Assignment: Nude Day 2004

"Gymnophobia"-- (gymnos being the Greek word for "nude") The fear of being (or seeing others) naked. A gymnophobic person usually wants to force all others to a clothes compulsive lifestyle.

Gymnosophy was originally the doctrines of a sect of philosophers who practiced nudity and asceticism and meditation. In the early 20th century, the term was appropriated by several groups to denote a broad philosophy that included as a central thought that the nude human body is a natural condition and should be accepted widely for the betterment of society. This philosophy is related closely and, often interchangeably, with nudism and naturism.

"Sure, some people might believe they are offended by nude bathers, but, if you never encounter anything that offends you in your community, you are not living in a free society." - Corky Stanton

In Style magazine, Kevin Bacon confesses he likes to cut a little footloose at home with his family every now and then -- naked. "Not when the nanny is around," he says. "But I will with my wife and kids." Why? "There's something therapeutic about nudity ... Take away the Gucci or Levi's and we're all the same."

"Don't arrest me I was born this way"

- seen on a the body of a Naked Mile participant

Fig leaves belong on trees, not people. - Corky Stanton

Not all the Greek runners in the original Olympics were totally naked. Some wore shoes. - Mark Twain

Fred Rogers, creator and star of the children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was 71 years old; has been married to his wife for 48 years; is an ordained Presbyterian minister; and took a morning swim every day in the nude.

Bathing led to nudity. Nudity led to promiscuity. So believed the colonial lawmakers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Philadelphia was especially strict in those early years. You could be jailed there bathing more than once a month.

Forcing others to wear clothes because we cannot control our own lust, is abuse of others.

Television nudity is accepted in Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. Why not the United States?

"Being natural and matter-of-fact about nudity prevents your children from developing an attitude of shame or disgust about the human body. If parents are very secretive about their bodies and go to great lengths to prevent their children from ever seeing a buttock or breast, children will wonder what is so unusual, and even alarming, about human nudity." - Dr. Lee Salk, Psychiatrist

"Some day people will grow up and realize that the only thing vile about human bodies is the small minds some people have developed within them." - Dick Hein

"We was always naked, day and night, whenever the mosquitoes would let us," said Mark Twain's river hero Huck Finn.

Despite its puritan roots, the U.S. has a long history of skinny-dipping. Social nudity is celebrated in the writings of Walt Whitman and the landscape paintings of Thomas Eakins.

Benjamin Franklin took a daily naked "air bath," while presidents John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson enjoyed a refreshing nude dip.

A Nudist is simply a human being without 'Artificial Additives'!

"Nudity is undignified and an error of taste." - Adolf Hitler

Quoting from Genesis, "They were nude but they were not ashamed." Furthermore, because God created it, "The human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendor and its beauty." - Pope John Paul II

"Are we so narrow minded that we show war, murder, rape, etc. on TV, but we do not allow to show one of the most wonderful creations (the human body) in its natural form." - Mario Roman

"Nudity is a state of fact; lewdity, to coin a phrase, is a state of mind." -Paul Outerbridge, Jr

"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful that the garment with which it is clothed?" - Michaelangelo

"The human body: Legalize it"

"Happy Nude Day, everyone."

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