Charities find that nudity pays
Cox News Service

In today's precarious economy, charities seeking to raise money are finding that bake sales just don't cut it anymore. But stripping sure does.

Taking it all off is really taking off as a new crop of bare-all calendars featuring plain folks shedding their inhibitions for worthy causes is on sale for 2003.

The groups range from female wool spinners who seek to confront "the ageism and size ism in our culture" to the Rotary Club in Brattleboro, Vt.

The calendars all have one thing in common: They aren't beefcake or cheesecake calendars featuring thong-clad stick figures with breasts, but ones that show the bags and sags and every last wrinkle of do-gooders of all ages.

And if you think people won't pay to see their pear-shaped neighbors draped only in a bit of netting, think again.

The various charitable groups all say they were inspired by the highly successful "Ladies of Rylstone" in England. Those British ladies, ages 45 to 60, were pillars of their community who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for leukemia research. Their 1999 calendar was so popular it was published again in 2000 and wound up generating an eye-popping $700,000.

Selling well in the United States is the $25 "Still Magnolias" calendar. It features 26 women from Aiken, S.C., each at least 60 years old (some are in their 80s), wearing little more than jewelry and strategically placed props. Read more...

---> If you prefer the standard nude catalogue, have a look at GQ Italia 2003.