Getting Naked: Is It for You?

The following is from FoxNews.com

By Yvonne K. Fulbright

Attire-optional has been taken to a whole new level. New York City has been causing a stir this summer with its new no-clothing hot spots. With hundreds turning out to sport nothing but their birthday suits at these in-the-buff events, cities from Boston to LA are debating if they should follow suit.

For the last couple of years, we’ve heard about nude yoga. Offered in major cities globally from Montreal to Sydney to London to Washington, these naked sessions are all about letting go, finding a deeper truth, and accepting the body as a temple. While a thrill for the occasional “peeping Tom” attendee, the turn-on for yogis has been about celebrating their spirit more than anything. Wildly popular, it’s only natural that other activities are daring you to disrobe too.

Restaurants, like the Mercantile Grill in Manhattan, are offering private, naked dining. (No worries, anybody who handles your food is required by law to remain clothed.) Comedy clubs, like the People’s Improv Theatre, are hosting events titled “Naked Comedy Showcase.” Companies are selling rental space for dinner parties with a strict no-dress rule. Organizations, like The Naturist Society, are sponsoring celebrations dubbed “Nude Recreation Week.”

And that’s not the half of it. Public nude or clothing-optional beaches, resorts, and retreats can be found worldwide, in places like France, Denmark, Jamaica, Brazil and Hawaii. Depending on the venue, you have the opportunity to do almost everything in the nude -- from hiking and kayaking to sailing and beach volleyball to swimming, sleeping, hot tubbing and whale watching. Nude holidays are among the world’s fastest growing vacation sectors.

Given our society’s issues and rules with the nude form, many aren’t sure if they should be more “eeuwww” or “ooh la la” on these get-naked opportunities.

If it helps your comfort level, and in light of the current Olympics, consider that the ancient Greek athletes were active naturists. Human beings the world over and throughout time have loved taking their clothes off and living in their natural state. Today’s fun, relaxing -- and oft very chic (think Brigitte Bardot) -- nudist activities want us to embrace our original state of being.

So what are the benefits of naked ... anything?

Stripping down:

— Is the great equalizer. Everyone is “one” sans clothes.

— Cultivates body acceptance or a reclaiming of one’s form.

— Makes for a better tan.

— Let’s you truly feel the skin you’re in, especially during an enjoyable skinny dip.

— Is exhilarating, allowing one to celebrate their body.

Read more here.

Right to run naked comes at high cost

The following is from the Daily Collegian Online

Ryan E. Pfister


Penn State is in the midst of a new civil rights movement.

No, it's not for the right to an education. It's not for the right to marry.

It's for the right to streak.

The controversy centers on the annual Mifflin Streak, which occurs at the beginning of spring finals week.

Each year, brave students run naked down Mifflin Road, then haul (bare) ass out of the area to avoid the waiting cops who try to catch them.

Of course, every year some of the students aren't quick enough to escape. Once they're identified -- no easy task, given they obviously don't have their wallets -- they usually are charged with open lewdness and disorderly conduct.

In the past, these rebels against clothes-wearing conventions simply pleaded guilty to lesser charges or entered the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program for first-time offenders.

But not this year. Elizabeth Burke decided she just wasn't going to take it anymore and challenged her charges in court. Earlier this month, Centre County Judge Bradley P. Lunsford saw what he thought was the naked truth of her argument and dismissed the charges.

Burke's lawyer, Stacy Parks Miller, argued that for the open lewdness charge to be applicable, somebody had to be offended or alarmed. Shockingly, the prosecution was unable to find someone in the area (i.e. a college student) who was angry about seeing a naked girl.

Furthermore, the argument goes, since the Mifflin Streak has been going on for years, everyone knows to expect naked people there, just like everyone knows there are going to be naked people in a strip club. If you're going to be offended, just don't go there.

If the decision stands, State College apparently now has one place and time where it's legal to be naked in public: the night of the Mifflin Streak on Mifflin Road.

Read more here.

Eva Mendes likes tasteful nudity not violence

The following is from news.com.au

WE'VE had no complaints from her local fans (mostly male) yet, but American actress Eva Mendes is likely to get her countrymen hot under the collar after criticizing US authorities for censoring nudity but seemingly promoting violence.

The 34-year-old sensation, who jetted in to Australia for the 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty festival, has fired up after her risque appearance in a Calvin Klein fragrance ad was chopped for showing too much of the star.

The commercial features a naked Mendes rolling around on a bed, flashing a little too much cleavage for conservative US audiences.

"I'm completely American, I was born and raised in America and I love it but I think we are too quick to censor nudity," Mendes told fashion editor Jen Melocco.

"Meanwhile, it's OK to blow things up and our films are so violent and our television is so violent," she continued.

"I would rather see tasteful nudity than violence any day of the week."

The Hitch star will hit Sydney on Wednesday, before taking to the red carpet to launch the month of fashion and beauty events.

