Practice for November… VOTE in Our Poll

MANY VISIT the Bare Platypus site without noticing that we’re conducting a poll of your favorite place(s) to be naked.  As you’ll see immediately to your right, there are four possible choices: (1) At Home and With Family; (2) A Nude Beach; (3) A Nudist Club; or (4) In Nature / Out on Trails. 

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If none of those places describes your favorite, no worries! Feel free to type in “the moon,” “rock concert,” or whatever in the comments below.

Since we posted the question, nearly 300 people have cast a ballot. But a wise sage with lots of expertise in statistics once told us that an optimum sample size is 1000.  We’d like to have at least 500 votes before we attempt to draw meaningful lessons from what you tell us. 

Who knows? We may be able to prompt a nudist association or NASA with these findings.  At least it will make interesting conversation.

Thanks!

Greetings to Platypuses from Many Lands

WE DEEPLY appreciate the warm welcome that the Bare Platypus has received from the naturist community since our blog launch.  We’re also delighted to see visitors from so many countries so far, including…

• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Canada
• Australia
• Germany
• Russia
• The Netherlands
• Brazil
• France
• India
• Sweden
• Finland
• Italy
• Switzerland
• Ireland
• Turkey
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Spain
• Georgia
• Pakistan
• Panama
• South Africa
• Indonesia
• Costa Rica
• Portugal
• Poland
• Slovenia
• Morocco
• Egypt
• Peru
• Belgium
• The Philippines
• Israel
• Lithuania
• Ecuador
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Norway
• Croatia
• Ukraine
• Netherlands Antilles
• South Korea
• Bangladesh
• Hungary
• Estonia
• Colombia
• Puerto Rico
• Luxembourg
• Saudi Arabia
• Bolivia
• Thailand
• Serbia
• Uruguay
• Greece
• Algeria
• Chile
• Iceland
• Lebanon
• Jordan
• Taiwan
• Venezuela
• Tunisia
• Cyprus
• Argentina
• United Arab Emirates
• Syria
• Belarus
• Romania
• Nepal
• Qatar
• Bosnia and Herzegovinia
• Vietnam
• Denmark
• Jamaica
• Hong Kong
• Latvia
• Isle of Man
• Bulgaria
• Singapore
• China
• Kazakhstan
• Kuwait
• Bahrain
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
  
  Bahamas
  
  Guernsey
  
  Honduras
  
  Burkina Faso
  
  Cayman Islands
  
  Austria
  
  
• Czechia

• Liberia

• New Zealand*

The great thing about nudism is that you can always wear the “uniform” just by taking off your clothes.  What’s more, there is an organization representing just about every country on this list.  They’re all part of a “United Nations” under a nude umbrella known as the International Naturist Federation.

Wherever you travel throughout the world, you’re likely to find nude beaches and resorts that will make you feel right at home!

*List updated 05/18
/15

5/27/12 Week WALTER Award

THIS WEEK the Bare Platypus Walter award goes to actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays Dr. Bruce Banner in the blockbuster summer movie, The Avengers.  Ruffalo’s scene in which he sits “naked” amidst rubble after crashing into a building as The Incredible Hulk, then morphing back into Banner is among the more classic moments in the film.

Although we don’t see any skin “below the waist,” the matter-of-fact way in which Ruffalo deals with having no pants after shrinking from a giant creature to mere mortal again deserves some accolades for acting.  There’s a touch of sheepishness and embarrassment mixed with the confidence of a hero who probably deals with this “side effect” of his super powers often as he discusses his predicament with actor Harry Dean Stanton in the role of a helpful janitor.

We have to believe Mark Ruffalo captures the essence of an episode between President John Quincy Adams and a female reporter who snatched his clothes while he skinny-dipped in the Potomac.  She wouldn’t return them until granted an interview.  Or lads from a Saturday Evening Post cover caught playing hookey from school to skinny dip: slight chagrin at getting aprehended sans trou, without a hint of anything tawdry.

And so, Mr. Ruffalo, we are very pleased to wish you this week’s Walter Award.

The Walter is named in honor of Dr. Walter Bishop from the hit TV series, Fringe.  Dr. Bishop has a matter-of-fact attitude towards nudity.  In his name the Bare Platypus presents a "Walter" award each week to the person, group, or event that best depicts nudity naturally.

Comics Bare-o-Meter Revisited

IT’S BEEN about two months since we first discussed nudity in the funny pages of the newspaper.  From then until now we have been monitoring about twenty different comics daily at the Arca Max site. We would give the amount of naked “coverage” a fair rating, although there hasn’t been a lot of bare skin in these "strips":

• Today a character in Johnny Hart’s BC wants to go skinny dipping and asks the lifeguard if it’s okay;
• Marvin had nearly a week dedicated to his failed campaign for president. The campaign stumbled after a scandal erupted over pictures of the baby naked on a fur rug taken by his dad surfaced on YouTube;
• Marvin complained about having to wear clothes while his dog Bitsy can go about NAKED ;
• Marvin also resorted to doffing his diaper so his mom would no longer have to change it;

• Wren of Baby Blues witnessed a naked woman on TV but expressed little reaction as bare breasts simply mean food to a baby.

Well, that’s about it. The Bare Platypus anticipates we’ll see more birthday suits as summer begins but who knows?  Many of the “old guard” illustrators have passed away or retired. Those who have replaced them seem much more reluctant to put bare bottoms on their characters.

6/5/12 Update: If you're really ready to see a comic "strip," click on over to Nude Spo's Blog for a look at an "apocryphal" scene from For Better or For Worse.  Oh that it were real. But what a cute episode all the same! 

6/9/12 Update:  Today Jeremy Duncan of Zits was asked by his girlfriend to tell her what he saw as her "bare essence," stripped to her naked identity.  No skin shown, but Jeremy couldn't concentrate on the question with all the naked talk.

1/1/13 Update: Mojo Nude has a great picture from the nude beach planet featured on Futurama.

1/1/13 Update: Marvin is depicted as a naked new year baby wearing only a sash in the 12/30/12 'strip.'  On December 16 he runs away bare bottom from mom and the diaper she's wielding.

Cottontail Season Begins!

IT’S HERE! Memorial Day Weekend… the traditional beginning of summer.  That means the traditional beginning of nudist weather and something else: “Cottontail Season.”

For the first couple of weekends, people traveling to nudist clubs and beaches---even long time nudists--- will be sporting the same tan lines as everyone else who has been wrapped up in clothes all winter and spring.  Club gates open, the clothes come off, and there are LOTS of white bare bums walking around! That is, until we’ve all picked up our golden all-over tans.

Bumper stickers may read “Happiness is NO Tan Lines” yet there’s a certain amount of joy in those first few days of a nudist summer too.  There’s the familiar drive… the anticipation driving up to the main office… stripping down and the first skinny dip.

If you happen to be on your way to a clothes-free venue, congratulations.  But even if you’re working this weekend you can still enjoy some naked time when you get home. Need to draw the drapes first? Well, that’s okay too.  You’ll get your sun and lose the cottontail eventually. It’s summer after all.

A Minute in Nudist Sunday School

Platypus Note:  We celebrate that there are people who enjoy nudism from all walks of life, from every shape, size, country, age, and faith.  We recognize that there are some who subscribe to no faith at all and we see that rich diversity as a great thing.  At the same time, the Platypus Team has never been shy about acknowledging our personal Christian faith and heritage.  This post is primarily intended for our Christian brothers and sisters, though all are welcome…

SOMETIMES FELLOW Christians, who know us and also know that nudism is an integral part of our lives, ask how we reconcile our fondness for birthday suits with our commitment to follow scripture. 

Among the answers we provide to this sensitive question is referring believers to Hebrews 4:13, which reads,  “And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” [ESV]   

We like this verse because it is not one of those that is more easily taken out of context (say, like a passage from the Old Testament meant to be applied to a specific worship ceremony).  It is a general life lesson and the lesson is this: No matter what we do, God IS watching and He knows why we do it in our hearts.  For this reason, we’re less fearful that God knows that we sunbathe naked (of COURSE HE DOES), than what He knows about us deep down... and for which we’ll have to answer to Him someday.

For example, churches love to put on church suppers.  Churches praise the people who help organize and put on church suppers.  Serve as an organizer of such suppers and it’s unlikely you’ll ever receive condemnation from the congregation about it.  And yet… What if the ONLY reason we provide such organization efforts is for the praise we’ll receive?  What if it’s JUST so that we can gorge ourselves on the buffet and leftovers like complete gluttons?  What if the supper is SIMPLY a convenient forum for us to ply our trade selling life insurance products to the people who "fellowship" with us? 

Get the idea?  Knowing that God knows everything about us is FAR more humbling to the Bare Platypus than being caught in our birthday suit on a beautiful day by a beautiful lake that is His creation.  Thanks to what His son Jesus Christ has done for us, we may be legitimately humbled and cautioned but we don’t have to fear.

Nudism Online: What Will Data Rationing Do ?

AN INFORMAL survey of our team reveals that the earliest a Platypus began using the Web was about 1994.  (Some had inter-office email before, but nothing more.)  In 1994, our “oldest veteran of the Web” visited it only at work.

Soon dial-up Web access was available to most homes using a modem and standard telephone line at laughable speeds today. But the REAL kicker: Back then you paid by the hour for every hour spent online.  We vividly remember checking a box which agreed to let America Online bill our credit card $6 per hour to “Surf the Net.”  There wasn’t much incentive for internet providers to offer an all-you-could-eat data buffet, but market competition drove things onward, upward, faster, and cheaper over time.  

Still, during the transition people rationed the time they spent online and---at least mentally---prioritized which websites they were willing to visit.  Too many pictures on a site made it load intolerably slowly. Often the only reward at the end of a wait was an “Error: Server Timed Out” message. It was the Web’s way of saying, “Dummy this is taking too long. Move on to something else!”

The Platypus point with this walk down memory lane is that expensive rates and limited usage meant people used the Internet for a LOT less commerce or playfully checking things out.  Not only with the Web in its infancy, but because heavy usage would have bankrupted the average person.  Imagine pouring through an online catalog the size of an Amazon.com or BestBuy.com if EACH picture took about 30 seconds to load. For similar reasons, fully-functioning Google Earth satellite views or Map Quest interactivity would have been unthinkable. (Nudists communicated even then, though largely through text-based media such as Rec.nude on Usenet, or RixPlace, a list server some Platypus readers will remember.)

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja’ vu all over again.”  This week the FCC Chair went on record in support of measures by local cable companies that charge per data usage to “drive efficiencies.” Many readers already experience data caps and fees on mobile plans.  Humorous ads air in which fictional subscribers to such plans must choose between watching footage of their daughter’s school play from the road or downloading an important business app.

The Platypus won’t ponder whether such measures are justified in this post… only ask what it may mean to spreading the nudist message. Clothes Free.com  distributes Nudes in the News videos.  Will people be able to afford to download em?  How about reading the near-constant Twitter and Facebook feeds some nudists use to get everything from weather conditions at a nude beach to news about the latest map / navigation app that can help get them there? Will we store nude photos in "cloud based" albums like Flickr if we're paying per gigabyte for uploads and downloads?

It’s kinda like asking, “What would happen to travel to remote and distant nude beaches if gasoline was unbelievably cheap and plentiful, then suddenly got crimped into very short supply and skyrocketed in price?”  But, we’d have to walk further down memory lane to the gas crisis of 1974 and we’re already sounding like a Grandpa Platypus.