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Guess who's coming to dinner naked?
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-20 09:03
The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night
and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn't stop there.
A group of nudists
socialize at the bar before dining together at a 'Clothing Optional
Dinner' at a New York City restaurant, February 17, 2005.
[Reuters] | Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and
stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got
naked for the monthly "Clothing Optional Dinner."
"It's exciting to be in a restaurant nude," said George Keyes, 65, a retired
junior high school English teacher.
Nude yes, but not unadorned.
Keyes, a lifelong nudist, wore a necklace, earrings and a black leather
"genital bracelet" with red studs. And white sneakers.
The dinner was started by a group of New York nudists who wanted something a
bit more elegant than the wilderness getaways and beach resorts they generally
frequent.
"When you go away on holiday it's more you're roughing it in the woods,
whereas this is a really nice restaurant," said Keyes, a member of gay nudist
group Males Au Naturel, or MAN.
John Ordover set up the dining club about a year ago, recruiting members
through word of mouth and the Internet.
"Next month is our Easter bonnet event, where everybody has to come wearing
an Easter bonnet," said Ordover, a heavyset man with a jovial smile and glasses.
SOMETHING TO SIT ON ...
Around 30 people arrived for the buffet dinner -- organizers specified no hot
soup on the menu -- most of them middle-aged, several married couples, some
singles, the youngest perhaps in their 30s.
"They're a good class of people, they're no different to you or I," said John
Bussi, owner of the midtown restaurant. "They're not hurting anybody, it's not a
wild Roman orgy."
Health regulations mean staff must remain clothed even if they wanted to join
in. And diners must bring something to sit on -- a towel or, for discerning
women, an elegant silk scarf.
A group of nudists
eat together at a monthly 'Clothing Optional Dinner' at a New York City
restaurant, Feb. 17, 2005. About 30 people arrived for the buffet dinner
-- no hot soup on the menu -- most of them middle-aged, several married
couples, some singles, the youngest perhaps in their 30s.
[Reuters] | The restaurant's manager covered the
windows to maintain privacy at the strictly private party. Extra heaters kept
the temperature at a comfortable level for nudity.
Ordover's wife, Carol, said they first went on a naturist holiday five years
ago and she found the experience empowering. But, she explained, it's "the least
sexual thing you can possibly imagine."
"Men in nudist resorts are striking a bargain. They get to see as many naked
women as they like as long as they are polite and look them straight in the
eye," she said.
Sherry Stafford, a petite and elegant 51-year-old with blond hair and high
heels, brought brochures and videos advertising her travel business,
Internaturally Travel.
One of the flyers was for a resort called "Hedonism II" whose slogan is "Be
wicked for a week." But she said nudists should not be confused with swingers.
"Wearing clothes and going to church does not protect you from moral evil,"
Stafford said, lamenting what she saw as a tendency to demonize people just
because they like to be naked.
Sandy, a slim woman in her 40s, said she never felt self-conscious about her
body and was comfortable dining in the nude. But she did admit to being a bit
more nervous before a recent naked yoga class attended by around 25 people.
"Everyone was a little concerned there would be people looking around but the
good thing is nobody really was," she said, standing at the restaurant's bar
before dinner.
"If you try to maintain a yoga position you're going to fall if you start
looking around -- and that's more embarrassing than anything else."
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