Monday, July 14, 2003

Full Nudity Pictures

The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA)

Just a little bit of piece of mind for myself and for families with children and those who find nudity objectionable . . . I have no desire to have people come to this site unexpectedly and have to face material they may not like. So I've rated it with the above organization and those with Content Rating software enabled will be warning in advance of the material on my blog.

The ratings are:

http://nudehiker.blogspot.com/ is labelled

Content Label:

  • Exposed breasts
  • Bare buttocks
  • Visible genitals
  • No sexual material
  • No violence
  • No potentially offensive language
  • No potentially harmful activities
  • No user-generated content
  • This material appears in an artistic context
  • This material appears in an educational context
  • This material appears in a news context


You may notice within my blog that I post very few images of myself that show full-frontal nudity. That is not because I am shy or ashamed of myself. On the contrary, I enjoy seeing myself naturally in those moments I am cabin-bound and textiled, stuck in some situation where all I can think of is getting to the great outdoors and shedding everything. The pictures remind myself of just how much fun it can be.

But to be realistic and show a little bit of decorum . . . I try to limit the images of myself in this blog to carefully trimmed images that do not show my genitals . . . but otherwise, certainly imply that I am nude. Sometimes I post a full-frontal becuase I really like the picture and want to share it (heck, I want to share all of them).

Also, there is a certain trolling audience of gawkers who do nothing but invade a nudity-related webspace for their own lurid interests . . . and I'd rather not provide them with their entertainment. For awhile on my SmartForums site I was posting uncensored pictures from my hikes. I started getting suggestive proposals of a nature I didn't like. So I deleted them.


Revised Policy (2007): The human body is beautiful and I've matured a great deal as a naturist these last several years . . . so much so that I need and want to take a stance of nudism in the hopes that I can encourage others to shed the negative impressions they may feel about their own nudity and whole-heartedly join the revolution for freedom. There is nothing lewd nor lurid about the pictures of myself nude and enjoying the freedom that naturism brings.

I have to thank many people for my new outlook but particularly Mark Storey and NAC, along with the Wizard from Australia for opening my eyes to the real meaning of the Nature of Offense. My nudity (and the simple nudity in my pictures) cannot cause offense in anyone because offense comes from the struggles and hangups of the one feeling it . . . not from me.

Sunday, July 13, 2003

Disclaimers on Use of Blog Materials

Fair Use Disclaimer:

The Nude Hiking and Soaking the the Pacific Northwest Blog is a non-commercial, non-profit creation primarily educational and informative in nature and purpose. The Fair Use provision applies four factors, and the material presented in this blog is believed to meet those factors as follows:

  1. Purpose and Character of Use
    This blog is wholly non-commercial and exists solely to impart education, political and philisopical ideas about nudism and naturism. Use of potentially copyrightable materials is incidental and consitutes and limited percentage of the material on this site. These materials are not presented in a negative manner.

  2. Nature of Copyrighted Work
    The materials presented on this website, including graphics, music, sound clips, applets, text, etc., are not considered to be "vital" to any other organization or entity, and their appearance on this site is not presumed to be capable of damaging any other organizations or entities in any way. The materials on this site are all presented in a positive context. In addition, it is presumed that the use by this site of any materials that may represent the work of other organizations and entities would, if anything, inadvertently help boost the popularity of those organizations or entities.

  3. Relative Amount
    There is limited use of protected materials on this site. No original soundtracks or recordings are included. However please me know if this is not the case or if there are other concerns, and the matter will be promptly rectified.

  4. Effect Upon Potential Market
    No harmful effect on the market of any other organization or entity that may be represented in any form on this website is anticipated. If anything, organizations or entities represented by materials included on this site might inadvertently be helped by the references made herein. However, such promotions are considered to be negligible and it is not my intention to promote or favor any particular organization or entity.

Fair Use of my Materials:

With the exclusion of materials attributable to other sources (and used under the Fair Use Doctrine), all other materials on and in this blog (website) are considered copyrighted material. Images and photos retain copyright at all times and may not be used for any purpose (even Fair Use) without the specific, written approval of myself.

All other material may be used under Fair Use guidelines for incorporation in whole or in part in other works. I would appreciate attribution and trackback but it is not required.



Liability Disclaimer

For materials and documents available on this blog, I do not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed.


Medical Information Disclaimer

It is not my intention to provide specific medical advice, but rather to provide readers with information to better understand their health and the potential health and medical situations nudists and naturists may find themselves encountering. Specific medical advice will not be provided, and I urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions.


Monday, April 7, 2003

Exposed and stark naked -- on purpose

Monday, April 7, 2003

But not all nudists support 'guerrilla' plans for prominent public exposure

By KATHY GEORGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

ISSAQUAH -- Taking out the garbage on a recent sunny morning, Allan Arnold wore only his brown leather shoes and gold-rimmed glasses.

Nobody batted an eye at his nakedness. After all, he lives in a gated nudist park that's so remote and hidden by trees that nobody sees the nudity there by accident.

