LIBERTE-SE PARA O NATURISMO

Como diz na música “Uma Noite e Meia” de Renato Rocketh, cantada por Marina Lima: “Vem chegando o verão, um calor no coração, essa magia colorida, coisas da vida”. Cada estação possui a sua magia, mas o verão parece mais propício para desnudar o corpo e nele sentir as energias da natureza, é algo que não poderá ser falado porque cada pessoa poderá sentir de forma diferente. Lamentavelmente nesse país tropical, cujos primeiros habitantes já andavam nus, a prática do Naturismo/Nudismo como agente de integração entre mente-corpo ainda é desconhecida.

Algumas pessoas me dizem que nunca serão naturista/nudista, não entendem que dito dessa forma reflete um lado psicológico negativo do próprio corpo e consequentemente diante da vida. A civilização adestra o indivíduo a viver na irrealidade e ele assume como se fosse real, ele sonha e quando acorda ainda sente os reflexos daquilo que sonhou. Esse lado negativo não deixa aberturas para mudanças e evolução, assume uma postura intransigente, às vezes até arrogante diante da sua natureza. O conflito entre social x natural não irá cessar nunca. O mais correto seria dizer: “Não sou naturista/nudista, mas quem sabe algum dia!” Pelo menos abre-se uma porta para fazer avaliações, estudar o assunto, realizar reflexões sobre si mesmo diante do universo.

O historiador Viegas Fernandes da Costa ao escrever sobre a sua experiência com a nudez social no artigo “Sobre a Nudez Social” coloca o dedo na ferida de uma sociedade que recrimina o corpo e continua procedendo assim com o aval daqueles que ainda não compreenderam o que representa o movimento naturista/nudista no mundo. Cita ele: “Sabemos, portanto, do quão transgressor pode se caracterizar o gesto de tirar a roupa e conviver socialmente sem esta. Insisto lembrar que o caráter transgressor da nudez está relacionado com o contexto social em que se insere, em nosso caso, a sociedade têxtil. A transgressão e ousadia do ato parece ainda maior quando se trata de corpos que a sociedade classificou como “defeituosos ou deficientes”. Ou seja, que por alguma característica que manifesta, afasta-se da imagem que temos de um corpo normal, construída em nosso imaginário. Digo isso de experiência própria, já que carrego em meu corpo as marcas de uma doença neuromuscular que me atrofiou os membros inferiores e superiores, e provocou “deformidades” em minha coluna e tórax”.

A prática do Naturismo/Nudismo é provocativa na medida em que passamos também a refletir a inclusão do próprio corpo na natureza, aí começamos a pensar sobre o meio-ambiente, sobre os valores sociais e sobre muitos outros assuntos. Desenvolvemos a percepção de como a sociedade é neurótica! A dúvida que ainda carrego é que os psicólogos ainda tentam ajustar o indivíduo a essa sociedade. Penso que esse ajuste só poderá ser feito em parceria com uma filosofia, e o Naturismo/Nudismo pode ser uma proposta muito interessante. Vou aguardar uma resposta da amiga e professora de Psicologia Maria Rita que me permitiu um espaço para realizar uma palestra para seus alunos.

Naturismo/Nudismo é uma proposta de uma vida diferente, um olhar com naturalidade e de se sentir livre. Liberdade essa que também nos torna responsáveis porque estamos passando para futuras gerações uma nova perspectiva que inclui o respeito e harmonia mesmo com as nossas diferenças. Os conceitos que temos da natureza humana são verdadeiramente insignificantes e totalmente distorcidos, a ciência por meio da Física Quântica atesta isso, o físico alemão Werner Heisenberg em 1927 propôs o Princípio da Incerteza.

Experimentar o Naturismo/Nudismo até mesmo para fazer uma reavaliação do próprio psiquismo, amplia as possibilidades de entendimento de como enxergamos o mundo material. É um mergulho não só nas águas do mar, mas também para dentro de si mesmo. Tente, experimente, liberte-se.



Evandro Telles
19/11/13

Azov Films - big business?

The Azov Films case "has really challenged people to reconsider what nudism and child modelling are", according to the police inspector in charge of the case. The publicity was massive. How big was Azov Films, and what what does its size imply for naturists?

