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Showing posts from February, 2009

Of nudists, prudes and an attitude that's a century old

Coverage of the story that German nude hikers were being arrested in Switzerland got me thinking. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not all for widespread nudity across the world - for three reasons: 99.9% of people look far better with their clothes on Many people would get too cold for most of the year All sorts of socially embarrassing situations would routinely crop up (to say the least!) However, what sort of society are we when we're so opposed to the sight (shock horror) of the standard, imperfect but biologically whole human body that we're ready to seek and arrest those who choose to occasionally disrobe away from towns and other centres of population? The argument is usually given that children should be protected from the 'sight' - in my experience (giggling apart), children are usually a lot less offended by the sight of others' bodies than prudish adults. I've never been to a nudist beach or resort and don't really want to - maybe the UK'