Kate M.

Kate M.
A British woman at the height of her life, attractive, world famous, a star. Topless pictures in the media and on the Internet.
Stop.
Who is that? Well, there are two answers to that question.
The first one is Kate ... Middleton. The Princess and likely future Queen of Great Britain (and Canada, Australia, ...) was seen topless at a swimming pool. Furore, right or wrong? Right, if the furore was about the shameless invasion of her privacy, taking pictures of her without her knowing on a private property with no questions asked, no permission given. Nobody should live in fear of being photographed in a private garden, pool or home by outsiders. No ordinary person and no celebrity or royalty. Wrong, if the furore was about a princess daring to go topless. She was in sunny France, in the sunshine, by the side of a pool. What else do you expect a young European woman to be wearing in such an environment? Too bad Kate Middleton missed a chance to stand up and defend the right of women to go topless. She would have made a great spokesperson for topless equality, but even now, if shy women know that even a British princess and future queen finds it acceptable to go topless, it's a big move in the right direction.
The other woman is Kate ... Moss, of course. Already long known for not scurrying away from nude or topless photo shoots, Miss Moss joined in a campaign for a suntan cream brand I never heard of before, Saint-Tropez, of course also the name of the French Mediterranean town made famous by icon Brigitte Bardot. Yes, the blue mixed in with grey in the foreground looks a bit fake though quite fresh, and the same could be said for the blue sky. The fact that the picture went on nearly all news sites online is a tribute to its beauty. Miss Moss might not be a true naturist - and her rumored familiarity with drugs is not part of the naturist lifestyle - but she is already a world-class icon. She is model-beautiful, yes, but she is also brave enough to dare to be nude.
Harking back to Brigitte Bardot, movies about strong French women have been quite successful, just think about Piaf with Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard and Coco Avant Chanel with Audrey Tautou. If there is ever a movie about Bardot, Kate Moss - even though she is a model and not an actress - is the obvious choice for the title role. If you need a script, @KateAMoss, please let me know, I'll be more than happy to write it for you.
When it comes to Kate M., one could say that topless is more, but naturism is the most.

No, no, no, Ryan Gosling

In 2007 I chose Eva Mendes to be my first Celebrity Naturist of the Year because she was already known for liking to work in her garden naked and for appearing on posters and in movies with few clothes on. Last week, we got another confirmation that she likes the naturist lifestyle.
Boyfriend Ryan Gosling says she walks around naked at home all the time. Unfortunately, the news is that he wants to stop her doing so. Why? Because when he brings friends around to the house, she doesn't cover up.
What would I do if I had a partner/wife/husband/relative at home who never covered up? Well, the simplest and most reasonable thing to do would be to call ahead and say you're bringing somebody home to visit. If she says she's not planning to cover up, then I would tell my friend that people at home are naturists, so would they be shocked or offended if they found somebody at your home not wearing clothes?
It's all so simple really. If people really are shocked, you could time visits to coincide with your naturist family member's absence, or you could just meet elsewhere, at somebody else's home, or at a restaurant.
Is Eva Mendes being rude?
I don't think so, it's her home so she can do pretty much anything that's legal. Yes, she can show respect to Ryan Gosling's friends by covering up when they're there, but a/he should let her know beforehand and b/he shouldn't be ordering her what to do.
Having a mixed household - mixed anything, whether tastes, lifestyles, or cultures - is always an affair of give and take, and the same counts when one half is naturist and the other one isn't.
I hope the actor couple can work out what is after all a small problem and not let it divide them. As to the way things are developing according to the media, my words are:
No, no, no, Ryan Gosling - Yes, yes, yes, Eva Mendes.