A brief look at the published numbers shows that in the Azov Films case, the police made a mountain out of a molehill. If a one-man, $800,000 per year operation is so big that 30 policemen come from around the world for the press conference, then maybe there just aren't enough international porn rings, for the number of police departments that need to justify their budgets. The police may need to throw the net wider, beyond pornographers to naturists. If they didn't indeed do just that with the Azov arrests.

Financial reality

Azov Films was operated openly from a warehouse in Toronto, by a Brian Way. According to the Toronto Star, the company billed $1.6 million over its last two years, and a total of $4 million since being founded in 2005. That's $500k to $800k per year, and that's gross, not profit.

What is that in sales?

A look at the Internet Archive mirror of the Azov catalog for the films that appear to be the core of the police case, Azov's own productions, starts with films at "List Price: $49.95 Price: $36.95". CTV News says, "For approximately $40, customers could buy about an hour of video, and receive photos at a discount, delivered online or by mail, police say." We don't know the mix of physical DVDs that would require postage vs downloads.

But we just need a ballpark figure, so let's assume Azov's sales was films which with postage cost a round $50 each. That gives 10,000 to 16,000 DVDs per year, or for a work year of 50 weeks, 40-64 DVDs a day - in line with Azov apparently being a one-man operation, as there's no news of any employees beyond Mr. Way, and perhaps his mother.

Azov sold some 600 films, including mainstream titles. How many were produced by Azov isn't clear from the news coverage. On average that's 16-27 copies of each title per year - remembering that "average sales" is a nearly useless measure in movies or books. Supposedly the man who filmed the boys in the Ukraine got $1000 per film, so Azov must have needed to sell at least 50 copies of each title to break even.

45 Terabytes

According to CTV News,

More than 45 terabytes of data were seized.

“This is equivalent to a stack of paper as tall as 1,500 CN Towers,” Beaven-Desjardins said.

Neither informative, nor true. Mr. Way wasn't selling paper, he was selling DVDs. A common DVD holds from 4.7 to 8.7 GB. At the lowest capacity, 45 TB would be 9,600 DVDs; at the higher, 5,200. Four months' stock. To use Inspector Beaven-Desjardins's method of calculation, given the 1.2mm thickness of a DVD, 5,200 DVDs would form a stack 6.2 meters high; 9,600 DVDs would be 11.5 meters. Or, 1/50th the 553.33 height of the CN Tower.

Do I smell someone inflating numbers?

Even if Inspector Beaven-Desjardins's comparison were apt, her arithmetic is wrong. A page holds about 2KB of text; paper is about .1 mm thick; the CN tower is 553.33 meters high. The CN tower is the height of about 5.5 million sheets of paper, or 11 gigabytes of text. 1,500 CN towers would be equivalent to 16.6 terabytes, not 45 TB. Or perhaps Azov didn't really have 45 TB of data. We know she's telling fibs, we just don't know which number is a crock.

"Giant paedophile ring"

The Independent describes the case as

A giant paedophile ring with a worldwide reach was broken apart during a three-year inquiry which led to the arrests of hundreds of individuals, including clergymen and teachers, and the rescue of nearly 400 children who were at risk, Canadian police have revealed.

In one of the biggest such operations ever seen, investigators uncovered an octopus-like child-porn network centred on a now-shuttered sex-film business in Toronto.

It's "giant", it's "biggest", it's "worldwide", a "network", and "octopus"! It took three years to dismantle! And it's ... a one-man operation that billed four million dollars over six years?

Part of the mythology of child pornography is that it's a "multi-billion dollar business." But if that's true, how can a company with gross revenue of $500,000 (from which it paid rent, postage, DVD blanks, servers, etc.) be one of the largest operations ever?

Something doesn't add up. As in the false accusations of pedophilia in the notorious Colina do Sol case, or the Catanduva witch hunt, the vast numbers tossed around by law enforcement and the press seem to have little basis in reality.

Naturists may feel that the Azov Films prosecution has nothing to do with them. After all, there's U.S. and other court precedent that simple nudity in the context of naturism is protected under the First Amendment, and under other constitutional protections in other countries.

However, Azov's customers thought the same. And quite a few films that were sold by Azov were also sold by "mainstream" naturist sites, including some sites based here in Brazil.

Arrested for nudist films?

Thursday the Canadian police announced "Project Spade" and the arrest of 348 people for purchasing DVDs from the site Azov Films: DVDs that were advertised as legal nudist films. Last week, a father living at the Sunsport Gardens nudist community was arrested because he had hired a professional photographer to take "family photos" of his daughters, and unknown to the father or the girls, the photographer either cropped some photos or else zoomed the lens in on the girls' crotches.

On the Azov Films case, the Canadian police said:

“This case has really challenged people to reconsider what nudism and child modelling are. It’s caused countries around the world to look at this material and ask whether it’s OK for doctors, teachers, daycare providers and hockey coaches to be buying this kind of material.”
- Lisa Belanger
Toronto police detective constable who led the investigation

Nature of Azov Films DVDs

According to the Toronto Star,

On the surface, it appeared to be a legal “naturist” site, showcasing what were billed as artistic films that featured nude boys. But officers decided a closer look was needed, and an investigation was launched in 2006. They looked at Way’s material and found nudity — worrying to many, but not enough to meet the strict legal parameters of child pornography.

However (according to the news articles) the owner of Azov Films, a Mr. Way, also had his own private collection of unmistakable child pornography. The news coverage alternates references to the personal porn collection, or non-Azov pornography found with Azov's customers, with statements about the films sold on the site during the six years it was in operation, from 2005-2011. Possibly in the expectation that careless journalists would confuse one with the other, as some have indeed done.

While Azov's site was taken offline when the owner was arrested in mid-2011, the Internet Archive holds the company's own description of the material it sold and in some cases produced:

• Our naturist/nudist films are of authentic naturism and are not obscene, lewd, sexually oriented, lascivious, or pornographic. They are not illegal to own, sell or distribute. Our naturist films are suitable for viewing by all family members.
• We have no pornography, obscene material, lewd material, lascivious exhibition of the genitals, prurient conduct, vulgarity, or close-ups of body parts in our naturist films.

The films were openly for sale via the Internet, and delivered by the Post Office. Azov was in court in the US several times over the years - battling over trademark and copyright questions. Apparently there is case law that customers cannot use as a defense the company's own description of the legality of the material. Even so, as the site operated for many years without government interference, and the police seem to have carefully avoided saying that what Azov sold was pornography, it seems likely that simple nudity was all that was sold via the website.

"Child exploitation" is how the police describe the DVDs for sale. But what does that mean? Belanger is quoted by the Star: “One child in a movie takes 15 showers — all these kids we knew were being exploited.” In comparison, in the Brazilian film "O Menino Maluquinho", the pre-teen protagonist takes a bath, with a pet turtle, in front of the maid. In "Pixote", the title character takes a shower, and again the camera shows all. "Exploitation", and we never knew it!

The police say that the DVDs of the boys are "explicit", but they don't say that they are "sexually explicit". Nudist films can indeed show "explicit" nudity (which is not illegal), without showing explicit sex. The vocabulary games remind me a story of the era of "yellow journalism": a woman was described as "exotic" because the paper could be sued for "erotic", and why not? its readers didn't know the difference.

For our Brazilian readers, the DVDs that resulted in the arrests seem indistinguishable from the DVDs sold by "Brasil Naturista" (also known as "pelados.com.br") and before it, the VHS tapes sold by the now bankrupt Naturis. And no different from the films made of rented children - sorry, hired models - at Abrico Beach in Rio and at several other Brazilian naturist venues around 2009, still for sale on sites indistinguishable from that of Azov Films.

Naturists beware

The contrast between the carelessly worded press accounts, and the weasel-worded police phasing, makes it quite clear that the material Azov sold via its website was close to the line between naturist photography and child pornography. Inspector Belanger's summer of watching movies found that under a third of the films crossed the line. Since Mr. Way claimed to have known the law, and conducted his business openly, it seems likely that the third, even if over the line, were not far over it.

How can a naturist be sure that he has family pictures, and not child pornography? The answer seems to be, he can't. We'll return to that question later.