Nudes in the news

[eyesup]

Sorry John, I assumed (my bad) that you were also posting those after you got home.

Yes, the “pictorial” I was referring to was in fact your photo report of the trip. I was aware you were posting from the trail, but I thought you had finished up after returning home.

I find the presentation of such a large group of people with an interest in naturism wonderful. It keeps me hopeful of eventually finding a group, even if it is small.

Yes! Finish it! If it’s no trouble, more photos would be great.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

Yep! Power is a much more potent aphrodisiac than gold.

Duane

Not in my experience, or observations.
Jbee

[JOhnGw]

But gold or its equivalent has always been closely associated with power and influence, although distinguishing cause and effect is often more difficult.

[BlueTrain]

Well, typically those who run things have the most wealth, although not necessarily literally in gold. But you have to think small and dismiss the idea of a massive government. After all, local government affects your life more than the state or federal government. It's complicated, though. Governments usually don't try to control your every thought, even though that seems to be the aim of the more extreme governments, both on the left and the right. That's called totalitarianism. In the small towns and counties that most of us probably grew up in, there were wealthy people who basically did everything in local government, although "wealthy" is highly elastic and not to be confused with the super-wealthy of today. We'll talk about them in a minute.

The local gentry and professionals took an interest in civic affairs because that's where they lived. They were born there and so had their parents and grandparents. True, they benefited more than other people but you probably knew where they stood.

Today, I think there is a lack of such people because local businesses are not what they used to be. Instead, you have branches of chain stores the managers of which are beholden to someone halfway across the country. All they care about is the bottom line and the possibility of promotion so they can move somewhere else. But none of this makes any difference to us who are interested in nudist affairs.

The problem is that the wealthy make rules for the rest of us to follow but which they don't have to follow themselves. We can't be nude at home in the backyard (you would say "garden"). They fly off to Jamaica and do whatever they please. Life is not fair.

[jbeegoode]

When younger, I strove to amass lots of money to buy my freedom, to position me. In many ways, it created dependence on the buck, fear of losing the gain, a sense of power from what I did to protect the wealth. I was raised to believe that measures had to be taken and that the dominate natural human trait is a dog eat dog society. I was a warrior making his way through a world of fears and distrust.

All the while, I was experimenting, stripping away the silly social context that I inherited. I was trying to define what it was, what personal utopia that I was escaping to, what I would create for myself with that wealth. Then, the other Jbee was a child of the sixties, kind of a hippie, part of a social revolution.

The money corrupted as over indulgence. Hey, money is fun.

So, some things happened to me and now I'm finding each moment, nature, heart and a different sense of security. I surround myself with nice people and they are out there, because such attracts nice. I look at the better parts of others, not their potential flaws and treat them accordingly. The most genuine tend to have less fear, they can feel safe enough to get naked around others, as it is quite often. When I shake off the drapery, I shake off quite a bit more than those drapes. When I'm living without clothing, my focus is more away from the negatives, the driven, the fearful, the exploiting. It may sound like placing oneself in a dream world, but it actually pans out as more like living an alternative. It doesn't cost as much as my youthful Jbee would have conceived.

So, where do you want to live? What is authentic? How can we skirt around the dominate sickness, the unfair, and find and be some kind of light in the darkness? If you were lost in the darkness of a cave, wouldn't you search for light, gather it, appreciate it, and use it to find more to sustain it? The simple wonderful act of experiencing natural nudity is like a torch for me in the darkness. It helps to illuminate my life and promotes inner peace. Not just a trip report, but walking to the fridge and getting a glass of water, and experiencing that, too.

Hmmm, a naked philosopher now, too....
Jbee

[John P]

All right Duane (and everyone else?) I've posted a final set of pictures in the Trip Report section. Then there will be some from Germany, and that'll be it for last summer. Just in time for this summer!

[jbeegoode]

What's happening this summer? The Summer Gathering and...? The My big plans bucket list is not going off this year. I'm still making adjustments, but the trajectory is in.
Jbee

[eyesup]

The Summer Gathering and...?

? ? ?

Summer gathering and some are not.
Was there a plan to have one? Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Details!!

Duane

[John P]

I believe JBG is referring to the Eastern Naturist Gathering, which I started a thread about in Factory Farmed Naturism. Details here:
http://www.naturist.com/tns/n_events/TNS_Events.html

Everyone should come!

[Greenbare Woods]

I believe JBG is referring to the Eastern Naturist Gathering, which I started a thread about in Factory Farmed Naturism. Details here:
http://www.naturist.com/tns/n_events/TNS_Events.html

Everyone should come!

More likely JBG refers to the Rainbow Tribe summer gathering that he has posted about before.  Its been his thing for many years. 

[jbeegoode]

I was referring to the Eastern Gathering and asking John P. if he had any nude adventure planned for the coming season.

Rainbow is back east however. I'd like to do both within an epic road-trip, but this year is being usurped by change and the push to get through it.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Not nude but see through body cover

Bateman made news last week when she arrived to a university function wearing nothing but a completely transparent leotard and evening shoes.

In response to a volley of criticism she had received, Bateman told Pluralist on Tuesday that her provocative act was part of a fight against what she sees as a regressive trend in attitudes toward women.

"The world is on the edge of moving backwards rather than forwards in regard to women's freedom," she said over email. "That includes women's freedom to dress as they wish - at both ends of the spectrum."

There was no mention of any consideration of arresting her for exposure. 

 
https://www.pluralist.com/posts/1212-cambridge-professor-who-showed-up-naked-to-dinner-says-she-got-verbal-abuse-from-women

[John P]

Uh huh. I imagine that the men at this event were wearing the standard male uniform--full coverage in some form, anyway. And how welcome would a deviation from that have been? All she's doing is the standard "women on display" format, just a bit more extreme than at the Academy Awards.

I assume that under British law, and given that it was indoors anyway, she wasn't running much risk of arrest. But then again, if it's "conduct likely to cause alarm and distress"--perhaps that could lead to trouble.

[jbeegoode]

Bless her. Universities are often where revolutionary ideas take hold and get distributed.

She is making a great point. At a place as tight as Cambridge, at least by reputation presented to me (I probably don't know enough about Cambridge), she has guts.

This reminds me of the liberation of the bra. Women's insecurities, the usual social and workplace pressure and in a few years they were back to bras. It wasn't men that did this to women, it was women. A few male employers made prudish requirements, but it was women. I'm not surprised by the reactions either.

Men do the same to men, except the reaction would be very different, if a male prof tried to pull this off.

I think that she was making conversation, getting people to think. More women should do things of this ilk to get the talk going. I don't think that this compares with the red carpet dresses. That is calculated to get recognition, a splash, for money and career promotion in Hollywood. At a local college ball it is not the same. She is wearing a compromised nude outfit, instead of a provocative tease ensemble designed by a high couture designer. She is a prof, not a sex symbol. Motive and lack of decoration sets her apart. It is not meant to be sexy, but she doesn't dismiss being sexy as particularly wrong. I think that it would be akin to comparing naked bike ride to a red carpet.

It would help women's liberation, if issues like this included both genders. Isn't the ultimate goal equality, choice, liberation?

Her point goes along with much of the points made on the "Legalize Public Nudity --- Free our bodies and our minds!" thread that was systematically high-jacketed, diminished and censored.
http://freerangenaturism.com/forum/index.php?topic=1115.0
Jbe

[eyesup]

An in your face demonstration of double standards. Way to go!

Now this is interesting. She clearly intended to cause a dust up. Yet was she nude? Technically, no. Metaphorically, yes! For the purposes she intended, yes. She was also in a private function, not out in the public. As JohnP mused, will someone try to use the recent law modifications to correct her behavior?

I was recently reading an article about how the harassment of women exists even in the hallowed halls of science. Apparently, highly educated men will also behave like pubescent teenagers. I have read more than once of women scientists that have either made discoveries or achieved breakthrough research only to have tenured male colleagues take over and get credit.

Hope she doesn’t allow the headwinds to slow her down.

Duane