Naked Walkers - No sweat or Over Exposure?

[Hippy]

Stephen Gough, 46, of Bournemouth, his girlfriend Melanie Green, 33, and male companion Jeffrey Woodhouse set off to walk naked from Land's End to John o' Groats. They reached Wem in Shropshire before some busybody prude reported them to Police, who arrested them.

Surely, if these folk want to prance around the countryside naked they should be let to do so? Or maybe the sight of of a bit of flesh, however baggy or saggy, sends the pulse racing in the general populace and should be stopped at all cost?

Last weekend saw thousands strip off for the Gateshead "Stripathon". That was "art" and pictures on TV and the press were fine - no paplitations amongst the blue rinses! So what is so wrong with naked ramblers?

[netibiza]

Quite agree Hippy - if people don't like it then don't look!!!

[Loosehead]

I'd be more impressed though if they did it in January!

[butter1]

totally agree too.. don't see nothing wrong with it!

[rampart]

I don't think I would be bothered if they walked through my property. However, I doubt I would invite them to have a sit on the settee for afternoon tea. At least not without a towel on it or something.

[jno]

Loosehead, he walked from Land's End to John O'Groats a couple of years back - and he finished it in January. Hope that impresses you! (Mind you, it was because he spent a lot of the time in jail.) Here he is

[bernardo]

I disagree - I think it's disgusting and horrid, and they should both have custard squirted ino their ears.

[RevShirls]

I have no problem with nudity, Hippy but many people have problems accepting their own nudity let alone anyone elses - my mother being a prime example. Whereas I think the human body is wonderful and beautiful, my mother thinks it is ugly.

I have some naked sculptures (just ornaments really) and when my mother visited she used to turn them to the wall. She couldn't even cope with a postcard I sent her from Florence with a picture of the famous David statue on the front. I remember a few years ago I was sitting in a bistro with my mother on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh when a streaker ran down the road followed by a couple of policemen. Most people (including myself) were cheering the guy on but my Mum was furious. The police arrested the guy but not before one old Italian woman had battered the policemen almost senseless with her handbag :)

I'll have to check to see if my Mum has been in Shropshire recently.

I guess some people are still stuck in some form of Victorian value mode when it comes to things like this. I live in Sweden and people are much less prudish about the naked human body - and I don't mean that it is more about sexual awareness here - people often talk about and view naked bodies in quite a practical way. Whole families and friends groups don't bat an eyelid about taking a sauna together and they cannot believe that anyone would ever cover their body to take a sauna - since it defeats the point of the sauna.

[Gef]

What harm are they doing? Now I could quite understand if customers in a restaurant said that a naked me was putting them off their dinner but why do we have this thing about the human body?

[Dom Tuk]

Would you think it would be Ok to go to work naked then??. How would you like it if the person next to you on the tube/bus took off his/her garments and sat down naked. Or the man shopping in his local supermarket decides to do it in the nude. Will it be Ok for your aforementioned to nip into the local pub/supermarket to buy his supplies as he trudges through the fields. Will you be OK with that or is it only romantic acts like walking from Lands end to wherever that passes your test ??

[jno]

once did some shopping in a naturist resort in the south of France, Dom Tuk. Didn't bother me in the least. Didn't bother anyone else. Sure wasn't a romantic act, either. Anyway, too few clothes and you get arrested, too heavy a coat and you get shot. Dress code is just so important to Brits.