I don’t think anyone would disagree that Vermont is an interesting state. There are many interesting facts about Vermont. On is that, in Vermont, it’s legal to be naked in public, but it’s illegal to get naked there. Vermonters can let it all hang out outdoors — provided “it” was already hanging out when they left their home, car or place of employment. The actual shedding of garments al fresco exposes the perpetrator not only to the elements but also to the risk of prosecution for lewd and lascivious conduct. 

Legally, the distinction between garden-variety nude sunbathing and raincoat-clad flashing has much to do with what offends the public’s “sense of decency, propriety and morality.” That standard was established in 1846, when the Vermont Supreme Court was asked to decide, in State v. Millard, whether one J. Millard of Orleans County was guilty of lewd and lascivious conduct after he repeatedly “exposed his private parts” to several people “with intent to incite in their minds lewd and unchaste desires and inclinations.” Prudently, the court determined that Millard wasn’t a nudist but a pervert.

The legal threshold for bringing an L&L charge for public nudity, or even the lesser one of disorderly conduct, has evolved over time. In the early 1970s, just as hippies and back-to-the-landers were arriving in the Green Mountain State, the state police asked then-Chittenden County state’s attorney Patrick Leahy to weigh in on what Leahy called the “time-honored practice of unclothed swimming, known colloquially as ‘skinny-dipping.'” After one overzealous prosecutor sparked public outrage by jailing a man for swimming au naturel in a river, the cops expressed confusion as to the appropriate response to birthday-suit bathers. In response, Leahy penned a somewhat tongue-in-cheek missive to “any law-enforcement officer so lacking in other criminal matters to investigate, so as to have time to investigate this currently popular subject.”

“I was originally disinclined to slow the crime-fighting operation of the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office long enough to issue a memorandum of such minuscule moment,” Leahy wrote in his July 7, 1971, memo. But after “researching the issue” — mostly by consulting colleagues and reviewing “old Norman Rockwell paintings thoughtfully resurrected by the ACLU, showing such activities taking place allegedly in Vermont” — Leahy determined that “most Vermonters I’ve talked to have engaged in such scandalous activity at some time in their life (with the exception of a couple I didn’t believe, who claimed to have done so in May in Vermont).”

Ultimately, Leahy advised that while nude bathing was unacceptable in certain public areas — such as Burlington’s North Beach, where local ordinance specifically bans it — it was fine on private land out of public view. As for semi-secluded areas, Leahy determined that nudity is acceptable “if no member of the public present is offended, no disorderly conduct has taken place.” But if said nakedness doth offend, Leahy advised the cops to ask the skinny-dippers to get dressed or face a ticket.

In later years, that standard for police involvement eroded to the point where the mere public airing of one’s privates no longer qualified as a potential violation. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, several parks and beaches around Vermont became hangouts for those who enjoy in-the-buff recreation. One such spot is the Ledges, a clothing-optional swimming hole on Wilmington’s Harriman Reservoir. In the late 1990s, as the Ledges grew in popularity, it began attracting unwanted scrutiny, drawing complaints about discarded condoms, sex in the woods and the occasional “bush-whacker,” aka public masturbator.

Though such incidents were rare, in June 2001 the Wilmington Selectboard decided to just say no. In a four-to-one vote, the board enacted the Wilmington Public Indecency Ordinance. It was spearheaded by the aptly named Margaret Frost, a grandmother who owned a cabin on the reservoir and described herself as affronted by the full-frontal nudity on view. According to an October 2002 New Yorker story about the dustup, Frost’s cabin was about 200 yards from the nearest full Monty, leading one to suppose she had a fine pair of binoculars for viewing the, um, wildlife. The following year, a citizens’ group called Friends of the Ledges drew on support from several nationwide “naturist” groups and rallied enough public support to overturn the ban. Today, the Ledges remains one of the best-known clothing-optional parks in New England.

A more successful effort to strip away the right to bare asses was mounted in Brattleboro in August 2006, after some local residents complained about teens publicly airing their privates downtown. A year later, the town selectboard passed a no-nudity ordinance, which drew international media coverage.

Nevertheless, by the mid-2000s, mass displays of public nakedness were, if not commonplace in Vermont, at least tolerated. Beginning in 1996, the University of Vermont supported its students’ annual Naked Bike Ride, held each semester at midnight on the last day of classes. UVM officially sanctioned the rides until November 2011, when then-interim president John Bramley sent out a campus-wide email saying the school would no longer pony up the $17,000 needed to cover barricades, lights, private security guards, campus police and other event costs.

In his message, Bramley cited safety concerns resulting from past rides, including incidences of sexual assault, overconsumption of alcohol and bicycle-related injuries, which presumably included excessive chafing. Despite Bramley’s bum steer, the nude ride still happens, with participation contingent on the temperature.
Source: WTF: Why Is Public Nudity Legal in Vermont But Public Disrobing Isn’t?

