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WILD AND WONDERFUL NEWS & VIEWS / GRANDES NOUVELLES & PETITES RUMEURS
by Marlene Ellio tt and GN/AN staff
Down with prudes
An acclaimed illustrator/author from Germany has written a
series of children’s books that depict adults and children in
everyday activities. The books have become best-sellers in 13
countries.
Rotraut Susanne Berner was pleased that an American
publisher, Boyds Mills Press, also wanted her new book,
Winter-Wimmelbuch (published by Gerstenberg in Germany),
until she was told that there would have to be changes to the
illustrations. A scene inside an art gallery could not show a
painting of a nude woman on a wall or a statue of a nude
man on a pedestal.
Down with reprisals
Tom Reynolds, a retired University of Texas
professor and former Notre Dame linebacker, is a hero after rescuing a victim from
a violent robbery at a hotel in New York
City in June. He heard a commotion outside
his room in the middle of the night and
dashed out into the hall to hit the robber.
The hero was naked. He did not pursue
the thief through the hotel for fear of
reprisals. The robber, suspected of an additional attack, got away.
When will we get our priorities straight?
Down with packaging
Staff at a store in Lincoln, Lincolnshire,
England were part of a country-wide campaign in July by employees of Lush natural
cosmetics to protest against unnecessary
packaging earlier this summer. Lush products are said to be environmentally friendly and use as little packaging as possible.
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The scandalous scene itself
We might not be too surprised about this until we realize
that the illustrations are cartoons and the “offending” parts
very small. The barely discernible penis is a mere half-millimetre long on a man seven millimetres high! Berner said that if
the US publisher found the parts offensive, they should not be
removed or retouched but blacked out: “If you’re going to
censor something, then the reader should be aware of it.”
That way, the ridiculous censorship itself couldn’t be concealed.
The publisher declined. One German headline summed it
up in a double meaning: “Micro-penis excites US publisher.”
The store staff in several locations chose
to make their point by removing their own
“packaging” to wear only their shopkeepers’ aprons while handing out materials on
the street. The demonstration in Lincoln
was stopped after much less than the
planned hour by Lincolnshire police after
complaints about the bare bums. Why do
bums upset people more than potential
environmental damage?
Show your packaging
Earlier this year, organic cosmetics named
Elave, from a company in Ireland, were the
subject of the first known major ad in
Britain that has actors wearing nothing at all
with no censoring. At the site
<www.elave.ie/nothing-to-hide>, on YouTube
and elsewhere, the video ad became a sensation, with millions of viewers.
It uses a woman to narrate and various
male and female researchers, in a parody of
a typical white-coated cosmetics lab. The
company’s owner, Joanna Gardiner, put
herself in the ad, well hidden at a desk
behind a computer.
The video took 16 hours to make.
“Now I know what it must be like to visit
a nudist beach,” Gardiner explained,
“because it’s true that you do stop noticing
everyone is naked after a while, although
at first I felt like a complete prude.”
When she showed the video to her staff
of 49, “they nearly fell off their chairs.”
Although not shown on British television, it
did increase sales by a very large amount.
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photo by Marine Conservation Society / eyeforanimage
The best way to answer the
phone
Butts (1)
Three groups in Britain—the Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage,
and the Central Council for British Naturism—worked together this summer to
tackle the issue of cigarette butts that end up in the water environment with potentially destructive effects on marine animals all over the world.
Butts discarded on land far from coasts are washed into storm drains, streams,
and rivers and may eventually end up on beaches and in oceans. Campaigners are
asking smokers to dispose of their cigarette ends responsibly, in an ashtray or butt
bin. British naturists reinforced this message by posing with “No butts on the
beach!” painted on them (in the only possible spot) while holding a giant cigarette
butt. That effort was partly for their charity of the year, which was MCS.
We’ve all heard the expression “Use your head,” but these folks used their
heads and their butts!
A spokesperson for an online recruiting
company says that when we’re job hunting, it’s important to dress professionally
to receive call-backs at home: “You will
have a different demeanour if you’re
wearing your pyjamas versus if you’re
wearing clothes…Those things are reflected over the voice when people can’t see
you.”
She’s right in general but hasn’t
thought this through. If you’re nude when
that call comes, you’ll sound able and
confident!
