"Laws against public nudity stem from people's unease with the human body. It makes people uneasy that others are comfortable enough to be naked in public, when they are not". (Katie Mann, from article in Going Natural, Vol. 17, Number 2) "Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of government, yield to it their allegiance and support are ... frequently the most serious obstacles to reform." - Henry David Thoreau "The visual appearance of the human body is our human identity and we should not be forced to fear or hide our identity." - Vincent Bethell, from the web site "Human Race Activism" "His disciples asked, 'When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?' Jesus answered, 'When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.'" - From the Gospel of Thomas "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 its not an act, its simply what I am, what we all are. 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!" - activist Terri Sue Webb in a post to stopsegregation discussion group, 27 Nov 2001 "A child who has never been allowed to see his parents and brothers and sisters naked sees nudity as something shocking." - Dr. Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt, Show Me (New York: St. Martin`s Press, 1975). "We are so narrow minded that we show war, murder, rape, etc. on TV, but we do not allow to show one of the most wonderful creations (the human body) in its natural form." - Mario Roman ."Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." - Henry David Thoreau "... we ought to be able to be comfortable being naked, and it doesn't have to be about sex." - Patricia Arquette, actress, in the May 2002 Paper magazine interview about her latest role in the movie "Human Nature" "Gymnophobia (from the Greek word for nude gymnos) is the fear of being (or seeing others) naked. A gymnophobic person usually wants to prevent others from experiencing the freedom of not wearing clothes." - Anon "I think everyone should be able to run around naked. I don't think I did anything wrong". (Deb Ballou, from Going Natural, Vol. 17, Number 1) “Be glad, my merry friends, and let the warm sunlight heat now heart and limb! Cast off these cold rags! Run naked on the grass, while Tom goes a-hunting!” - Tom Bombadil in J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings "I come from a country where you don`t wear clothes most of the year. Nudity is the most natural state. I was born nude and I hope to be buried nude." - Elle MacPherson, Australian model and actress "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi "There is much to support the view that it is our clothes that wear us and not we who wear them... They mold our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking." - Virginia Wolf, Orlando (1956) "Argue for your limitations and they're yours." - Richard Bach, from Illusions "Adam and Eve entered the world naked and unashamed - naked and pure-minded. And no descendant of theirs has ever entered it otherwise. All have entered it naked, unashamed, and clean in mind. They entered it modest. They had to acquire immodesty in the soiled mind, there was no other way to get it. ... The convention mis-called "modesty" has no standard, and cannot have one, because it is opposed to nature and reason and is therefore an artificiality and subject to anyone's whim - anyone's diseased caprice." - Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth "How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?" - Katherine Mansfield "This was life! Ah, how he loved it! Civilization held nothing like this in its narrow and circumscribed sphere, hemmed in by restrictions and conventionalities. Even clothes were a hindrance and a nuisance. At last he was free. He had not realized what a prisoner he had been." - Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes "For a time Jack was angry; but when he had been without the jacket for a short while he began to realize that being half-clothed is infinitely more uncomfortable than being entirely naked. Soon he did not miss his clothing in the least, and from that he came to revel in the freedom of his unhampered state." - Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Son of Tarzan "It (sunning nude) was a liberating experience. It felt unbelievably crazy to take off all my clothes and play in the sun. I've not had that much fun in so long." - Amy Grant, Ladies Home Journal Dec. 1985 "Honestly, I walk around my house naked, ... I think the body's a beautiful thing and you should not hide yourself." - Britney Spears, Rolling Stone Magazine Sept. 2001 With a little inner pirouette of excitement I realised just how much there was to look forward to tomorrow. The thought of being all day naked in the sun was delicious enough in itself, but there was the whole of our new world to explore." - Lucy Irvine, Castaway "The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one's flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable." - John Muir, founder of The Sierra Club "Wearing nothing is divine. Naked is a state of mind. I take things off to clear my head, to say the things I haven`t said. I live inside my elements - the earth and sky are my best friends. Water is the evidence that washes me from end to end..." - lyrics from Luscious Jackson`s hit song "Naked Eye" "Full nakedness! All joys are to thee." John Donne, major English poet and writer, written in 1598 |
:: quotes :: :: slogans :: :: sound bites ::
"Question Shame" - unknown "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -Mahatma Gandhi "Go Naked" - slogan seen on a 1960's era button "legalize your physical identity" - adapted from FTBY principles "If the people lead, the leaders will follow" - unknown "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr "Keep your laws off my body" -
pro-choice reproductive-rights slogan - a pro-choice reproductive-rights slogan "body freedom is infectious" - Daniel Johnson "Government has no business setting dress codes – period." - Dave Bitters, Naturist Action Committee representative, in a letter posted in the Summer 2002 (21.4) issue of Nude and Natural (N) magazine "this body is rated G - suitable for viewing by all ages" - DLJ "Every Body" -
seen on a FTBY protest sign -
adapted from FTBY principles -
adapted from naturist principles - seen on a FTBY protest sign "body shame is not a family value" -
adapted from "hate is not a family value" - DLJ "God's Children know no shame" - Seen on a sign at a beach rally in Australia "Body Visible" - Vincent Bethell, from the web site "Human Race Activism" "protest naked" - seen on a FTBY protest sign "natural law over man-made-law" -
seen somewhere?
-
seen on a the body of a Naked Mile participant - DLJ "how your body looks" - seen on a FTBY protest sign "got a physical identity?" - adapted from FTBY principles and the "got milk?" ad campaign "be nude, be natural" - a nudist/naturist saying "why hide your appearance?" - adapted from FTBY principles "the human body: legalize it" - adapted from FTBY principles and a pro-hemp/marijuana slogan "the human body is neither offensive nor inappropriate" - adapted from FTBY principles and Terri Sue Webb statements "nude is not lewd" - a nudist/naturist saying "if you can't even safely be naked in public then where can you?" - DLJ "your body" - seen on a FTBY protest sign "Body Acceptance is the Idea, Nude Recreation is the way" - Lee Baxandall, founder of the Naturist Society "No prison for nudity" - DLJ "body freedom is a basic human right" - DLJ "I don't want to facilitate the power structure with my conformity, " - The Naked Guy, Andrew Martinez "We are by nature all as one, all alike, if you see us naked..." - John Burton (1576-1640) When I cast off my clothes, I cast off my cares! - Sir Horace Walpole "When you find a burden in belief or apparel, cast it off." - Amelia Bloomer, 1850's proponent of women's equality and body acceptance "Silence is the voice of complicity." - unknown "All good things are wild, and free." - Henry David Thoreau "Overgrow the government" - Green Party slogan |
"... it seems very backward to me that even though women are objectified in our media – the more skin the better – there are laws to prevent public nudity". (Katie Mann, from article in Going Natural, Vol. 17, Number 2) "What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot grasp the fact that the human foot is more noble than the shoe and the human skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?" - Michelangelo "... you should not be persecuted or victimized for being born human, with a human body - NAKED!" - Vincent Bethell, from the web site "Human Race Activism" "The best thing to do would be to designate everywhere as clothing optional, and we could leave little fenced in areas for the prudes to prance around in. Call them "Prudist Camps". They could peer out of their fences and indulge in their offensive "I'm offended" behaviour whenever they saw a natural person walk by, without bothering the rest of us." - Anon “The main hangup in the world today is hypocrisy and insecurity. If people can’t face up to the fact of other people being naked or smoking pot, or whatever they want to do, then we’re never going to get anywhere. People have got to become aware that it’s none of their business and that being nude is not obscene. Being ourselves is what’s important. If everyone practiced being themselves instead of pretending to be what they aren’t, there would be peace.” - John Lennon "I wish we were all naked all the time, ... I have always believed it is what's underneath that counts. If we were all forced to be naked, perhaps we would start to see that a little bit more." - Celine Dion, in the U.K. Sun "I want people to feel uncomfortable that they've demonized the body, I want them to feel uncomfortable at first and then realize it's just skin. Yes, the body can