From the early days of ancient Rome and Greece, on through Michelangelo’s day, most of us appreciate the human form. Beginning in the late 19th century and on through the 20th, we we celebrated the human form with a camera.
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January 22, 2010
December 11, 2009
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. December 6, 2009
CHALK ONE MORE UP FOR BODY ACCEPTANCE
Anyone for breast stroke? A writer loses her body hang-ups to compete in the naturist Olympics.
By Jessica Hatcher
As I take my place on the starting block, a hush sweeps around the spectators at the side of the swimming pool. A race is about to begin.
The Union Jack is emblazoned on my swimming cap and to my left – poised and at the ready – are two lithe and toned Germans. I am competing for Great Britain at an international swimming competition and it should be a great honour.
But I can’t shake the feeling that there is something very, very wrong. For, apart from a silly stretchy hat, I am completely and utterly stark naked. And about to take part in the world’s largest nude swimming gala in front of hundreds of total strangers.
So how on earth have I ended up in such a predicament? Isn’t this the kind of situation that comes to people in their worst nightmares?
It all started innocently enough a few months ago, when I discovered the gala while browsing on the internet. In the name of journalistic research, I emailed the organisers to see if I could go along to witness it.
It sounded unique to say the least and fun at best, and they agreed. Then, a few weeks later, they called me back. Apparently there was a lack of competitors in my age group. Could I take part
I immediately got cold feet (and cold almost everything else). I am a competent swimmer, but I dislike competitive swimming almost as much as I do being naked in front of strangers (I’ve only ever stripped in public once – in a female communal shower after a yoga class – and it was fairly terrifying).
Yet while the thought of parading my naked body in front of hundreds of people filled me with abject horror, I couldn’t help but feel intrigued. Was I just getting worked up over nothing?
December 1, 2009
Of the Many Depictions of Adam & Eve
Michelangelo’s is my favorite . . .
And there are hundreds more. Most artists, believe it or not, avoided nudity. Including a few with fig leaves, some of the exceptions:
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August 26, 2009
A New American Trend?
Apparently going topless is a revelation. It shouldn’t be. Why we’re so freaky about the human body in America is a puzzle to me. Maybe it’s because so many of us have given our bodies over to Twinkies and donuts. People like being naked because it feels good. They like the sense of freedom, the feel of sunlight and fresh air on their skin. They like the joy and magic of being human. There should be more breaches, walking trails and swimming holes, etc. for adults who understand this sensual sense of freedom. The following article about women who are bold enough to protest our archaic nudity laws reflects a step in this direction.
From The Daily News, New York
By Joe Jackson
Some were shocked. Others disgusted. But for some, it was the breast day ever!
Dozens of semi-nude women gave the city a Double-D eyeful Sunday when they bared their boobs in Central Park and then marched through the streets.
The daring display was part of “National Go-Topless Day” – indeed, there is such a thing – and stunned jaded New Yorkers and wide-eyed tourists alike.
“This is unbelievable – and super,” said Dalvin Jan, 21, who rents bicycles for a living on Central Park South. “I’m going to tell my wife to join in.”
With Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” blaring from speakers and chants of “free your breasts, free your mind,” the troupe of bare-breasted women – and their enthusiastic male supporters – paraded their way along Central Park South.
“We’re all here for the same reason – to allow women to be free in the park like men,” organizer Sylvie Chabot, 54, of Montreal, told the crowd at a midday rally at Columbus Circle.
Motorists honked their horns in support while bemused tourists took photos from passing tour buses.
August 15, 2009
Watch Out for the New Age of Nudism
A fun piece from The Times Online, United Kingdom
By Christa D’Souza
Meet the hipsters who are making nakedness cool. They don’t go to naturist holiday camps or insist on playing tennis starkers.
So would you call yourself a nudist? No? All right then, I’ll rephrase the question. Have you ever been skinny-dipping, sunbathed naked, hung out in a nude spa in Scandiland or stripped off at a festival “for fun”? If the answer is yes to any of the above, then, chances are, you’re part of a growing type of nudist: the nude-curious.
It was curiosity, after all, that led to the creation of Skinbook, the first global social-networking site for nudists. Set up last year by a group of students from Manchester, its 24-year-old co-creator Karl Maddocks says that most people joining the site (which has more than 7,000 members to date) are “younger people who like being naked at home, or have maybe checked out a nudist beach on holiday and want to explore the idea”.
As opposed to the traditional hardline naturist philosophy that it’s our human right to be naked, for the nude-curious brigade, it’s all about taking your clothes off in your own time and on your own terms. “The more political nudists say we should be able to go to the supermarket naked if we want,” says Maddocks. “But I’d never back that if people are uncomfortable with it.” And so you’ll find new nudists flexing their toned, tattooed limbs on the most fashionable beaches of Ibiza and Mykonos and lapping up the sensation of naked swimming in the public baths of Helsinki. You’ll find them stripping off in their back gardens to make the most of the short-lived British summer, baring all at the Benicassim festival and feeling a new depth of stretch in naked yoga sessions. Where you won’t find them is pulling on a pair of socks and sandals and signing up for two weeks at a traditional nudist holiday camp. And as it turns out, I know quite a few of them.
August 12, 2009
Body Freedom
Despite the significant percentage of our population that finds something disturbing about the human body; despite the fact they would have you believe there is something about certain body parts that are vulgar; despite the fact they insist nudity is overtly sexual as opposed to natural, there is a smaller percentage of us who have discovered the astounding beauty of our bodies. They know the feeling of the sun on their skin, the feeling of a fresh summer breeze, the feeling of sharing something refreshing and invigorating and enlightening with others.
