“Nude on”
J C Thacker
jctha@hotmail.com

If the author asked me I would tell him, yes, he is wrong.

I’m also from the left coast! … Though I usually speak for myself, and not for the great West in general. I probably will never have the occasion to see my coworkers’ ’sights’ at a nude resort, but if I do, you will be the first to know.

I’ve seen a couple of my co-workers nude, when we recognized each other at a local nude resort. We all blushed, laughed…and had lunch together. They’ve seen mine and I’ve seen theirs..both male and female. Not a big deal, and we all smile when we pass in the hall.

Try being nude at a nearby resort some Sunday. Do it as an experiment…take a tour…see the sights. You might find it enlightening, and fun.

I do agree that the cover is a great gimmick! It’s controversial, interesting, and gets people talking. So I’m talking about it. When I call the cover an “unexplained tragedy” and relate it to a “terrible collision,” I’m joking. But I have to disagree with you again that nudism is the “great human equalizer” in this case … I have nothing against nudism, but I also don’t see the equalizing quality of “gimmick” nudity in journalism. Two young guys from Yale, cheeky and funny; a young woman from anywhere, and your journalism career will probably never be the same. When you’re clothed during interviews and when lecturing to sociology classes, it’s probably for the same reason that I don’t pose naked (or at all) in a newspaper—you want people to listen to what you have to say. I’ve found that women’s bodies are often part of the conversation on the job anyway, whether or not they’re putting it all out there on the cover of a newspaper. And I think that sucks.

I have learned a lot from people who wish they could see their coworkers naked on the job save for digitally inserted checkmarks, though. Who knew!

Yes, the reporter was a man who interviewed me and attended our Halloween party. However, I’ve frequently been interviewed, but I subscribe to the philosophy, “clothed when practical,nude when possible.” I lecture to sociology classes about nudism and am clothed as during any interview.

The “naked cover” is a great gimmick, and that is all I see it as. More people will pickup that issue especially since it is controversial.

Nudism is the great human equalizer. People don’t compare the price tag of their jeans. The man in the 3-piece suit and 2 PhDs is not thought more of than the person who generally wears cut-offs and a ripped tshirt.
If you have a police officer at a corner and two men show up, one in a suit carrying a briefcase and the other in torn jeans and tshirt carrying a brown paper bag, the officer will be alerted to the poorly dressed individual and might even warn the better dressed man about the element that sometimes frequents the street.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/11/ST2008071102562.html?sid=ST2008071102562&s_pos=list

I do, however, think the Finns and Swedes do this. They practically live in saunas.

I’m curious, was the reporter on the cover of the Travelites story a man? I think it’s interesting how male nudity is often celebrated as “natural” while female nudity is so often sexualized.

Imagine, for a moment, if young female interns were asked by their employer to appear naked on the cover of a newspaper. If they were convinced to do so, the women would almost certainly be both vilified and harassed by male and female readers. For someone whose life is dedicated to advocating nudity, this response might be expected and accepted; for a journalist, it would be something different altogether.

In considering nudity on the job, I think there’s something more to being a “grown up” and “accepting our bodies.” Revealing our naked bodies—and looking at others’—offers up different connotations for men and women.

Simple nudity should not be disturbing to anyone; we were born nude and as some say “in God’s image.” The human body is just the vessel for the individual. We should all accept who we are and not what we look like, own, or wears. Nudism is the great human equalizer.

Thanks for the comment. Good point about the cultural divide—could Tampa be more Germanic than Gulf Coast?

In truth, I believe it is the brazen placement of the suggestive check-marks that I find most unsettling in this case (don’t get me wrong: If pressed, I’ll admit that I much prefer them to the full picture). But this does raise an interesting question: is an after-lunch nude work sauna, in which all parties consent and participate, less disturbing than a hard-copy nude work photograph?

Yeah actually, probably not. When it comes to editorial skinny-dipping meetings, count me ethnocentric. I’m not jumpin’ into that pool.

In many European countries A nude sauna after a business lunch is normal. In Munich’s Englischer Garten co-workers sunbathe nude during their lunch hour.

At some point we Americans are going to have to get over our prudishness about the human body and grow up a little.