Author: Paul

Promoting the clothes-free lifestyle.

A nude photo in a gallery window

I found the below article on artnet. Isn’t it bizarre how much difference there is between perceiving a female or a male body? This has to change!!

Nude Photo in Gallery Window Gets a Rise Out of Neighbors

The photograph in question by Bek Andersen, in the window of Rivington Design House. Photo via Bowery Boogie

Lower East Side gallery Rivington Design House is in hot water with its neighbors over a photograph of a nude man displayed in its front window. Despite the fact that the image is not sexual or vulgar in any way, neighbors accused the gallerists of being unaware of or indifferent to the fact that many children pass by the Kenmare Street storefront every day.

The nude photo is the work of artist Bek Andersen, and is part of a show entitled “Clothed Female/Naked Male,” which seeks to shift the paradigm of nudity in art. “There is nothing pornographic or offensive happening in that photo,” Andersen told Gothamist. “It’s a portrait of a man. He is naked, but doing nothing indecent. We see naked women all the time in photos where they are highly sexualized and people don’t notice because they are desensitized.”

The backlash from community members only confirms Andersen’s point—that we are so accustomed to artistic nudity being limited to portrayals of women that we find it offensive when the male body is put on similar display.

Despite the wave of complaints, there are no reports that the work in question has been removed from the storefront. You can see the photographs, as well as the offended passersby, until August 15.

A new book! “Nude in Space”

If you’re an avid reader like I am, you may like to learn that I have published a new book. It’s a science fiction with nudism/naturism as an element. It’s not an epic space battle kind of scifi. Here is the back cover text:

Earth, somewhere in the future. The environment has changed. Cities are large, closed structures with permanent air conditioning, and nudist villages have appeared in the warmer areas.

When space explorers encounter problems while trying to ‘tame’ a new planet, they turn to the nudist population of earth for help. What will these nude space travellers encounter once they’ve left earth? And will they be able to return to their home planet?

And here is the cover image:

Nude in SpaceYou can find the book at Smashword via this link  , and on the Amazon’s stores: US, UK, DE, CA, and all the others.

Distribution to Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Apple iTunes will take a while but it will appear there too.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this book.

Driving naked. Some practical tips.

Hi there

You may have seen my post on driving ‘nudist style’. There are a few things I’ve noticed over time that might be good to share, especially for people who want to start out with kind of transport. Here we go:

  • Don’t cool your car as much as you’re used to when dressed. You are not dressed when you drive naked, less cold will be fine. Too cold might actually make you sick (or feel cold, which is no fun).
  • If you can drive without air conditioning, good for you. It’s my preferred way to do it. But: on very hot days cool down your car (and your body) before you put on your clothes. Otherwise your natural body heat will be caught beneath your clothes and that can feel very bad/hot.
  • Don’t rely on the UV filtering of your car windows. If you sit in the sun for a very long time some sunscreen is a smart idea.

Drive safely!

Barefoot makes me feel more naked.

I’m a home nudist. I like to go around naked in my own house. It’s a good feeling. The only thing I used to wear were slippers. A few days ago somehow I forgot to put them on and walked around barefoot. Then the realisation hit me: I feel more naked when I walk barefoot.

I was astonished about this and tried them on and off a few more times, each time reaching the same conclusion: barefoot feels more naked. I’ve given this some thought. The only reason for that feeling that I can find is that walking barefoot puts me in contact with the world. (As this is the floor of my home I can’t really say nature). Walking on slippers means I feel the same thing everywhere. Walking around barefoot makes me feel different things in different places. Maybe there’s more to it than I understand now. I wonder if any of you have experienced the same thing, so I’m looking forward to your comments on this!

Chronically Clothed: Thoughts on Nudity | The State Times

On Chronically Clothed: Thoughts on Nudity | The State Times. I found this text:

Last year, my cousin posted a link to an article about World Naked Gardening Day, an event celebrated by many horticulturists the first Saturday of every May. The idea behind the event is to tend to your crops and flowers in as raw a state as they are: completely unclothed. My first reaction was pure excitement, followed by extreme disappointment. Sure, I would love to step into my backyard, dig in the dirt and help something grow exactly as I am, but what would the consequences be? What would my family think? My neighbors? Would I be breaking the law?

Laws on nudity fit into Joel Feinberg’s offense theory. This theory states that in order for something to be outlawed, the action doesn’t need to be intrinsically harmful to another, it only has to produce an unpleasant feeling for others (e.g. shame, disgust, anxiety.) So what is it about nudity that makes people feel so shameful and anxious?

I believe one of the main reasons for these negative feelings is our tendency to equate nudity to sexuality. Because we have been conditioned to think of bathing and sex as the only acceptable times to be undressed, we are chronically clothed: it is even expected that while alone you have something on.  Reasons such as hygiene and protection from the environment do not need to be answered by law, but rather by common sense. Only we have a say in whether or not we put on a coat while it’s snowing, so why should a shirt have it’s own law? As for people going fully nude in public places, nudist colonies have already established common etiquette to keep everyone healthy, happy and clean.

I believe that nudity has the potential to facilitate better attitudes on body image and sex.  Outlawing your natural form in public causes people to be ashamed of their bodies, and in turn perpetuates the cycle of sexual confusion and shame. People ogling at the naked body does not spur from nudity, but from a puritanical school of thought that demonizes the very essence of what it means to be human.

As a fashion design major and apparel business owner, I am as big a clothing lover as they come. However, my interest in fashion is how it supplements a person physically and artistically, not in how it covers something that is supposedly short of perfect. The change would demand a huge psychological shift in seeing nudity as commonplace, and not a form of forbidden fruit. I am not talking about a full-fledge shift into a constant state of undress, (that would be impractical on many levels) but just the acceptability of me sitting in my garden, as exactly the person that I am.

Nude is normal…For all the pictures click here: