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.

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