Reviews of OWB!
I.
Experiencing life
unhampered by clothing
Our Wonderful Bodies!
By Jim C. Cunningham
Photo-edited by Linda S. Cunningham
Published by Naturist LIFE International,
Incorporated, in Troy, Vermont
2001, softcover, 100 pages, $10
Is
the nude human body inherently shameful or dirty? Should the body always be
hidden from view of others? What is it about a Judeo-Christian upbringing that
makes people ashamed to be seen unclothed?
In
response to these questions and more, Jim and Linda Cunningham have written and
compiled a book of essays and photographs focused entirely on the benefits of
experiencing life without being hampered by clothing. The Cunninghams are
naturists and through their book, invite others to examine this lifestyle through
biblical scripture.
The
book is filled with photos of people doing very usual things — hiking, dancing,
swimming, building sand castles, horseback riding, chopping wood, gathering
sap, and washing dishes. The only unusual thing about the photos is that
everyone in them is nude.
It
should be noted immediately that this is not a book intended to titillate
readers. The people in the photos are not attempting to arouse anyone. The
photos have no element of sexuality in them, as the intention is to show the
beauty of the human body within the context of morality. The first essay by Mr.
Cunningham is called “Welcome to You!” Mr. Cunningham writes, “Wonderful
bodies? Yes, they are. And we are not talking about some nebulous,
hypothetical, ideal human body, but ours — yours and mine.”
Having
been bombarded, since our first cognizant moments, with images of people with
“perfect” bodies by American standards, it is refreshing to view page after
page of regular people. Those shown in the book are tall and thin, short
and round. The women do not have impossibly small waists and unnaturally large
breasts, and the men are not muscle-bound diet pushers. They are real people.
Mr.
Cunningham says that “because we were made to seek perfection” we tend to focus
on what is wrong with our bodies because we are comparing them to an ideal we
will never attain. He writes, “Deep down we all tend to want to believe the
truth of the body's goodness and beauty, but this conviction finds little
opportunity to be explored, expressed, proclaimed, and celebrated on account of
various elements in culture which relentlessly threaten to contaminate it.” The
idea is not that we should change our bodies, but that we should change how we
regard them.
In
America advertisements for diet pills proliferate while women and men starve
themselves, exercise compulsively, and vomit after bingeing in order to pare
their bodies down so small that they cannot even sustain life. For example, The
Gap now sells pants sized zero. What are you when you fit into zero-sized
pants? Do you even exist anymore? Mr. Cunningham asks, what are bodies supposed
to look like? He says we don’t know because “without opportunities to see what
others really look like, we have nothing left as a measuring stick but myths like
the centerfold of Playboy.”
The
book is a place where everyone fits in, where all are the “right” size and
shape. He notes that it is odd that we feel free to show people our faces and
other supposedly innocuous body parts, but deem some parts too awful to expose.
He says that people should be known as whole people, not as fragmented parts.
He writes, “A nude accepts not only himself, but also those around him.”
Leading a nudist lifestyle is about shedding a need for external happiness and
about learning that “now you alone are the arbiter of your own happiness.”
He
furthers the point by writing, "I am not saying that body acceptance is
nirvana or the height of spiritual perfection. But I am saying that to aim for
those other spiritual perfections without first reconciling yourself with your
physical reality which we cannot escape, is like trying to run the 100-yard
dash with your shoe-laces tied to each other.” Loving your body’s innate
goodness is not egotism, but an acute appreciation of one of the many gifts you
have received from God."
According to Mr. Cunningham. Being ashamed of
the body is the same as being ashamed of God. “I can tell you in all
humility that I am beautiful. I say this despite total blindness due to 30 years
of juvenile diabetes. I have not seen myself in over a decade.” Mr. Cunningham
uses humor frequently throughout the book to illustrate his points. One of the
major discussions in the book deals with breastfeeding and society’s urge to
force nursing mothers to shroud their babies while they eat, as if the breast
is a singularly sexual organ. “If babies should be veiled while dining, then
why not adults? Why don’t we all go out to eat with baggy hoods pulled over our
faces, lest anyone should be aroused by witnessing the supposedly erotic
activity of adult dining? It would be hilarious if it were not so sad.…”
In
the second essay, called “Let It Shine!,” Mr. Cunningham delves into “body
image in light of Judeo-Christian revelation.” He says that within a
Judeo-Christian background, people are given the guidelines for deciding what
is right and wrong, and that often those guidelines are muddied when learned
within a society that has its own ideas of right and wrong. He argues that many
Christians do good acts, bestow kindness on their fellow humans, and otherwise
avoid doing harm, but that they are still not living according to scripture.
