This
article appears with permission from Nude
and Natural magazine.
It originally ran in Vol
21.3, the Spring 2002 edition. The article featured
several black and white pictures and a drawing by Terri
Webb. Back issues are still available.
Beyond
Safe Havens: Oregon's
Terri Sue Webb
Daniel
Johnson
THERE’S
a lot of buzz surrounding Terri Sue Webb these days.
On
the phone, she sounds like any average woman of college
age. On the street, her manner is casual, engaging, and
refreshing. One might never suspect she is one of a small
number of international activists who are aggressively
rousing the sleeping giant of public body freedom and celebration.
She challenges the rest of us to reassess our level of
commitment to the public expression of our naturist beliefs.
In
Oregon, where she lives, Webb has appeared nude in public
on several occasions to promote body freedom. Her actions
have made her the topic of press reports around the world.
She has gained support from significant players in the
Freedom To Be Yourself (FTBY) movement, and was recently
the subject of an Advisory issued by the Naturist Action
Committee (archived at www.naturistsociety.com
/NAC).
People
have been using their nude bodies more and more at organized
public events, and it is generally perceived that there
is a greater tolerance now for bare skin. Webb is not the
first to appear naked in a U.S. courtroom, and certainly
not the first activist to walk the streets nude. She is,
however, a newly prominent figure among a small group of
people who assert a belief in body freedom outside the
relatively safe haven of artistic expression and into a
more public arena.
Webb
started off with little public support from nudists in
Oregon, but she has since caught the attention of both
the international media and national naturist groups like
The Naturist Society and NAC. She has shown what one individual
committed to a cause can accomplish.
Webb
is taking her beliefs to the streets to challenge society’s
urge to control and persecute people who believe in body
freedom. She believes we all should be able to be naked
whenever we feel like it; she is naked whenever she feels
she can be, and she actively encourages others to join
her.
When
you first meet her, Webb is likely to put a question to
you straight up: “Hey, this action is coming up and
I’m thinking it would be a cool opportunity to protest
or celebrate. How about it?” She does what others
talk about doing...the difference is, she follows through
with it.
Propose
a nude public protest to naturists, and most will probably
subordinate their beliefs to their fears. They fear that
appearing nude in public could backfire on the cause, that
the wrong people might find out about their beliefs, or
that incarceration could impede their careers. A fundamental
expression of one’s being is thus still difficult
for many to express openly.
Body
freedom, some will say, must exist only in controlled places
where nobody is likely to be offended. But whose idea of
timely and appropriate nudity are we conforming to? The
list of appropriate times and places in which most naturists
consider themselves safe is embarrassingly short.
Webb,
on the other hand, sees the issue of public nudity in terms
of personal expression and basic freedom. “To be offended
by the visual appearance of another person is prejudice,
akin to racism,” she says. “The right to exist,
uncovered, should hold precedence over the right not to
view [nudity], for the objection is irrational.”
Sound
familiar? N readers may recognize her thinking as similar
to that behind the Freedom To Be Yourself campaign of Britain
(see N 20.4 and 21.2). Vincent Bethell, FTBY’s
most vocal activist, has noticed Webb’s actions and
has provided encouragement and suggestions based on his
own experiences with nudity in the British courts.
It
was because of my own interest in FTBY and from participating
in discussions with Bethell’s discussion group aimed
at organizing mass nude protests (see www.geocities.com/thehumanmind/)
that I became more aware of Webb’s activities. When
I learned that we both live in the Pacific Northwest, I
decided to pay her a visit.
We
met in Portland, where we talked over her goals and her
approach to activism, and walked naked on the streets on
a particularly stormy afternoon. I learned that we have
a lot in common in terms of our ideas about body freedom.
Both
of us stay away from labels such as “nudist” or “naturist,” preferring
to identify with the principles and values of body freedom
rather than with any one group. We seek support from people
who are resourceful and motivated to act. We want to go
beyond the search for safe havens for social nudity, such
as nudist clubs, special events and other getaways, to
open expression of freedom for every body.
