Saturday, May 4 World Naked Gardening Day 2019
http://www.wngd.org/

Start planning ahead for this event. I participate any time i can.

‘Nude, not rude’ – Naturism making a comeback
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/347383/nude-not-rude-naturism-making-a-comeback?platform=hootsuite

Baring bottoms and flouncing fleshy bits at nudist clubs may seem like a lifestyle from a bygone era, but it’s having something of a renaissance.

Nudists at The Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club.Nudists at The Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club. Photo: RNZ / Eva Corlett
Young people are embracing their nakedness in shared spaces, which has led to a rise in Facebook groups with hundreds of members and boosted numbers at nudist clubs.

One club that’s experienced a boost in bodies is the Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club.

It was created almost 70 years ago and sits on 26 acres of native bush and grounds on the outskirts of Henderson. There’s a swimming pool, two spas, tennis courts, bush walks and the “Barebum Bar”, open for drinks and BBQs. Occasionally, there are dress up parties and a nude olympics.

Membership was highest in the 1980s at 700. Interest has steadily waned since then and now that figure sits at 280. But that’s 40 more people than 2016, with a majority of those younger than 35-years-old.

Some naturists are permanent residents but most come for holidays or weekends – like Tharanga, who is 28-years-old.

“It’s freeing to liberate oneself from clothing,” he said, “because no one is judging or looking at your body in a strange manner”.

It allows people to “let down their barriers,” said another member Niall, 30, who has been abandoning his attire at the club door for around four years.

“You see the person for who they are – they’re not hiding behind anything,” he said.

“No problems, no clothes.”

Another member, Cameron, 15, is a second generation nudist. He grew up around naturists so it’s perfectly normal for him, but he tends to keep it quiet from school friends.

“It’s a bit embarrassing in a way around friends, and the judging is terrible,” he said.

But Cameron said it’s a family atmosphere and the lack of tan lines and great club facilities are a bonus.

Despite his reluctance to reveal his naturist second-life, a growing culture of tolerance in New Zealand could be pushing up naturism numbers, the president of Naturism NZ, Donna Miller, said.

She thinks gathering with people in a similar age bracket can be a good first step but, she said, socialising with older generations has its benefits.

“That age becomes completely irrelevant because they’re fun and they’re enjoyable to be around,” she said.

People mistakenly believe naturism is sexual but it’s “nude, not rude”, Ms Miller said.

Ms Poole agrees than younger generations seem to be less judgmental, and movements like Free the Nipple are helping promote open-mindedness.

Naturism can help counteract damaging social media expectations, she said.

“It’s awesome to see so many young people accepting their bodies and being OK with the way it looks,” she said.

Young naturists have started club nights in established communities such as Auckland Outdoor Naturism Club but mostly they meet for impromptu barbecues and skinny dips.

Many more events are planned for 2018 to boost numbers, Ms Poole said, even when the weather cools down.

Here’s how Phoenix ended up with so many naked statues downtown

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-best-reads/2017/11/27/heres-how-phoenix-ended-up-so-many-naked-statues-downtown/872614001/

For the capital of a state with a national reputation for being conservative, Phoenix sure has a lot of naked people downtown.

They are statuesque, or more precisely, statues.

There are more than 20 artworks in the altogether permanently scattered throughout the downtown area.

And they are there, for the most part, because of powerful businessmen who pushed past social norms and government criticism in order to plunk the bare bronzes in the center of the city.

The statues have since become part of the scenery in Phoenix, a seemingly unexpected sight that has become accepted.

“For such a conservative city, it’s kind of surprising isn’t it?” said Beatrice Moore, an artist who was instrumental in creating the arts district along Grand Avenue, just west of downtown.

“They’re certainly not lewd,” Moore said. “They don’t verge on being risqué in my opinion.”

Others have had different opinions, mainly when the first set of stitchless statues was proposed. But there was never a groundswell to remove them.

There technically are clothes on one set of statues, at least enough to satisfy the government, although it would take a close look to find those traces, and taking that close look might cause more of a stir than the statues themselves. more…

François Boucher’s Brown Odalisque, one of the paintings that was depicted in the set of postcards that an art teacher in Utah showed his students on Dec. 4, 2017, leading to his firing.