“Let’s
face it: When it comes to our bodies, like most everything else, we Christians
are really messed up. We are far, very far, from the mind of Christ,” he
writes. He says we are living according to the dominant culture and not the
word of God. Again writing about the idea that some parts are dirty and some
aren’t, Mr. Cunningham writes that because the body was made in God’s image,
“not one part of it can be unholy or dirty. The notion that some part of it is
indecent or obscene is entirely unscriptural. Those who believe the human body
is ‘dirty’ (and 99 percent of Jews and Christians do, in practice if not in
word) are judging by the erroneous standards of the world, which we are not
supposed to blindly accept, but rather illuminate and correct.”
He
goes into the history of nudity, explaining that at one point in time, public
nudity was quite normal. Before plumbing in each house, people bathed
together in public baths, nude. He cites many biblical references for laboring
nude, fishing nude, and even preaching nude.
The
third essay, in comparison to the free-spirited first two essays, sounds a bit
preachy. The third is called “Behold: It Is Very Good!” and deals with morality
based on Mr. Cunningham’s reading of the Bible. He writes that one should never
do anything to willfully arouse someone outside of marriage, and that doing so
is inherently immoral. He makes the distinction that arousing someone
unintentionally is not immoral. He uses the example of arousal. He says
sometimes it just happens, for whatever reason, without a source of
stimulation. However, if a man went to a nude beach with the intention of being
aroused or arousing others, he would be acting immorally. Taking his morals
from a literal interpretation of the Bible, Mr. Cunningham asserts that “sex
belongs only within marriage. Sex is good, great, and holy, but only in its
place. Both natural law and God’s law tell us that marriage is that place,
since it is obvious from the mere observation of sexual physiology, that sex
concerns procreation (Genesis 1:28) and union of husband and wife (Genesis
2:24).” He advances his essay with guidelines one can use to determine whether
an act, thought, or word is moral. He says the three components of a moral act
are the act itself, the motive, and the circumstances surrounding the
act. Basically it all comes down to intention.
Mr.
Cunningham uses this example among others, “If it turns out that some lecher
was lurking in the bushes and lusting, that cannot be something we wanted to
happen, but something merely tolerated for the sake of the good effects of our
nude swimming experience.” The final criteria for a moral act is that “the good
effect must be at least equal to, or greater than the evil effect, or else the
whole thing is not worth doing.”
All
three essays are extremely thought-provoking, especially in light of the view
many of us have of Judeo-Christian morality. The first two are a joy to read
and invite those who might not agree to at least think about an alternative
lifestyle within their ideas of right and wrong. The third takes the higher
ground and might be taken as judgmental of those who don’t fit within Mr.
Cunningham’s morality. His view of morality does indeed encourage readers to
think about the morality of their own actions within his carefully drawn
guidelines.
Many
will not look kindly on the philosophy of the Cunninghams and those with similar
ideals. How could they, based on the misplaced ideas of prurience and cultural
ideals of morality pervasive in this culture? But nudity is not sex.
Skinny-dipping in itself does not inevitably lead to sexual acts. It is
people who sexualize the body. The people in these photos do not stare back at
me seductively. They are not postured in degrading and subservient positions.
Instead, they are doing things they would normally do. They aren't here to
arouse, but only to be.
Reviewed
by Jennifer Hersey
The
Chronicle
Barton,
VT
II.
Our
Wonderful Bodies!
Jim
and Linda Cunningham
Copyright
Naturist LIFE International, 2001.
96
pages, Paperback, $10.00
Jim
and Linda Cunningham have produced a strikingly beautiful pictorial of naturist
life. Naturist LIFE International has offered the naturist community a thoughtful discussion on
ethical and spiritual themes flowing in and out of naturism.
Fifteen
color photos grace the stiff paper covers and 188 black & white pictures
fill the pages inside to overflowing with the best of naturist life. Jim
Cunningham's publications have always boasted a fine selection of family shots
gleaned from NLI members and from the "photo safaris" he organized
every July, bringing models, photographers and stellar Northeast settings together
to form a symbiotic simpatico. In Our Wonderful Bodies! he has pulled out the
best of those photos he had stashed away. Naturist magazine editors would give
the left arms of their most valuable staff members for such shots.
Whether
we call Our Wonderful Bodies! a
book or a slightly beefed up magazine is not terribly relevant. Readers
familiar with NLI's magazine format will recognize the Cunningham desktop
handiwork immediately. It may not be the glitziest coffee table book to come
down the pike, but if you have non-naturist friends-and especially those with a
leaning toward Christianity-this is the best thing Cunningham has produced yet
to shut down all nonsense about naturism being somehow "dirty" or
"sinful."
To
no one's surprise, Jim Cunningham's text is imbued with the same Roman Catholic
spirituality that made his magazine clothing-optional LIFE, later renamed Naturist LIFE International, synonymous
in many people's minds with Christian naturism. There are many other naturist
Christian groups, but Cunningham had a way of either hitting home with his
readers or getting so far under their skin as to drive them crazy. He's been
seen as a combination of Rush Limbaugh and the Pope to many naturists.
