Saving the youth.
Australia is an undeniably wonderful country floating, there, below the equator. An undeniably wonderful cuisine of meat pies, undeniably wonderful national costume featuring Bintang t-shirts, undeniably wonderful soundtrack set to the soothing melodies of Kylie Minogue.
And, of course, there is the surf. Such variety of wave and water temperature, almost each fronted by a surf lifesaving club wherein members can sit in plastic chairs and eat meat pies either before or after a dip in the ocean. Being undeniably wonderful, one of them just north of Adrian Buchan’s Avoca Beach has very progressively decided to enact a 100% ban on nudity.
No naked in changing rooms.
No naked in the shower.
According to The Guardian, one naughty swimmer, Nada Pantle, dared to change from swimsuit to clothing and got slapped with a threatened “disciplinary action.”
Another, Wendy Farley, got drilled for rinsing off sans attire.
Both received sternly worded letter reading, “The club is a family friendly environment and at that nudity is not acceptable. Should you continue to ignore the rules, you will be subject to disciplinary action, and/or … termination of your membership.”
Yikes.
While Pantle felt “body shamed” by the notice and Farley thought it was sending the wrong message to young women, the chief executive of the club, Jon Harkness, stood firm.
“The purpose is to protect young people,” he said. “They all potentially use those shower facilities.”
Europeans, long used to being au naturel basically everywhere, got wind of the situation, stuck their wieners right where they didn’t belong and criticized the new rules, declaring, “We got mixed saunas. Any public shower (public pool, sports club, gym etc) is an open plan and you definitely see naked people while changing … A naked body is only indecent if you teach it to be indecent.”
Harkness, brave and bold, stood firm.
“Nobody inferred that. We were purely asking (the offending women) to follow the rules to constantly be modest within changeroom facilities.”
It is unknown if Torquay’s surf and lifesaving club will adopt the zero nudity policy ahead of the upcoming Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach but here’s to hoping.