The best way to read a magazine
We received this photo from Robert Paul
Vezina in Ottawa, longtime ON/NO
member. He writes that he was a wannabe
naturist for years before he discovered
Butts (2)
Last summer, New York City’s Times Square Church didn’t like an ad on a building where the church rents space. Maybe they didn’t mind that the ad was for a
line of Washlet bidets. What got them in the end was…the end, in fact six of them,
four women’s and two men’s unclad derrières depicted in the ad.
The church’s pastor did not go for this particular rear-view mirror on his
church. He may also have felt bummed out because the bottom line was a bunch of
smiley…faces?
His cheeky words weren’t bootyful: “It is instantaneously obvious that this
advertisement is too indecent for public display…It is certainly unsuited for public
exposure to children, and antithetical to the values of our congregation and
church.” A bit asinine, that. He could have made a more assured, assiduous
assumption and association by asserting it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Eventually the company responsible replaced the ad with the same photos covered by a banner proclaiming “Clean is happy. No ifs, ands or…”
official naturist places, and groups like the
FCN. He describes naturism as a “comfortable lifestyle of fun, friendship, and
relaxation…When life gets you down,
throw your troubles in the closet, with all
your clothes!”
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The best way to spend money
photo by Marc Welter
In the last issue of GN/AN, we told you
about the US$2 bills flooding Pasco
County, Florida to raise awareness of the
spending power of the naturists in the
area. The same idea caught on on the west
coast, with the Southern California
Naturist Association.
Spending the usually rare $2 bills there
is part of a campaign to reinstate Bates
Beach, just north of Ventura County, as
clothing optional. Shop merchants are
asked to think about naturism and its economic benefits to the community, and
support re-opening the CO beach for a
one-year trial.
Bates had been clean, safe, and
clothing optional for about 30 years until
2000. After local homeowners forced
closure of the beach to nudity, no one
ventured onto it but undesirable types.
The beach became so unsafe that the antinaturist homeowners couldn’t even use it.
Let’s go to Krusty Burger
Of interest to naturists in the new
Simpsons Movie is that Bart skateboards
to the local Krusty Burger completely
naked. After it’s hidden by strategically
placed props and scenery, the audience
finally sees it: Bart’s modest (and distinctly
yellow) penis.
Some who rate movies were more sensible than the media over this blip of nudity. A spokeswoman for the British Board
of Film Classification summed it up:
“Natural nudity with no sexual content is
acceptable in PG films.” A commentator
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If you blink, you miss it. Bart’s full-frontal fame
lasts about two seconds near the beginning of
his new movie as he skateboards past a fence
and bushes. Before and after, the movie’s creators play every fig-leaf trick animation allows
west, uninhibited adventurers are giving
‘northern exposure’ a whole new meaning,” by Tim Querengesser, appearing in
Up Here (NT); and « Leurs univers mis à
nu : Une journée chez les naturistes », by
Samuel Pradier, appearing in Dernière
Heure (QC). The eight bilingual jury
members were journalists and naturist
leaders, national and international.
Prix en journalisme
on the Clothesfree forum wisely added:
“This is great. In the near future we will
have thousands of young people skateboarding naked through cities and towns
in America and the UK. One youth will
dare the other, as Homer dared Bart.”
Matt Groening, the Simpsons’ creator,
says that they are there “to entertain people and also to annoy a certain segment of
the audience as well.” Naturists are entertained; and hopefully not many textiles
are annoyed by this small matter.
[English above] Après compilation du
résultat des délibérations du jury, la
Fondation naturiste du Québec a annoncé
en août les deux articles gagnants du
deuxième prix de journalisme naturiste :
« Leurs univers mis à nu : Une journée
chez les naturistes » par Samuel Pradier,
paru dans Dernière Heure (QC) ; et “The
great wide open: In Canada’s northwest,
uninhibited adventurers are giving
‘northern exposure’ a whole new
meaning” par Tim Querengesser, paru
dans Up Here (NT). Les huit membres
bilingues du jury étaient journalistes et
leaders naturistes du pays et de l’étranger.
Let’s go to Gloucestershire
Owners & managers
Mark Lothian, of Wotton-under-Edge,
Gloucestershire, England, has done what
many folks in their mid 30s have done:
change careers. He left his successful IT
job to go into naked house cleaning. He
charges £60 for the first hour and £50
each additional.
