Naked vs Nude
So I ask you: what is the difference? Is there one? Is there something "dirty" about being naked and clean and artsy about being nude? Let's face it, no one calls art figures "naked" they are always referred to as nude. So there must be some strange difference in the connotation 
of one over the other.
Don't look at me - I don't know the difference! Yet...
Let's explore that. In the movie "Calendar Girls", one of the inducements to get some of the more reluctant women to pose was to say, "No, no, it's not naked (pronounced nay-khed), it;s nude." Oh. Ok, then.
So we shall get out my absolute favourite book of all time: my 8.5lb, updated, revised, deluxe edition of the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. I'm not kidding, it weighs between 8.5 and nine pounds. I actually checked it out by weighing myself without and then with the ungodly heavy thing! You might say only I would own such a ridiculously heavy dictionary. Not so. My parents do, too!
Well, here it is.
"Naked (nā´kid), adj. 1. being without clothing or covering; nude: naked children swimming in the lake.
I could go on, but ye gods, I would bore any readers I have to death. It went on with 15 different uses: the first five having to do with covering, the sixth, about inadequate covering, up to the eleventh in areas like that. Then it got into really different categorized usage: law, botany (a – c), and zoological. OK. The fact that nude was mentioned as a synonym right there in the first definition suggests that there is no really difference. It’s more or less imposed and implied by those suffering from nakedness-itis. The idea that somehow being unclothed is dirty or wrong. I would argue (successfully, I should think) that since we are born with the latest fashion on, nudity is natural to us and therefore delightful!
Onto the second hurdle…
Nude (nōōd, nyōōd), adj. 1. naked or unclothed, as a person or the body.
I rest my case. Nude only had nine different uses, almost all the same—wait! What’s this… 3. (of a painting, photograph, statue, etc.) being or prominently displaying a representation of the nude human figure. I might add that after that was the same law one as 13 under naked…
So the answer is there. No difference. Not really. None of the entries suggested anything wrong or implied wrong with the words. And they are mostly interchangeable - even the legal use of "naked" and "nude"!
I don't like religions and this is a part of it. Where in the name of all that is holy did all these weird ideas and ideals of humanity come from that rule out nudity and sexual activities as wrong? That just bugs me fifty different ways. (So does the whole "infidelity" thing but that is a topic for another time. All I will say about that is how we are fighting the human genetic coding all over the place with that ridiculousness.) I am staggered by how many people teach their children that there is something wrong with nudity. A lesson my parents went out of their way to not teach me! The human body is a beautiful thing. All of it. Without exception. The scientist and the naked person in me will say that any time. The hair, the eyes, the mouth, the line of the neck leading into the space created by the clavicles... the pulse beating gently in the carotid artery... the musculature of a man's upper arm (I love that!), the curve of the bottom of a breast, the silky soft skin of the belly... the look of a six-pack on a man's belly. Yowza...
Want me to go on? You know where I am heading... right down to the tips of the toes. (With a lengthy poetic but completely distracting stop at the genitals, of course. Now, really, what kind of sexual dynamo are you if you cannot see the aesthetic beauty in the vagina and in the penis. Aesthetics are incredibly important! Some people don't have aesthetically pleasing penises (peni?) and therefore I lose interest. Oh, sure, it's still functional but do you really want to put something that is wholly unattractive in your mouth? The answer is (at least for me) no. It's the same reason I am completely disinclined to put cottage cheese in my mouth. It reminds me too graphically of what comes out of a herion addict who has just overdosed. Yuck!
This photo, for example. Don't look at it in a sexual context. It isn't really a sexual photo. The curve of the breast, the line down the centre to the belly. The long tapered fingers. What is wrong about this?
Clearly hookers do not suffer from this... I can envy that but I am not unhappy with being at least a teensy bit finicky about what I will eat or substitute as a lolly-pop.
I also take photos of the many penises I know at the Renaissance Faire. I have never posted them and in all honesty I suppose I would have to get the owners' permission before I could do that. I will have to do that. Tune in to see if I am successful at a later date.
I take the photos of them flaccid as that is the normal state (no matter what any enterprising braggart tells you) and because they are aesthetically beautiful that way instead of completely distracting and beautiful. Let's face it , poetry and insipid love songs do not go through my head when facing a completely hard penis! There is a whole lot going through there, but none of it is artsy!
