Man Arrested for Being Nude at Home

Eric Williamson of Springfield, Virginia, was making coffee in his kitchen at 5:30 in the morning, when a woman walking by with her 7 year-old son looked in his window, and called the police. Why? Eric was nude.

Police have charged him with indecent exposure, because police believe he wanted to be seen by the public. "I am a loving dad. Any of my friends and anyone knows that and there is not a chance on this planet I would ever, ever, ever do anything like that to a kid," he said.

The Naturist Action Committee has Virginia's indecent exposure law details here. It would appear that in order to make a case against Mr. Williamson, prosecutors would need to prove that his exposure was "obscene" within the legal definition, and merely standing nude in one's own kitchen making coffee would not appear to meet the criteria.

This is clearly a case of poor police judgement. Instead of arresting the man, they should have told him to simply close his blinds, and politely ask the complaining woman to stop looking into other people's windows.

Unless it's revealed that the man was masturbating or shaking his genitals in the window, my guess is that the charges will be dropped. If this case proceeds it shows a new aggressiveness by authorities to clamp down on all forms of nudity, even in the privacy of one's own home, and that is simply not acceptable in a free society.

Name and Shame

Skinbook has launched a "Name and Shame" blog in order to expose the "perverts, fakers and sex pests" who try and join the social network for nudists and naturists.

This is one of the worst ideas I've ever seen. I'm not even going to provide a link.

Not only does the blog violate just about every privacy issue possible by naming names with email and physical addresses, it actually offers to remove the names and photos in exchange for an apology. That's the definition of blackmail.

Take down your Name and Shame blog, Skinbook. Screening and filtering charlatans is enough; exposing them in this manner could potentially be criminal.

The Daily Newds 4/8/09

• There were 44 videos uploaded to the World Nude Day 09 site. Click here to see them all.
• It's confirmed: Bay to Breakers will feature the usual assortment of body freedom participants.
• A tongue-in-cheek article exposes the ridiculousness behind the banning of nude sunbathing on Bird Island.

  It is a known fact that nude sunbathing is a gateway activity that leads to more serious civil breaches. For purposes of modesty, I will not dwell on the issue of visible cleavage in the workplace, but we all know it costs the nation more in lost productivity than the NCAA tournament.

• A letter to the editor in Florida claims that law enforcement is "clueless" about the law, and "completely unaware" of naturist values.
• William Saletan of Slate Magazine regrets once supporting body scanners in airports.

  Now I'm having second thoughts. I still like the technology. It's the people behind it who worry me. Yes, the scan is less invasive than the pat-down. But TSA has just demonstrated its ability and willingness to move the goalposts. When TSA offered pat-downs as the alternative to body scans in secondary screening, the scan sounded pretty good. Now TSA is offering pat-downs as the alternative to body scans in primary screening, and again, the scan sounds better. And if TSA announces tomorrow that pat-downs are the new alternative for all train or bus passengers, body scans will seem preferable there, too. Anywhere we're threatened with pat-downs, we'll settle for body scans. Where does it end?

• Sexting Roundup: Dr. Paul Rapoport writes, "If Pennsylvania wants to reduce sexting, especially in cases where there is no victim, it should not turn to the police or the courts. The keys are education about technology's relation to sexuality, and about society's body phobias and sex obsessions." A nude photo of a teen is causing a "big stir" in Glen Rock, New Jersey. Mike Galanos of CNN writes, "There is no control over that image or video once it gets out. But that doesn't mean little Suzie should be charged as a child pornographer." And the Wall Street Journal asks if the worry about teen sexting is the real epidemic.

  "Most of the mainstream media uses semi-nude models to sell us things -- so why is it surprising if teens have modeled this?" says Terry Humphreys, an assistant professor of psychology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. "I would want to see the results separated for semi-nude and nude before I get too anxious about what our teens and young adults are doing with their cellphones."

• A sculpture of a naked woman on a cross is offending the Christian establishment.
  

  Living Way Church Pastor Lanil Gunasekara was outraged by the sculpture.
  
  “It is a blasphemous insult to the image of Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross,” he said.
  
  “There is something wrong with an artist who produces something so insulting to Christians.”

• Carol Muske-Dukes recalls her stint in a French production of "Hair" in the 70s.

  Then we all rallied for the final scene before the break - the famous nude scene. I'd never taken my clothes off for this climactic moment before - now I felt the time was right. I had "laid bare" the essence of HAIR, I thought - this was a breakthrough. I stood with my fellow cast members, shivering a little in the garish lights, naked. Then the great velvet curtains closed and I turned to pick up my bell bottoms and "pull-over-aire". They had vanished. The French cast had hidden my clothes.

