Nudes in the news

[Peter S]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nudism-is-best-way-to-teach-sex-education-m8c2plm3s

Nice piece of work from British Naturism - unfortunately most of this articles is behind The Times' pay wall, but the first few paragraphs give the gist of it

peter

[jbeegoode]

Here's the study or whatever it is:  http://www.bn.org.uk/community/ccs_files/campaigns/ChildrenDeserveBetter_2016.pdf
I'm on a slow computer and I'll have to wait until I get home to read it. This is exciting to me. Some new ammunition. The most current stuff was getting kinda old, even though is hands-down whacks "What about the children" across the bottom.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Naturism Booms in France

Naturism booms in France as young eager to ditch clothes

Published: 13 Jun 2016 15:44 GMT+02:00
Updated: 13 Jun 2016 15:44 GMT+02:00

France now boasts a full 460 spaces totally dedicated to naturists, most of which are camps or colonies. There are also 73 naturist beaches, 35 bed and breakfasts, and 24 nudist swimming pools.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20160613/young-french-naturists-spark-boom-in-nudism

[John P]

... unfortunately most of this article is behind The Times' pay wall...

Irrelevant, but that triggered a memory of a skit I saw decades ago on British TV. It's presented as a man-on-the-street interview, and there's a waist-up view of a man with no shirt on. It goes like this:

Interviewer: Pardon me sir, do I take it you've come from the nudist resort down the road?
Man: Yes, that's right. I'm just on my way back with the newspaper.
Interviewer: So, you're just walking through the village dressed that way? I'd have thought that this was a pretty old-fashioned place.
Man: Oh, you'd be surprised, they have some very advanced ideas around here. I don't have any trouble as long as I'm the one who stays behind The Times.

And then the camera pulls back and you can see he has a newspaper wrapped around his hips, kilt-like. Maybe less than brilliant, but I seem to have remembered it.

[jbeegoode]

I sat down and read the paper, contemplated it, dug a little deeper on some of the points made and the figures given. It is a kinda boorish intellectual language, maybe tedious, BUT choir, it does provide a good argument. It relies heavily on teen pregnancy rates evidence, but dose that well.

It does a good job showing how stupid does what stupid is. The 'ol irrational BS human stuff that Captain Kirk would do to irritate Spock, or failing intellectual capacity. Getting through that, takes quite a few pages before meat and potatoes pan out.
Like I wouldn't suggest it to my problematic neighbor, who just cops attitude without clear thinking on a regular basis. It certainly ain't soundbite mentality for the impatient. Good stuff though.

It is as good an argument for sex education, as a banner waving for body freedom and health.

Social nudity and body honesty and realism are depicted as key factors in levels of teen pregnancy. The UK is like three times the healthier European Societies and the USA was depicted as 5 times higher. I dug deeper on this and found this quick blast of statistics about the US population:
Teen Pregnancy Statistics

    In 2013 273,105 babies were born to women ages 15-19
    In 2013 there were 26.5 births for every 1,000 girls ages 15-19
    89% of teenage parents are unmarried
    86,000 teens aged 15-17 gave birth in 2012
    Nearly 1,700 teens aged 15-17 give birth every week
    About 77% percent of teenage pregnancies are unplanned
    4 in 10 teenage girls who had sex at 13 or 14 report the sex was unwanted or involuntary
    15% of teen pregnancies end in miscarriage
    30% of teenage pregnancies end in abortion

Teen Pregnancy by Ethnicity in 15-19 Year Old Girls

    41.7 per 1,000 Hispanic girls reported a teen pregnancy in 2013
    39.0 per 1,000 Black girls reported a teen pregnancy in 2013
    18.6 per 1,000 White girls reported a teen pregnancy in 2013

These teen pregnancy statistics have fallen dramatically since 2000 with:

    87.3 per 1,000 pregnancies in Hispanic teen girls
    79.2 per 1,000 pregnancies in Black teen girls
    32.6 per 1,000 pregnancies in White teen girls

Teen Pregnancy Worldwide

    16 million girls ages 15-19 give birth each year
    Global birthrate among 15-19 year old girls is 49 in 1,000
    Complications of pregnancy is the 2nd highest cause of death in 15-19 year old girls
    3 million 15-19 year old girls have unsafe abortions every year
    The U.S. has twice the teen pregnancy rate as Canada
    Both Germany and France have a teen pregnancy rate that is four times lower than the U.S.
    Japan’s teen pregnancy rate is eight times lower the United States

