Reuters: "Two dozen pro-nudity activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a proposed municipal ban on public nakedness."

  • vaylor

    OK, I’ll say it:

    San Francisco Nudists Are Revolting

    • Ian Anthony

      I see what you did there.

    • GawainLavers

      Awesome.

      So far as I can tell, nudists are the only organization more demographically doomed than the Republicans.

      • ocker3

         So, the number of people wanting to take their clothes off in public is waning?

        • GawainLavers

          http://boingboing.net/2011/05/03/nudist-resorts-reach.html

          I’ll be pilloried for this, but I think nudism is about mostly about transgression.  It “feels great and liberating” to old people because they were so aggressively made to be afraid of being naked or to consider it a sin or whatever.

          I think most people my age or younger (and now that’s most people) didn’t get that growing up.  Everyone I know has gone to nude beaches, and apart from being able to get a more even tan I don’t think any of us are that excited about them.

          And when you’re not feeling particularly “freed” and “liberated” mostly you’re thinking about whether it’s going to get chilly soon, and shouldn’t I have brought more sunscreen, and where the hell am I going to keep my keys.

          • ocker3

             I’ve believe you, but near where I live in Qld, Australia, the number of people casually taking their clothes off in certain parts of certain beaches isn’t dropping, and the people doing it are part of each generation. Of course, it does help that the beaches are warm the majority of the year.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      The attempt to ban nudity was a real cock-up.

      • GawainLavers

        They had to at least take a crack at it.

  • Robert Cruickshank

    I have to admire the bravery of an anti-nudist named Wiener. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

    its our right to bare arms.

  • slabman

    I’m not against public nudity, but I’m not keen on sitting on a seat recently vacated by a nudist.

    • DewiMorgan

      I’ve heard this argument mentioned before… and I guess I’m missing something.

      Are people worried that nudists’ skin-cooties will rub off on their own skin? Don’t these people touch doorhandles? When using payphones, do they squirt it with antiseptic and speak through a handkerchief? Truth is, on the public seats that we all sit on every day, members of the public fart their intestinal flora and wipe their grubby fingers and wet and crap themselves and so on. Public stuff is not antiseptically hygenic. And yet the perception is that somehow wearing a g-string makes us magically leave a seat sit-onnable; and wearing a few square inches less makes the seat irredeemably tainted unless you didn’t see us sitting on it.

      Still, to address these fears, nudists tend to either carry a towel to sit on; or just to stand rather than sit. Problem solved through social means, no need for anti-nudism laws, yay :)

      • Antinous / Moderator

        But people mostly don’t rub damp mucosa on communal surfaces. Mostly.

      • robotnik

        Ha! “tainted”

      • http://noadi.etsy.com/ Sheryl Westleigh

         Unless you are also going around nude wouldn’t your clothing not your skin be touching that seat? The only people who should be germophobic about nudist should be other nudists (unless you go around licking chair seats).

    • GawainLavers

      You know this is essentially all about the towel rule, right?  That’s the crazy thing.  The real fight was over City Hall trying to clamp down on their god-given right to ooze crack sweat onto public benches.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Actually, it was over wearing cockrings while nude in public.

        • GawainLavers

          That’s easily solved with a battery.

  • Alan

    I’m gonna give them props for dedication – it’s damn cold in San Francisco year round!

    • http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

      No it’s not. The forecast this week doesn’t go below 10 C. Even at night. And the averages even in winter don’t go much lower than that.