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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 19784
[Society]
Date Posted:
6/23/2008
6:11:53 pm EDT
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Comments: 11
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Pagan Or Perv? Nude Etiquette In Fremont
Author: Knute Berger (blog) Source: Crosscut Seattle (WA)
Title: PAGAN OR PERV? NUDE ETIQUETTE IN FREMONT
I went to the Fremont Solstice parade June 21 for the first time in many, many years and saw the famed nekkid bike riders. But I have a few questions about the etiquette of public pagan nudity in Seattle, so weigh in if you have an opinion.
So much nudity reminded me why most people ought to wear clothes. The good and the bad about it is that it's about as sexy as a visit to a nudist colony, where nearly everyone who is naked shouldn't be.
That said, the painted "costumes" and get-ups were mostly wonderful and hilarious. It was like seeing the city's psyche empty into the streets. Though riding on a bike seat in the buff seems, well, ouch.
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Community Thoughts: There are 11 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| The Children Are Exactly Who I Think Of... | Jun 26th. at 12:18:14 pm EDT
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Vema (Riverside, Missouri) - Email Me
...when I read stuff like this. We're all so ashamed of what we hide under our clothes. Do we really want that to be what our kids learn? That their bodies are nasty things that they just have to deal with, but for heaven's sake, don't let anyone see it?
I've struggled for years with my own body image, to the point where I still can't even be naked in front of my husband without having to fight the urge to grab a blanket or a towel cover up with. I absolutely refuse to let my children grow up that way. I let our first one run around free and unfettered, and I do too. Hopefully someday I can do it without being self-conscious, and my kids will never have the feel that way.
This sort of "people should hide their bodies away" and "I didn't need to see that" attitude is ridiculous. It's a traditional part of the parade, so anyone who was surprised was obviously not thinking. If you know there's a nude biker event coming and you have a problem with it, DON'T GO! And if you don't want your kids to see it, DON'T TAKE THEM! If we all stay present and and think ahead, we could have less anger and wigginess.
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| It's Interesting | Jun 25th. at 2:46:07 pm EDT
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Blue Fox (Toronto (Etobicoke) , Ontario) - Email Me
I mean, the whole Pagan, "nudity is natural" (which it is, in the most literal sense) coming up against the flow of human culture. People wear clothes, or some sort of covering, yeas originally for protection from the elements as they ventured/developed (class is still out on this one...) into cooler climates, wearing clothes became the normal thing to do, and sorry, but this one can't be blamed on the development of Christanity, goes back too far.
So on the one hand you have people trying to get back to nature (if only for a brief period without clothes) but with the exception of the nudists, who are and will assuredly continue to exist on the lunatic fringe, most people tend to wear clothes all the time.
Despite this fact, however, I fail to see this overt fear of human nudity that seems to always precede and follow public spectacles (however short) where some people may be naked. I can underestand on the one hand the need to "think of the children", but this complete paranoia of children being exposed to nudity is simply silly. The ability of the puritanical to continually bemoan displays of the human body are right up their with bemoaning the fact that not everyone shares their belief system.
These are not people fornicating on every street corner, or commiting sexual acts at every turn, they are simply walking about, without clothes on. It sounds hokey, but the human body is a rather marvelous and beautiful thing, and the occasional display of it should not be the herrald of the end times...
I think it is also rather silly, that people seem to have such an abhorrence of public nudity, yet will defend (to the death... a bit hyperbolic but often recounted) some bigots ability to say the most cruel and hate filled things, to whomever they wish (children inculded) .
Talk about a skewed perspective...
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| Sorry | Jun 25th. at 4:13:10 am EDT
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me
I entirely fail to see the liberating and/or instructive value to an average stranger, particularly children, being exposed to naked adults cavorting about in public like there's nothing about it. Again, we are not talking about clothing optional hot springs or some barbecue at a nudist colony. This was a parade on city streets with children about. It is not JUST about how natural comfortable you are with YOURSELF. You're also a member of society, remember? Consider it a matter of etiquette, or respect for others. Well who knows, maybe these people don't have any table manners or other courtesies either. Again, I understand a certain latitude in private among consenting adults, although I seriously question the sanity and ethics of any adult that would in any way expose their own or someones else's naked bodies to their own children, or to any one else's, in an effort to 'naturalize' them.
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| There Is A Difference | Jun 24th. at 8:39:22 pm EDT
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Amorgen (Conway, New Hampshire) - Email Me
Clothing optional venues within a religious context are meant to allow for Affirmation, not be an Invitation. When people are well-adjusted and secure in their sexuality these events have few problems. However, when was the last time you saw a large group where everyone had their act together?