• The Keys chapter of South Florida Free Beaches is lobbying for a clothing optional beach.
  

  The two prime candidates for a clothing-optional beach would appear to be a portion of Higgs Beach, which is owned by the county, separated by the main beach by the West Martello Tower; and Rest Beach near the White Street Pier.
  
  Haulover Beach in North Miami drew 1.3 million visitors in 2006 and, including direct and indirect revenue and things like sales tax, generated $179 million, according to Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation Department data.

• A Calgary women has received an "avalanche" of hate mail over her stand on public breastfeeding.

  "I've been called a pedophile, I've had people threaten to perform obscene acts on me," said Gemma Kelsall, describing the messages that have been sent to her Facebook account and on the websites of various news sites that featured her story.

• And congratulations are in order to the editors of the Eureka High School in California for winning the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for taking a stand against school censorship. A nude drawing had been published in the school newspaper, prompting the principal to order the custodian to round up all the remaining copies.
  

  The law is on the side of student journalists when it comes to censorship, said (editor Drew) Ross. Right away, his publication received calls from the media, including the Student Press Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU sent the Redwood Bark legal information about their rights.
  
  Ross said the ACLU told him his paper had a very strong case against school censorship. Steffen violated a state anti-censorship law that prohibits a person from taking more than 25 papers off any newsstand, said Ross. “This is a huge crime,” said Ross. “A person could be fined or go to jail.”

The Daily Newds 12/31/08

• Lily Allen has to be the celebrity who is most comfortable with topfreedom.
• Helen Rittelmeyer has a nice appreciation of Bettie Page.

  The battle between permissiveness and modesty has become mechanical, but while the rest of us were dancing like we've danced before, Bettie Page was asking why the human body had to be treated like a totem, either of liberation or shame. She never became trapped in the sick symbiosis between exhibitionist and voyeur — one relishing the frisson of the forbidden, the other eager to subvert it, each dependent on the other. Like her, we should all give thanks that creation grants us the gifts of beauty and sex — and the wisdom to know the difference.

• University of Salford students have stripped for a fundraising calendar.
• A Wisconsin state appeals court has ruled that a person who is voluntarily nude in the presence of another still has privacy rights which protect against being secretly photographed.
• British Naturism is fighting a local council which is planning to close a nudist beach.

  "They are saying other people and families can't use the beach, but that is nonsense. It is a clothes-optional beach. We found that statement very offensive and, in particular, naturist families found it extremely offensive. We are not getting anywhere with them."

• The New South Wales government in Australia says that the call to ban topfree sunbathing will not be heeded. Labor MP Paul Gibson, a supporter of the ban, said that topless women made people "uncomfortable". "If you're on the beach do you want somebody with big knockers next to you when you're there with the kids," he said.
• Former Mrs. Paul McCartney Heather Mills is being sued by a former nanny who claims that she was forced to do "unsavory" work, such as giving a spray-paint tan to a nude Mills, and (gasp) blow-drying her hair before normal business hours.
• 130 naturists have gathered in New Zealand for their 57th annual festival. June Campbell-Tong, of Whitby, has been a passionate supporter of nudity for 45 years. "It's beautiful, it's wonderful," she said. "I can't wait to come out here it's a stress release. People can come here and forget the outside world." Here is the link to the story with uncensored video.

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

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.

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

The Weekend Newds 10/17/08

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The Holiday Newds 10/13/08

• Over half of Austrian male youths rely on pornography for their sex education. Australia basically has the same problem.
• "It's almost macabre that people are paying £4,000 a week to strip buck naked and enter a white tiled room with concentration camp bright lighting."
• More fallout from teenagers sending nude photos of themselves with their cell phones. A Virginia assistant principal was arrested on a felony charge for obtaining a photo of a female student as part of a school investigation. An editorial in the Newark Advocate states that the arrest of a 15 year-old Ohio student for sending a nude photo of herself by cell phone is overreaching and unreasonable. And a 13 year-old Texas boy was placed in juvenile detention on child pornography charges and has been suspended from school for receiving a nude photo of a female classmate. “He doesn’t know what a felony means. He doesn’t understand what pornography means,” said one parent.
• Australian police are installing a network of closed-circuit cameras around the Gold Coast to be used during the motor car race next week. Police claim that the cameras do not violate privacy laws and are designed to catch people engaging in criminal activity, and are not for focusing on women who traditionally bare their breasts from high-rise balconies.

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