But party planners should have the Horlicks rather than the bubbly on hand for Mendes, who revealed she thinks life beyond the ruby rug is "usually pretty boring."

"I get to go to these events which are usually pretty boring but what makes it exciting is wearing an amazing gown," she said.

Want to help the environment? GET NAKED!

By Michael Hewitt

The link between playing nude volleyball and stopping the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf melting to the size of an ice cube may seem a bit tenuous. But a growing number of naturists contend that, not only are they in the vanguard of the environmentalist movement, but their lifestyle might even help to reverse anthropogenic global warming. Econudes.org was founded two years ago by naturists dissatisfied with the passive, Health & Efficiency, beach ball-bopping image of nudism. Clothes, and all the ancillary industries involved in their manufacture, transportation and upkeep, are a major cause of climate change, they say. Eliminate them, and you eliminate a significant threat to mankind. "Get your kit off and save the planet" is the message.

Read the entire article here.

US Okays Online Poker In The Nude Says Congress

From the "You GOT to be Kidding Me!" file........(I have no idea if this is real or a gag).

The following is from www.gambling911.com

The bad news: It's illegal to operate an online poker room in the US. The good news: It's not illegal for US citizens to play online poker. And the even better news: It's legal to play online poker in the nude.

In the wake of HR 6663, Senate reconvened today and whilst was unable to agree on that bill, did take the time to clarify an earlier ruling, according to AintLuck.com. In March of this year the bill was signed into law making it unlawful to play poker in the nude.

While met with fierce resistance from The Naturist Society - http://www.naturistsociety.com , this bill went largely unnoticed by the majority of the online poker community. When asked for his reaction to this, volatile pro Mike Matusow would only say that's he's experimented with concept of nude online play but "there's nothing gay about that, right?" Other notable players such as Phil Helmuth would only say that what happens in his house, stays in his house.

AintLuck.com goes on to expose how nude poker final became legalized.

Flying under the radar, the reclusive Dutch Boyd took up the cause of these nude loving poker players. Working with the PPA, Dutch figured this was a great way for him to finally find a group of poker players that would accept him and welcome into their fold. After months of lobbying, Dutch was finally able to gain enough swing votes (LOL) from several Senators to pass the resolution.

There are a few things we need to clarify to all you nudists out there (Jenny Woo, Sparky Collins, Tyrone Black):Poker Naturalists beware! Although the new bill makes it legal to now play poker online in the nude, this ONLY applies to play money tables. Bill Frist was quick to issue a statement saying that while he strongly opposes any sort of nude online poker playing, that anyone caught playing real money poker while naked will face stiff (ha ha) prosecution.

I wonder what Mr. Frist thinks of the following commercial?



Strip Poker - video powered by Metacafe

You can be Mormon and a nudist!...Sunstone speaker says

The following is from Peggy Fletcher Stack of The Salt Lake Tribune.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not against nudity, although a lot of LDS folk beliefs oppose it, D. Michael Martindale, an avowed naturist, said at the annual Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City Friday.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints balk at those who practice nudity because they find it contrary to teachings about modesty and the requirement that faithful Mormons wear sacred undergarments day and night, Martindale said.


The modesty question is easy to respond to, he said.

"What we feel modest wearing today would have scandalized Brigham Young. What we wear to the swimming pool would horrify us if we wore it to church," Martindale said. "Modesty is a fluid concept."

True modesty is in the heart and the mind and not in the amount of fabric we drape over our bodies, he said.

Some also have objected to social nudism, presuming it increases illicit sexuality.

Nonsense, Martindale says. "Rather than diffusing lust, clothing creates it. We make certain parts of our bodies more mysterious, more alluring. That heightens sexual awareness."

A naturist resort is one of the least sexual places on Earth, he said.

As to the question of garments, he said there is a line in the instruction given to bishops saying that the proper wearing is between an individual and God. Martindale feels he is closer to God when he sheds his clothes as long as it's in an appropriate, respectful settings. As long as he is doing so for the right reasons, he feels God would understand.

When Martindale began hiking naked, for example, he experienced nature without artificial barriers for the first time, he said.

Nudity, he argued, improves a person's psychological, social and emotional health. It can decrease self-consciousness in a youth and body-obsessed culture. Children are conditioned from an early age to hide their bodies or feel shame in nakedness.

Martindale does not want to convert anyone else to the idea of nudity, he said, but does want to be left alone to practice it as he feels is appropriate.

"I am very serious about what I believe," he said, "but I am constantly at risk of going to jail for it."

The United States and especially Utah have not been particularly welcoming to nudity, even in the creative world.

Davie Pace, a writer who is immersed in Utah's dance community, said it is important to look at the human body "as a work or art, in biology and in an erotic context," Pace said. "The use of the nude body in dance and art has a rich history and rhetoric that is a useful corollary to naturism."

pstack@sltrib.com