Dear body freedom lovers!
Thank you all so much for coming out here today to march with us!
I am Gypsy Taub. You can watch my TV series called My Naked Truth TV on channel 29 or find it on the web at www.MyNakedTruth.TV
Today we gather to celebrate International Women’s Day in solidarity with women all over the world. We are going to raise issues that women face in today’s world with regards to body freedom. I want to thank all of you for showing up today and I want to give special thanks to the women who are brave enough to march fully naked with us.
After playing a number of mind games with us the SFPD finally issued us a 2 and 1/2 hour permit (instead of a requested 4-hour permit). The City power brokers are clearly unhappy about our recent body freedom victories and are pressuring the SFPD to limit us and oppress us as much as possible.
Last week our parade permit was denied by Captain Perea of Mission station based on the fact that we included a photo shoot at the end of our parade route even though the same exact application had been approved a few weeks prior. When I resubmitted the same application with the photo shoot omitted Captain Perea started avoiding my calls and emails. When calling the Mission station I was repeatedly told that “they were instructed to tell me to wait for the Captain to call me” which he did not do until he got a call from our attorney Gill Sperlein. After putting pressure on the SFPD Gill was able to get them to respond to me by email. This time I was told that only a parade would be permitted, rally in conjunction with the parade would not, even though 4 parade permits had been approved with the rally included. Photo shoot was not allowed either as part of the parade. I submitted an application without rally and without photo shoot and it was finally approved.
According to our attorney Gill Sperlein if the SFPD doesn’t allow us to take photos it will be an even bigger 1st amendment violation than denying us a permit. We are going to take photos as originally planned.
I also intend to have a rally as usual. If any of us get cited or arrested during our permitted time it will be a wonderful reason to take the City back to court and win. Let’s hope that SFPD comes to its senses and does what it is paid by the tax payers to do: block traffic for us and make us look victorious as we march naked through the streets.
We will march nude (in our most natural outfits) in honor of International Women’s Day. We want to draw attention to a number of women’s issues that desperately need to be addressed by our society.
I would like to start this event by standing up for the rights of the most important and the most vulnerable segment of our population: our children.
I would like to make a very unpleasant announcement about George Davis who is one of the big figures in the San Francisco nudist movement.
George claims to promote body freedom yet in reality he has a very negative impact on it, neither does he have any respect for women’s rights nor children’s rights.
George Davis has been subjecting my young daughter to sexual harassment and acting inappropriately towards her since she was 11 years old. (Here is Inti)
When she was but a little girl he told her that she had to tell him all her secrets during a game that definitely didn’t call for anything intrusive. As Inti told me later, he was staring at her in a very creepy way when he asked her that question.
Then next time he saw her he told her that she should marry him. Inti felt really grossed out and told him: “But I am too young to get married.” George responded by saying: “You are not too young. In some countries girls even younger than you get married.”
I stopped letting George come to my house after that. George kept inviting my daughter to go on boat rides with him. Even though I also have 2 sons George never invited them and always told me there wasn’t enough space on the boat for them. I always turned down his offers. So he proceeded to approach Inti herself at a protest and asked her to come on a boat ride with him. When she asked him if her brothers could come he told her: “I just want to spend time with you.”
When I confronted George about his advances towards my daughter he told me that he was flattered to hear my complaints, that Inti and I must be sexually attracted to him to say what we said. When I told him he was disgusting he responded with a barrage of insults.
We really don’t need creepy pedophiles in our movement, and not only in our movement. We don’t need them anywhere on this planet.
People like George are a big reason why women don’t feel comfortable being nude in public. People like George give our movement a bad name. It’s that kind of a creepy vibe that people subconsciously pick up on and feel grossed out about. It only adds to the sexual abuse that many people have already been subjected to and discourages people from public nudity.
My daughter Inti doesn’t want to see George ever again and neither do I. I would really appreciate it if he would stop coming to my protests. If he doesn’t I will get a restraining order against him.
The purpose of this event is to support women and to help create an environment where women can feel safe nude in public.
Women are often treated as sex objects and at the same time shamed for wanting sexual freedom. Many men in our society today don’t want to relinquish control over women’s bodies and souls. Many women will shame and attack other women out of ignorance and jealousy. For as long as those attacks are supported by our culture none of us are truly free nor safe.
In our backward society a naked man is usually perceived as a threat, while a naked woman is perceived as a sex object asking to be raped and disrespected. On top of that women are subjected to an enormous amount of pressure to look “perfect” and to conform to some oppressive totalitarian standards that dictate that every woman be anything but herself.
Body freedom for women involves overcoming the obstacles of social prejudice, fear of judgement, fear of perceived violence and personal self-hate. It’s about liberating ourselves from the constricting beliefs that were forced on us from infancy and throughout our lives. But once a woman gets enough courage to get nude in public, if it is done in a positive environment, it is truly liberating. From there on a whole new process of personal liberation can unfold.
We call for full and unconditional equality of all sexes. We all know that men are allowed to show their nipples in public in most countries while women are subject to arrest and hate if they show theirs.
