Category Archives: nudism

beliefs, history, nudism, personal, sexuality, thoughts

Osho on Pornography

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A final thought from Osho, this time on pornography …

What is pornography, and why does it have so much appeal?

Pornography is a by-product of religious repression. The whole credit goes to the priests […] pornography is created, managed by the Church, by the religious people.

In a primitive, natural state, man is not pornographic. When human beings are naked, man knows the woman’s body and woman knows the man’s body, and you cannot sell Playboy. It is impossible. Who will purchase Playboy? […]

The whole credit goes to the religious establishment. They have repressed so much that man’s mind is boiling. The man wants to see the woman’s body. Nothing wrong in it, a simple desire, a human desire. And the woman wants to know the man’s body. A simple desire, nothing wrong about it.

Just think of a world where trees are covered with clothes. I have heard about some English ladies who cover their dogs and cats with clothes. Just think, cows and horses and dogs dressed. Then you will find new pornography arising. Somebody will
publish a nude picture of a tree – and you will hide it in a Bible and look at it!

This whole foolishness is out of religious repression.

Make man free, allow people to be nude. I am not saying they should continuously be nude, but nudity should be accepted. On the beach, at the swimming pool, in the home – nudity should be accepted. The children should take a bath with the mother, with the father, in the bathroom. There is no need for the father to lock the bathroom when he goes in. The children can come and have a talk and chitchat and go out. Pornography will disappear.

Each child wants to know, “How does my daddy look?” Each child wants to know, “How does my mother look?” And this is simply intelligence, curiosity. And the child cannot know what the mother looks like, and the child cannot know what the father looks like; now you are creating illness in the child’s mind. It is you who is ill, and the illness will be reflected in the child’s mind.

I am not saying sit nude in the office or in the factory […] there is no need to be naked, it should not be an obsession; however, this continuous obsession of hiding your body is just ugly.

And one thing more: because of the clothes, bodies have become ugly because then you don’t care. You care only about the face. If your belly goes on becoming bigger and bigger, who bothers? You can hide it […] let one hundred people stand nude, and they all will be ashamed […] and they will start hiding themselves. Something is wrong. Why is it so? They know only about their face – the face they take care of; the whole body is neglected.

This is bad. This is not good. It is not in favour of the body, either.

Any country where people are allowed a little freedom to be nude becomes more beautiful; people have more beautiful bodies […]

Nudity should be natural, should be as natural as animals, as trees, as everything else is nude. Then pornography will disappear.

[Osho, Sex Matters, pp 137-8]

beliefs, freedom of speech, nudism, quotes, thoughts

Osho on Nudity

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[…] man has created his own artificial world around him. Animals are naked – that’s why we don’t want to be nude. And if somebody is nude suddenly he hits our civilization totally, he cuts the very roots. That’s why there is so much antagonism against naked people, all over the world.

If you go and move naked in the street, you are not hurting anybody, you are not doing any violence to anybody; you are absolutely innocent. But immediately the police will come, the whole surroundings will become agitated. You will be caught […] and put into jail. But you have not done anything at all! A crime happens when you do something. You have not been doing anything, simply walking naked! But why does the society get so angry? The society is not so angry even against a murderer. This is strange. But a naked man, and society is absolutely angry.

It is because murder is still human. No animal murders. They kill for eating […] So it is human, the society can accept it. But nudity the society cannot accept, because suddenly the naked man makes you aware that you are all animals. Howsoever hidden behind clothes, the animal is there, the nude, the naked animal is there, the naked ape is there.

You are against the nude man not because he is nude but because he makes you aware of your nudity.

[Osho, Sex Matters, p125]

amusements, arts, beliefs, books, memes, nudism, thoughts, topographical

Friday Five: Wishes

OK so here, a bit late, is this week’s Friday Five …

1. Name one movie you wish everybody could watch.

  • None of them. I dislike movies and wouldn’t cry if they sunk without trace. Doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t watch them, just don’t expect me to or to share your enthusiasm.

2. Name two books you wish everybody could read.

  • Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time. Well it’s one novel in 12 volumes, so I’ll count it as one. Read it if only as a social history of England from 1914 to 1970. Oh come on, you expected me to say that, didn’t you?
  • Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (by which I mean the two works Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass). Read them and think about the logical conundrums presented; now apply them and change the way you look at the world!