Celebrity Naturists of the Year 2012: Sandra Bullock and Chelsea Handler

http://bit.ly/YdpgPy
That is the short and irreverent piece of film which allowed Hollywood star Sandra Bullock and TV host Chelsea Handler to win the accolade of Celebrity Naturists of the Year 2012.
Are they naturists? Probably not. Is taking a shower naked a naturist thing? No, it's everybody's thing. The difference is: they talked together naked in the shower, even if just for a skit, and it got broadcast without being labeled a wardrobe malfunction. It still got covered by blurry 'mosaics' to prevent an outcry, even though we naturists would not do so.
Nevertheless, we believe Sandra Bullock and Chelsea Handler, through the shooting of this minimovie and its broadcasting during the talk show Chelsea Lately, sent out a message that nudity on television should not be as offensive as some people think.
Nudity is beautiful if it comes with respect for the human body. Nudity is part of us, and even religious people who do not like nudity have to admit that humans received their body from God, so where is the problem?
Sandra Bullock and Chelsea Handler join the series of famous people including Eva Mendes, Rosario Dawson, Hilary Swank and Heidi Klum to be named Celebrity Naturist of the Year. Some of them are true naturists, some of them aren't, but they all, one way or another, knowingly or unknowingly, promoted the cause of naturism, of being naked in public without meaning to offend or insult.
Have you noticed how all our Celebrity Naturists of the Year have been women so far? Spencer Tunick of course is a strong frontrunner every year and will eventually win the prize, but we feel that because barriers to naturism in our society are higher for women, it is important to find female role models who point the way.
Congratulations to Sandra Bullock and Chelsea Handler for their Celebrity Naturists of the Year Award for 2012.

Real Naturist of the Year 2012: Philippe

The Real Naturist of the Year Award celebrates a person who is both a true naturist and has done something outstanding to promote the cause of naturism over the past year.
The award for 2012 goes to Philippe, the first naturist and man to appear full-frontally nude on evening television in Belgium.
The show 'Manneke Paul' on Dutch-language TV channel VTM wanted to report about plans to open a 'naturist forest' in Belgium's coastal province, but had to delay because it just couldn't find people to show living the naturist lifestyle. That's where Philippe came in. He volunteered and the TV show could go ahead.
Philippe is a 52-year-old teacher who teaches Dutch for foreign-language pupils at an elementary school in the city of Ghent.
The courage of people like Philippe does more for the cause of naturism than anything else: show ordinary people like you and me enjoying naturism for what it is, and you will convince people that non-sexual public nudity is not a sin, it's the way we were intended to live.
You can find the original Dutch-language report about Philippe at the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws at http://bit.ly/TjbApL

Chelsea Handler and Sandra Bullock

Until this week, few people outside the United States had ever heard of Chelsea Handler. But one bold move to film a promotion of her talk show Chelsea Lately's new season changed all that. The clip showing her walking naked into the showers and being aggressively 'handled' by global superstar Sandra Bullock went around the world.
Well, maybe I'm exaggerating. Even though it was shown in the US with 'blur' and 'mosaics' covering up the strategic bits, many Asian TV stations, which are otherwise generous with showing their viewers footage of people streaking or swimming in cold weather in the nude, did not pick up the images.
European media are less shy, but the problem there is of course that news media are still 'serious' and will not regard anything that appears on a US talk show as news. Still, there are the European newspapers. Their web sites picked up on the Chelsea Lately show, as you can see here at the web site of the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws: http://bit.ly/PdV8oY
Why should a naturist be excited about two famous women naked on TV? Right, neither Handler nor Bullock were promoting naturism. They were not sunbathing, swimming or playing sports naked, as naturists would do. All they did was take a shower and talk, and some of the talk was pretty silly at that.
Yet, there is one element that should make naturists happy. The nudity was not salacious or occasional, it was natural. Women in the shower. On a major mainstream TV show. With not just a prominent TV presenter willing to go naked, but also one of Hollywood's top stars. That takes courage, but it also sends out a message. It's allright for women or other people to appear naked in a natural, non-sexual contest. If Chelsea Handler and Sandra Bullock are not worried about appearing naked and about the gossip and recriminations, then why should other - 'normal' or 'common' - people?
Congratulations, Chelsea and Sandra. That short TV footage just propelled both of you to the status of frontrunner for my Celebrity Naturist of the Year Award to be announced around Christmas.
Naturists should take heart that the two famous women dared to make this clip, and that the TV station was brave enough to show it in a climate of fear about 'wardrobe malfunctions.'

