Calendars - Part 86

Warwick Rowers 2019 Bonus

Since 2009, the rowing team of the University of Warwick in Warwick, England has put out a nude calendar to fight homophobia and promote inclusivity in sport, regardless of sex, race or gender identity.

The calendar photos feature rear nudity but conceal frontal nudity.

But the 2019 calendar also included a set of bonus photos that were less restrictive, and today we look at some of them.

Many of these photos were taken on a train.  Above, the train had a passageway on one side.

Looking from the passageway into a sleeping compartment, where two students are reading.

Reading The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins and Capitalism by John Plender.  The latter sounds like it was assigned for a course.

Another reader on the train, reading Machiavelli's The Prince, probably also for a course.

Brushing his teeth without water or a basin?

"Hello, there.  Can I join you?"

"Yes.  Please share my bed."

The quartet of students we have seen so far.

Two other students were shown outdoors, waving Warwick banners ...

and later, they were also bedmates on the train.

Protests - Part 85

Tyagarah Nude Beach Closure

For decades, Tyagarah Beach on Byron Bay, a bit south of Brisbane, Australia, was a legal nude beach.  The Byron Shire Council approved the nude beach status in 1998.  Above, tanning at Tyagarah.

But in 2024, the Nation Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of New South Wales determined that the area was under their jurisdiction, and determined to revoke the clothing-optional status after receiving complaints from some residents about lewd behavior on the beach.

Above, a group of naturists meets on the beach to hold a rally to protest the closure of the nude beach status.

Here's a group of protesters with some signs, including "Nude not Lewd" and "Byron Bay, not Byron Beige", apparently equating the requirement for swimsuits with dullness (beige).  Note the guy on the right is not concealed by a sign.

The same signs, but a different group of protesters using them.  The previous group was 3 men and 6 women; this group is 7 men and one woman giving us a rear view.

"Nude not Lewd" and "Friend not Enemy" say the slogans painted on the backs of these protesters.

Another group of protesters, with a couple of guys not hidden behind signs.

Two more protesters with signs.

We end with these protesters not concealed behind their signs.

The protests were not effective.  The beach ceased to be clothing-optional in August, 2024.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 64

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of five more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire. 

This is Yale freshman Richard O. Jones on Oct. 7, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

This is Yale freshman A. R. on Feb. 25, 1947.

Photos taken before the fall of 1952 show only a side view.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman John Robert Davy on Jan. 12, 1951.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.  If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman Jerome Wayne Dougan on Feb. 5, 1951.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.  Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman W. D. on Feb. 15, 1951.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

*          *          *

Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Bodybuilders - Part 24

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Events - Part 85

 Christopher Street Day 2024, Berlin

Christopher Street Day or CSD is a European version of Gay Pride, held in several European cities.  The name commemorates Christopher Street in New York City, the site of the Stonewall riots in 1969, the first gay uprising against police brutality.  CSD Berlin draws hundreds of thousands of people.  The main event is a huge parade through the streets of Berlin.

In preparation for CSD in 2024, some guys are getting painted in Berlin's Leipziger Platz park with patterns of colored rectangles ...

to look like a Piet Mondrian painting.

Here are a couple of them and two other guys with different painted designs.

Here they are in the parade.  Most of the parade marchers are not naked.  There are thousands in the parade supporting LGBTQ rights, and almost all are clothed.

But the group we're looking at is naked.  Here's a rear view.

And here's another front view.

Three of them posing in the street.  The guy at right calls himself NinjaAndi on the Flickr photo sharing site.

Here's the whole group posing on the street.

The CSD parade ends at Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate, which we see see here from the back side.  There are thousands of parade marchers, and as you can see, they're not naked.  Our naked guys are tolerated in the parade – even by the Berlin police – but we can't really call this a naked event.

Ads - Part 83

Directory Assistance, Belgium

Above, we see some people waiting for a bus in Brussels, Belgium in 2008.  Behind them is a huge poster advertising telephone directory assistance.  It says (in French) "Another fan of 13 13".  That's the number to call in Belgium for directory assistance in French.

Of course, the ad grabs your attention with a guy who has 13 13 painted on his butt showing himself to a crowd of people in the background.

Another version of the ad, above, says "Another fan of 12 12" in Dutch.  That's the number to call for directory assistance in Dutch, because both French and Dutch are spoken in Belgium.  And if you call 14 14, you get directory assistance in English.  They cover all the bases in Belgium.

Now he has 12 12 painted on his butt.  What gives?

It turns out he had nothing painted on his butt.  The guy was a streaker who ran onto the field at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London, England on July 4, 2006, above.  European Directory Assistance, a Belgian company, used a photo of him with the crowd in the background, added their phone numbers on his butt, and used it in their ads.

He didn't just stand there at Wimbledon.  He ran around and did a cartwheel for the crowd.  The crowd was delighted.

And here's a frontal view of him.  His name is Sander Lantinga, and he was a 29-year-old Dutch disc jockey who did the streak as a challenge for the Dutch TV program Try Before You Die.

Then Wimbledon security came onto the field, took him away, and had him arrested.  The police released him after cautioning him about causing a minor public disorder.

Here's how it was shown on BNN, the Dutch TV network that runs the show Try Before You Die.  Unfortunately, they censored his nudity, but luckily for us, other photographers had captured the scene.

Hiking - Part 84

Badlands

Badlands are a type of terrain where rocks and soil have been extensively eroded.  Today we look at some badlands in the central and western U.S.  Above, Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

A hiker looking over some badlands in North Dakota.

Little Jerusalem Badlands in Kansas.

Castle Rock Badlands in western Kansas.

Badlands in Texas near Study Butte, west of Big Bend National Park.

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona.

We end with a hiker in some unidentified badlands.