3. Name three goals you wish everybody could achieve.

  • True inner peace and happiness.
  • Reconciliation and friendship with their parents.
  • To always treat others as you would like to be treated yourself (it’s part of what the Dalai Lama calls “compassion”).

4. Name four people you wish everybody could know.
I am going to assume the people don’t have to be alive now, but could come from any era. So I’ll nominate:

  • Richard Feynman; for his logic, his insights, his humour and his determination to overcome obstacles.
  • Galileo Galilei; a profound scientist who wasn’t afraid of standing up and being counted.
  • Leonardo da Vinci; another way out mind as well as a superb artist.
  • The present Dalai Lama; for his profound thinking, his happiness and his compassion.

That was hard! Four people I wish I knew would be easy, but to translate that into something for everyone is much, much harder.

5. Name five places you wish everybody could visit.

  • Rural England
  • Japan
  • A nudist community; to see just how it isn’t like everyone seems to think it is and to experience the freedom of life without clothes.
  • A small town in medieval England (or Europe at least) to see just what life really was like 600+ years ago and how far we have come.
  • Their special place. I believe we all have at least one place which is special and energises us (just as we have people who do this for us). It may be a town somewhere, or a country, or just a building (I know Stonehenge does it for some people, though not for me). Finding it is a whole different matter though.

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]

freedom of speech, medical, memes, nudism, photography, science, thoughts

Full Frontal Mirror Tiles


Full Frontal Mirror Tiles, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 16/52 (2008 week 24).

Yes it’s horrible, and I’m seriously over-weight … but not as much as I was; I’ve lost 28kg (almost 4.5 stone) since October. That’s not fast, but it is fast enough considering I am diabetic and while controlling calories also have to be careful to keep my blood glucose stable. Actually losing the weight has helped a lot with my blood sugar levels and my blood pressure, so although it isn’t easy it is worth doing; I do feel lots better for it. But I really need to get rid of at least that much again if I possibly can.

Oh and yes, the tile effect is a shameless abuse of Photoshop – just to save the worst of the blushes of the innocent. Being nude, anywhere, anytime, bothers me not at all ‘cos I was brought up as a nudist! But I know it does bother others, so out of respect for them there is nothing here that you wouldn’t see in a swimming pool.

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, nudism, sexuality

Unintended Consequences

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The Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well! Diary of a Nudist has blogged about the reaction to recent attempts to clamp down on perceived indecent images. In two cases, ABC being fined for showing female buttocks before the watershed (see here and here) and the charging of a store for using almost revealing photographs (see here), the result has been that the images in question are now far more widely spread that they otherwise would have been. Moreover some parts of the US are also cocking a snook at their “stripper” laws. Such activity is always one of the possible outcomes of censorship. Great that the officious have had their bluff called. Let’s keep it up chaps and expose this stupidity for what it is!

beliefs, nudism, photography, thoughts, topographical

Solstice Reprise!

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Wow, things heavenly come in threes? It’s probably always thus, but I’ve never noticed quite so obviously before a whole raft of heavenly celebration:

  • Winter solstice: 21 December, the winter festival of light
  • New Moon: early hours of 24 December, the monthly rite of the goddess
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day (26 December): being one of the days for wassailing your fruit trees
  • New Year’s Day: being another of the days on which one should wassail fruit trees

Looks like there’s going to be lots of dancing naked round the garden in the next few days. 😉

beliefs, freedom of speech, medical, nudism, science, sexuality, thoughts

Pornography and Rape

I today came across an year-old post on Greg Mankiw’s Blog where he points to an article by Todd D Kendall of Clemson University. In this Kendall shows that the more easily pornography is available to the male population the lower is the incidence of rape.

It is also worthy of note that many published studies (I need to look then up!) have shown that teenage pregnancy rates are far lower in open, relaxed societies like The Netherlands, and significantly higher in more religiously repressed and restrictive societies like the USA.