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| From An Ex-Seattlite | Jun 24th. at 4:32:05 pm EDT
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Dana Corby (Anderson Island, Washington) - Email Me
The Freemont Fair & Parade is one of the few cultural events anywhere that was established by the hippies and still puts out a fairly hippy vibe. As another poster said, it's about freedom & fun, not religion. I'd also add, it's about creativity.
It's not upper-P-Pagan in the same sense that we who hang out at WitchVox mean Pagan. It's lower-P-pagan only because it's held on the Solstice, and is hedonistic. Actually, the Fremont folks kinda look down their noses at us full-time Pagans. They want it understood that they're 'artistes,' and a cut above us.
I think the original blogger had a point: some people do get all pervy, whether it's exhibitionism or voyeurism, and give a bad flavor to what's otherwise a *great* event.
...But I wouldn't pass up my local Solstice ritual to go to it. My solstice *is* about religion.
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| Well If You Are Looking For A Cheap Sexual Thrill | Jun 24th. at 9:55:42 am EDT
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booley (Saint Louis, Missouri) - Email Me
then yeah, there are few people who should be naked.
Of course, i am one of those of odd people who think a Pagan event and Porn are two different things.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against porn. But it's not why I would go to a Pagan event. I admit I am even more of a weirdo then previously admitted in that I don't automaticly connect nudity with sex. I mean, children are often naked and I certainly don't see that as sexual (I am hoping others don't either)
So maybe the best advice I can offer is perhaps to grow the frick up.
Sure people will ignore it. Looking for that cheap thrill and making fun of "fat chicks" is so much easier. But I thought I would try anyway.
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| Whats The Problem | Jun 24th. at 9:51:14 am EDT
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Shadow (Webb City, Missouri) - Email Me
Nudity is about being free, not sex. Being nude is what it is and does not mean that everyone that go's nude is doing so for sexual proposes. Who cares what people look like, no one has to be perfect. Just look at the bible, wish christians would, Adam and Eve were nude all the time, no problem there and god did nto have a problem with it because thats the way he made them, the bible says. It was not god that told them to put clothing on, it was the devil that told them they should be ashamed for being nude. It actually says god was angry becasue Adam and Eve had covered themselves. Christians have just turned it around to make people think that god did not like nudity, which is totally false.
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| The Age Of Exhibition | Jun 24th. at 3:34:20 am EDT
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me
I generally admire the bold, free spirits that make Fremont their seasonal or permanent abode, but I will clearly break from this great pagan tradition that never was and say that public nudity is crass and vulgar and violates common sense, at the very least. Ever since we came down from the trees and moved into caves or better, ever since the soles of our feet went soft and we lost all of our thick ape hair, it's generally been a good idea to wear some semblance of clothing. Walking around naked inside your house is one thing. Cruising around your neighborhood in the nude is something else. As for the current state of your unclothed body, why can't you keep that between you, your partner and your bathwater?
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| Sigh... | Jun 24th. at 12:16:10 am EDT
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spatch3 (Orcutt, California) - Email Me
I've gone to the Santa Barbara Solstice parade and festival for several years now with visions of the Freemont parade dancing in my head. Year after year no dice, except this year. There was one, very young, Asian woman blowing a conch shell wearing a very small bikini bottom with transparent straps and what looked like daisy flowers on her nipples. And she wasn't even in the parade! Suffice it to say the rest of the parade was kind of a let down.
I still like the Solstice festival because the bawdy atmosphere is only equaled at ren faires.
Find More info -- HERE
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| Statements Like This... | Jun 23rd. at 8:52:55 pm EDT
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Friday Scott (Middleton, Wisconsin) - Email Me
...Remind me how much cowans *fetishize nudity,* then get all indignant when it's not as sexually-appealing for them as they crack it up to be.
I dunno...
It does, of course, give me cause to wonder if all that 'bicycle-seat nudity' that the reporter couldn't bear to look at actually happened....
But if they're both disappointed and indignant to find that 'About as sexy as a nudist colony,' there's a reason for that.
Namely, that sans fig leaves, it stops being about 'porn' and is just people not wearing clothes.
Nonetheless, I'd also say that thongs are not for couch potatoes to wear to a parade. Whatever all this is about.
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| These Comments... | Jun 23rd. at 8:24:15 pm EDT
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Azrael (Manteca, California) - Email Me
"So much nudity reminded me why most people ought to wear clothes."
It's sentiments like this that help cause so many problems: anorexia, skin & bones models, perpetual propagation of Victorian mores.
In another recent article, regarding a possible new, anti-nudity ordinance for a beach in Vermont where nudity is currently acceptable: "We all have our personal feelings about it. I just don't go down there... Most of them are fat old men like me. Who wants to see them?" and, "I just don't want you to prance around [naked] like a puffed-up chicken in front of my kids and think it's OK."
I just don't understand what so many people find so offensive about nudity. Or this 'Pagan or perv' dichotomy the blogger used...
Find More info -- HERE
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