Facebook for instance is notorious for its discrimination against women. I was just banned for 30 days from posting on FB because I published an artistic image of myself that showed my nipples. While men, of course, are able to post similar images of themselves freely. This is not to mention that Facebook is known to tolerate graphic violence and even people being killed, but God forbid if anyone posts an image of a woman’s breasts! We need a class action lawsuit against Facebook for their discrimination against women.
Another issue that is plaguing women in our society today is the new trend of a so-called “perfect vagina”. Due to censorship of certain porn magazines the inner labia of the porn stars’ vaginas had to be reduced in size through Photoshop. And hence that became the new culturally acceptable image of the female genitalia while bigger inner labia are now stigmatized and have become a source of major body shame for so many women.
Due to commercialization of the female body through mainstream porn not only natural breasts but now even natural vaginas have come under attack. In the US alone over ten thousand women got labioplasty last year and that number has been increasing by about 50% per year. Labioplasty is a reconstructive surgical procedure that trims the lips of the vagina.
Other rejuvenation procedures include tightening the vagina, replacing the hymen, removing skin around the clitoris and etching ridges on the inside walls of the vagina.
While mainstream porn and the medical industry profit from and contribute to the problem its deeper origin is clearly our society’s blind hysteria towards the nude human body and human sexuality.
If our children were growing up in a clothing-optional environment, without body shame, they would know very well what their mothers’ and grandmothers’ (as well as their neighbors’ and friends’) vaginas look like and there would be no fantasy-world-like expectations. Girls would grow up to be comfortable with their own vaginas. Boys would grow up to be attracted to real vaginas and not to those of photoshopped porn stars.
If we were free from body shame porn industry would go bankrupt – and frankly would never even exist to begin with. All the billions of dollars our society spends on porn could be spent on organic food, travel and education.
I would like to extend our solidarity to our sisters and brothers who often become victims of violence and even murder. I would like to extend our solidarity to sex workers.
I want to call for decriminalization of all sex work worldwide. Though both men and women are engaged in sex work women are especially stigmatized for it in our society.
A woman who sells sex to men is considered a despicable whore not worthy of any respect. A man who sells sex to women would be considered by many a hero.
A woman who has many sexual partners is considered untrustworthy, emotionally unstable and outright dirty. While a man who has many sexual partners is considered a hero, a Don Juan, a subject of envy and admiration. In many cultures men are allowed and expected to have multiple wives. While the same privileges would be clearly a terrible taboo for women.
We call not only for decriminalization of sex work and sex workers but for a cultural revolution of consciousness that would decriminalize sex work in people’s hearts and minds. Instead of fear and hate we want to promote compassion and understanding towards female, male and transgender sex workers as well as their clients.
A woman sex worker was murdered a few years ago after posting an ad on Craigslist. The man who murdered her had abused other sex workers before that. They never reported him to the police because they would have been criminalized themselves for their sex work. Had prostitution been legal that murderer would have possibly never happened. However, because the murderer was never reported he kept getting away with his abuse until he finally got caught murdering someone.
When I heard that story I thought: “Well, this should be a big wake up call for America. Maybe they will finally legalize prostitution.” Sadly, the opposite happened. Instead of decriminalizing prostitution to make sex workers safer our government shut down the adult classifieds section on Craigslist.
And then a couple years later Redbook got shut down. And recently Backpage came under attack and luckily has survived so far.
Those sites have been accused by our government of promoting human trafficking and child prostitution while in reality those sites create a much safer environment for sex workers by allowing them to work out of their own homes rather than work the streets and by eliminating the need for a pimp or a prostitution ring.
Just like with so many other issues our government is a huge hypocrite. Positive human values are twisted, distorted and manipulated to reinforce what most of us stand against. According to an FBI whistle blower and true hero Ted Gunderson who was assassinated by the government two years ago, CIA itself is deeply involved in human trafficking and child prostitution and so are many high level politicians and celebrities.
I personally believe that our government is not stupid but to the contrary very shrewd and very good at achieving exactly what it wants: a desperate situation where sex workers are forced into the dark alleys unprotected by authorities. That way they are much easier to prey upon. Please do not be fooled by the propaganda and realize that what looks to us like sheer stupidity of our government is really a very effective manipulative ploy.
It would be impossible to address women’s rights issues without addressing the issues of women’s sexuality and body freedom. No woman can be free while being treated as a sex object. No woman can be free while being denied sexual freedom. No woman can be free while being denied body freedom and full and unconditional equality.
We demand unconditional respect regardless of our age, race, social status, our religion, our profession and our gender.
My daughter Inti helped me make this new signed last night. It has a nude woman on it from a famous painting called “Birth of Venus” by Boticelli and it says “naked and sacred.” I want everyone on our planet to approach every naked woman as nothing less than sacred.
We are at the dawn of the New Age. At the core of this new era is the reemergence of the divine feminine.
I would like to finish my speech with a quote from a great spiritual guide named Lazaris. Here is what Lazaris has to say:
“As unique as your journey is, it is accelerating. As diverse as your journey is, it is leading you to the Goddess.
The Goddess is returning. Even though she never went anywhere, she is returning. Your blindness to her is coming to an end. And it is important not just to wait, no, it is important to prepare for her return, to prepare for the end of your blindness. And although she is returning for everyone on the planet, everyone in the Universe, perhaps more so, she is returning to you…individually and uniquely she is returning to you.”