It would seem that the prudish minority is shrinking, but that doesn’t mean that the nudist community is growing – from media reports, and the use of nudity in everyday life, it seems more likely that the ambivalent majority is increasing!!

The use of nudity in everyday life, be it for promotion or protest, is reaching the point where it barely even rates a mention – we’re already finding we have to go out of our way to find articles of relevance to the community, nudity is not ruffling feathers enough to make headline news!!

And so this article from the UK Evening Standard further highlights how “normal” nudity has become all around us.

To quote from the article:

For Andrew Welch, commercial manager of British Naturism, this growing interest in eschewing clothing is no surprise. “A lot more people are getting involved in the whole idea of not wearing clothes,” he says. “There is more non-sexual nudity shown on television and in the theatre, and taboos are being eroded.”

And that’s the key right there – when it stops being sexualised, there’s nothing interesting or exciting about nudity. It’s just people being people, without clothes. Big deal, right?

Nudity in the context of promotions or protests is really no different to that old favourite marketing trick “FREE BEER!!! Now that I have your attention…” – and with nudity, the viewer is now moving on from the initial attention grabbing moment about as quickly as they do with the “FREE BEER” sign!!

Give the article a read – it looks like the Londoners are going to get closer to commonplace, everyday nudity like other parts of Europe much quicker than we will here in Oz!! But there is hope for us yet!

As Victorians get a sudden reminder what cold weather feels like, we thought it might be an idea to post an article on the best beaches to go to around the world. Sadly, our own beaches are pretty awesome but clearly didn’t make the cut compared to these amazing destinations!!

If you want to escape the chill, check out this link and dream of nicer places to be!!

As a side note, one of the beaches just near Miami has its own lifeguards and police – We wonder how dune dwellers would respond to active security measures at our own beaches, such as private security?? Hmmmm….

Stephen Gough has made quite a name for himself internationally, and keeps getting jail time for standing up for what he believes in!! We realise his story is a little off topic for us – after all, he believes in the freedom to be nude everywhere!! Nudists are all about the “nude” part, while Stephen appears to be focussing on the “everywhere” part – a subtle but important difference.

There’s quite a bit of hypocrisy about the Naked Rambler case – he can’t walk the UK streets nude, but BBC and Sky TV in the UK will happily show regular programs containing full nudity!! His plight has also highlighted all the subtle differences in the laws of different countries and territories. The real issue seems to be that society can’t deal with nudity in High-Def 3D (ie real life!), we can only tolerate it safely on the TV in SD 2D!! And so they keep beating Stephen with the conformance stick, because they know no different!!

Anyway, longest jail sentence ever (21 months), and apparently in the last 7 years has spent more time in jail than out for basically the same crimes (breach of the peace and contempt of court).

There are a couple of interesting articles about if you want to read more:
Metro UK article
BBC News

There’s also a Facebook group in support of his cause if you want to participate that way. And nudist champion Lady God1va has an article on her site as well, so check that out!!

Lady God1va, famous for her work on the 4th Plinth in London, has made the front cover of Canadian naturist magazine FCN. Kudos for continuing to promote a positive message to a global audience!!

Even though it’s a Canadian magazine, it’s not overly expensive and digital as well (so no shipping costs!!) – and the article featuring Lady God1va looks like a good read too (you can get a few free “zooms” when you try the site out!). Click here to check it out!

Well done Lady God1va, keep up the great work!!

We think this is one of those articles that leads to a lot of eye-rolling – how did we get this way as a society? According to the article:

[Eric] Williamson was making coffee in the buff at 5.30am when a woman and her seven-year-old son walked past his kitchen window in Springfield [Virginia]. The woman then called the police.

Of course she did, this is America – shouldn’t the woman have been a bit more “parent-like”?? The son is seven years old, he’s probably across the whole “we have skin and stuff under these clothes”, so why couldn’t she simply have said said nothing and the kid is none the wiser? Even better, if the boy did say something, a simple laugh off and say “he’ll catch cold if he doesn’t get dressed soon…” would have sufficed.

Makes you wonder if Eric should have the woman charged with looking into his window, surely that’s a breach of his privacy and personal space – in the land of the long expensive litigation, it only seems fair to throw more silliness back over the fence, return volley!!