "indecent" images of children out of a collection of 60,000 pictures he downloaded from the Internet. I can't find the original news story on this man, but my recollection is that the photos were originally described to be from naturist web sites.
• "Welcome to Topless Town" is the title of an editorial in the Bangor Daily News. Does anyone really believe that incessant publicity about the topless coffee shop in Maine will lessen the impact? The owner of the shop should start selling shares.
• The North County Times has a profile of Kelli Roman, the mother who started the Facebook protest.
  

  Roman said she feels that seeing pictures of breast-feeding is not detrimental to kids, as opposed to viewing nudity that is sexual in nature."Children need to see women breast-feeding," she said. "They need to see that breasts aren't for sex or to sell you things ---- especially the boys ---- but they're for nurturing and feeding your children."

• Kanye West wants to pose nude.
  

  "I definitely feel, like, in the next however many years, if I work out for two months, that I'll pose naked. I break every rule and mentality of hip-hop, of black culture, of American culture."

• The state of North Dakota is looking for new ways to make criminals out of women who take their clothes off for a living.
• More support here for the mothers protesting Facebook.
  

  The bigger issue of course is Net censorship. Trying to define obscenity is like trying to drive a nail through a bar of wet soap while wearing roller skates. Nobody wants Facebook to turn into a porn palace (except maybe the porn industry) but why it's picking on lactating moms is a complete mystery. If watching a suckling babe in arms gets you all warm and wiggly, you have bigger problems.

• Tam Leach describes her nude sauna experience in Sweden.
  

  Nakedness is not enforced but is expected; five minutes in and sitting around starkers seems almost comfortable. Fifteen minutes of heat and it's time. Warmed to the core but still not convinced, I step outside, gingerly, keeping hold of the banister. The impetus to submerge comes when I glance to the left, and realise that the steps from the men's side of the bathing house are within view. Quite detailed view, in fact. I'm naked, the old Swedish bloke over there is naked, and suddenly the water looks far more inviting.

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