CULTURE

   FALL 2003

Research: Teens victimized in police Explorers program

At least a dozen teenagers assigned to work with police departments as part of the Boy Scouts’ Law Enforcement Explorers program have allegedly been sexually abused by officers during the past year. In the past five years, such molestations number at least 25, according to criminologists’ research being released Wednesday.

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TV Guide looks at what turns us off
TV Violence More Offensive than Sex, Viewers Say
By Terry Phillips
A survey in this week’s TV Guide indicates the old cliche “make love not war,” is where American television viewers are these days. Pollsters measured what’s “most offensive,” and the results show that sex and nudity aren’t close to the top spot. People were given four categories to chose from as to what was “most offensive” on TV. After violence, came references to “bodily functions.” “Foul language” was third...and, finally, “nudity and sexual innuendo.” As a matter of fact, only six out of 100 viewers thought “nudity or sexual innuendo” was the most offensive part of a night in front of the tube.

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Airline Ad with Breasts Ruled Not Offensive
The body set up to monitor advertising in Britain on Wednesday said it had rejected complaints about billboards showing a woman’s breasts and sporting the slogan “Discover Weapons of Mass Distraction” in order to advertise a cheap airline.

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Topless 3-year-old makes waves at pool
By Jack Kresnak
It may be all right for girls to bathe topless in pools in, say, Brazil, but don’t try going topless at a water park in Detroit ­ even if you’re only 3 years old.

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   Spring-Summer 2003

Is there a direct link between nudity and crime?
Hillsborough County to ban public nudity in an effort to curb sex and violence
Don’t you hate it when you go outside in the morning to get your newspaper see and three or four nude people walk by? Doesn’t it drive you crazy when you’re driving to work and everywhere you look there are nude people: driving their cars, crossing the street, walking their dogs... it’s time somebody took a stand against all the rampant public nudity that plagues our community.
Where I live this is not a joke. There are people in Hillsborough County that see nudity everywhere, and have a huge problem with it.
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Everyone but Palm Springs excited about naked bridge
Laissez-faire locals already used to span
By Darrell Smith
The Desert Sun
February 13th, 2003
Palm Springs
The people are the city, Palm Springs’ motto goes.
Some of them just happen to be naked.
Folks from Los Angeles to London have had their fun with the so-called “naked bridge,” the span connecting the clothing-optional Desert Shadows Inn on Chaparral Road with its newly built condominiums across Indian Canyon Drive.
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Why can’t we live in Enlightened Topless Europe?
From “The Onion”
Week of March 7, 2003
I realize that speaking out in favor of Europe is not a wise thing to do these days, but I must give credit where credit is due. My tour of Europe last summer opened my eyes to a rich culture where people place a premium on conversations about philosophy and ideas rather than last night’s episode of Friends. Food is prepared and savored, not popped in the microwave and inhaled. And women are free to expose their breasts, not forced to hide them behind layers of constricting fabric. Why, oh, why, can’t we live in enlightened topless Europe?
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Book Review:
The Nudist Idea by Cec Cinder
From “The Onion”
Week of March 7, 2003
To some, the prospect of reading a 678-page book on nudism may seem somewhat daunting.Equally off-putting may be the chapter and section headings, such as: Naturheilbewegung (Allopathy vs. Naturopathy. Heart disease, cancer and the vis medicatrix naturae) and Jugendbewegung (Hitler Jugend. Nudists and Nazis.
Those who would let such preliminary impressions prevent them from buying this book are missing a real treat.
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Book Review:
Nakedness and the Bible by Paul M. Bowman
More than two decades ago, Paul Bowman was told of some wonderful hot springs in Idaho. When they arrived, Paul found the natural hot pools already occupied, by about 50 people, almost all of them quite naked. Yet, this scene was no orgy. This was no den of iniquity. This new Eden was just too compelling for him not to re-examine his thinking. But Paul did not become a naturist immediately.
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   Winter 2002-2003

