Your Voices 2: response to "Warning this article may contain nudity"

Dear Editor: I would like to make some comments on Kristyn Ostman's article entitled, "Warning. This article may contain nudity" [October 31] and its follow-up [November 7].

Ostman: "It has become increasingly apparent to me that the more I learn about those wacky Europeans, the less inclined I am to try an alternative spring break trip."

Comment: "Wacky Europeans"? May I remind Ms. Ostman that virtually all of America's administrative and cultural systems were transposed from Europe.

Ostman: "The only nudists I've ever seen or heard about have been far from the types anyone would want to see disrobing, yet nonetheless, these ordinary Joes are living life au natural."

Comment: Could Ostman be yet another gullible victim of the "perfect/ideal body" myth so beloved of those who reap billions every year from it? Namely the clothing, cosmetics and processed ("diet") foods industries. "Au natural"? I think she means "au naturel."

Ostman: "Our traditional nudists don't want to be socially acceptable; they are exhibitionists."

Comment: Wrong! So-called "traditional" nudists long for a day when nudity could become socially acceptable. Unfortunately, because of nudity's erroneous reciprocity with sex in the minds of non-nudists it has become commercially exploitable. Hence, in an increasingly competitive market, nudity has become increasingly employed as a tool to sell products. That is why nudity is more evident in the media than ever. However as nudity becomes more prevalent it will reach a point where the two camps, so-called "mainstream" (non-nudist ) society and nudism, will clash. The concern for nudists is that nudism will be (is being) tainted by the stench of commercial exploitation and its historic social unacceptability reinforced.

Ostman: "The biggest gripe I have about this public display is not the blatant desperation for attention but having their ideology forced on me. Like telemarketers or people passing out leaflets at the airport, nudists are pretty obvious, and irritating, in how they share their values."

Comment: See above comment about why nudity is more evident today. Does Ostman really believe nudists run or even influence the media? I don't think so.

Ostman: "Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that next year nudists will have taken over but I do see where there is a foothold for the U.S. to socially progress into a very dangerous place while continuing to taunt how "free" and "accepting" we are being."

Comment: "A very dangerous place"? How? Why? Dangerous for whom?

Ostman: "So far, we have established that nudism, and selfish attention-seekers, are a societal staple."

Comment: Who's "we"? What evidence does she have to claim that nudists are "selfish attention-seekers"? What does she mean by "a societal staple"?

Ostman: "Today, social equality and tomorrow a downward spiral to a frightening counter-culture. Who are we hurting and who needs to give up their dreams?"

Comment: Social equality? I thought that was precisely what the U.S. likes to tout that it stands for. "Who are we hurting"? Well? Who? I, amongst many, would like to know. "Who should give up their dreams?" I seem to recall a famous American beginning his speech with the words "I have a dream." If it's a choice between the "dream" of body freedom and blinkered, anachronistic bigotry, give me the former any day.

Ostman: "My beef is voyeurism and its affect on children and civilized society as a whole."

Comment: Has it ever occurred to Ostman that voyeurism is a direct result of the prohibition on nudity? Is it not logical to suggest that if nudity was socially acceptable and thus commonplace there would be no such thing as voyeurism? As for the interminably repeated fallacy that nudity is in some way harmful to children.... again nonsense. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the sight (no more) of a naked human body is in any way harmful to children. We are born naked.

Ostman: "After all, where does one go when the thrills aren't as thrilling?"

Comment: Sadly Ostman's apparent inability to disassociate nudity from sex is indicative of a sexually dysfunctional society. A dysfunction that has its genesis amongst some "wacky Europeans" of a religious persuasion 1,000 years ago. Though America has to its credit cast off many Old World ideas it has yet to abandon its medieval attitudes towards nudity. Do it. Europeans have.

Bill Payne Melbourne, Australia