Uniforms

This week the Platypuses received a reminder about just how significant uniforms are in our culture. Last Monday there was Boy Scouts. Plenty of uniforms there.

ON Tuesday it was a different youth service organization... again in uniforms.   Wednesday was a suit and tie (the corporate uniform) for a Chamber of commerce meeting. BY Friday there was fast food place where the staff were all attired in uniforms.  Today a pro football game was on TV. More uniforms!

Why not trade these uniforms for the uniform of the human race once in a while: your bare skin!  Go naked. Feel what it is to be human. Feel great too. And it doesn' t have to cost you any money.

This uniform is free.

Is the Term Nudist Colony So Bad?

We have been in the business of promoting nudist businesses for many years and we know the standard line: You can call it a nudist (or clothing optional or clothes free) club. You can call it a nude resort or nudist park. Even a nudist spa.  But don't call it a nudist "colony." Ever.  

"Ants live in colonies."  

"Colonies went out with the American Revolution. "  

And so it goes. We spent years trying to get the media to avoid the term. But now, upon reflection, we find ourselves asking, "Is it really all that offensive?"  

Well, antiquated maybe.  

Some folks think it makes us sound like part of a nuts and berries crowd. Or a cult of some kind.   But the term also harkens back to a simpler time. When we were a source of jokes and those cartoon style postcards. A time when folks understood that we ran around in the woods with nothing on. Yet somehow understood that that's all that was going on behind the fence. That nudists were people who kept to themselves and weren't harming anyone. People who brought their kids to "the colony."

"Nudist colony" connotes a health regimen for some. A Peter Sellers movie for others.  

Are we just waxing nostalgically?   Tell us what you think.

Once Upon a Time Hi and Lois and Crew Were "Stripped"

We often talk about how the amount of nudity that artists put into their "strips" may be a bare-o-meter of societal attitudes. Nudist cartoons seem to be disappearing from our funny pages, though we see The Simpsons in the buff on our TV screens.

But here's a bit of historical trivia for you: Did you know that in the early 60's cartoonists Mort Walker and Dik Browne showed appreciation for receiving two coveted awards that year by drawing a "thank you" panel that showed the family bare so as to replicate the style of the trophies? It's true. Though tastefully drawn, with Lois partially draped, she shows her figure and the whole rest of the crew isn't wearing more than they were born (first sketched?) with.

Mort and Dik couldn't be accused of fearing the birthday suit after that panel, which you can find on a history of the strip by clicking bare victory trophy for cartoonist .  Scroll down until you read about awards season / a year for awards.  Sigh. We can't imagine a cartoonist would show their appreciation in this way in this day and age. We LIKED your style Mr. Walker and Mr. Browne.

Come to think of it, this discovery may earn Mort and Dik one more trophy ... a Walter award from the Bare Platypus team!

12/5/13 Update: The sbove link now takes you to the wrong page as new pages are added to the High and Lois blog.  Look fot March 13 2013 entry and you should find it.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend Idea

Well, Halloween is two days past and Thanksgiving will soon be here. We'd like to give you an idea to think about. If you happen to get the day after turkey day off, then why not plan to spend it at home and spend it completely naked from the minute you wake until you turn back in for the night?

Now we know that some of you do those crazy black friday sales. And that others spend the day hanging lights and decorations, but hear us out for a minute. November is cold in many places but it is usually warm enough that you can still afford to crank up the heat in the house, or run an extra heater in at least one warm room.

You can set up a Christmas tree in the buff if it's stored in the attic instead of having to get a live one.   You can bake holiday cookies nakey, and you can write out holiday cards nakey too.

Take time to enjoy peace before the rest of the busy holiday season takes over.

Why write about this now? You will need to do some planning so that someone else doesn't set your Friday plans for you. So start working on your"Sorry.  Other plans" speech now so that you can enjoy nakey time about four weeks from now.

South Korea's Nude Beach Dreams

Over the past couple of weeks the news has been abuzz with the story that the country of South Korea is considering a nude beach to boost tourism.   This prompts a few observations:

First,  there is a tendency among those of us in the US to think paternalistic (elitist?) when thinking about Korea.   Maybe it comes from all those episodes of M*A*S *H* where the quaint, provincial village folk need the help of American soldiers and their technology to protect them.  Yet now it appears the Koreans may be getting more with the times. And leading.

True, the  US has a few legally sanctioned nude beaches... but not many.  As a percentage of nude beach vs rest of the country,  one long stretch of a single bare beach in Korea may make the relative amount of "naked land" great because the country is much smaller. That's the second observation.

The third point is more of a question. Will NORTH Korea try to catch up with a "me too" nude beach of their own lest their free Southern neighbors eclipse them?

Wives Who Won't Let Hubby See Them Naked

There is a recent news story reporting the results of a study from (where else) Britain in which one out of six women say that they have NOT let their husbands see them naked within the past year or more.  Forty percent of these women acknowledge that it is harming their marriage.

Read the story at One in six wives won't let husband see them naked .  The reasons these women won't bare in front of even their husbands varied but appear to be rooted in self image for about half.

When people say that nudism is wrong because nudity should be confined to spouses have you ever heard them speak out against covering up with said spouses and the harm it does to marriage?  Didn't think so.  We think anti-nudity goes way beyond considerations of morality, and we think studies like the one quoted here help prove that.

The Bare Platypus is NOT saying that you must go to a nudist club or nude beach or be nude with anyone other than your spouse and family if that's your  code and calling.  But we DO think you should be more comfortable in your own home and, if you don't make some efforts to be more comfortable there, you are missing out.

More importantly, it seems, your spouse is missing out too.

Need some help with getting comfortable about getting bare?  Read our Platypus Tips for Getting Started Going Naked .

P.S.  Be sure to vote in our latest poll about who bares more in your home.

Facebook Where Art Thou Priorities?

This story is old news by now but we are just getting around to commenting about it (hey it's hard to keep up when you run with webbed feet. )

Last week Facebook announced that they were reversing their policy and would allow the posting of such videos as the public beheading of a woman in Mexico.  The company reasoned that the videos were intended to foster dialogue against human rights abuses and that it was not glorifying violence or making a spectacle of it. The Platypus wouldn't know as we declined to seek out the video. You can read one news story about this at Facebook OK's Beheading Video but not Nudity .

Here's what we don't get: In the same announcement Facebook "assured" the public that they would continue to ban nude images... including breast feeding mothers if the images triggered complaints.  So all those 13 year olds who are now free to post public information about their private lives per yet another Facebook change in policy will, at LEAST be spared seeing how babies are fed. I mean, what would you find more troubling for today's youth?  A bare breast or a live execution by axe or sword?

Facebook attempted to explain itself by saying, "it's because we get complaints about nudity," but the explanation only made things sound more strange.  Did no one complain about the beheading live? Were women empowered by seeing a woman treated like that as opposed to sunning on a beach?  Do they fear anti nudity foes more than officials from countries who, we understand, did raise objection to these developments?

We won't really try to argue the speech and political value of a live killing.  As we said, we didn't see it and do not wish to see it.  All we're saying is that a bare breast or tush never hurt anyone. And we can't understand why Mr. Zuckerberg's tower of Babel can't acknowledge that.