True north, strong and free?

[sunny21]

As you may already know, in Ontario it is legal for a woman to be topless anywhere a man may be topless. The only caveat is not for sexual exploitation/undue attention. Women, slowly and in small numbers, have been taking advantage of this on some public beaches, private property, etc. This has been in law for a few years. In the first year there was great debate and moral outrage as to how our world was going to hell. Radio stations even ran " spotting topless women on beaches" call ins. (How imature).

About three years ago Toronto City Council set aside, temporarily, a small beach on the downtown islands for nude recreation, to some moral outrage. It has now become, from what I understand, permanent, to no moral outrage. In fact, there is no ridiculous debate about topless women or the beach. It's just ignored.

Now this. We feature a huge Gay Pride Parade annually in Toronto. It attracts thousands of people every year and has become somewhat of a family event. Our mayor lead the parade one year. This year 7 men walked the entire parade route nude, except for shoes. The cops where waiting for them at the end of the route and they were arrested and charged with being nude in a public place without a lawful excuse. Yesterday, the charges were dropped because technically the men were not nude, they wore shoes. The defence attorney, in part, said the following: " Being naked isn't immoral under the law. It has to cause actual harm to those watching and I have trouble understanding how the site of a human body, in a non sexual, non commercial context, could be harmful? The people watching the parade seemed to enjoy it as nothing more than harmless fun" The crown attorney conceded there was" no reasonable prospect of conviction"

The question I put forth is this. Is this an undercurrent in society coming to the forefront? Is society finally beginning to mature to the point where acceptance of casual nudity is not a threat, but simply, the most natural way of being? Has anyone noticed a trend such as this in the U.S.? Is this a trend, or just wishful thinking on my part? Would love to read your thoughts
.
P.S. If you wish to read the entire story... nationalpost.com, Annals of law:you're not naked if you have your shoes on, by Chris Wattie

[sunny21]

As you may already know, in Ontario it is legal for a woman to be topless anywhere a man may be topless. The only caveat is not for sexual exploitation/undue attention. Women, slowly and in small numbers, have been taking advantage of this on some public beaches, private property, etc. This has been in law for a few years. In the first year there was great debate and moral outrage as to how our world was going to hell. Radio stations even ran " spotting topless women on beaches" call ins. (How imature).

About three years ago Toronto City Council set aside, temporarily, a small beach on the downtown islands for nude recreation, to some moral outrage. It has now become, from what I understand, permanent, to no moral outrage. In fact, there is no ridiculous debate about topless women or the beach. It's just ignored.

Now this. We feature a huge Gay Pride Parade annually in Toronto. It attracts thousands of people every year and has become somewhat of a family event. Our mayor lead the parade one year. This year 7 men walked the entire parade route nude, except for shoes. The cops where waiting for them at the end of the route and they were arrested and charged with being nude in a public place without a lawful excuse. Yesterday, the charges were dropped because technically the men were not nude, they wore shoes. The defence attorney, in part, said the following: " Being naked isn't immoral under the law. It has to cause actual harm to those watching and I have trouble understanding how the site of a human body, in a non sexual, non commercial context, could be harmful? The people watching the parade seemed to enjoy it as nothing more than harmless fun" The crown attorney conceded there was" no reasonable prospect of conviction"

The question I put forth is this. Is this an undercurrent in society coming to the forefront? Is society finally beginning to mature to the point where acceptance of casual nudity is not a threat, but simply, the most natural way of being? Has anyone noticed a trend such as this in the U.S.? Is this a trend, or just wishful thinking on my part? Would love to read your thoughts
.
P.S. If you wish to read the entire story... nationalpost.com, Annals of law:you're not naked if you have your shoes on, by Chris Wattie

[David77]

Sunny21,
The good trend you see occuring in Canada is not occuring in my geographical area of southwestern Illinois and St. Louis Missouri. This region is considered to be quite conservative and public nudity on the streets or parks, for instance, would certainly not be tolerated.

On the other hand, for the last few or more years,there has not been any significant demonstrations in front of theaters protesting nudity of actors in stage plays - this nudity seems to be accepted quite casually by the vast majority. Probably they have gotten accustomed to seeing some nudity from viewing movies on cable TV?

Hurray for the trend in Canada; Canada a country I have enjoyed visiting a number of times and would like to visit Ponderosa Naturist Resort near Toronto some day.

[sunny21]

David 77
You've noticed a small change in perceptions in your area. Maybe that's a beginning.