Costs of Teen Pregnancy: Social, Economical, and Educational

    $9.4 billion tax dollars were spent on teen pregnancy and childbirth in 2010
    Only 50% of teen mothers age 15-19 earn a high school diploma
    Only 38% of teen mothers age 15-17 earn a high school diploma
    By age 30, only 1.5 percent of women who had pregnancies as a teenager have a college degree
    80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare
    50% of teen mother’s go on welfare within the first year
    The daughters of teen mothers are 22 percent more likely than their peers to become teen mothers
    Sons of teenage mothers have a 13 percent greater chance of ending up in prison as compared to their peers

This isn't just about a sick social more in the USA, screwing with body freedom. It is a cause of something that is ruining, or at the least limiting, millions of lives and costing the government billions and causing major social and political problems.

There is a section about how the internet self censorship, the exact same thing that killed TSNS website, is USA industry born and effecting the entire world in a highly negative manner.

http://www.bn.org.uk/community/ccs_files/campaigns/ChildrenDeserveBetter_2016.pdf

umm, ummm, umm!
Jbee

[eyesup]

JohnP, it did what it should have done. It stuck in you mind after all these years.

Jbee, there is so much more to the teen pregnancy issue than merely nudity issues. An entire culture here that emphasizes self-worth and self-image based on appearance and the opinions of others.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

Yea Eyesup, we're the antidote.

The paper showed a way big correlation that can't be ignored. It is a major significance, but yes there are other bits that contribute. For example, there is an entire cultural segment and expectation with peers in part of US society that gets kids pregnant, but that body issue statistical correlation just can't be ignored. Other related issues would fall like a house of cards, obviously depleting the rates of pregnancy, if we all were body free and exposed to nude people throughout life. If we just educated youth bodies could....One in four could be reduced to a fifth of that.
Jbee

[John P]

I hate to be cynical about the idea that naturism is good for people in every possible way(!!) but I have to wonder about cause and effect. Maybe the same factors that make people interested in naturism also help to produce well-adjusted children. It makes me think of what George Orwell wrote about trying to call a socialist meeting in England in the 1930s (I may have added some capital letters):

"One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, NUDIST, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England."

With parents who follow every progressive cause, how could children not grow up wise beyond their years?

[Greenbare Woods]

I sat down and read the paper, contemplated it, dug a little deeper on some of the points made and the figures given. It is a kinda boorish intellectual language, maybe tedious, BUT choir, it does provide a good argument. It relies heavily on teen pregnancy rates evidence, but dose that well.

Jbee

Somehow we have been convinced that "teen pregnancy" is wrong or bad.   Teen pregnancy is mother nature's plan.  If you look at the data the lowest rates of so-called "teen pregnancy" come from liberal white women who are non-breeding their race out of existence.  That too is the liberal goal. 

The highest rate of "teen pregnancy" in the US was in 1957, only nobody called it "teen pregnancy" or thought it bad in 1957.  In 1957 they only worried about "unwed mothers."   In 1957 way over 95% of pregnant women were happily married and getting on with their lives as mothers. 

Biologically women are ready and able to be mothers about age 14 and their strongest or best time to be bearing children is about age 16 to 18 during the so-called "teen" years.   

I'm not going on because this is getting political in response to political. 

[eyesup]

Agreed, Bob!

Jbee is right and you are also right.
And that discussion belongs on a forum more appropriate to that subject.

Most of us here believe that if there were more of what we discuss here there would be less of what would be discussed on that "more appropriate" forum.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

I like Bob's point. Rock star Jerry Lee Louis got grand grief in his career at  that time, but was it because of her age, or more because she was his cousin? Elvis had a young proper girlfriend, too young they said, but a proper courtship and marriage. All before birth control and the sexual revolution. Maybe that had something to do with the change to an arbitrary 18 years.

The 18 year thing in law plagues naturist. There are judgement deficiencies as a natural development issue in teenagers, but they are not completely stupid helpless children. The paper mentions that proper naturist value upbringing will help them determine better judgement. How is it that the sight of a nude body will tear up a young soul under eighteen, and within 24 hours, they can handle it, the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony? How is it that one teenager can handle it at 14 and anther still is alarmed at 18?

When parents think, discuss, and educate their children and starting early, they do better and make better judgement calls. Yes, perhaps naturist parents are more attentive. The way the deck is stacked the child rearing years are often not a time that one can be practicing naturism. The kids grow up and the nest goes with the clothes, the nude living and experimentation are done beforehand. During the years with the kids, grandparents are closer, families bond, school officials are meddling, the education system demands conformity, peer pressure from the outside, job takes away quality time, bodies of children are doing weird uncomfortable things before long, or not soon enough, etc.

I won't list the reasons that I think teen pregnancy and teen marriage is a crappy idea in most of this current world, or during my lifetime, but yea, there was a time and there are some biological perspective arguments.
Jbee

[Peter S]

Harking back to our Welsh hillside naked rambler, he's answered his critics:

http://nakedrambler.org/

A mystery Naked Rambler writing under the pseudonym ‘Machenman’ has spoken out after criticism of his nude run by fellow walkers on Machen Mountain made headlines in the South Wales Argus newspaper.

The man, known only as Chris, replied; “If I wanted to expose myself in public, I wouldn't be walking there at 6 am. I genuinely did not expect anyone else to be there. I enjoy doing what is a very natural activity, which is much more common in some other countries, and do not want to upset people. To put it in context - on two occasions while walking on the mountain I saw a couple of walkers and turned to go a different way to avoid close contact. The next time, I tried out an alternative route from further along the mountain in order to avoid them, but the first part was on a road, when I saw a couple of walkers coming towards me, not aware they may have been the same ones as before. On this occasion as I could not avoid passing, I did partly cover myself and both walkers passed looking directly ahead.”

In an apology online to the passing walker and his wife, Machenman said; “If your partner was upset, I am sorry, but as you said nothing, I was not aware I was causing any upset. And after all, no-one made you look, and all I did was walk past you.“

The nude article by Argus staff reporter Alice Rose received well over 70 colourful replies in the comments section, notably enhanced by the concerned walkers themselves. Surprisingly, the majority of  the views put forward by the public on this occasion seemed to have been in favour of the phantom Naked Rambler and in one comment, ITV Wales was said to be interested in doing a follow-up interview on the Machen Mountain incident.

peter

[John P]

That's great!

One notes what might be another call for Dr Freud:
"Phantom Naked Rambler Bares All on Nude Decent".

[eyesup]

So, Peter, is this latest post by you about the same guy in this post from earlier in May? As I am unfamiliar with the geography of your area I wouldn't know if the two places are close together.

Also, in the photo on the Naked Rambler site, if you click on it and go to the full frame picture, you can see what appears to be another hiker about halfway up the hill. Is that a person or some other artifact?

Reading through some of the comments on the article gives the impression that some of those responding have more pressing personal issues than witnessing a naked person. The majority of them seem to be ok with someone on a naked ramble, others though don't seem to be anyone I would want to be stuck sitting by on an airplane. 

I wasn't aware that there was a website devoted to The Naked Rambler. Is that about Mr. Gough or just anyone that takes it in their head to go rambling naked?

Duane

[Peter S]

I think the nakedrambler website was started to be about SG specifically, but as he's gone quiet and others have appeared in the press it seems to have widened it's scope a bit - if you look at past issues it highlighted the Scottish naked ramblers' outing a few months back, for instance.

The Welsh naked rambler in this piece is indeed the one reported earlier - this was his response to the South Wales Argus report (don't know where the response first appeared, but I don't think it was in the Argus), and of course since then we've also had the Bolton Naked Rambler reported as well. I think SG's "Naked Rambler" tag has become newspapers' easy headline for anyone spotted, or better still photographed, naked outside an urban area (in the UK you're only a "rambler" if you walk in the countryside).

Judging by the posts on other forums there's a lot of naked people strolling around out on the hills and in the woods. It's almost surprising there aren't more such sightings, but I know from my own experience that despite our appearance as a crowded little island, most people in Britain stay in town and, if they leave it, never move more than 50 yards from where they've parked their car.

peter