He’s always considered himself quite
shy but has no trouble being naked in
front of his customers: “I just come out of
myself when I am naked, and it makes me
happy. I’ve been doing it for years in my
own apartment…Saves on washing and all
that bloody ironing.”
A flurry of changes has recently hit important upscale naturist resorts. Paradise
Lakes (FL), Desert Shadows (CA), and
Caliente Tampa (FL) have all changed
owners, managers, or both. Desert
Shadows, for example, now has a policy
of no minors in many areas. Caliente is
focussing more on fun and parties. John
Forier, Paradise Lakes’ new, long-time
nudist owner, wants to make the place
more nudist than clothing optional.
Farther away, in Jamaica, Firefly Beach
Cottages owners David and Audrey Sykes
are retiring, selling their villa and its adjacent hotel cottages. They want it to
remain naturist. For further information,
write to <[email protected]>.
Journalism prize
[Français au-dessous] After tallying the
results from the deliberations of the jury,
the Naturist Foundation of Québec
announced in August the two articles that
won the second naturist journalism prize:
“The great wide open: In Canada’s north-
Suspended & reinstated
Mark Classen was suspended in April as
an elementary school principal in
Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. He had
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du culte chrétien (nu) « qui doit
conserver l’anonymat », selon Jim. Après
un discours de l’auteur et la séance de
signature du livre et de magazines
(Naturist Life International), tout le
monde est allé dîner (habillé) dans un
restaurant du quartier.
L’hôte de la soirée, le libraire Rick
Rayfield, s’est dit satisfait de l’événement.
included on his personal website a photo
of himself nude on a New Zealand
beach many years earlier. He had mistakenly sent a link to that site to a
pupil’s parent.
Most parents supported him. In June
he was reinstated but received an undisclosed penalty for his “error in judgement.” That error was stated as having
the photo on his site in the first place.
For some, as a school principal, he had
to be held to “a higher standard.”
Doesn’t that mean a lower and worse
standard, fuelled by unjustified and
harmful fear and loathing of the naked
body?
Qu’est-ce qu’elle ôte ?
photo par J. O’Neill
Le naturisme dé-brouillé
Jim Cunningham (à gauche)
avec Rick Rayfield
Nudité & christianisme
L’auteur Jim Cunningham a dédicacé son
nouveau livre Nudity & Christianity
(voir GN/AN 22:2) le 12 juillet à
Waitsfield (Vermont). Devinez ce qu’il
portait pour l’occasion.
Les acheteurs avaient aussi le droit de
se déshabiller à la Librairie Tempest, car
le lancement avait lieu après les heures
d’ouverture. Environ une douzaine de
personnes sont venues, dont un ministre
Une publicité française sur le naturisme,
aussi brève que d’une magnifique clarté,
est apparue récemment sur Internet
(<www.dailymotion.com/video/x25v10_
pub-france-espace-naturiste>). D’une
grande simplicité, on y voit une jeune
femme, nue, apparaître sur des dunes et
se diriger vers une plage déserte.
Seulement, les seins et le pubis de la
femme sont brouillés, comme sur un film
censuré. La femme fait alors mine
d’enlever son soutien-gorge et son slip,
mais tout ce qu’elle ôte, c’est le
brouillage. Son corps apparaît dans
toute sa splendide netteté.
On comprend vite que, subtilement,
elle se débarrasse ainsi des préjugés, des
oripeaux de la civilisation. En même
temps, elle démasque l’hypocrisie si
courante lorsqu’on montre du nu dans
une publicité. Certains ont trouvé cette
publicité sexiste, préférant voir un
couple plutôt qu’une jolie jeune fille nue.
C’est vrai ; l’image aurait peut-être été
plus puissante.
Il n’en demeure pas moins que, telle
quelle, cette publicité donne
furieusement l’envie de se trouver aussi
sur cette plage invitante ! Apparemment,
il s’agit d’une plage de la côte atlantique
française, qui pourrait être celle de
Montalivet, d’Euronat ou de la Jenny, les
trois plus importants centres naturistes
de la région sud-ouest de la France.
Changements à l’Éden ?