Art, Nudity and Public Schools: Questions Arise In The Wake Of Controversial Firing

Last month, Lincoln Elementary School art teacher Mateo Rueda was fired after students in his class saw nude paintings in a set of printed cards as part of a lesson on color theory.

Though Rueda did not know there was nude art in the set and confiscated them, he was fired by the Cache County School District. The story has been covered by dozens of national and international news outlets.

Last week, Cache County School District issued a joint statement with Rueda on their Facebook page. Gary Thomas, the district’s executive director of elementary education, said they’ve reached an agreement.

“The conflict between the Cache County School District and Mr. Rueda has been resolved at this point in a satisfactory manner for both of us and at this point our number one concern is that we can move forward and educate kids,” Thomas said. “That’s our number one job. As far as Mr. Rueda is concerned, he is welcome to apply for any positions in the future that he might be qualified for.”

The statement closes with a resolution to reevaluate the district’s art materials and policies; while the conflict between Rueda and the district is over, the questions it raised remain. How should schools teach children, especially young children, about nudity and art? Looking back, Rueda recognizes the unique difficulty of the subject.

“It’s very hard for, I think, any art teacher to try to manage or deal with the preconceived notions that children have about certain subjects, and ones, especially, related to nudity,” he said.

Rueda faces the added difficulty of not being from Utah, or even the United States. Rueda is from Bogota, Colombia. As a teacher, he had to adapt to a new, more conservative culture. As the district plans to reevaluate their art materials, Rueda said he hopes they won’t censor classical art in the future.

“It depends on the common culture of wherever you are. In my opinion, art is one of the biggest examples of self understanding and can lead to a lot of personal freedom when it comes to thought and whatnot,” Rueda said. “In my opinion, this type of nudity should be addressed properly and allow the students and the parents to make some form of association with the context and what it means and what it matters, and not the one that is just thinking that nudity is sex by default and that’s the only thing.”

Kamee Jensen’s daughter Bella was in Rueda’s class. Jensen has spoken out in support of Rueda, saying that he should not have been fired. Now that Rueda has the opportunity to apply for other positions, Jensen said she’d like to see him come back, but doesn’t expect him to.

“I feel like it’s kind of selfish on my part to expect that he could go back to that school after all of the controversy,” Jensen said. “So I’m happy for him, and happy that he’s in a good place and that he feels at peace with their decision, but I’m definitely sad that he won’t be influencing my children anymore.”

Jensen sees the district’s handling of the issue as a missed opportunity to educate students.

“These are classical paintings, and this is a huge part of our world,” she said. “These images are really amazing, and I feel like we just missed a huge opportunity.”

Virginia Catherall is the curator of education, family programs, visitor experience, and community outreach at the Utah Museum of Fine Art. She’s in charge of addressing visitor’s concerns about nude art.

“Especially with young children, we don’t have a curriculum that specifically, ‘These are nudes, let’s talk about it.’ We usually focus on other things,” Catherall said.

This could be as simple as color, or animals in art, or art in history, but the museum does have nude paintings among its exhibits. Inevitably, some children do snicker, or gasp, or whisper when nude art is shown. From there, the museum’s volunteer teachers are trained to ask why and start a discussion about the many reasons people create nude art.

“And then we talk about it in a way, just as Mr. Rueda did, that there’s many reasons people create nude art, not just for the erotic reason, which is one reason, but it’s just one of hundreds of different reasons that people create nude art,” she said. “Not understanding all those different reasons and not being exposed to all those reasons then becomes a deficit in children’s understanding, so we do address it right away. Usually we address it, the children really, because they’re not forbidden from looking at it, they become much more mature viewers of it, and then they can go on and go back to their curriculum of color, or animals, or whatever their curriculum is.”

When advising school curriculums, Catherall and museum faculty respect the choices schools make based on their students and parents. But Catherall said school isn’t the only place children will learn about these subjects.

“Once they go out into the real world, or even after school, when they get outside of school, all of these things come at children, and they need to be armed with tools in order to confront and think through all of the conflict they have in their life,” she said.

