From: fc03@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (Frederick W. Chapman)
Newsgroups: rec.nude
Subject: Re: Nudist TV segment
Date: 6 Jan 93 17:49:54 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <1993Jan6.131245.13039@waikato.ac.nz>, bthoms@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>In article <1993Jan5.134111.21465@icd.teradyne.com>,
>yaffe@icd.teradyne.com (Arthur G. Yaffe) writes:
> 
>> Peter, IMHO, I think you're falling into the Leif Heilberg trap here.  Leif
>> is a Naturist/Nudist photographer who always seems to want women to spread
>> their legs (and not just "a little"), justifying it with an argument similar
>> to yours.
>> 
>> Naturism/Nudism is not about genitals.  It is about going without clothes.
>> This thread began with an article about a Nudist TV segment, so we're not
>> talking about an anatomy lesson here - we're talking about nudism.  I resent
>> that we're getting down to whose genitals are showing.
>> 
>> Please don't misunderstand - I admire good looking bodies as much as anybody
>> else, and I show a marked preference for good looking female bodies.  But
>> genitals are about sex, and Nudism/Naturism is not.
>> 
>> FCIFOC (AW),
>> 	-Art
>
>
>Excellent point (no pun intended), but I'm staying right out of the ongoing
>nudity/sex debate. I'd have thought that nudist groups had roughly the same
>opinion of women sitting with their legs wide apart as with men showing
>erections - certainly seems so in my experience.
>
>A flaccid penis isn't really any more sexually encouraging than the Victorian
>ankle or shapely legs (or any other fettish). In fact, it may even be a turn
>off for someone who expects more interest. What bugs me about nudity on tv and
>in films is the contrivance to avoid it: women cover their breast after
>sessions of highly overdramatised passion, men never just turn back the covers
>and get out of bed. If you need to show a scene suggestive of nudity, why go 
>to
>such an artificial extent. Sometimes I think, when watching things like that,
>that the actors are more concerned with their props than their lines.
>
>There is an unusual film called (I think) The Seventh Man, bursting with 
>sexual
>overtone (but not very much actual sex) which demonstates a very mature
>attitude in not hiding either male or female genitalia. The female nudity
>doesn't emphasise breasts or vagina and the male nudity doesn't show 
>erections,
>although it does show fairly lengthy shots of frontal nudity.
>
>Someone should tell Hollywood to GET A LIFE!
>
>Brent Thomson, Waikato, NZ

...........................................................................

My remarks will no doubt prove controversial, but so what...

To say that "genitals are about sex" is to contradict the philosophy of
nudism.  Genitals are not necessarily about sex.  To say that nudity is OK
as long as a woman does not spread her legs or as long as a man does not
have an erection is like saying that you can show as much skin as you want
as long as your private parts are covered.  Nudity with artificial
restrictions is not nudity.

The apparent prohibition against nudist women with their legs spread apart
and nudist men with erections is the conceptual equivalent of clothing; the
attitude that there is somehow something inappropriate about such states of
undress contradicts a pure interpretation of the nudist philosophy.  There
is nothing unnatural about a woman's legs being spread apart and nothing
unnatural about a man having an erection.  In fact, if a person really and
truly accepts the notion that it is natural for a person to be nude, then
whether a woman's legs are spread apart and whether a man has an erection
are inconsequential; i.e., no big deal; i.e., get over it!

Fred Chapman


P.S. Our usage statistics show that rec.nude is one of the most often
read topics of all global AND local topics available on our local
information system.  Hi everyone!  *waves to folks at Lehigh*  :-)
-- 

o ------------------------------------------------------------------------- o
|  Frederick W. Chapman, User Services, Computing Center, Lehigh University |
|    Campus Phone:  8-3218     Preferred E-mail Address:  fc03@Lehigh.Edu   | 
o ------------------------------------------------------------------------- o
|             Ecstasy is transitory, but a theorem is forever!              |
o ------------------------------------------------------------------------- o