Well. I love being nude - or naked - take your pick. And yes, I pose for photographs. I may not give them out because I would like to wait until I have a sexier body, but I alone do appreciate my naked (or nude) body!
of one over the other.Don't look at me - I don't know the difference! Yet...
Let's explore that. In the movie "Calendar Girls", one of the inducements to get some of the more reluctant women to pose was to say, "No, no, it's not naked (pronounced nay-khed), it;s nude." Oh. Ok, then.
So we shall get out my absolute favourite book of all time: my 8.5lb, updated, revised, deluxe edition of the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. I'm not kidding, it weighs between 8.5 and nine pounds. I actually checked it out by weighing myself without and then with the ungodly heavy thing! You might say only I would own such a ridiculously heavy dictionary. Not so. My parents do, too!
Well, here it is.
"Naked (nā´kid), adj. 1. being without clothing or covering; nude: naked children swimming in the lake.
I could go on, but ye gods, I would bore any readers I have to death. It went on with 15 different uses: the first five having to do with covering, the sixth, about inadequate covering, up to the eleventh in areas like that. Then it got into really different categorized usage: law, botany (a – c), and zoological. OK. The fact that nude was mentioned as a synonym right there in the first definition suggests that there is no really difference. It’s more or less imposed and implied by those suffering from nakedness-itis. The idea that somehow being unclothed is dirty or wrong. I would argue (successfully, I should think) that since we are born with the latest fashion on, nudity is natural to us and therefore delightful!
Onto the second hurdle…
Nude (nōōd, nyōōd), adj. 1. naked or unclothed, as a person or the body.
I rest my case. Nude only had nine different uses, almost all the same—wait! What’s this… 3. (of a painting, photograph, statue, etc.) being or prominently displaying a representation of the nude human figure. I might add that after that was the same law one as 13 under naked…
So the answer is there. No difference. Not really. None of the entries suggested anything wrong or implied wrong with the words. And they are mostly interchangeable - even the legal use of "naked" and "nude"!
I don't like religions and this is a part of it. Where in the name of all that is holy did all these weird ideas and ideals of humanity come from that rule out nudity and sexual activities as wrong? That just bugs me fifty different ways. (So does the whole "infidelity" thing but that is a topic for another time. All I will say about that is how we are fighting the human genetic coding all over the place with that ridiculousness.) I am staggered by how many people teach their children that there is something wrong with nudity. A lesson my parents went out of their way to not teach me! The human body is a beautiful thing. All of it. Without exception. The scientist and the naked person in me will say that any time. The hair, the eyes, the mouth, the line of the neck leading into the space created by the clavicles... the pulse beating gently in the carotid artery... the musculature of a man's upper arm (I love that!), the curve of the bottom of a breast, the silky soft skin of the belly... the look of a six-pack on a man's belly. Yowza...Want me to go on? You know where I am heading... right down to the tips of the toes. (With a lengthy poetic but completely distracting stop at the genitals, of course. Now, really, what kind of sexual dynamo are you if you cannot see the aesthetic beauty in the vagina and in the penis. Aesthetics are incredibly important! Some people don't have aesthetically pleasing penises (peni?) and therefore I lose interest. Oh, sure, it's still functional but do you really want to put something that is wholly unattractive in your mouth? The answer is (at least for me) no. It's the same reason I am completely disinclined to put cottage cheese in my mouth. It reminds me too graphically of what comes out of a herion addict who has just overdosed. Yuck!
This photo, for example. Don't look at it in a sexual context. It isn't really a sexual photo. The curve of the breast, the line down the centre to the belly. The long tapered fingers. What is wrong about this?
Clearly hookers do not suffer from this... I can envy that but I am not unhappy with being at least a teensy bit finicky about what I will eat or substitute as a lolly-pop.
I also take photos of the many penises I know at the Renaissance Faire. I have never posted them and in all honesty I suppose I would have to get the owners' permission before I could do that. I will have to do that. Tune in to see if I am successful at a later date.
I take the photos of them flaccid as that is the normal state (no matter what any enterprising braggart tells you) and because they are aesthetically beautiful that way instead of completely distracting and beautiful. Let's face it , poetry and insipid love songs do not go through my head when facing a completely hard penis! There is a whole lot going through there, but none of it is artsy!
Well. I love being nude - or naked - take your pick. And yes, I pose for photographs. I may not give them out because I would like to wait until I have a sexier body, but I alone do appreciate my naked (or nude) body!
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