nudity is a crime, part 2

Appenzell clamps down on nudist hikers.

nudity is a crime

Man arrested for nudity in Iowa

Naked wizard tasered at Coachella (Yes, tasered. Video NSFW.)

WTF?

doctor who nude episode?

Yes, it’s a spoof, but might be interesting, if someone other than Davies were in charge. (Yes, I know he’s done some good stories, but he’s also put out a lot of stinkers, and I’m still pissed about what he did with Rose and with Donna.)

nudist comedy group

Nudist comedy group makes N.Y. debut:

But the show doesn’t aim just for cheap laughs. It exposes the universal feelings of insecurity and our society’s uncomfortable attitude toward the nude body, Ofiesh said. Many of the comedians’ jokes center around social attitudes toward nudity and body image. Often, the comedians encourage audience participation in the nude — the shows are always clothing-optional.

I wonder if they’ll ever make it to the Midwest?

amazonfail

Early this week, a Twitter-based outburst arose over what appeared to be a systematic effort by Amazon.com to censor gay and lesbian books. The company insists it was a “glitch” or the result of “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error.” What appears to have happened is that books categorized with the terms gay, lesbian, etc. lost their sales rank data, and would not show up in searches. They were flagged as “adult,” and apparently Amazon.com has a policy of keeping “adult” themed items from showing up in their searches, presumably to protect the children and the self-righteous from being aware of sex.

The articles linked above provide a pretty good overview of the situation – so please check them out to get a better sense of the story than I can provide here.

This isn’t necessarily a naturist issue, but it could become one if they decide that simple nudity is enough to make a book potentially offensive – which is not currently the case. Presumably they’ll be more careful now that they know everyone is watching them.

I’m inclined to give the company the benefit of the doubt, and to assume that it was a careless mistake rather than a corporate decision to prevent certain books from showing up in search results.

Your thoughts?

nudity in prime-time

Definitely not going to happen in America for a while, but:

This summer, [Britain's] Channel 4 will broadcast a new series before the watershed featuring nude models. The show, provisionally titled Life Class: Today’s Nude, hopes to promote a return to elementary skills of drawing and painting, and spark a revival of more traditional, figurative art.

An artist named Alan Kane came up with the idea for the show, and apparently the TV folks had no problems with it: “Because it is educational and non-sexualised nudity, Channel 4 didn’t have any concerns with it at all.”

airport scans update

Just found a piece by William Saletan on Slate.com where he does a really good job expressing the concern I feel over the new airport scanning technology.

You’ll need to read the whole thing to get the context, but a couple of key points:

Initially, Saletan endorsed the technology, largely because it was less invasive than a pat-down and because faces and private parts would be obscured in the images. He writes:

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?

AND:

The TSA is no longer talking about a “privacy algorithm” that obscures faces and genitals. The obscured areas (the genitals specifically, since the face is typically readily visible) provide “gaps” where terrorists could hide things from the scans. In fact, according to the TSA, this has already happened. Saletan writes:

In other words, any detail omitted by airport screeners—a blurred crotch in the body scan, an untouched groin during the pat-down—becomes a “gap” exploited by terrorists or testers, which must then be closed.

“The enhanced pat-down will be used only after all other screening methods have been used and the alarm remains unresolved,” TSA promised last year. It added: “This new procedure will affect a very small percentage of travelers.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what you said about the body scans. Just put on the gloves and get it over with.

I find myself feeling pretty conflicted about this. Again, I don’t object to the body scans per se. But I’m concerned about the sort of presumption of guilt that is implied and the invasion of personal “space.”

nudity at the airport

A couple of years back, I remember hearing about a new type of scanner that was being planned for use in some airports, and which would use “backscatter x-rays” to penetrate clothing and, essentially, allow security personnel to view the naked bodies of airline passengers. (I wrote a brief post about it at my other blog.)

Now, it turns out that those tests were so successful, that “the Transportation Security Administration plans to replace the walk-through metal detectors at airport checkpoints with whole-body imaging machines — the kind that provide an image of the naked body.”

nudity illegal in north carolina

Does anyone know if that assertion is true? Some local authorities are making this claim after a physician complained about seeing nude sunbathers at Bird Island.

The second most irritating part of this story, to me, is the statement that “officials are trying to stop sunbathers from flaunting it all on Bird Island.” This phrasing implies that nudists are exhibitionists, and that their is some sort of intentional exposure, akin to flashing or streaking, going on.

I wish people would pay attention and realize that naturism is not about being seen nude, nor about seeing others nude. It is about being nude, without pride and without shame, but with simple acceptance. Why, why WHY do people insist on not understanding this fact?!

GRR….

psychology of nudity

Kima writes:

if you can stand naked before your companions, your mentors, jurors and strangers alike, then you are free.  If I can be completely unashamed of my physical self; mark, realize, and celebrate every inch of my body publicly and without fear of what others will see–of what I will see–then how should I be afraid of my soul?