Go Comics is sponsoring The Great Non Sequitur Sign-Off, a chance for the public to test their comic skills. Those entering should write something to fill in the blank on the sign outside the Au Naturel Deli. But hurry, the contest ends December 4. For complete contest information, click here.
We’d love to hear some of your entries. Please post a comment and let us know what you submitted.
This week, two television shows promoted the joys of skinny-dipping. Nudists, of course, have long known the pleasure of swimming in the buff while feeling the coolness of the water and warmth of the sun against bare skin. Hopefully, after watching these shows, there will be some new converts to skinny-dipping who will wonder what took them so long to try it for themselves.
Channel Canada will air a six-part series “Skinny Dip,” beginning November 18 on Travel & Escape. Following the success of last year’s hour-long special, host Eve Kelly travels the world in search of the best locations to skinny-dip, challenging unsuspecting strangers along the way to try swimming au naturel. Episodes include travels to the Canadian Yukon, Costa Rica, Australia, the Bahamas, British Columbia, and New Zealand.
Click here for a show schedule and to read more.
Wednesday’s “Oprah Winfrey Show” was themed “Step Out of Your Box,” and challenged four women to try things they had never tried before. A mother of four, a woman who just lost her husband and job, a neonatologist, and a single mother of two boys were urged to break from their daily routines. Ali Wentworth guided the women through a roller derby, skydiving–and skinny-dipping.
After the women disrobed and ran into the ocean, one contestant remarked, “Who cares what we look like? We’re just going to literally get out of our skin and be a bunch of gals naked in the ocean.”
Click here to read more.
Today’s Dear Abby column in newspapers across the country features an article from a woman, “Eve,” who is concerned about her husband “Adam’s” desire to spend most of his time at home in the nude. The couple lives in a secluded home in the country, and “Adam” frequently mows the lawn, gardens, and hikes au naturel. “Eve” wants to know Abby’s thoughts on joining him or if Abby feels “Adam” might have gone too far when he was mowing the grass nude and the UPS truck pulled up.
Read Eve’s letter and Abby’s response by clicking here.
Commentary by AANR Executive Director Erich Schuttauf…
Who knew that an article appearing two weeks ago in The New York Times entitled “When Do They Need a Fig Leaf?” about parental attitudes toward nudity and children would generate so much discussion? From journalists to child experts to everyday people, it seems everyone has an opinion about whether it is proper to be nude in front of one’s own children at home, for the kids to be nude, what to do about guests, and whether romping in the backyard sprinkler au naturel is okay.
For those of you who saw the original Times piece the letters to the editor which appeared days later and included an “official” response from AANR or the reader comments on the Times website, there are many words from parents and professionals alike in which to find comfort.
The same is true for opinions on a Today show television segment. And “spinoff” stories appearing in other media spurred by the intensity of interest in this topic…
Clearly, there are many people who may not consider themselves nudists who believe that nudity is a natural, healthy choice for families.
However, you owe it to yourselves and your clubs to peruse the comments, quips, and in a few cases vitriolic outbursts, from those who disagree with family nudity of any kind. A range of objections from claims it is unsanitary—just about every news article, it seems, had to include some jarring mention of toddlers taking an unexpected whiz on the lawn—to immoral, rude, even outright dangerous to allow any nudity beyond individual showering.
This speaks to an issue that may be lost in the very true statistics we often cite about how many North Americans have gone skinny-dipping, or think beaches should be set aside for nude bathing: the vehement, even chauvinist attitudes of those who disapprove of nudity. In their exaggerated reports, refusal to consider facts, and protests that they “DON’T care how families do things in Europe,” one understands why their must be organizations like AANR, its regions, and clubs to provide a credible voice to counter bald assertions and “what ifs.”
Please remember stories like this the next time someone poolside asks, “Why do nudists need AANR?”
Yesterday’s New York Times Green Inc. blog posed the question,”How Green Is a Nudist Vacation?” now that summer has arrived. The article was accompanied by a photo of a naked surfer at San Onofre State Beach in California. Mainstream media is recognizing what nudists already know–that clothes-free living helps the environment and the soul.
The American Association for Nude Recreation has long touted the benefits of the au naturel lifestyle. It reduces energy consumption and the use of natural resources while allowing people to appreciate nature in our most natural state. As the NYT piece stated, living naked means less laundry, resulting in less pollution and less energy usage, and clothes-free living also creates less of a need for consumerism.
The Green Inc. blog post discussed nudist destinations such as the Aquitane region in France and nude hiking in the Swiss Alps, but a greener way to enjoy nude travel is to take a vacation close to home. With over 260 AANR clubs and resorts throughout North America and the Caribbean, there is sure to be an AANR club nearby where one can enjoy nude recreation without traveling far from home, reducing fuel costs and consumption.
An added benefit to nude recreation is feeling closer to nature. There is nothing like feeling the sun or a cool breeze against one’s naked body or skinny-dipping unencumbered by a tight-fitting bathing suit. Many prominent figures from Benjamin Franklin to Henry David Thoreau to Walt Whitman have written about the joys and health benefits of being one with nature in their natural state.
Next month, July 6-11, is Nude Recreation Week, an annual event where many AANR clubs host open houses to introduce newcomers to nude recreation. Many nonlanded or travel clubs coordinate special events during that time. One fun way to get an introduction to nude recreation is to attend The AANR World Record Skinny-Dip on July 11, a Guinness World Records event, as thousands of nudists across North America in various locations simultaneously experience the joys of skinny-dipping while setting a world record.
Nude recreation has a positive effect on the environment while also providing a stress-free, natural way to vacation. As Walt Whitman said,”Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is–nor what faith or art or health really is.”
The latest nude calendar story to hit the media comes from none other than Oxford University, the prestigious London academic institution. Sixty students shed their clothes to pose for a nude calendar to benefit the university’s TravelAid, a program that provides funding for students that volunteer abroad.
Nude calendars are not really news anymore. Arguably the most well-known nude calendar is the one created 10 years ago when a group of middle-aged British women were looking for a unique way to raise money in memory of a friend’s late husband who died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Their efforts resulted in the Yorkshire Dales Nude Calendar, which spawned a hit movie, Calendar Girls, starring Helen Mirren and sparked a global trend in nude calendars. The women recently announced they are planning to release another nude calendar in 2010 to benefit Leukemia Research.
Statistics are available to show how nude calendars financially benefit a variety of worthwhile causes from cancer to animal rescue. Yet statistics are unclear as to whether participants in the ventures actually find a new-found body acceptance and/or respect for the fundamentals of nudism.
The Oxford students apparently did. In an article posted about the making of the calendar at SmasHits.com, the students said, “We all got such a taste for stripping after we shot the calendar that we couldn’t stop taking our clothes off around campus–it might be catching. I think we were all shocked at how much we enjoyed it.”
What do you think? Might something such as posing for a nude calendar highlight what nudists already know–the stress-free liberation of going au naturel–for someone who has never experienced it before? Might it lead to new converts to nudism?