Back-to-Nature Movement on Rise in US
By Dan Leeth
Pittsburg Post-Gazette, July 7, 2002
As I plodded through the fiery desert outside Tucson, Arizona, my mind fantasized about only one thing — pleasantly drowning in a vat of 7-Eleven Slurpees. After a day spent hiking the cool highlands of the Santa Catalina Mountains, a searing canyon separated me from my air-conditioned car. Even Satan sought shade. Then I heard the angelic whisper of water. A tiny stream burbled along the canyon floor. Looking around, I saw nary a prying eye. Nervously, I unbuckled my belt. I’d admired skinny-dippers in “Woodstock” and buff castaways in “The Blue Lagoon,” but I never dreamed that I would ever personally enact “The Full Monty” in public. I had succumbed to the Siren’s wet kiss.
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A Playwright’s Adventure in Naturism
By Johanna Adams
OC Weekly, August 15-22, 2002
As a theater artist, you sometimes find yourself in bizarre situations, situations that cause you to look back and wonder, “How the hell?” For me, sitting naked on the grass a couple of weekends ago at the Lupin Naturist Club in the Santa Cruz Mountains, watching a play I wrote with collaborator Martin E. Williams alongside some 60 naturists – not naturalists – qualifies as a head scratcher. Weird enough to have all 60 people in the audience naked. Weirder still to have the playwright and the director, Amber Jackson, naked while the actors remain clothed for most of the play. It felt like one of those anxiety nightmares actors are always getting.
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Who Needs Clothes?
By Joe Giorgianni
Desota Sun Post, July 7, 2002
An astute reader alerted me that the wonderful, historic statue of “David” is having a little problem with the bureaucracy in a Central Florida town. Upon investigating, I learned it isn’t “David” who has the problem, but a keeper of his replica.
A Florida merchant elected to place a near life-sized statue of “David” in front of his business.
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Salutatorian says to swim naked!
By Brian Scheid
Norwich Bulletin, June 15, 2002, Colchester, Connecticut
Mary Przyborowski couldn’t help but gush as the 136 members of Bacon Academy’s senior class accepted their diplomas Friday night. She was one of 6 members of Bacon Academy’s class of 1952 who attended this year’s commencement, a graduation the Colchester native said was quite unlike her own.
Back then there were only 24 graduates and the high school was a quaint building in the center of town.
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Sex on the Beach Is a People Problem
The following statement appeared recently on a naturist bulletin board posting: “...the public seems to be very confused about the difference between 'normal' nude beach users and others (like gays who visit the same spots to play with each other). We can rail against such undesirables as much as we like. We can even organize other beach users to shoo them away. But we’ll generally not eliminate them on our own. Our best bet is to make our own priorities much more visible to the public.”
Our friend Richard Mason, of Miami Beach, answered back:
“The text of this paragraph is inaccurate at best and biased and offensive to gay men.
“At Haulover Beach [Miami], we have a large number of men visiting, that we assume are gay. We don’t know for sure, because we don’t see them engaged in any sexual activity. Being gay is probably normal for them. Besides those that may be gay, do not tolerate inappropriate behavior either."
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Caliente Nudist Resort Begins to Bustle
By James Thorner
Staff Writer, St. Petersburg Times, December 1, 2002
Land O'Lakes, Florida
A woman and a man – she in the buff, he inexplicably wearing black trousers – plunked tennis balls on a nearby clay court.
"On the weekends, all six tennis courts are full," beams Chuck Foster, president of Caliente nudist resort in Land O'Lakes.
Foster's pride is justified. Nearly seven years after it broke ground on the east side of U.S. 41, Caliente is becoming the Spanish-style nudist playground its supporters always dreamed it would be.
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   Sept - Nov, 2002

'Nudies' Filmmaker Doris Wishman Dies
By David Ovalle
Miami Herald
Doris Wishman, a prolific filmmaker, died of cancer August 10, 2002. She was 90. The longtime Miami-area resident made more than 30 camp films, which often centered on the sexual exploits of women. Wishman was editing a film until she became ill three weeks earlier, said her niece, Judy Kushner. Each Time I Kill, a 90-minute psychological thriller shot in Miami, will be released in about six months. “She worked to the end,” Kushner said. “She was a vibrant, incredible woman.”
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The Case Against Skinny-Dipping
By Michael Kush
Naturists believe that government should not interfere with skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing at designated sites. According to a 2000 Roper poll, 80% of Americans are in agreement. Therefore, on what grounds do those in opposition base their case?
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Majority of Americans Would
Rather Die Than Take Their Clothes Off
By Dru Sefton
The Seattle Times, May 26, 2002
Add “public nudity” to the nightmare scenarios associated with terrorist attacks.
A new report by a disaster-planning expert confirms what others have said: In the event of many biological or chemical attacks, removal of victims’ clothing is one of the most important and effective means of decontamination.
But the reluctance of modest victims to strip naked in front of co-workers or strangers “has been one of the issues that has prevented us from moving forward and developing a scheme to manage mass casualties,” said Henry Siegelson, report author and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. “Some people would rather be dead than strip in public.”
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Bare to Breakers 2002
Show Biz Run More Than Athletic Event
By Mario Garcia
San Francisco Examiner, May 20, 2002
I knew it was going to be a different kind of race when I showed up at the starting line on Market and Spear streets shortly after 7:30 a.m. and saw a young man with a set of protruding plastic breasts, a girl with purple hair and horns, and another in a white bridal gown with her two bridesmaids behind her and tending to her “train.”
And my real surprise was to find a few who had decided to wear only their running shoes.
Not to mention the shower of flying tortillas that fell from the sky along with the rain.
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Run in Buff Like Calling Law’s Bluff
By Alex Brown
San Francisco, California
It’s like holding a pair of twos against a straight flush – and raising. It’s the equivalent of trailing by one against the “Steel Curtain” with five seconds to play – and attempting a two-point conversion. It’s akin to scoring a date with Claudia – and making a play for Elle. Quite simply, the annual bluff calling of the armada of Bay to Breakers nude runners, in the face of race organizers and police, is as intriguing as any Kenyan duel at the front of the pack.
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   June - July, 2002

