When Even the Bears Won't Go Bare

This post comes to you courtesy of Mrs. Platypus. She noticed a new video series for children in the lineup of suggested titles in her Amazaon account.  Based upon popular books by illustrator Todd Doodler, it's called Bear in Underwear.  You can follow this link to one of the books on Amazon called Goodnight Underwear and see a few pages of it by using the "Look Inside' feature available on the site.  The accompanying description helps explain that the "underwear theme" is designed to inspire story time giggles among youngsters who will no doubt find it funny.  (There was a similarly popular book series under the name 'Captain Underpants' some years ago as we recall from trips to the bookstores with our puggles.)

What Mrs. Platypus found interesting is that virtually all of the forest critters depicted are dressed in clothes of some kind.  And that the male characters are usually only wearing briefs or boxers, while the female animals often wear more. We can't explain the difference or the need to clothe animals... beyond the easy laughs, that is.

We don't have a problem with having a bit of fun, of course.  Or with using animal mascots (our blog is, after all, named after a platypus). It's just interesting that even the "bears" cannot go fully "bare" within this genre. Is it all a plot to brainwash our kids to be more clothing compulsive?  Probably not. After all, the Berenstein Bears, Winnie the Pooh, and Paddington Bear all wore a few items to give them personality.

Still, in posts long ago, we pointed out that you shouldn't Put A Swimsuit on a Platypus . We even discussed, at some length, that although Donald Duck wore some clothes, he didn't wear pants.  And it is true that the subtle cues that we give children at very early ages about clothes and swimwear may be part of  the reason Why Nudists Lose Battles and Wars .

As Crosby Stills & Nash sang it, Teach Your Children Well.

Naked is The Simple Way to Cool Off

This week the Bare Platypus was assisting one of his puggles with working on her car.  It's that time of year and... you guessed it, the air conditioning unit needs a refrigerant charge.  Now, the good news is that there are instructional videos on You Tube for doing the job safely and in an environmentally friendly manner. There's also some good news in that the cost for a small canister of the refrigerant is not too bad.

The bad news is that you can buy those products, watch the video, charge the air system, but still not get to cool off in the easiest, most natural, way possible: By just going naked over the summer!

We have written posts about Motoring Naked - Tales from the Road .  We can tell you that, while it sounds like a lot of fun (and is) to "doff n drive," it's not without drawbacks.  For one thing, you'd get some interesting stares (and maybe a date with the police) if you drove up bare to the McDonald's drive thru at lunch hour.

Joking aside, Naked really is the best way to cool down during hot summers.  With a simple spray mister and a fan, your nude body will feel much cooler than you would with those uncomfortable clothes - no matter where you are be it camping, relaxing at home, even doing light housework.

Naked is good for the environment.  It's also cheap!  And naked is a lot more fun!

So go on... grab your friends.  Go for a skinny dip. Get bare.  You'll be chillin'.

Naked Supreme Court Statuary

Today Bare Platypus was checking the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) website for the most recent decisions by the high panel which were issued this morning.  Sure enough, within the images appearing on  http://www.supremecourt.gov/ , there is a picture of the Court's East Frieze panel.  And it has naked people!  You can see a close up of the image by clicking Naked East Frieze Supreme Court Figures .

In pointing this out, the Platypus in no way wishes to demean the Honorable Court or to detract from the respect due to it.  We just continue to find it ironic that Facebook, Instagram, and other "institutions of justice" would ban users and their accounts for depicting the naked human form - especially for anyone appearing to be underage. They do so when the very same themes are celebrated within the U.S. Supreme Court as the embodiment of all that is pure, just, true, and wholesome - the things we want associated with our legal system.  This irony has not gone unnoticed by the justices themselves, who have made remarks about it during (usually in dissenting opinions when they were outvoted) obscenity cases of the past.

Years ago the Department of Justice spent thousands of dollars making sure that a statue depicting a female breast was covered up by curtains so as not to appear during press conferences.

Whether on a statue or live human being, the Bare Platypus believes that the human body is "fearfully and wonderfully made" and worth celebrating.

Naked Yard Ornaments Revisited

Some time back the Bare Platypus issued "A Call for Naked Yard Ornaments" in which we called upon fellow nudists to put a little nudity into their yard in the form of signs or statuary.  Read the post, which generated several comments, here: A call for naked yard ornaments .

Maybe we were a bit too hasty.

It seems that displaying something as innocuous as a garden gnome flashing his bare bum can get you into trouble - at least if you live in the U.K.  For example, consider this article which we read last week in which police threatened a man with arrest after a neighbor (who is also a retired police officer) complained, saying "his wife and children felt threatened for their safety" by the statuette: Man faces arrest over naked gnome .

While searching for that article to write this blog post, believe it or not we encountered a different case in which a 60+ year old woman's Naked Gnomes Ordered to Cover Up from just a few months ago.

What is the world coming to when the only thing one neighbor resorts to when flashed a ceramic "moon" is to call authorities.  Whatever happened to talking with one another?

It's enough to make one wonder how those Belgians ever stood for that statue of that naked little fella taking a leak in Brussels.  Or the Italians stood for Michelangelo's David.

Maybe the problem is those colored pointy hats that gnomes wear. Is that what folks find so objectionable?

Raise the Flag for Nudism

Have you considered how you could raise the flag?  No. We’re not talking about honoring Independence Day (but, by all means, please do honor the holiday.) We don’t mean the flag of the United States, or any country, or even a printed cloth representative of a nudist organization.

We mean, gets a conversation going about nudity.  Get someone thinking about nudism.  Get someone to take the first steps in doffing their clothes.  Raising the flag involves stepping out… if only a bit… to advance what Platypus readers enjoy.  There are hundreds of small ways to do this:

• Put a bumper sticker on one of your cars (even the one that sits in the driveway) about enjoying life without tan lines;
• Leave a nudist magazine or publication along with several others on your coffee table and see what discussions it prompts;
• Hang one of those signs about “skinny dipping after 5 p.m.” or “skinny dipping is okay” near your backyard pool;
• Send an article about the ten best nude beaches out in a Facebook post – along with the ten or twenty messages you send about a bunch of topics from your sports team’s success to a favorite recipe – so you don’t have to be too obvious;
• Let your toddler streak the backyard when good friends or family come by and be nonchalant about it;
• Serve that cold beer (or warm cup of coffee) to a visiting friend in a glass or mug with a clever slogan like “I’d rather be in my birthday suit” printed on it;
• Hang a tasteful nude on the wall of your den or other place where close friends gather;
• Give someone a birthday card that has nudists or cartoon bare butts.  You know the ones we mean! 

The Saturation Factor in Promoting Nudism

The Bare Platypus team actively worked for about 15 years promoting nudity and nudism throughout the country (and a bit beyond).  For most of those 15 years they had the benefit of web pages, email, and monthly nudesletters er... newsletters.  But new technologies have emerged.  They're game changers.

There is Facebook, of course.  And Twitter. And Google Plus. These get messages out several times per day in some cases.  But perhaps even more significantly for nudism, there are blogs like this... as well as Tumblr.  Tumblr allows clever memes and sayings.  But also images that are worth a thousand words (some for good, some for less good.)

Just a few years ago, an activist, business, or organization could not have dreamed of communicating with customers and supporters several times per day or per week.  It would have been cost prohibitive. Email became an inexpensive and convenient messaging source.  But try to send any images (let alone nude ones) and you were likely to trigger spam filters and get blocked.

We recognize that some social media like Facebook and Instagram have censored material and we have written about that scourge in previous posts.  But it is now possible for subscribers to be reminded of what we "like to do best" multiple times in multiple ways.

One downside, of course, is that it seems everyone else is vying to be in your Twitter and Tumblr feed.  Marketers.  Advertisers. Government.  You name it.  If we used to be subject to a lot of that from television as kids, we're flooded with it now.

Know what?  It's okay.  The simple logic of a brief message that life is better without clothes (and maybe a clever accompanying cartoon or other tasteful image that brings a smile to your face) will probably sway a lot of people and do so effectively.

Someone who is better connected to technology may be preparing a comment to discuss the likely impact of the next innovation that we here don't know about that is already making the rounds.  From apps that dispense information to those that gather it.  Or the virtual reality world.

Life may have been simpler back then.  But it holds oh so many possibilities now.

There is Something Special About Communal Nudity

The Bare Platypus values naked time.  The Bare Platypus values times of solitude for quiet reflection.  Lots of both, actually.

But there's something special about communal nudity too.  Now, the non nudists who like to make jokes are likely to crack, "we know why people want communal nudity."  Wink wink.  Putting them aside, the truth is that there are times when group nudity does something for one's spirit.  And that something is closer akin to why group religious worship holds unique meaning.  Or attending a rock concert where the audience makes the experience so much different than listening to an MP3 of the same band... or even watching video. Sing the national anthem alone in your living room.  Then sing the anthem in a baseball stadium with thousands of other fans and you understand what we mean.

There are group dynamics at work here.  People in one place with one purpose.  It's often referred to as "social nudity" or "communal nudity" but the terms hardly seem to do full justice to the phenomenon.  It is just incredible when a sunning lawn fills with naked people reading books, tossing a Frisbee, pushing strollers, and a hundred other ordinary things.  Magically, it becomes extraordinary.

The Platypus remembers the first time that he set foot on Gunison Beach (a/k/a the Sandy Hook nude beach) on the Gateway National Seashore in New Jersey on a busy weekend.  Until then the bare beaches he'd visited had tended to be remote with sunbathers spread out over distances. The sight and sound of so many, many people of so many nationalities, and from so many ages and stages of life made a significant impression. Perhaps you have had similar experiences.  Or perhaps you have yet to venture beyond your own backyard.

We only hope you get to try it at least once in your life.