Apparently, San Francisco is considering banning public nudity

[conuly]

But only in some parts of the city, not everywhere. Because they want to be fair about this, after all.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Better than vigilante spray-paint justice, I suppose. But y'know, I'll tell ya - having attended clothing-optional events for many years - with these big flabby guys, the problem is not that people are seeing their willies, because their willies are obscured by rolls of flab. They could be wearing thongs and no one would ever know. Which, of course, puts me in mind of a poem:

There once was a Boojum of Ghat
Who wore a prodigious great ruby
"Unseen," it is said, "when he sat."
But how can this possibly true be?
I've pondered and pondered, and sometimes have felt
That the jewel in question reposed in his belt,
For 'tis there, if sheer sitting has made one too fat,
And (being a Boojum) one sits on a mat,
There MIGHT blaze unseen a great ruby.

~Walter de la Mare

... the problem is not really the flabby old guys sunning their jelly-rolls in their lawn chairs. No, I know who's the problem - seen their ilk a bunch of times; it's the guys with the xtreme body modification who want to show it off to the world; in particular to those most likely to be shocked and disgusted. It's the guys with a rotting glowing-eyed skull tattooed on their bellies, with their dicks tattooed to look like a snake coming out of its mouth, pierced with a pound of tacky nickel-alloy spikes and chains in places painful to even contemplate, who want the right to walk around displaying their 'art'. That shit costs a lot of money, in addition to being personally painful to acquire; people who have it didn't get it casually, the way one buys a costume or kink gear that can be taken off.

Myself, I'd just as soon everybody kept their crotches and butts covered in public, except at designated clothing-optional places and events. Boobs are a whole separate issue - a non-issue as far as I'm concerned; if men can go shirtless, so can women, and both sexes can put on their shirts and shoes before going into any public building.

This isn't a 'gay issue', and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of gay guys are angry about its being portrayed as one. It's a plain decency issue: people don't want to have to see the asscracks and genitalia of strangers when they're walking down the public street. Welcome to Civilization: clothes are worn here.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of torn. On one hand, I don't really want to see a bunch of people naked. One the other hand, if I saw MORE people naked more often, it would bother me less. Also, who am I to vote that they can't do that, harming no one, just because I prefer not to see it? If it came down to my vote, I'd vote to keep nudity legal. I think in Portland there is a law that as long as you're not touching/fondling yourself, you can be naked in public. I think that's perfectly appropriate. After all, we all HAVE bodies. Why pretend we don't?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Wearing clothing is not pretending not to have bodies - quite the contrary; it's a direct acknowledgement that we do have bodies.

If it was just a matter of simple nudism, the general populace would probably get used to it, because nudists are just ordinary people who don't always wear clothes, and that's pretty unexciting. But as the article describes it, it's not the nudists, it's the exhibitionists who are wrecking it for everybody, because they're not just going sky-clad, they're going around in cock rings (http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/09/sfpd_cock_ring.php). No mention of how many of those cock rings include anal spreaders, penis plugs, remote-control vibrators.... kink gear comes in a dizzying variety of styles and functions these days.

The cops don't want to have to be the ones to draw the line between nude and lewd. It's not fair to put them in that position, and anyway they've got badder fish to fry. The merchants and citizens don't want people avoiding their area because it's full of creepy naked guys walking around with big purple boners. And people will avoid it, because ewww.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I like to think myself an open minded sort, but I'd stay the hell away from any place with that going on.

Moderation, as usual, is the way to go.