En juillet, plusieurs articles ont paru dans
les journaux québécois à propos du
changement d’orientation du Domaine de
l’Éden. Le plus gros centre naturiste du
Québec (en population) a en effet été
vendu récemment à M. Denis Chesnel,
« propriétaire de plusieurs bars
échangistes et bars de danseuses à
Montréal et dans les environs », selon La
Presse du 23 juillet.
C’est même lui qui a fait reconnaître
l’échangisme par la Cour Suprême du
Canada. Par la suite, le Journal de
Montréal du 24 juillet a fait état de
l’arrestation de M. Chesnel sur son
propre terrain de l’Éden, pour voies de
fait. « Le 14 juillet, il aurait frappé l’un
des présidents des syndicats de
copropriétaires qui se rebellent contre lui,
Marcel Bélisle. »
Le journal ajoute qu’il aurait été en
état d’ébriété, qu’il aurait bloqué avec son
Hummer une rue du domaine (où résident
en permanence une centaine de familles
naturistes), qu’il aurait imposé de
nouveaux droits exorbitants etc. Chesnel
nie tout en bloc.
Interdit de séjour à l’Éden, il doit
revenir devant la Cour, à Joliette, le 24
octobre.
You’re naked over those
clothes
At the end of October last year, three
high-school students near New York
dressed up as Captain Underpants, a
character in a children’s book series.
They wore flesh-tone leotards with white
briefs over them, and red capes.
The school principal sent them home,
saying “Yes, I know they weren’t naked,
but the appearance was that they were.”
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Judicious nudity
On Hallowe’en 2006, the Globe and Mail
printed a really scary story: that a Supreme
Court judge or two had been rumoured to
have taken a nude cruise run by Bare
Necessities, one of the hearty supporters of
this magazine. Attempts at identifying who
may have favourably adjudged a marine
holiday au naturel…ran aground.
Concerning this particular matter of
habeas corpus, there was no body at all.
The news itself, if news it be called, was
actually several years old and probably
involved a misquotation!
How’s the bod?
From Scotland in June came a report that at
least one in ten persons over 50 would pose
nude for a photo. What kind of photo and
who would see it were, umm, not revealed.
The report also suggested that women
over 50 were happier with their bodies than
younger women, and happier with them
than the over 50s’ mothers were at the
same age.
Mixed up in Michigan (1)
In the spring, productions in Michigan of
the play Angels in America, which explores
the AIDS phenomenon, led some state legislators to want to cut the budget of any
school putting it on. Reason: a few naked
bums on stage. One legislator in particular
was gung-ho to “send a message” to the
schools.
Of course he’d never seen or read the
play. He merely showed that when it
comes to nudity, ideology trumps education and art (and science and sense) every
time.
Mixed up in Michigan (2)
Also in Michigan, a man was sentenced in
July for jogging while wearing shoes and
little else. But get this: he said he’d been
doing that since he was a teen; he was
now 49! He was also careful to go out
around 04:00 and to run in fields and
wooded areas away from roads. Every day,
10 kilometres, weather permitting. His
main reason: it made him “feel alive.”
So who’s more sensible, the man, or the
court that found him guilty of indecent
exposure? gN / aN
Theatrical
nudity
photo by Ray Gniewek
The all-nude
performance of
Macbeth was
directed by José
Carrasquillo
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This summer, the Washington (D.C.) Shakespeare
Company did a production of Macbeth entirely without
clothing. Notwithstanding jokes about Macduff in the
buff, the undress rehearsal, and the Full MacMonty,
critics were unsure about the effectiveness of the “dramatically blunt” production, which depended much on
set design, lighting, and makeup. The director explained
the nudity’s purpose as “exposing the primal nature of
man’s ambitions and fears.”
Kathleen Akerley (Lady Macbeth) thought some
audience members blocked the nudity out of their
minds, lessening its impact. Before the performance run,
she detailed her process of adjustment: “finding a way
to look at naked people without invading their privacy”;
wondering “after about five minutes, ‘Okay, now what
do we do with it?’”; and letting the nudity become “an
interesting fact of vulnerable acting.”
Some reviewers regretted a lack of differentiation
caused by the lack of clothing. Few commented on the
multiple roles some actors had, and implications of both
these details together.