Levi Johnston - A Gay Icon is Born

Levi Johnston nude photos from Playgirl. It's not nudism, but who can resist taking a peek. [via Mediaite]

Culture is Politics

"Culture is politics."

So exclaims Frank Rich in his essay today on the Sarah Palin phenomenon. Whatever your political lean, there can be no doubt that Palin's rise stems from her connection to cultural issues, such as abortion and religion, and her seemingly effortless ability to resonate with people who are fearful of change. It's an apocalyptic message, repeated in an equally populist way by Glenn Beck, that America, and life as we know it, is about to end if leftist and progressive ideas and agendas are allowed to thrive.

Suddenly, with the election of our nation's first African-American President, these fears have bubbled to the surface, with teabagging masses descending upon Washington DC like the torch-wielding mobs in "Frankenstein", trying to kill what they simply do not understand. It's totally irrational, but people who are afraid do not take time to seek out the facts, they only know what they feel, and voices like Palin and Beck, with their incessant demonization-du-jour, tap into that raw, visceral emotion.

Matt Taibbi, in a must-read column, hits the nail on the head.

At the end of this decade what we call “politics” has devolved into a kind of ongoing, brainless soap opera about dueling cultural resentments and the really cool thing about it, if you’re a TV news producer or a talk radio host, is that you can build the next day’s news cycle meme around pretty much anything at all, no matter how irrelevant — like who’s wearing a flag lapel pin and who isn’t, who spent $150K worth of campaign funds on clothes and who didn’t, who wore a t-shirt calling someone a cunt and who didn’t, and who put a picture of a former Vice Presidential candidate in jogging shorts on his magazine cover (and who didn’t).

It doesn’t matter what the argument is about. What’s important is that once the argument starts, the two sides will automatically coalesce around the various instant-cocoa talking points and scream at each other until they’re blue in the face, or until the next argument starts.

A month ago I wrote about AANR's director Erich Schuttauf and his public comments about two cultural issues - the man arrested in Virginia for being nude in his own home, and the parents in Arizona who were arrested for taking nude photos of their children. Schuttauf got caught up in the noise on these issues, the 24 hour news spin, and made them official AANR issues, when in fact they were of marginal passing interest, fodder for blogs and forums, and not worthy of official comment or statement from nudist organizations. As I predicted, both of these stories dropped off the radar just as quickly as they appeared.

The challenge for nudists and naturists today is to separate the real issues out of the incessant noise of cultural argument, and to formulate a plan for future acceptance of nude recreation in society.

The recent battle over San Onofre Beach illustrates how the cultural divide is threatening nude sunbathing. Without rehashing the entire case, suffice it to say that California Parks officials banned nudity at San Onofre more on cultural reasons than practical. As the Naturist Action Committee reported on 5/30/08: "It is their (Parks Department officials) firm belief that the only way to rid the park of the criminals in the parking lot, on the Marine Base and the occasional miscreant on our beach is to remove the most supportive and positive influence there, the honest naturists at Trail 6."

This is a clear case of public officials taking on a "cultural enemy" rather than deal with the real issue at hand, both as a matter of expediency and to create the illusion that they were on top of the issue. Allen Baylis outlines the irrationality behind the San Onofre decision in his "Fact or Fiction" essay.

As I've noted before, I supported the NAC's lawsuit at San Onofre, even though the chances for success were slim. It was important for nudists and naturists to band together and fight, even for a lost cause, in order to bring attention to the issue, and gather support. When AANR chose not to support the NAC and pursue a course of appeasement and negotiation, they effectively threw San Onofre Beach under the bus, and revealed nudists and naturists to be a divided and weakened force.

In this particular battle in the culture wars, the NAC decided to fight the real battle, while AANR decided to run with what Taibbi refers to as a "brainless soap opera", blaming the NAC, claiming "victory" through appeasement, and scoring political points at the expense of a real loss for nude recreation.

It's truly shameful, especially from an organization that calls itself "the credible voice of reason for nude recreation." Even the use of such a slogan is divisive, inferring that The Naturist Society or other organizations have no credibility. It's just like Fox News when it refers to itself as "fair and balanced."

On the other hand, TNS proclaims as part of its mission statement: "The Naturist Society believes the interests of naturists are advanced through education and community outreach. TNS recognizes it is part of a larger community and welcomes the challenge of spreading the naturist and nudist message."

Taibbi goes on to say:

Complaining about the assholes we interact with on a daily basis is the #1 eternal pastime of the human race. We all do it, and we get to do it every day, because the world is full of assholes...and when we get home from work, this is usually what our loved ones hear about for at least the first hour or so.

Not health care, not financial regulatory reform, not Iraq or Afghanistan, but — assholes.