We
seek recognition that the body freedom all people are born
with must not be withheld. Individuals who express themselves
in this manner must not be subjected to persecution or
be otherwise limited by the authorities. The human body
is not offensive and therefore there is no good reason
for the state or society to demand its systematic coverup.
Most
of Webb’s activist work began after she earned a degree
in biology from Portland’s Reed College in 1998. Some
might describe her political orientation as anarchist and
progressive. She believes that people should be able to
do whatever they want as long as no one is harmed. Her
frustrations manifest themselves with action; her activism
reflects her own hopes and aspirations for society.
Webb
believes that if we looked at the ways other animals live
we could have a higher quality of life. She believes we
can learn many valuable things by looking at our own natural
form and those of other species, and that we can communicate
more fundamentally with animals if they see our natural
form. She suggests we go out and study nature instead of
watching television.
Many
of Webb’s earliest actions were to promote environmental
awareness. In 1998 she became involved in Critical Mass,
an international pro-bicycle movement that takes riders
to the streets en masse once a month. She began participating
in these events topfree, and continues to advocate bicycling
as a primary mode of transportation.
In
the summer of 1999, Webb attempted another form of direct
action in Eugene. Her goal was to address the environmental
problem of reliance on automobiles and to calm the traffic
flow in the vicinity. She moved some construction barricades
out into the street and ran around the area in a bright
orange safety vest, meeting cars head on and delivering
messages to the drivers.
An
action such as this may have had, at best, limited success
in changing the world for the better, but it came across
as thoughtful and genuine. People seeing this street theater
might have chuckled at the time, then later given the issues
she raised some thought. Unfortunately, the police response
was pepper spray and jail time, the first of several negative
responses to her actions from law enforcement.
More
ominously, authorities have responded to her activist efforts
by forcing Webb to undergo psychiatric evaluation on at
least two occasions. According to Webb, her psychiatrists
and case workers have told her that while she does have
a minor bipolar condition, it is unrelated to her behavior
involving nudity.
During
Seattle’s huge anti-World Trade Organization protest
in November 1999, Webb was detained and questioned by the
FBI. Later, during the protest’s aftermath, she was
stopped for jaywalking and charged with providing false
information to a police officer for failing to immediately
provide them with her name. She spent three days in jail,
joining dozens of other women booked as “Jane WTO.” Eventually
she was released without charge.
Webb’s
other activities have included involvement in Buy Nothing
Day street theater events and participation in anti-Gulf
War protests in Portland. She participated in protests
against police brutality, a rally for the freedom of Mumia
Abu-Jamal and the Carnival Against Capital in Eugene.
Her
style is to provoke people by engaging them directly. She
likes to pass out her own hand-drawn freeform literature
on the street and in random places like bookstores and
cafés.
It
is this type of engagement that separates her from streakers.
The joy that she experiences from being nude in public
is more educational and political and goes further than
any sudden, short-lived burst of freedom. She likes the
idea of the clothed and unclothed being able to coexist
happily.
Webb
feels comfortable delivering her message despite the strong
association sometimes made between the unclothed body and
sexuality. Webb is not opposed to sexuality openly expressed.
She sees it as a healthy aspect of a sexual being. But,
she argues, the issue of sexuality should be separated
from that of nudity.
“There
is nothing inherently sexual about being without clothes,” she
says. “To say [there is] presents an extremely limited
view on the function of our bodies, our selves.” Webb
believes it is repressive to limit the exposure of our
bodies to try to control the expression of sexuality. She
thinks that clothing is merely cumbersome for any number
of normal non-sexual activities.
Her
first experiences with public nudity included streaking
during her college years, going to clothing-optional places
in and near Portland, and being naked with friends. But
aside from some of those activities, all her public actions
have been solo.
In
the summer of 2000, Webb went without clothes in a Portland
park water fountain. A crowd gathered, and when the police
came they covered her and dragged her from the park. Authorities
threatened to place her on “mental hold,” but
she was released after an hour or so at the station, charged
with violation of park rules.