Our
Wonderful Bodies! is,
fortunately, void of most of the themes that seemed to alienate so many
naturists. Here we have simple, unapologetic family naturism at home, in the
garden, at a lake, alone, in groups…in short, in life.
Cunningham
weaves three articles into the pictorial fabric. The first is a straightforward
greeting to those new to naturism. The metaphors fly fast and furious, but
Cunningham's passion for the purity found in naturism at its best is apparent,
and will, perhaps, be persuasive to his intended audience.
The
second article speaks to the Christian questioning God's acceptance of social
nudity. Cunningham uses personal anecdote, Scripture and his impressive grasp
of Church history to sit down and reason together with those believers who have
serious concerns about naturism.
His
third and final contribution to the book (his wife Linda edited the photo
layout) is philosophically the most interesting. Cunningham can single-handedly
give Catholic casuistry a good name. His appeal to the Principle of Double
Effect has been masterful in the past (see, for example, NLI no. 8, pp. 22-24),
and he here revisits this and other moral infrastructures.
Though
Cunningham provides a valuable lesson in applying theory to practice by taking
intellectual constructs and showing how they can answer real-life problems
about nudity, he is too glib this time around. In this third article, he
proposes that there are three components to a moral act: the act itself, the
motive and the circumstance. He claims simplistically that by analyzing a
particular act (e.g., of nude sunbathing in one's backyard) in these three
terms, one can resolve any ethical dilemmas that might arise.
"So,
that's all there is to it. If you are confused about some issue, just sit down
and run through the above three simple components of every moral act."
He
immediately admits that a "glitch" might need addressing. You may
wish to do an act for a good reason, but something bad might come from it. For
instance, you may wish to sunbathe nude in a city park for all the best
reasons, but someone might see you and be offended or brought to lust.
Cunningham lays out the Principle of Double Effect, arguing that it will
resolve the last of a naturist's moral dilemmas.
"So
there it is-no more glitches. You can apply the above to every situation like a
stencil, and see if something is right or wrong." As powerful a tool as
the Principle of Double Effect is, life is seldom this simple.
When
all is said and done, however, Our Wonderful Bodies! is going to appeal to readers for its
photos rather than its text.
by
Mark Storey
A
version of this review first appeared in Nude & Natural magazine, issue 21.3.
Reprinted
with permission.
III.
Our
Wonderful Bodies! (OWB!) is
chock full of the kind of photographs that truly affirm the title of the book.
Our bodies, whatever age, shape and size they may be, are indeed wonderful. The
fact that every photo in this book is of a completely nude person makes that
fact even more abundantly clear.
If
you're a bona fide naturist, the photos will warm the cockles of your heart.
They practically shout the message of true, wholesome, family-friendly
nudism/naturism. There are pictures of the elderly, infants, pre- and
post-pubescent children, young and middle-aged men and women-just about every
stop along the way from birth to death. The photos were culled from the
archives of Naturist LIFE International's vaults and ably assembled by Linda
Cunningham, who did the layout work.
The
organization has hosted photo safaris for a number of years to encourage
aspiring naturist photographers, so the general quality of the images is of a
higher level. There are no blurry, out of focus snapshots here. I've known
about NLI since 1999 and attended their REUNION that year. My wife and I got to
know Jim, Linda (AKA Maggie), and their five kids, and spent time with them at
their family devotions. I learned a great deal about naturism and about faith
from Jim and his family. For those who are new to the idea of Christian naturism,
there were a broad spectrum of folks from both the Catholic and Protestant side
of the fence at the REUNION, including a number of clergy (yes, you can still
be considered clergy without vestments). NLI is proof that the terms
"Christian" and "naturist" aren't antithetical.
Along
with the photos are three articles by Jim C. Cunningham: "Welcome to
You!" (the Introduction), "Let It Shine!" (about
body-acceptance), and "Behold: It Is Very Good!" (about traditional
morality). I especially love to read Jim's views on the subject of Christian
naturism, for he invests every effort with a depth and seriousness such a
subject needs and deserves. His words are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise
murky area of human social interaction. So much of American nudism has been
tied up with undue sexual "noise," that it's no wonder so many people
have only negative connotations about the practice. Read Jim's writings for
about five minutes and your perspective will change drastically. If you are a
long-time nudist/naturist, or merely thinking of getting involved in social
nudism, OWB! is a must. For only $10 you will get plenty of food for thought
and wonderful photos. It may also encourage you to order back issues of NLI
magazine to further your education.
Tom
Pine
Editor
of The Naked Truth Naturists' Nudesletter