AANR and the NAC have been engaging in the assholes debate for the last year and a half. AANR blames the NAC for endangering nudity on all California state beaches, and the NAC blames AANR for giving Parks officials the impression that San Onofre was expendable. Plenty of assholes to blame on this one.

The blame game has reached epic proportions in today's culture. Don't like health care reform? Blame Obama, blame Pelosi, blame Reid. Don't like the lack of health care reform? Blame Boehner, blame Bush, blame all the obstructionist Republicans.

Sarah Palin fits perfectly into this new meme, never taking responsibility for her own failures, but rather blaming all of the assholes in her life, like Katie Couric, Steve Schmidt, Newsweek, or any other person or entity which dares to stand in the way of her ordained mission to save America. She is the self-proclaimed "credible voice" of the people.

The problem with all of this brainless cultural chatter is that it accomplishes nothing. We leap from one argument to the next without ever solving real problems. Issues like health insurance reform, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the current economic crisis should not be fodder for petty political posturing, but rather battles that need to be fought together as the common interests of all the American people. Life and death issues should not be debated "Hardball" style day in and day out - there has to come a time when doing the right thing trumps doing the political thing.

Same with San Onofre. The time has come for the asshole arguments to cease. I don't give a damn who is the "credible" voice on the public beaches issue, I just want results.

There's a scene in the Pixar movie "Up" where a talking dog is engaged in conversation when he suddenly turns his head and exclaims "Squirrel!". This sudden animated canine distraction says more about our culture as Americans than it does about the dog. In the midst of world-shattering crises, we are all to willing to focus our attention on the inane, such as Balloon Boy, Jon and Kate, and the Thrilla from Wasilla who winks and says "You Betcha" as part of her political platform.

Mixing culture with politics not only further divides people, it over-simplifies issues into black and white, completely erasing the gray. Nuance and subtelty are the backbones of any meaningful debate, and the essence of problem solving, so when we reduce these complex matters into stick figure cartoons, we render ourselves ineffective and irrelevant. As Matt Taibbi says, we are in danger of waging a "virtually endless war over nonsense."

Nudists and naturists need to realize than in a culturally explosive atmosphere, the nude lifestyle loses. We have practically no political power, and even less when divided into opposing camps. We are also in the odd position where non-sexual social nudity is taboo for most of mainstream America, and too tame for the swinger and porn culture which is a thriving sub-sector taking over traditional nudist venues.

We are literally caught in the middle.

So what is the prescription for nudists in dealing with this society where culture and politics are one and the same?

The floor is open for intelligent debate.

Worth Watching Again

This episode of National Geographic Taboo is a couple of years old, but worth viewing again, especially since the grandmother, Marion Hagans, died this past September. Her obit is here. The following tribute is from the South Florida Free Beaches news:

Marion passed away peacefully in her sleep the weekend of September 19th at her home at Lake Como Resort in Land O' Lakes. Marion was a board member of B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation and a long-time SFFB member who often helped out at Haulover special events, most recently the world record skinny-dip in July. Marion had traveled the country widely, visiting many nudist resorts, and was an ambassador for naturism, appearing in many public forums through the years. For many years she hosted the Lake Como singles group parties at her house. She will be remembered for her warm smile and her many good deeds, including donating the hydraulic chair lift for the Lake Como swimming pool.

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Has This Blog Made a Difference in Your Life?

Or any blog, or any online nudist/naturist site. I'm just curious. I've had a couple of people recognize me at nudist events and thank me for inspiring them to take the plunge into social nudism.

For me, it was Sunny Day's blog which really stirred the inner nudist in me, because her forays into open fields rekindled memories from the 1970s when I used to sunbathe nude on my parents' rural property. ClothesFree.com was also influential, showing me that there was a real, solid and supportive nudist community out there.

I do fear that many people out there are frequenting nudist blogs and websites but not crossing the line into actual nude social interaction. Perhaps the online social networks line Nudist Clubhouse, Skinbook and True Nudists are turning nudism into some sort of weird online exhibitionism club, excluding families and children and encouraging more "hooking-up" than actual nudism or naturism.

Today I am inspired by The Academic Naturist and his intellectual approach to the lifestyle, Morley Schloss and his Sunsport Gardens Resort, Tom and Mary Clare at the Terra Cotta Inn and their open and enthusiastic embrace of nudism, Dr. Paul Rapoport of the FCN and his wonderful work with TERA, the Naturist Action Committee, Allen Baylis and all the good folks fighting the free beaches issue in California, and Mark Storey and the people in Seattle advocating body freedom.

And while I do appreciate the work done by AANR and TNS, they do little these days to truly inspire me.

So what has, and what does move you to be a nudist or naturist?

PETA Uses Nude Keely Hazell in Anti-Fur Ad

As far as I know, PETA has not shown fully nude female breasts in any of its anti-fur ads, but the activist organization has taken their campaign to the next step by showing model Keeley Hazell's nipples. You can argue that it's shameless exploitation, or a political stunt, but the bottom line is that another line has been crossed in making nudity more populist and mainstream. It's obvious that Ms. Hazell is very comfortable in her own skin.