"We do our best not to get in people's faces," said Sharon Anderson, Arnold's wife and a longtime resident of the nudist park, called Forestia.

But the old way -- keeping out of the way -- is about to change.

A new activist group called the Body Freedom Cooperative wants to bring nudism out of sheltered private clubs and into the Seattle area's public places. And it plans to use "guerrilla pranksterism" -- flouting anti-nudity rules -- to press for clothing-optional beaches at local parks.

"We're pushing the envelope in what I think is a good way," said Mark Storey, a founding member of Body Freedom.

These are people who actually want to get caught with their pants down.

So far, the group has staged one public prank. Storey and two others went skinny-dipping at the King County park system's headquarters, Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island, to signal their "commitment to bringing clothing-free opportunities on public lands closer to the people of the cities."

More stunts are expected. There's talk of a "mass nude photo shoot" at the Washington Park Arboretum this spring. And don't be surprised if you see some naked people jump out of a van in your neighborhood, clean up the street, then smile and zip away.

"I'm really looking forward to that," said Shirley Gauthier of Springfield, Ore., another Body Freedom founder. "It's hard to complain about someone cleaning up graffiti."

The group also has an artistic bent. It plans a trilogy of plays at this fall's Fringe Festival illustrating what it's like to be nude on a beach for the first time.

While nudity in theater is hardly groundbreaking, Body Freedom plans to have nude ushers and ticket-takers, too.

It's the "guerilla" part that makes Anderson and other traditional nudists a little squeamish. They worry that promoting nude beaches by being nude publicly may backfire.

"It would not be my choice," said Anderson, who was fully clothed as she gave a tour of Forestia's playground, picnic area and pools. "I don't like any sort of views foisted on unknowing people, and nudism is just one."

Nancy Trautenberg, president of the Northwest Nudists Association and co-owner of a Bellevue nudist club called Xena's Sanctuary, agrees.

"We like to have our nudist freedom, but we don't like to push it on anybody," she said.

Washington state has at least seven nudist clubs, including four with their own acreage -- Forestia in Issaquah, Lake Bronson in Sultan, Lake Associates near Mount Vernon and Kaniksu Ranch near Spokane. It has no public nude beaches.

It's not that Body Freedom has anything against the area's traditional nudists.

In fact, Storey, Gauthier and Body Freedom's other co-founder, Daniel Johnson of Seattle, work with local nudist clubs and established national organizations -- the American Association for Nude Recreation and The Naturist Society.

But they're tired of waiting for Washington to catch up to Oregon and British Columbia, which have officially designated nude public beaches with signs warning the unwary.

And the Body Freedom folks are not afraid of offending people. If they make some people laugh, that's OK, too.

"It used to be kind of a shock thing to say out loud that you're a nudist," said Gauthier, 52. "It's not that big a deal anymore."

She promotes nudism as a path to positive body image. Others tout it as healthy and natural. Body Freedom's founders like to quote a recent Roper poll, commissioned by The Naturist Education Foundation, which found that 80 percent of Americans support creation of designated, clothing-optional beaches.

"Problem is, where are the beaches?" Johnson asked.

As a lobbyist for the Naturist Society, Storey knows how to work the system. For example, he said he won support from the state parks director to designate Clayton Beach south of Bellingham as a nude beach.

But legislators blocked that idea, and usually nudists are on the defensive, fighting nudity restrictions. Storey and Johnson saw a need to be more proactive locally.

"In a nutshell, I'm a human being. The stuff underneath my clothes is who I am. There's no good reason for me not to be able to be myself," Storey said.

Johnson said he got serious about the issue two years ago after Seattle police threatened to arrest the naked bicyclists at Fremont's annual Solstice Parade.

As it is, he said, social nudity in Washington is limited to "those who have money to join clubs and the time to travel to them." And he thinks gated places like Forestia, at the end of a long dirt road on a forested hill, wrongly convey the message that non-sexual nudity is shameful.

"It's very creepy," he said. "I just find it really strange that people want to keep it secret."

Actually, Forestia is not much of a secret. Hundreds of visitors show up there for the summer Bare Buns Fun Run and annual Nudestock music festival.

The goal is not to hide, said Anderson, but to make sure those offended by nudity aren't exposed unwillingly.

That's the goal underlying Washington's indecent exposure law, the ban on nudity in state parks and other public nudity laws.

And while the First Amendment protects political expression, that doesn't mean Body Freedom activists can protest in the buff without arrest.

"The Supreme Court recently held that a government may penalize nudity under a statute that does not discriminate," targeting only politically expressive or non-expressive forms of nudity, said David Skover, who teaches constitutional law at Seattle University. "Prohibiting all public nudity, for whatever reason, has been held constitutional."

Trautenberg, the private club owner, would like Washington to have nude public beaches. But in the meantime, she said, "I don't like to upset people. That's not a nudist way.

"Most of the time, we're not trying to make waves."

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