  
Monday, I wrote about how Millennials are doing their best to hide their nudity in the locker rooms, but on the flip side, they are all too willing to trade naked selfies with one another, be it through texts, snapchat, or various other ways. A growing numbers of youngsters are swapping naked selfies. When I was teaching one of the first things that the computer teacher taught was that once an image is uploaded online, it is there forever. Kids may think they can delete it or that a SnapChat is only there for a few seconds, but once there, someone can always find it if they know where to look.

As a teacher, I heard a lot of students talking when they didn’t know I was listening, or didn’t care that I was listening. One of the things I heard a lot was that so and so sent a naked selfie on SnapChat or they would talk about other students sending often naked or revealing pictures of themselves in text. It was happening earlier and earlier. I’d heard of this with kids as young as fifth grade.

When these Millennials get to college, they are even freer about sending nude selfies. Take a look on Twitter any day and at all the “Anon” accounts and there are constantly headless pictures of nude or nearly nude guys. I have no doubt that it is the same with women, but I don’t particularly want to see that. Anon Twitter accounts will often show their face with these pics for a limited time and then delete them, but the picture is already out there. 

The same is true with webcams. With sites like Chaturbate and Chatroulettle, people do all sorts of things for others to see, often showing their bodies but not their face. I guess this is the big difference, they don’t mind showing off to others as long as they don’t show their face. Others though don’t have a problem showing their face, and even when they don’t show their face, most everyone knows their friends SnapChat name, so whether it shows their face or not, their peers know who it is and they are showing off what they are hiding in the locker rooms.

Celebrities and non-celebrities alike often have no problem showing their nude butts, especially men (women it often comes down to their breasts), but butts have become so commonly shared that they are almost not considered nudity anymore. Let’s face it, mooning has been a thing for high school and college students for many, many years. It is the penis that is most hidden, and celebrities with particularly large ones will often allow themselves to have very brief frontal nude scenes or they “allow” their own nude selfies to be leaked online. It is always claimed to be an invasion of privacy, but once you take those pictures or videos of yourself, you have to realize that the possibility of it being leaked online is quite high.

The point that I am trying to make is that live and in person Millennials don’t want to show off their bodies and they hide behind their towels in the locker room, but these same guys who do the towel dance will send out naked selfies to all their friends later that day. While certainly not everyone, or probably even a majority, send naked selfies, a large number of Millennials do. While SnapChats, tweets, texts, and the like might be contained with just a few people, often those they hide from in the locker room, all you need to do is check out a dating app to see more dick pics than you might ever want to. Granted, dating sites are a different beast than all the others, but it shows that they don’t mind showing off the “goods” as long as a face isn’t attached or if it will get them laid.

I think that nudity is probably less an issue for gay men than straight men, but it is more of a body conscious issue with gay men. However, the SnapChat and texting phenomenon that I heard so much about as a teacher was with guys and girls (mostly guys) sending out pictures of themselves to both genders. It was a joke, at least that’s the way they saw it. Of course, like the celebrities who have their pictures leaked, there are always people who are proud of their goods and have no problem sending out dick pics. I had one incident when I was a teacher of a kid whipping out his penis to a girl in class. From what I was told, for a small guy he was quite large and quite proud of his size. In another such incident, the guy claimed that he’d been scratching his balls when it just flopped out when he removed his hand. Both instances were ridiculous, but the point is they had something they wanted to show. 

Not all guys are that brazen. Many, if they can get away with it, will post dick pics online anonymously to get a response and see how they measure up. Without the more free nudity in locker rooms, guys don’t necessarily know the vast array of penis sizes. Even when there was more nudity, I don’t think many understood the difference between growers and showers, because that is a secret you only find out with an erect penis. It is one of the advantages to being a gay man, we get to see the penis at all stages from flaccid to erect.

I have a feeling that the selfie is here to stay. With all things people will get more and more extreme with the selfie and the headless nude shot will become ever more common, while the towel dance will continue in the locker rooms. Privacy it seems is something that is only desired in live interaction, but behind a camera, privacy means very little as long as you can hide your face.

  
Early in my blog, I did a post called “Naked Male Camaraderie,” which has been the most popular post on this blog. A friend recently shared a New York Times titled “Men’s Locker Room Designers Take Pity on Naked Millennials.” One of the things I talked about in my previously mentioned blog post was that guys these days don’t like being naked in front of each other, which was part of this NYT article. In the article, it states:

But gyms are still unable to provide the one thing younger men in particular seem to really want: a way for them to shower and change without actually being nude.

Each day, thousands upon thousands of men in locker rooms nationwide struggle to put on their underwear while still covered chastely in shower towels, like horrible breathless arthropods molting into something tender-skinned. They writhe, still moist, into fresh clothes.

If you’ve been in a locker room recently, you know how sad and true this is. When I was in grad school, I used to frequent the gym there. In the locker room they had the gang showers (which was supposedly a major gay hook up area), three private showers, and a sauna. I never saw anyone use the group showers unless they kept a swimsuit on and most guys kept a towel on in the sauna, the only exception being Asian guys. Except for the swimmers who’d shower in their swim trunks the guys who wore speedos tended not to have a problem with being fully nude. So with the exception of swimmers wearing speedos and Asian guys in the sauna, most other guys did the towel dance. 