SFW link here.
NSFW photo here.

USA Today Covers the California Nude Beach Story

USA Today picked up on the banning of nudity at California's San Onofre Beach, and both Bob Morton and Allen Baylis are quoted. It's noteworthy that AANR was not interviewed for the article.

Park Superintendent Richard Haydon warns:

"We are going to be moving forward with starting to enforce the nudity statute down at San Onofre, and basically returning that portion of the beach to all people who want to go down there without fear of running into something they didn't think they would," Haydon said. "People should very well be under notice."

I really despise this so-called "rationale". How can you exclaim that you are returning the beach to "all" people by banning those who most frequent the area? This is clear discrimination. All that needs to be done is put up a sign or two warning about nude sunbathers so people don't have to live in "fear" of seeing too much flesh.

Most of the article is retread material, but Baylis does note that people are ready to be arrested in order to bring the matter before the criminal courts as a matter of civil disobedience. Unfortunately, with a government intent on robbing people of basic freedoms, sometimes that's the only way. I only hope that Baylis has the numbers of people necessary to make such a protest effective.

WARNING! Viewing This Blog Could Land You in Prison

That's what happened to a Buffalo man, who was sentenced to one to three years in state prison for "viewing the Web sites of nudist colonies."

Yes, the man is a convicted sex offender, and I am certainly not defending his admitted criminal behavior, but one of the downsides to living in a so-called free society is that people are generally going to say and do things that are offensive to other people.

There is nothing illegal about being a nudist, engaging in social nudism, possessing nudist and naturist materials, and viewing nudist web sites.

I don't know the terms of this man's probation. Was he also barred from bookstores, museums, watching television, going to the movies, reading magazines, or going to the Sports Illustrated web site to view the swimsuit models? It's rather difficult to avoid sexually-charged material in today's culture.

This is a major red flag for nudists and naturists everywhere, that at least one judge considers the lifestyle to be sexual, a magnet for pedophiles, and a possible catalyst for illegal and criminal behavior.

When faced with sexual crimes, society seems to be more than willing to sacrifice freedoms in return for some sort of false reassurance that the government is providing protection. The fact is that the government cannot protect the population against everything - already 1 out of every 100 citizens is incarcerated in America, the highest in the world. 25% of the world's incarcerated people are in the United States, which contains only 5% of the total population on the planet.

It seems that we are more than willing to criminalize just about everything that scares us just a wee bit. 500,000 people are in American jails for drug-related crimes alone. A male living in the United States has an 11.3% chance of going to prison during his lifetime.

It's clear that this process of throwing people in jail for all of society's ills is not working. The recent case of Anthony Sowell who is accused of the serial murders of several women in Cleveland, Ohio, clearly illustrates the failure of the system on all levels.

With education, job training, mentoring and substance abuse programs in short supply behind bars, it is a challenge for inmates to clean up their acts and improve their situations. When they are released, ex-felons face an uphill battle to land even the most menial, low-paying jobs. This nation continues to punish the formerly incarcerated after they have paid their debt to society. Many professions and employers bar applicants with a criminal record, and many public housing and college loan opportunities are beyond reach.

Not surprisingly, many ex-cons cannot care for their families or become productive members of society. But they do manage to hone their skills and become better criminals.

And now we're locking up people for their sexual urges, which only further serves to frustrate and bottle up a sex drive which will eventually find a means of expression, often in a violent manner.

Taking someone who is getting sexual gratification from web sites and throwing him into the realm of prison sex, with rape, slavery, violence, and homosexuality, is not going to solve the problem. Once he's back out, he's likely to be in much worse sexual health than when he went in.

I certainly don't have the answers, but it seems to me that the punitive actions society is inflicting on people for real and perceived sex crimes is actually making the problem worse. In the case of sexting teens, who exchange nude photos of themselves with cell phones, charging them with felonies and putting them on sex offender registries is absolutely going to ruin their lives and encourage real criminal behavior in order to survive in a hostile society.

So this poor schmuck in Buffalo who exposed himself to some boys in 2002 at a YMCA camp, and fondled another, doesn't have a chance at rehabilitation. Many will argue that he should be locked up for good. But since his original violation, if the worst thing he did was look at some nudist web sites, then this illustrates our society's deep-seated fear of sexuality and the human body, and its cavalier willingness to discard human beings onto this virtual trash heap we call the justice system.

It's no longer about what is fair, or best for society, it's about money and politics. The recent case of the cash-for-kids scandal in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, shows how incredibly cold and cruel we can be to our own children when there's a buck to be made.

Prison is big business, and big business needs customers. Don't think for a second that YOU are not on their radar.