The Cache County School District has not announced any changes to their arts materials or policies.

‘And they were naked – and not ashamed’: Church allows nude worship
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556548/And-naked-not-ashamed-Church-allows-nude-worship.html

A church in the US state of Virginia has taken the bizarre decision to allow its congregation to attend services in the nude.

Pastor Allen Parker, the leader of White Tail Chapel in the town of Southampton, said he came to the decision to allow naked worship after concluding the clothing requirements of other churches were overly ‘pretentious’, and decided his own flock should be free to forgo such materialism if they desire.

He believes he is in good company too, claiming many of the most important moments in the Bible happened while the protagonists were nude, including Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. more

What it’s like to be a nudist?

Simple video interview on nudism. Do you agree?

To me, the most awesome thing I have ever seen was an empowered woman that was at a nudist resort after losing her breasts to cancer.
She was loved like she was family. No judgment, no condescension, just love.

Dont Change

Seven Promises You Should Make Yourself and Keep…
1) Listen to What Your Mind and Body are Telling You
2) Live Your Own Life
3) Smile Daily
4) Know That Relationships Come and Go
5) Acceptance of Change
6) Push Your Boundaries
7) Move On from the Past
More…

Conversations in the nude | Mihir Srivastava

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. For nude artisit Mihir Srivastava, sketching people in the nude is not just an activity; it’s a conversation, an experience that reveals certain power dynamics like never before. Mr. Mihir Srivastava is a journalist who pursues nude art as a hobby.

Revellers strip down to compete as popular beach holds annual ‘Nude Games’ 

• The annual ‘Nude Games’ have returned for 2019 with hundreds of participants 
• A sack race, a donut-eating competition and tug of war were among the events 
• Most coveted of all was best bum award with prizes on offer for both genders 
• Games are run by the Pilwarren nudist camp and held at Maslin Beach, Adelaide

By CHARLIE COË FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

PUBLISHED: 04:24 EST, 13 January 2019 | UPDATED: 04:48 EST, 13 January 2019

The annual ‘Nude Games’ has returned in full force as hundreds of revellers stripped down to compete in a variety of events.

Around 500 participants converged on Adelaide‘s Maslin Beach Nude Games on Sunday for the event – featuring a range of festivities ranging from a sack race to a donut-eating competition.

The games’ showpiece though was the much-awaited best bum competition, where both female and male beachgoers relished the opportunity to flaunt their derrieres.

The games’ showpiece though was the much-awaited best bum competition, where both female and male beachgoers have the opportunity to flaunt their derriere (event pictured

Competitors stood in a line while collectively covering their upper halves with a sheet in order to impress the judges.

The revelry was capped off with clear blue skies and snags on the barbecue for the tired participants.

The games are run by the Pilwarren nudist camp – located inland from the South Australia state capital.

But the event isn’t simply for nudists, organiser David Pillar explains, with non-nudists coming down to the state capital from much further afield to take part.

He told Daily Mail Australia participants from South Australia, interstate and even overseas made the trip to Maslin Beach for the event.

The event (pictured) isn’t simply for nudists, organiser David Pillar explains, with participants coming down to the state capital from much further afield to take part

Mr Pillar added those in attendance did not necessarily need to strip off, but said they were welcome to do so once they made themselves comfortable at the idyllic swimming spot.

One reveller told Channel 7 the growing popularity of the event owed itself to people turning away from their normal lifestyle choices.

‘People are bored of just going to the clubs and pubs – this is something different,’ they said.

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Mr Pillar added those in attendance did not necessarily need to strip off, but said they were welcome to do so once they made themselves comfortable at the idyllic swimming spot (stock image, event not pictured)

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Around 500 participants converged on Adelaide’s Maslin Beach Nude Games on Sunday for the event

The event started in the 1980’s after South Australia was declared the first state in Australia to be allowed nude beaches in 1975.

It was discontinued by old organisers Southern United Naturists in 2007 after South Australia Police and the nudist body fell-out over the authorities’ decision to require all children at the event to be clothed from the waist down.