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The Edinburgh Fleshtival
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From Edinburgh Festivals
By Tim Cornwell
THE curtain went up this week on a Fringe show that threatens to dash Edinburgh’s strait-laced reputation for good.
In a Stockbridge church, as many as 150 local women are to take the stage in the festival – dancing energetically in the nude.
From a senior employee of Polygon – publishers of Edinburgh author Alexander McCall Smith – to a yoga instructor, and a New Town mother of four, the first batch of volunteers told yesterday why they chose to bare all in Trilogy.
“We’ve run through it clothed, and unclothed, and it felt fantastic,” said Sarah Morrison. “I am one of the many beautiful women who will dance. We are dancing energetically and vigorously and beautifully.”
August 7, 2009
Yoga in the Nude
For me the experience of nude yoga had meaning on several levels: an opportunity to meet other like-minded men, with whom I shared a purpose and a common goal; the giddy sensations of undressing with a group of men I didn’t know, men of different ages and body types; being naked and physically challenged with them; the strenuous positions of yoga; and the sensuality of being naked among other naked men.
It was indeed a sensual experience, but not a sexual one. Within moments, each of us were more involved in the challenges of exhausting exercise, forgetting our physical flaws, concentrating on our instructor’s demonstrations. The concept of nudity and being among nude men may have been intriguing enough to get our attention, but, having gathered in that warm candlelit room, the goal of self-improvement was foremost on our minds. This just happened to be a more interesting way to achieve it.
A similar experience from San Francisco is described in the following article from SFGate.
Doing it in the altogether is what makes this yoga practice altogether free from distractions
From SFGate
By Carolyne Zinko
Some fitness fads require sporty gear and equipment, but the practice of yoga requires only the bare essentials: loose clothes, a mat and time to do the exercises. The latest trend in yoga requires even less. We’re not talking about aqua yoga, done in a pool, or disco yoga, set to dance tunes, or “boga,” boxing yoga, done with gloves.
No, a San Francisco community center is offering naked yoga, where bare essentials means just that: Men and women are completely nude during the 90- minute class.
This is not the invention of “naked yoga guy” George Monty Davis, who made headlines last year for (legally) striking naked yoga poses at Fisherman’s Wharf, nor a “hot nude yoga” class for gay men, popular in Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, or in any way connected to Internet-sold videos of voluptuous women doing naked yoga on wave-washed beaches with horses galloping by.
The new naked yoga class on Sunday mornings at the One Taste Urban Retreat Center on Folsom Street is meant to be transforming, not titillating. That’s a concept that American culture, with its taboos on nudity, might find difficult to grasp. The center, which opened 10 months ago, was founded by Nicole Daedone, also a co-founder of 111 Minna Gallery. It offers dance classes and massage, has a small cafe and an art gallery, and hosts various events.
The class is about the challenge of yoga, and about the challenge of accepting — and even revering — one’s own body.
“It’s not a sexual experience,” said Rob Kandell, the center’s business manager. “It’s a heart-opening experience.”
On a recent Sunday morning, yoga instructor Meredith Medland, 33, gave students a sort of pep talk before entering the classroom, emphasizing the idea of the body as a vessel and getting them to calm their thoughts.
Five women and four men entered fully clothed, carrying their mats. Many were in their 20s and 30s, but some were decades older.
August 1, 2009
Spartacus, A New Series on Starz
Damn!!!
If these eyes don’t open a man’s imagination to flights of fantasy, I doubt anything will.
Anyway, if you like looking at naked men in action scenes, this looks like a good place to be come January 2010. You’ll also have to be prepared for a lot of gore and violence. What doesn’t seem clear just yet, is whether or not a quality storyline will accompany these tantalizing scenes. Reviews from TV.COM and HITFIX.COM follow below.
From: TV.com
By Anna Hiatt
The gladiator Spartacus is coming to TV with a star-studded cast and a graphic style that makes 300 seem tame.
I am Spartacus!!
Raunchy sex and bloody violence reign in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a new TV spectacle about a Thracian soldier-turned-gladiator. We got an exclusive look at the extended trailer for the new show, which is coming to Starz in January 2010. Trust us when we say: Spartacus is racier, more fast-paced, and more violent than any other show on TV.
How so? The sex scenes (complete with nudity) are so explicit everyone short of sex workers will blush. Every detail of the brutal gladiatorial massacres in Roman arenas is included — arching blood squirts, sliced tendons, the works. Seriously, it’s like 300 on steroids. On TV. Titillating, no?
Spartacus has the sensory impact of a sledgehammer — in a good way. For visual punch, the show is mostly produced using a green screen (meaning most of the backgrounds are computer-generated), with meticulous attention paid to visual storytelling. The result? A show that’s so realistic you’ll feel like one of the thousands of jeering Romans watching as those poor suckers get skewered in the arena. It’s hard not to enjoy.
In addition to sex and violence, Spartacus also has an impressive cast, including the Warrior Princess Lucy Lawless as the scheming wife of Batiatus (John Hannah), owner of a gladiator school. Andy Whitfield plays Spartacus.
Spartacus has all the makings of an instant hit: violent slaughters that may be too hard for some to stomach, spectacular production value, and, of course, Lucy Lawless.