I find this interesting as I have always maintained that if we had a healthier understanding and acceptance of desires, sexuality, nudity and our bodies it would have far reaching positive effects on our health and our attitudes. Bring children up to understand their bodies, their sexuality and to accept nudity as something normal and they will be more balanced as individuals; more able to discuss their inner feelings and worries; more at ease discussing their medical problems with their doctor. All of which has to be good, if only in terms of catching serious disease earlier and when it is more easily, and more cheaply, treated.

beliefs, freedom of speech, memes, nudism, thoughts

Friday Five: Nudity

I’m amazed that it’s almost two weeks since I posted anything; guess you’ll just have to put it down to too much work. Anyway here’s this week’s Friday Five, which is one I couldn’t resist as it’s an old hobbyhorse of mine. 🙂

Nudity/Body Awareness
(aka “How comfortable are you in your skin, or with others?”)

1. Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?
Sadly no I haven’t. I’d like to but there seem to be no available facilities near here, and anyway most clubs require one to be a member of British Naturism as a bona fide (I don’t like BN; too cliquey and too club-centric, unless it has changed a lot in the last few years). Neither am I anywhere near a naturist beach. And no opportunities in my youth. Very sad.

2. When you’re home alone, do you strip down to get comfortable? Do you ever go out without underwear because it’s more comfortable?
I always wear as little as possible at home. Writing this I’m wearing just a pair of shorts and that only because I’m awaiting a grocery delivery from the supermarket. I just love the freedom of nudity and the air is good for the body — if it was good enough for Benjamin Franklin it is good enough for me. We have a naturally warm house so even in the middle of winter I’m often wearing nothing. And in summer I’ll sit in the garden in nothing, tho’ only close to the house so as not to frighten the neighbours; it doesn’t bother me but it probably would bother “them next door”.

I don’t often go out without underwear, but I certainly do in summer if wearing only shorts.

Basically I wear clothes only because (a) the rest of society demands it and (b) for warmth. Otherwise, why bother?

3. Have you ever/do you use the bathroom with the door open? Are you comfortable using public facilities?
The only time our bathroom door (or bedroom door) gets shut is if there are visitors in the house, and then for their benefit not ours. We’ve always been like this and we both wander in and out even if the other is in possession. It doesn’t bother either of us; it never has. I have no problem with public facilities and would have no problem with mixed sex facilities. I’m actually astonished at the number of men who clearly dislike peeing in public and always use a cubicle rather than a communal urinal; I reckon this affects 30-50% of men — very odd.

4. When getting intimate with your significant other, lights on or off?
Either; it depends on how we feel at the time. Actually it is more a question of glasses on or off! Mind you even if I say “lights off” we never draw our bedroom curtains (come to that, any curtains) and there is a street lamp outside, so the bedroom is never dark. And you’ll not be surprised to know that we both sleep in the nude; I have done since I was a student and managed to get out of living in conventional shared lodgings.

5. How comfortable are you with body exposure/nudity of others? Group shower rooms? Topless/nude beaches? Breastfeeding in public?
Absolutely no problem with any of this. I’m dismayed at the number of men who walk around group shower/changing rooms trying to hide behind their towels or swimming trunks. I’m one of those who walks around totally bare and thinks nothing of it. And the antics of the British on the beach trying to change out of wet swimming costumes behind a towel always amuses me.

Before you ask … Yes, of course one looks at other people in the nude. Why shouldn’t one? We look at each other clothed and admire nice bodies; so why not in the nude? Staring is objectionable whether you’re nude or not. I feel sure fewer girls would complain about having their tits stared at or being visually undressed if blokes were more used to seeing the naked human body. And it works both ways: girls you’d get a good look too!

I see no problem with nudity anywhere, anytime; public or private. What’s the problem? I can’t understand why people have a problem with nudity. Come on, let’s be honest: give or take the odd scar we all know what’s underneath that shirt, skirt, shorts. We would all be better off if we were more used to nudity; if we were brought up with nudity. We’d be much more comfortable with our bodies. That would make it easier for most people to talk to their doctors (and each other); they’d be less embarrassed. So in turn our health would be better because illnesses would get treated sooner, as we’d not be embarrassed/scared of going to the doctor. And we would be much less embarrassed and reticent about talking to each other — about anything, not just things sexual! — which would be good for most people’s relationships. Ultimately we’d all be more civilised. Besides, isn’t nudity a basic human right?

Go for it: Nudity for all!

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]