Pilwarren naturist camp, run by Mr Pillar and his wife Debbie, restarted the festivities in 2013.

The event started in the 1980’s after South Australia was declared the first state in Australia to be allowed nude beaches in 1975 (stock image)

Cambridge’s ‘Naked Professor’ to host adult only anti-Brexit show

Cambridge University’s “naked professor” will be taking to the stage for a nude show about Brexit.

Dr. Victoria Bateman, an economics fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Gonville & Caius College, will speak on the “naked truth” of leaving the European Union on Monday (January 14).

She has previously generated controversy online due to her naked protests, both on Brexit and on gender inequalities within economics.

The free talk at the J2 is timed to coincide with the parliamentary vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, using Dr. Bateman’s naked protests to examine how Britain will be “exposed and vulnerable” in a post-Brexit world.

The evening will end with a Q&A session, and the chance to show your opposition to Brexit by signing the “first living human petition”.

Guests have been told to “expect impassioned argument and nudity in equal measure”.

Dr Bateman’s protests first made headlines in 2016, when she walked naked into a faculty meeting of economists with “Brexit leaves Britain naked” written across her breasts.

Britain’s Naked Rambler Video Link

I could see myself doing this one day after retirement…

That time I became a nudist

ONE night, after a few drinks, a girlfriend divulged that she’s been a member of a nudist club for three years and told me it’s changed her life.

Until Fairly Recently, The YMCA Actually Required Swimmers To Be Nude

Last week, I was eating lunch with a friend and her dad in Manhattan on 23rd Street, directly across from what used to be the McBurney YMCA, when my friend’s dad had a sudden recollection.

Apparently, in 1968, as part of a freshman requirement for the city college he attended, all male students took a swim class at the YMCA. For reasons somewhat unclear to him at the time (and, we joked, probably repressed until now) the Y had a particular rule: If you’re going to swim, you must swim nude.

“Nude-nude?” I asked. “Totally nude,” he said.

He remembers the instructor telling them something about it being more sanitary that way. “But,” he conceded, “no one really questioned it.” After a moment, he paused.

“What the hell was that all about?”

I thought I’d investigate. Was my friend’s dad just recalling some adolescent nightmare? Was his swim teacher some pervy old dude? Or was this requirement legit? And if it was, why? How would not wearing a bathing suit be any less sanitary than skinny-dipping?

I called up Ryan Beam, who manages the official YMCA archives at the University of Minnesota, to ask him this question. He chuckled. “I get old guys calling up semi-regularly asking, ‘Whatever happened to nude swimming?’” Beam says. “It’s kind of a hidden mystery.”

Beam confirms my friend’s dad’s story, but notes that nude swimming classes weren’t just a YMCA thing. In fact, they were a national thing. The American Public Health Association mandated them from 1926 until 1962, and thousands of high schools around the country enforced the tradition.

In general, Americans might have been more buttoned-up at the time. But when it came to all-male activities–like swimming–there wasn’t much of a taboo around stripping down.

I have a new love, naked hiking. I just went on a 6-7 mile hike, 3-4 hours, completely naked. I dont take clothes, coverups, nor even towels. I hike completely naked, just boots and jewelry. It was great being alone with just the sun, the wind, and a lot of meditation time. I also went skinny dipping too. It was 62-65 with an 11 mph wind. Great day and totally recharged. There are other hikes planned on the AT in the sunner. I am planning on going on several this year.

Would like to develop a small group (5-10) of dedicated nudist friends here in N AL and Middle TN to travel and hang around with. 50s Married Male that was born a Nudist. Since the age of 5, my family has known I had a nudist gene in me. I started sleeping nude at 9 and I was allowed to be nude at home in front of my parents and others by age 12. I have been with AANR since 1998. I have written blogs about Nudism and Body Shaming for years. I am currently redoing my blog. Currently, I have 12-13K Followers.

Dedicated Christian Nudist and Body Acceptance Advocate. Nudism is such a large part of who I am, I could never see myself not being a nudist, or not being naked. I feel like it is truly part of my identity. I travel, visited several resorts, camp, hike, swim, etc.