  
According to the NYT article, this is because:

Showering after gym class in high school became virtually extinct in the ’90s. And if Manhattan’s high-end gyms weren’t riddled with ab-laden models or Europeans (or both), there would be few heterosexuals under 40 who have spent any naked time with other men.

A generation ago, when most schools mandated showers, a teacher would typically monitor students and hand out towels, making sure that proper hygiene was observed. In schools with pools, students were sometimes required to swim naked, and teachers would conduct inspections for cleanliness that schools today would not dare allow, whether because of greater respect for children or greater fear of lawsuits.

In a striking measure of changed sensibilities in school and society, showering after physical education class, once an almost military ritual, has become virtually extinct. This is beginning to change, especially with athletes in schools, as health officials are increasingly warning that not showering after gym class leads to MRSA infections, the potentially deadly staphylococcus infection that is resistant to most antibiotics. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has practical advice on preventing staph infections. Showering right after exercise is at the top of the list. 

If showering can help prevent a deadly disease from spreading to school children, why aren’t more schools making showers mandatory? There are several reasons, which seem as varied as insecurities about body image, heightened sexual awareness, and a lack of time in a busy school schedule. The lack of showers in schools leads to a shyness about bodies that is virtually nonexistent in older generations. Old men seem to have no problem walking around locker rooms naked but young men do.

  
In March 2015, Men’s Health had an article about locker room etiquette called “Are You the Gym Locker Room A**hole?” in which they outline their do’s and don’t’s of locker room etiquette. Here’s the problem with this article, they asked a woman about male locker room etiquette. What does a woman know about men’s locker rooms? (No offense to the women who read this blog.) Two of the things she warns against are nudity and conversations in the locker rooms. Really? According to her, men should not be nude in the locker room nor should men talk to one another. I find that utterly ridiculous.

Nudity in America is so puritanical that it’s nearly nonexistent. The NYT article makes some interesting observations about what gyms are doing to attract more members. The main thing is providing more privacy. Men are afraid to see each other naked. They are afraid they won’t measure up, whether that is with whether they are a shower or a grower or whether they are just insecure about the way their body looks as a whole. Men need not fear being naked in front of one another.

Gratuitous female nudity is pretty much expected in films and TV shows these days, and haven’t we all had enough of that. Kevin Bacon’s apparently has had enough of it. Bacon thinks it’s time to give male actors a chance to #FreeTheBacon. (And by bacon, he means, “your wiener, your balls and your butt.”) And what better way to campaign for more male nudity than with a super serious (mock) PSA.

“In so many films and TV shows, we see gratuitous female nudity, and it’s not OK … Well, it’s OK, but it’s not fair to actresses and it’s not fair to actors because we want to be naked too,” he says to the camera. “Gentlemen, it’s time to free the bacon.” Because, after all, it boils down to one thing, and Bacon hits the nail right on the head: “This is an issue of gender equality.”

Even though Bacon wasn’t being serious, he makes a good point. The problem is we all know the real reasons why men don’t go full frontal. Many, but not enough, will show their butt, but few will show their penis. Kevin Bacon went full frontal in Wild Things, but most full frontal nudity in movies is in independent films or gay films. Let’s face it though, most men are growers not showers. Very rarely do you see an actor going full frontal when he has a small penis, most of the time, the actor is well endowed. The movie industry is also a male dominated industry and straight men don’t care about seeing another man’s penis, or at least they don’t admit to it.

Most often when men see another man’s penis, it is in porn, and we all know those are porn penises, not real life. Male porn actors are in porn because they want to show off what they have. (I know there are other reasons too, but they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t want to be an exhibitionist.) Porn gives me an unreal expectation about what a normal sized penis is. On average, a flaccid penis is on average 3.6” long, while a erect penis is 5.2” long. When it comes to circumference, a flaccid penis is about 3.7” around, and the erect penis is on average 4.6” around. But if you compared that to porn, the flaccid penis, if you ever see it, looks to be around 4-5” long while erect penis is 7-9” long.

When Lenny Kravitz had a wardrobe malfunction the other day in Sweden, he did nothing to help show the average size penis, but yet did continue the stereotype that black men are nicely hung. (Truth is I’d have to say that myth is largely true from my experiences, just saying.) by the way, I happen to like Lenny’s pubic piercing. It’s pretty hot. (NSFW link)

But my point is, men shouldn’t be so ashamed to show their penis. Of course there is a time and place for everything, but as I said the other day about the show “Hunting Season,” male nudity is common in intimate settings. Men need to quit doing the towel dance in locker rooms and be proud of what they have, big or small. We need to see male nudity normalized in films, and quite frankly, we have gratuitous female nudity, and we need more gratuitous male nudity.