The Summer of 2012

Welcome to the Summer of 2012.
So far, a scorcher if you live in the United States, Mediterranean Europe or Taiwan and Southern China. A bleak April-like washout if you live in Great Britain, Western Europe and, I believe, Japan.
I hope the picture from a Club Orient ad at least makes you dream of being at a naturist resort, even though because of circumstances beyond your control, such as the weather, you are unable to be there in person and body.
I'm in a part of Asia now where daily temperatures climb to 38 degrees Celsius. While sounding great to naturists in other parts of the world, this kind of heat actually chases people away from the open into dark rooms where the air conditioning rules. It's just too hot outside, and staying in the sun for just a short while might have undesired effects.
Despite that warning, hundreds of young people have been getting out to beach festivals and enjoy music and sea in various stages of undress, but not complete nudity. That might change, if we have to believe a recent report in the local media.
Taiwan is considering planning its first-ever nude beach. I use the words 'consider' and 'plan,' because we've heard this kind of story many times before. Everyone's aware that there are nude beaches in the West, but hardly anybody in Taiwan has ever seen them. In a country where even women in bikinis make TV news, it will be hard for a nude beach to give naturists the privacy they need from gawkers, Peeping Toms and cell phone cameras. The politician in charge of the Tainan area in Southern Taiwan where a stretch of the Masago Beach might go naturist points out correctly that there might be more gawkers than actual bathers.
That's why, in a country like Taiwan, I would much prefer a closed-off beach, where outsiders can't enter or pass by, and where only real nudists can move in and enjoy their days naked.
Nevertheless, even the fact that such a beach is being suggested, is a major step forward. One of the arguments of the proponents is financial, that the nude beach will bring more people to stay and consume. This argument shows that even the brighter minds around know about the economic effects of naturism. More naturism means more guests, more spending, more tourism funding, more income for the local economy.
I hope that nude beach will come to Tainan, but I know it's going to be a long struggle, with all kinds of arguments against from what is basically still a very conservative society when it comes to nudity. Breasts and other body parts in foreign movies or news reports about events like the World Naked Bike Ride are still blurred by 'mosaics' on Taiwan TV, and commercials for cosmetics or soaps barely show any nudity. As I said, even bikinis - commonplace in Europe for 40 years - are still a news item here, with young women venturing on to the beach and into the water wearing T-shirts and sometimes even long frilly dresses.
Luckily, there is a more international, younger, freer generation coming about. They don't mind showing their bodies, they are not afraid of more nudity, some of them are even open to joining naturist groups which so far only organize events like karaoke nights at hotels or hikes in remote mountain areas.
I can only hope that the summer of 2012 will be remembered for the first steps in the direction of Taiwan's first-ever naturist beach. Which could be an Asian first as well.
The media story about the Tainan nude beach proposal is here: http://bit.ly/OG3OxV

Happy World Naturist Day

I hope you had a perfect World Naturist Day, i.e. a day that included naturism, either as an active participant, or as an observer and potential new convert to the cause. Because that is what World Naturist Day is all about, introducing naturism to a new audience by throwing the doors wide open and letting the outside world know what it is about. As we old hands know, naturism is about freedom, oneness with nature, relaxation, and respect for others. It is not about Peeping Toms, sex, pornography, indecency and exhibitionism.
On World Naturist Day, I noted that US President Barack Obama said he would attend activities for Gay Pride Month. I've been thinking about this for a long time: what if you replaced the word 'gay' in news reports and official comments with the word 'naturist?'
Shouldn't we be proud to be naturists? Shouldn't the President of the United States, or any other politician or celebrity, be emphasizing naturist rights, the benefits of naturism, and the fight against discrimination of naturists? When are we going to have a world leader, president, prime minister or king saying it's allright to be nude and naturists are as normal as you and me?
If there is a gay rights movement that can gain widespread acceptance, at least in the West and in economically advanced countries, shouldn't there also be a naturist movement that can do the same? Of course, there is, there are naturist movements all over the world, but usually you only hear about them at a limited number of travel fairs.
Shouldn't World Naturist Day be an excellent opportunity to tell the world that, yes, there are millions of naturists around the world, yes, they have strong economic clout, and yes, they are perfectly normal people as well?