>From: Jay Heuman <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Swimming Museums (formerly "RE: Breastfeeding") >Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 11:58:37 -0500 > >Hi Tim, > >Totally tangential, but you asked a tempting and timely question - >considering it's summertime (in the northern hemisphere at least): > > Yes, there are swimming museums: I found one reference to a >Swimming > Museum in Beijing and, of course, the International Swimming >Hall of > Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (http://www.ishof.org/). > >[Sorry, folks, but this discussion of breastfeeding has gone far enough. >Perhaps it's time to recognize breastfeeding was and remains an >essential act of childrearing. If someone finds bare breasts offensive, >odds are against their visiting an art museum where bare breasts have >been a favored subject of artists - both male and female - for >centuries! Thankfully, most in the homo sapiens line have stood up >straight and don't drag their knuckles on the ground anymore . . .] > >Sincerely, > >Jay Heuman >Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator @ Joslyn Art Museum >Soon to be relocating for different employment . . . I'll remain on >Museum-L. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > On Behalf Of Tim Atherton > Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 10:52 am > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Breastfeeding > > I'm not talking the south of France or the Italian Riviera - Quite >honestly, I think most people would be hard put to accuse the English of >wild, hot blooded exhibitionist behaviour... :-) But I grew up in an >English seaside town and my parents still live there. Topless bathing >and sunbathing is quite normal on most of the beaches these days (and >going back 30 or so years, always was to some extent) - not everyone >does it, but no-one seems to bat an eye these days - and all shapes and >sizes seem happy to partake. And it's not unusual to come across beaches >designated for nude bathing - but it's not as if they are separated by >barbed wire. By contrast, coming to north America, I was and still am >amused by what appears to me as still something of an outsider as a >strange and somewhat repressive prudishness with regard to beaches and >bathing... now, isn't there a museum of the bathing costume >somewhere...? :-) > tim