I find it amazing that people in the last few years would still protest nudity in a play. We haven't seen that here since probably the play "Hair" debuted, which must have been 30 years ago. We can't stay an immature society forever. At some point we have to evolve. We accept people's races, religions, sexuality but the last frontier seems to be the body. Strange, considering there are about 6 billion of them on this planet, and they only come in 2 varieties.

If you ever visit the Ponderosa, do so in June/July. The weather is usually the most consistent then. August can sometimes be a tad wet, but still warm. Temps run 75 to 90 thru summer. Lots to do in the area. The resort is only 50 minutes away from Niagara Falls and about the same from downtown Toronto.
Happy trails. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Yooper]

Though it may not be happening rapidly for me, I see the standards being relaxed. I point to what now has become acceptable on TV. When NYPD Blue was first aired, some stations refused to broadcast the show. Those stations now do. At the time I thought that all the criticism of the show was ironic because I had been watching nude people on TV via PBS. Even though NYPD Blue warns of partial nudity before a broadcast containing such, other programs have not. Julie Warner was nude from the rear in an episode of Family Law. No warning was given. Today Fox is advertising a new show where the main character plunges into the ocean from a cliff nude. They don't bother to fuzz his butt. The program Dog eat Dog promotes nudity on TV with their strip games, but the fuzzing is a joke. I do believe that fuzzing of butts and breasts will go the way of swimming costumes of the 1920's long before the fuzzing of the pubic area on both men and women is accepted, but I think it will happen.

We are also seeing more reality in sex scenes. Though it is still prevalent for the male to exit a bed wearing boxer shorts after just having intercourse, that is not happening as often in the movies and European TV. The female doesn't wrap herself in a sheet as often either.

Advances come in little steps, but I believe that we are advancing.

[brainyguy9999]

I have perceived the opposite in the US. As much as I always hope that things are relaxing here, I see too often news stories about nude-tolerated beaches, lakes, ponds, springs, or streams being declared clothing-required by local governments and sending law enforcement to issue citations and arrest people for engaging in non-sexual nude activities. These, more often than not, seem to be places that had been traditionally clothing-optional-tolerated for years or decades.

I have also been disappointed to see colleges and universities cracking down on nude runs, volleyball games, and streakers. More often I see them commenting that they are making examples of people who break local laws or university "standards" by participating in these activities.

I have also noticed an increase in activity by religious groups that seem to move from place to place and organize "grass-roots" efforts to close down traditionally clothing-optional-tolerated beaches and other areas. Once they succeed, they move to another area and begin organizing people to approach the local governments to get them to enact or enforce anti-nudity laws. -- Watch for them. I'm sure they'll be coming to your area soon if they already haven't.

I read the news every day and smile widely when I read an article that shows nude recreation in a good light. I smile even wider when the article tells of a government body issuing a law or opinion in favor of nude recreation.

However, more and more often, it seems to me that I read articles about laws being passed, groups protesting and succeeding, or law enforcement taking the initiative (even disregarding the laws to enforce their opinion of public morality -- cases in New York of topless women being arrested despite it being legal for women in NY to be topless where a man can. In some cases the arresting officers refused to accept and read a copy of the NY statute permitting the women to be topless!! How arrogant!) to stop people from enjoying non-sexual nude activities.

I hope I'm wrong, but in my opinion, nude recreation hasn't had any great leaps in acceptance in the US over the last few years. Sometimes advancement comes in waves like ocean waves. Maybe we are at the point where the last wave has just retreated and we are getting ready to ride the next large wave onto the beach... Hopefully nude. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Have fun! Be nude!

bg

[luvnaturism]

I think that in the US two opposing trends are happening simultaneously.

Nude recreation is booming, helped along by the Internet which has helped many see that it's not about sex. There are many commercial opportunities for nude recreation that didn't exist ten years. In California, as in many other states, there are numerous beaches that have traditionally been clothing optional, and still are. In San Francisco you can be naked on a beach almost directly under the Golden Gate bridge.

On the other hand, the enormous increase in population means that people who are offended by nudity are more likely to bump up against skinny dippers. Some of them are militant, and they have indeed won some important victories.

My view is that the contest between two opposing views will continue until there is a militant nudist movement that forces the issue of naturism as a philosphy that has a right to be protected under the Constitution.

[Douglas George]

I'm glad to see another Canadian here. I'm in the process of building a Nude campground in N.B. Canada. I often go nude in my yard and can be seen from the highway. I've never had a complaint from anybody. Several of my neighbours have been nude at my pool. Many of the locals say they would love to have a place where they could camp nude with out driving all day. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif