Walk Around In The All-Together & Go To Jail-Do Not Pass Go!
Okay... this is another hit from the Realm of Things I Do Not Understand.
Erick Williamson
Mr. Williamson, a resident of Fairfax County, Virgina was convicted for indecent exposure for being naked in his own home. Yeah, you heard me. Convicted. The story, as I understand it, is that two women who were walking/driving down the street looked in his windows, saw him wandering from room to room in his own house sans clothing, while he was packing boxes, and had him arrested. Color me confused.
Now, I'll grant ya, that it would be nice if people closed their windows when they are running around nude. Not everyone needs to get an eyeful of your bits and bobs. Not everyone has any business showing them off. I know I don't, and I close my windows. However, if you are nosy enough to be staring in my windows while I'm vacuuming nude, well that's your problem, you nosy bitch. I'm not one to parade around nude to begin with. However, I do go from my back deck to my hot tub stark naked in the summer. Not wanting to give the neighbors a shock, I've planted some bougainvillea on a trellis for privacy. They can still see me, if they make an effort, but if you're going to go out of your way to look in my yard, you get what you get. You don't have the right to call the cops on me unless I'm simultaneously doing something illegal like harvesting my opium crop.
My mother is a nudist. She doesn't belong to any official group and doesn't go to official functions. But she's rarely dressed in her own home, or is usually half-dressed. She even does dangerous things like fry potatoes naked. Over the years many of my friends, both male and female, have seen most, if not all, of her bits and bobs. When I was in the ninth grade she got implants and proceeded to flash everyone I knew, including my then boyfriend, Jim. I think he's still scarred. Once, she locked herself in the bathroom while taking a shower and couldn't get the door open again. So, being a thinker, she climbs out the bathroom window into the front yard only to confront the mail man while she was without a stitch on. She smiled, collected the mail, and wished him a nice day. He didn't sue. He didn't even file for workman's comp. I wouldn't have blamed him if he did.
So, because of two busy bodies that I suspect have issues, Erick Williamson now has a record and probation. This just makes me want to say "What the fuck?" Did we somehow make a quantum leap to another time period and we're now living in Victorian America? When did we decide that it's up to the nosy neighbors, who are looking in our windows rather than keeping their eyes on the road while they drive, to determine what we can wear in our own homes? Whatever happened to a right to privacy? Whatever happened to minding your own fucking business.
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Comments
As a card-carrying social nudist, this is an item I blogged on, and we have quite a few commentors wieghing in on this.
My take is that Mr. W made noise to expressly call the women's attention to himself, and his roommate called his attention to the open drapes. In my experience, an exhibitionist always has a fall back plan to excuse his behavior in case he is caught. I have my suspicions about Mr. W.
You make a reasonable effort not to be seen as do I. Mr. W. "forgot" to do that.
This man is not a nudist. He's an exhibitionist, who wants people to be shocked.
Women would *close the drapes*.
If even part of it is true, he needs jailing. A seven year old boy being walked to school? As he was packing up, I'd think he'd lived there long enough to know that the school-run went past his house... and to close the drapes or get dressed whilst the school run was on.
The fact he didn't cover up at school opening/closing times rings a rather large bell for me; I don't think this is simple nudism, I think this is something more, and moreover, something nasty.
The second woman heard "rattling" as she walked past. She looked - I get that. However she went around the corner and looked again. She made the decision to look at second time and see him.
There's nothing to indicate that the route that the woman took is a frequently traversed path for innocent school children - and NO indication that he was intentionally exposing himself to her son.
He may be an exhibitionist - but in so far as I can tell, he has no history of such behaviour. It seems more like he had the bad judgment to be loudly prancing about nude on this particular day.
I just think there are far more criminal acts in this world to waste tax dollars on - and I think the women bear responsibility for looking in his windows. Dead right if he'd have spotted them in theirs he would have been hauled off for being a peeping Tom and wound up on a sex offenders list.
Maybe he's a Matthew McConahey-ite (I don't care how you spell his name) and he just enjoys being nude and playing some bongos.
Maybe he's just a pervert.
Maybe the women he was (allegedly) shouting to should have pointed and laughed. That would have stopped his antics.
Our own homes will soon be prisons in which no one is allowed to smoke, have sex, be naked or think for themselves. No fun allowed! It might offend someone.
Unfortunately, there is nothing about this story that surprised me at all. Utterly predictable.
I spoke from my persepctive as a card-carrying nudist. And no nudist I know of does not check first to make sure that there is privacy from the textile world to enjoy nudity. You seem to miss the quote from his roommate who warned him that he could be seen from the road, a conversation Mr W denies. He denies it because it would mean he did not take "reasonable efforts" to shield others.
I am a lifelong nudist. If anyone should defend nudity, it is me; however, this guy is not a nudist. In fact, guys like this who accuse others of voyeurism, give nudism a bad name.
It is winter. The guy doesn't have his nude beach to flex his muscles, so he uses his picture window to flash a school llibraian and a 7-yar-old kid. Sorry. Not a nudist, just a naked guy who likes to be looked at.
However, according to Virginia law, I do think he's in the right. He was neither lewd nor in a public space. I also think it was silly of the local authorities to waste their time arresting him and to waste their money taking him to court over something that was so vague legally. A knock on the door and a warning is all that was necessary.
I dunno, it seems to me that if someone is looking in your windows, that's an invasion of privacy. If they take offense, well, that's their problem.
I hope he appeals.
The guy, in his 50's, was reported to be standing in front of the window and opening the door for trick-or-treaters wearing nothing but a G-string. When the police came to question him, they found binoculars and a webcam in a second story room that looks down on the neighbor across the street.
The neighbor is an attractive recently divorced woman with a 7 year old daughter and 3 year old son. The guy told the police he intended to marry her.
It was not the first time the police had been called for similar activity. He was arrested.
I haven't heard whether he was charged with anything. I hope he ultimately spends some time in jail.
:p
As for male nudity, this country is the most prudish of all, I think. We need to see MORE of the beautiful male body, bits 'n bobs *and* twigs 'n berries in the same venues where you'd see a woman's lovely nude form. We seriously need to get OVER ourselves. And, I bet he's cute! Rated.
There may be some blue law in action here, or perhaps even a recent law that stretches the definition of "indecent" WAY too far. If it's the former or the latter, it would be a good one to take all the way to the Supreme Court. Even a gaggle of reactionaries like the current voting majority would have to rule that this was a ludicrous conviction, and that *might* put an end to blue laws once and for all.
Being naked in your own home, unless you are purposely exposing yourself to entice others or give yourself a sick thrill, is fine fine fine.
I am naked as I type this. (and my legion of animals may not sleep well tonight, but they don't know any lawyers....)
Balance, folks. everything in balance.......
At least the guys attractive! I wonder if there's a sort of homeowners association tied in. The whole thing stinks to me.
First--and this is a post in and of itself--Americans need to TALK with their neighbors before calling the police. A simple: "hey I can see your dangle, could you put some pants on?" would have saved the taxpayers and plenty of others time and money.
I'm with you Naked Man.
Most parents do not want to be placed in a situation in which their young child is exposed to the full monty, without the opportunity to prepare them for it. Shouldn't they have the right to expect that full frontal nudity is not going to confront them on their walk to or from school? Would you let your 7-year old peruse a Playboy, Playgirl, Penthouse or Hustler magazine? Maybe so, but would you want a stranger abruptly making that decision for you?
The guy should have been warned to close the curtains to the street, at least before and after school, or to put up a fence if he wants to run around naked anytime. If he continues, then maybe an arrest is appropriate. His freedom to pursue floppy, naked happiness shouldn't interfere with anyone else's freedom to pursue a nudity-free walk to school.