Bare Progress
Lessons from “The Greek Slave”
Those of us who enjoy the most traditional and natural recreation of our species – water, sun, and air on our nude bodies in the company of our friends and family – can find discouragement in the opposition we seem to encounter in American culture at every turn.
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What Can I Do For My Naturist Organization?
By Bev Price
Instead of asking yourself what your naturist organization can do for you, how about asking yourself what you can do for your naturist organization.”
So, what can you do? Someone recently asked what I’d done?
I have contributed both text and photos to virtually every nudist magazine on the planet.
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Nudity in Advertising
By Richard Mason
A review of advertising, each month, reveals that more advertisers are using nudity in their advertising. Most of what has been used lately, has respect for the nudity and treats the nudity as part of the message.
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   Feb - Mar, 2002

Benetton Attacked Over Naked Female In Ad
Ananova, October 4, 2001
PARIS (Reuters)
Italian clothing and retail group Benetton landed in hot water recently after a French government official denounced its new advertising campaign featuring a female nudist pensioner as a “pitiful provocation.”
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New Year’s Resolution: Get Involved!
By Bruce Frendahl
Happy New Year to all of you hanging out on Haulover Beach! It sure feels great to be able to get naked... to be able to just chuck all those clothes and enjoy the warm sunshine on the ol’ bod... to feel those cool southeasterly breezes all over...
I’m sure you would agree that life on Haulover exemplifies a simple yet inexplicable feeling of peace and freedom that’s somehow beyond compare.
Yet as we know in real life – especially since 9/11 – peace is hard to come by, and freedom is never free.
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Dear Abby
Senator gives Abby the straight skinny
on swimming nude in Vermont
Thursday, October 4, 2001
DEAR ABBY: I chuckled over your hot tub letters. When I was a young prosecutor in Vermont, an overly ambitious prosecutor in another county had someone arrested for skinny-dipping – basically out of sight of everybody – in a river. The local judge actually sentenced the “perpetrator” to jail, which caused uproar.
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   Sept – Oct, 2001

Bodies Beautiful at the Wolfsonian Library
From Wolfsonian Newsletter
When American in the 1920s, ’30s or ’40s wanted to learn about “natural treatments for bronchitis,” how to “banish insomnia,” or why walking is “the fountain of youth” they may have picked up a copy of Physical Culture Magazine. These recently acquired by The Wolfsonian-FIU will be considered for the exhibition The Body Politic: Modern Design and the Body. This forthcoming exhibition will examine concepts of the body, health, and fitness during the first half of the twentieth century.
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..March – April, 2001

In Jamaica, nude weddings
highlight growing nude travel industry
News Wire Services, Runaway Bay, Jamaica
When you get married in the nude, where does the best man keep the wedding ring?
That question will be answered and little else will be left to the imagination Wednesday when 11 couples tie the knot in the buff on Valentine’s Day.
“We’re nudists because we’re comfortable nude, so why not get married the way we’re most comfortable,” said Paige DeBell, a 34-year-old artist from Hamburg, N.J., who will get married at Hedonism III – a Jamaican resort known for its wild ways.
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   Jan – Feb, 2001

Key West's Fantasy Fest
'Festive' Nudes Endure Arrests
By Shirley Mason
Police continued to bear down on the Fantasy Fest nudity, busting a number of women and at least one man for wearing only a hat and a small covering for his privates.
Although the Key West Police Department described the crowd as "mellow," officers stayed busy controlling the throngs of Fantasy Fest revelers and making about 40 arrests.
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Sex and God: Is Religion Twisted?
Behold the age-old antagonism
toward all things sexual
By James A. Haught
“Christian endeavor," H. L. Meneken wrote, "is notoriously hard on female pulchritude." He was right, of course, and he should have included Jewish endeavor and Muslim endeavor in his observation. Western religions have spent millennia inflicting shame, guilt, repression, and punishment upon human sexuality – especially women’s sexuality.
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   Oct - Nov, 2000

Haulover's History Is Full
and Fascinating - Now and Then
By Howard Kleinberg
Of all the restaurants I've never been to in South Florida, the Lighthouse Restaurant on the tip of Baker's Haulover inlet was among the best–or so I am told. The landmark restaurant has been gone since it went up in flames in 1967, but many in South Florida remember it fondly for its ambiance and its food.
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