She
later ran into some people who had witnessed the incident
and began a discussion about it. One woman commented that “nudity
is all right, but not around children.” Upon further
questioning, the woman admitted that what she objected
to was having to explain to her child “why the police
were taking the naked lady away.”
Police
response to Webb’s nude appearances has been mixed.
She tells of one nude bike ride that was particularly unappreciated
by Portland’s finest. “The day before the eve
of the millennium I was up on Alberta Street and I had
this urge for a life-affirming experience,” she says. “So
I stripped, got on this little silver BMX and rode down
the hill towards my house, wielding a gray plastic sword
that I had for some reason.
“Police
were on high alert because of New Year’s Eve. A motorcycle
officer followed me and cut me off, and no less than four,
possibly five, squad cars responded to the scene. My initial
reaction was to yell for help, to attract the attention
of passersby. ‘Help! I’m just trying to go home!
This guy’s harassing me!’ This response was enough
to piss the police off.
“I
volunteered to put my clothes on, but they wouldn’t
let me. I was handcuffed and left lying on my back on the
sidewalk, naked, while the group of male officers conferenced
in a sort of gloating manner.
“They
at first made it evident that they intended to take me
in, but I talked my way out of it. I was wrapped in an
emergency blanket and driven home, but it was actually
a slightly traumatic experience.”
Some
law enforcement officials seem more tolerant. Even in Portland,
Webb’s right to topfreedom is usually upheld as long
as the police believe she is avoiding bringing unnecessary
attention to herself. In Eugene, she has been able to walk
right past the police station without a shirt and no one
says a word.
On
another occasion, late last October, Webb spent half a
day running around Eugene nude on bicycle trails, talking
to people, leafleting. At the end of the day a squad car
drove by and one of the officers rolled down the window
to speak to her. “Do you know how many calls we’ve
gotten about you today?” he laughed.
Much
of Webb’s notoriety has come from her most recent
nude court appearance, which stems from an arrest for bicycling
without clothing in the city of Bend last July 18.
“I
disrobed before entering the courtroom with the intention
of receiving a fair trial,” she says. “My right
to a fair trial has been denied, as the holding of nakedness
as unacceptable in the court prior to the admission of
evidence constitutes prejudgment concerning the issue at
hand.”
Webb
was charged with contempt of court for her naked appearance,
a charge that she will appeal. Judge Barbara Haslinger
placed her on supervised probation for a year, ordered
a psychiatric evaluation, and made it a condition of probation
that she appear at future court proceedings “appropriately
dressed.”
“If
I am pushed into clothing for the sake of a trial, this
aids the prosecution in its designation of my ‘appearing
naked’ as a deed in itself, an act with intent, when
it’s not an act; it’s simply what I am, what
we all are,” Webb says. “The judge has ordered
that I appear appropriately dressed in court or face jail
time. I was appropriately dressed for the occasion the
first time!” As of this writing, Webb is weighing
whether or not she will appear naked in court a second
time.
While
Webb is optimistic about the future and thankful for the
support she’s received, she wishes that her actions
would motivate others to become involved themselves. With
the exception of one naked man riding his bike, she has
never encountered anyone else openly expressing themselves
by going nude in public.
So
how might naturists help? There are many ways to show support
for Webb and for non-sexual public nudity. Vincent Bethell,
for example, has called for a mass nude protest to take
place around Webb’s upcoming court date. Webb herself
is seeking supporters to come to Bend to show support in
the courtroom for “her existence in an unclothed state
upon a bicycle.”
At
this writing, Webb’s January trial date had been changed
at the request of the prosecutor. The new trial date is
set for May 2 at 9:30 a.m., in the Deschutes County Courthouse
in Bend.
Anyone
interested in planning or getting involved in nude protests
globally can send a message to stopsegregation-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
in order, as Webb urges, to “make it happen!”
Cover
of Nude
and Natural Vol 21.3, Spring 2002.
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