Monday, June 22, 2009

Managers of the Appalachian Trail Just Say “No” to Nude Hiking

What does Father’s Day and nudity have in common? Usually nothing, but this year summer solstice happened to fall on Father’s Day so dad’s special day shared June 21, 2009 with the annual observance of Naked Hiking Day. It should come as no surprise that nude hiking is a European tradition where the American aversion to the natural state of the human body is less keenly felt.

For an article published by the Associated Press, a reporter interviewed Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Brian’s take about hiking in the buff? “It's just rude.” “People are out there hiking with their kids and families, and there are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.” Yes, by all means, we shouldn’t deny our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts their inalienable American right to grow up sexually repressed with life-long body image hang ups. God forbid that they might become privy to the closely guarded, deep dark secret that beneath the clothing, everyone is naked and males have penises while females have vaginas.


In the same article Ranger Tammy McCorkle, of the state-managed South Mountain Recreation Area in western Maryland, acknowledged that rangers were on the job and responded quickly to reports of a group of naked men spotted hiking along the AT. Although all were clothed by the time a ranger reached them, eight received disorderly conduct warnings after admitting they had been nude. According to Ranger McCorkle, they got off lucky since full-frontal violations could have resulted in indecent exposure charges. In a way it is comical how seriously and negatively so many people take something as harmless as nude hiking. One also has to wonder why authorities can’t simply solve the issue for the benefit of non-nudists by declaring one or two days out of the week as clothing optional. I mean how much trouble would it be to post a few signs along the Appalachian Trail, “Warning! On Mondays and Wednesdays you may encounter nude hikers.” I guess it is just easier to deny nudists their personal rights to enjoy nature in the natural.


For those interested who might have missed it, my most recent nudist related article published at Associated Content,
Modern Nudity, explains the practice of modern nudity and includes historical underpinnings.



Monday, June 8, 2009

Couple Faces Eviction for “Nearly” Nude Gardening

Today on the Internet I came across a United Press International story about a Boulder, Colorado couple who are facing eviction on the grounds that they are in the opinion of their landlord, creating a nuisance. According to the report, the married couple, Catharine Pierce, 51, and Robert Pierce, 58, enjoy gardening in the front yard of their Boulder home wearing only thongs and pasties. Since the two are not exposing their genitals, their activities are not a violation of any local laws or ordinances. Still, their “nearly” nude gardening obviously is an irritation and affront to their apparently prudish landlord who has taken legal action to put an end to things by having the pair evicted for creating a nuisance.

Their landlord is Boulder Housing Partners, which administers an affordable housing program for the City of Boulder. In an interview with the local Boulder newspaper, Executive Director Betsy Martens was quoted to say, “Defining the word ‘nuisance’ is tough.” “This is not a legal issue, it's a community issue. We try and balance the needs of the whole community.” The implication apparently being that the nude gardening activities by the Pierce’s violates community mores as they relate to modesty.

The couple however begs to differ with Ms. Martens, asserting that Boulder Housing Partners is infringing on their basic rights. “We want our freedom,” Robert Pierce told the same Boulder newspaper, adding, “We want exactly what the law gives you, and we don't want to be harassed about it.”

Boulder was recently the center of nude behavior controversy over the annual “Nude Pumpkin” run where a number of college students engaging in an annual prank were arrested and prosecuted under indecency laws for appearing nude in public. The ACLU intervened in that situation and it will be interesting to see whether they come to the aid of the Pierces.

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Associated Content Update

As an update, I have had three more “nudist” articles accepted for publication by Associated Content and the links are provided below. I appreciate those who have taken time to view the first article I mentioned several days ago and hope you will click on the links and check out these new articles. Thus far the folks at Associated Content have been quite accepting of my nudist articles and I have a couple of more in queue.

A First Nudist Experience

Have You Ever Considered a Nude Cruise?

The Skinny on Skinny-Dipping

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A New Direction

Recently I decided to expand into another venue by becoming a contributing writer on the Associated Content web site. While I still intend to post regular content here on my blog, I thought this might be a good way to more effectively conduct outreach among non-nudists by having positive articles on naturism and nudism published in a more mainstream venue. Happily, Associated Content accepted my first nudism article, The Emerging Nudist and I even received a few bucks for my trouble. While I will be submitting articles on a variety of topics there under the pen name, Jon Stall, I intend to concentrate on naturism and nudism and in fact have already submitted two more articles on that topic and am awaiting the decision of the site editors on publication. It would be much appreciated if the readers here would follow the links I will be providing to my Associated Content articles. The more the articles are accessed I think the better the chances that similar articles will be accepted by the editors for publication on AC and the more non-nudists I can reach with my message.