Join the Boats and Bikinis Expo via the landmark here.

I’m still exploring, but I’ll come back with a report (and any useful stuff I find) in due course.

Ella

In the past hour or so, we passed the 100,000 views mark. This has been achieved in just over 18 months, and in just short of 500 posts. And yes, in case you were wondering, I’ve been watching the stats like a hawk, knowing we were going to achieve the figure yesterday or or today, based on the average views the blog gets each day.

Given that we’re a niche SL lifestyle blog (as opposed to skin/hair/fashion) I think all who have been involved can be justifiably proud of their efforts.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ella, Harry, Pookes and Barbara who have all contributed some stellar work over that period, as well as to Areola, Pierre, and other contributors who have also helped develop SLN into a blog you -the SL user- seem to enjoy.

At this point we’re about to lead on to ‘stage 2’ of the project. Not the ‘Stage 2’ I envisaged when we first started out, but it has been a journey with some twists and turns. Hopefully we can enjoy some further twists on the road in the continuing SL blogging sojourn.

We’ve got a little ‘behind the scenes’ work to do over the next week or so, before ‘stage 2’ goes ‘live’.

Ella will be making an announcement on this page regarding some (subtle) changes to SLN in the next week.

Thank you for reading SLN. We, all of us, appreciate you taking the time to enjoy what we do. Here’s to the next 18 months, the next 500 posts, and the next 100,000 viewers!

Howie Lamilton (Publisher)

Tomorrow (25th July) the ‘Boats and Bikinis’ Expo opens its doors and runs for a week. While not strictly a naturist event, we all know that bikinis can be half or totally removed, and nude sailing is exceptionally popular around the clear, blue waters of Eden Naturopolis. Anyway…it all seems like it will have some kind of naturist potential, so expect to find a slurl posted, and subsequently a report published on what you can find over at it.

Ella

You can read Expedia’s ‘Flip Flop Report’, and current attitudes to a myriad of beach-related matters here.

© 2013 Expedia

I’ve edited out a section of a very readable infographic from the web page to show attitudes to toplessness (interesting coming off the back of our reporting on it in Issue 9)

I’ve also edited out a section of text relating to toplessness or nudity.

© 2013 Expedia

Despite what the reporting says, SLN remains a solidly popular read in Asia, and I guess that there’s just as much interest in RL naturism amongst Asians as there is in the SL variant of it. One thing I would add, though, is that reading the report leads one to the conclusion that there remains some confusion between ‘topless’ and ‘nude’ -a confusion that also sometimes exists amongst bloggers and website authors and contributors, with the two terms being seemingly interchangeable. To me, they’re not. Topless should always mean that…females with bikini tops off. Nude should mean just that…totally nude. And these are the definitions we rigidly apply in SLN.

Barbara

(Ella adds…I’ve just had a look at the website and ‘speedoes’ seem to offend a lot of people 🙂 as much as they confuse Diane in this post )

Jomo is here

Diane

We do seem to be making a habit of returning to this theme (and website).

A reminder: Mountain Babes is a site where people climb mountains and have themselves photographed in various states of undress from the rear. Topless, in panties, in jeans, fully nude…there’s a variety of photos on the site.

While not particularly ‘naturist’, what I like is that it means women are possibly more comfortable with the idea of public nudity (or semi-nudity).

While it wasn’t our intention to return to this theme quite so quickly, the discovery that SL had a Grand Canyon forced our hand 🙂

So…here I am at the Grand Canyon, doing a Mountain Babe kind of thing 🙂

Barbara

PLEASE NOTE: With the blurring of RL & SL naturism, and many posts reflecting RL events and places in an SL context, there is more in the way of RL naturist photography used.

We do try to keep, ahem, abreast of nude news around the globe, and let this inform how we approach the blog, both in the ‘magazine’ posts and the stand alone posts. Our SL naturist activities may be steered slightly to reflect what’s going on in the wonderful world of RL naturism.

I was therefore exceptionally interested in this article, which promotes the health giving benefits of naturism. While one or two of the points raised may be debatable, I’m not sure comparing the naked rat with a furry rat has any scientific basis at all, there are some thought-provoking points raised. Certainly the point about Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, being much more readily absorbed (just don’t overdo it and burn the skin!) is valid. And the point about naturists being much more tolerant is probably equally valid.

The article is certainly worth a read if you want to set your brain off on certain avenues of thought.

I have to say that I regard naturism as easily lending itself to a healthy lifestyle. It can often revolve around good, healthy eating, exposure to the benefits of sunshine (but be careful out there!) and lots of exercise. I don’t mean that we suddenly become gym-freaks, but it leans towards plenty of swimming, walking, sometimes cycling, and then there’s nude hiking for the particularly active. Below, naturist Karen shows us the way at Eden’s Outdoor Gym.

First, some sit ups

Then some one armed press-ups

And then some weights! (This looks like hard work!)

‘Warming down’ with some yoga

And finally a nice shower. I’m just feeling tired watching Karen work out!

Barbara

We’ve all seen the photos and heard the story. 30,000 virgins dance for the King of Swaziland in a ritual stretching back decades.

It creates the impression that the country is a haven of bare-breasted beauties, despite there being evidence that, culturally, Swaziland is a nation in which a modest form of public dress is encouraged, to the point where there has been an effort to ban miniskirts.

Part of the argument appears to run that in a country where there is an HIV epidemic, something has to be done to discourage rape and, thus, the spread of the disease. I can’t say I’m fully conversant with the facts, the background, or the attitudes of men in the country to rape, so it would be remiss of me to pass judgement.

What I will say is that in the likes of Lobambo, the capital, women are much more likely to be wearing ‘western’ style clothes, whether ‘immodest’ or not, and in the rural areas, where traditional dress prevails to some extent, that traditional dress leans more in the direction of modesty.

The ‘bare breasted beauty’ is, therefore, somewhat of a myth, the Reed Dance apart.

In that context, it would appear that being topless isn’t a fixture of the culture, and that it only becomes a matter of public acceptance in the context of the Reed Dance, a ritual in which young girls dance for the king.

Look at the photos carefully and you’ll find a mixture of traditional/tribal hairstyles and modern western ones, alongside mobile phones (cellphones) and modern sunglasses. And into this mix comes the ready acceptance -if only for the duration of the dance itself- a quiet acceptance that toplessness is acceptable.

Interestingly, the image above, of white girls in a sort of tribal attire, shows them covering up. I’m not sure whether this indicates different attitudes apply, or if this is actually from the Swaziland reed dance, or some replication of it.

Our ‘profile star’ in this issue, Mtendere, did a photoshoot in a more westernised style on the profile page, but we also managed to get her to pose in Massai costume (it was available from Peace & LOL, which no longer seems to exist). A male version is also pictured, featuring one of Mtendere’s friends.

Mtendere says ‘these outfits are from a time when there was much more cultural diversity available in SL, and when it was possible to live life as an African, in African sims. I mourn the loss of such locations.’

It looks as though a ready acceptance of toplessness -or full nudity- outside the context of naturism, has taken a backwards step in SL, and it doesn’t look like anytime soon that we could see Swaziland’s Reed Dance, or an approximation of it, take place in SL.

Pookes