be a shape." - Spencer Tunick, during an interview with the Associated Press just before his Barcelona shoot on June 8, 2003. Spencer is a renowned photographer specializing in "temporary site-related installations" [often involving masses of naked people in urban settings]. "All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." - Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King "Become who you were born to be" - Elron in The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King "I do not want to live with a soul without a body. Nudity is the reflection of innocence. I hate the word obscenity. What is obscene is cheating others." - Kamala Surayya (Madhavikutty) renowned Indo-Anglican writer (from Jan 1, 2003 story from Sify News & Info) "It is an interesting question how far people would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes." - Henry David Thoreau "What a singular fact for an angel visitant to this earth to carry back in his note-book, that men were forbidden to expose their bodies under the severest penalties!" - Henry David Thoreau, Journals "If
it's so dirty to be naked, why do we get naked to get
clean?" - Bryan Maloney "My own mother tells me that my underarm and leg hair is ugly. It is very empowering to feel beautiful when most of society, including your family, thinks otherwise. I have created my own beauty standard, and I am proud to live by it". (Katie Mann, from article in Going Natural, Vol. 17, Number 2) "I just love having no clothes on outside, and the only time to do that is when the sun's shining. It's a wonderful sensation to not have any clothes on." - P.J. Harvey, singer "Everybody should run through the streets [naked] at least once. If you can do that, chances are you can have a lot of fun in other areas of your life." - Madonna, singer "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." - Henry David Thoreau "Walden" “To be offended by the visual appearance of another person is prejudice, akin to racism. The right to exist, uncovered, should hold precedence over the right not to view [nudity], for the objection is irrational.” - activist Terri Sue Webb in the Spring 2002 edition of Nude and Natural magazine in article entitled "Beyond Safe Havens: Oregon's Terri Sue Webb" "I think people should be able to do what they want as long as nobody is harmed." Canadian singer/songwriter/activist Bruce Cockburn's thoughts about top free equality for women and general public body freedom rights, March 22, 2002. "Clothing encourages us to fill it, to consume more. If the effects of our behavior and habits upon our bodies were generally visible, people would take care of themselves and be healthier." - activist Terri Sue Webb in an interview with Daniel Johnson on 16 Dec 2001 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr "Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! --ah if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness then indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent. Perhaps indeed he or she to whom the free exhilarating ecstasy of nakedness in Nature has never been eligible (and how many thousands there are!) has not really known what purity is--nor what faith or art or health really is." - Walt Whitman, Specimen Days "Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." - JFK "We believe that as people living in the United States, it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government, in our names." "As for the Future, your task is not to foresee but to enable it." - Antoine De Saint-Éxupéry "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem." -Howard Zinn, "Failure To Quit" "Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy, you may find in them a harness and a drain. Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your body and less of your raiment." - Khalil Gibran, The Prophet "Being
natural and matter-of-fact about nudity prevents your children from
developing an attitude of shame or disgust about the human body.
If parents are very secretive about their bodies and go to great
lengths to prevent their children from ever seeing a buttock or breast,
children - Dr. Lee Salk, psychiatrist "My protests are human-rights oriented. It's not about sexual nudity or free love or taking drugs and jumping over fires in forests. If anything, it's spiritual. I just think you should have the right to walk down the street naked. I firmly believe that naked people should have equal rights with clothed people." - Vincent Bethell "Nudity is undignified and an error of taste." - Adolf Hitler 'The perfect Brahmachari was a man who could lie by the side of Venus in all her naked beauty without being physically or mentally disturbed.' - Mahatma Gandhi, concerning non-sexual nudity as it relates to a greater spiritual development. I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, : I am mad for it to be in contact with me. - Walt Whitman: From Song of Myself (1855) |