The International Need to Get Naked

Our college cross country team was well known for getting naked. Once in a while during a long, otherwise dull training session, someone would go peeling off the back of the pack, strip off their shorts and shirt and come sprinting by the group screaming at the top of their lungs. That set off a chain reaction. Pretty soon the whole group of us, 30-40 strong at times, would strip down and run into town wearing nothing but our running shoes and a smile. On one occasion our naked troupe arrived downtown just when a young woman carrying her shopping bags appeared on the sidewalk. "Shhh," someone hissed. Our group flowed around her silently, save for the quiet chuckles of a few amused runners. She dropped her bags and shrieked. The group erupted in laughter.

Sure, there are laws against getting naked in public, but the idea of getting naked remains irresistible to many people. Long after I'd graduated from that little liberal arts college in the Midwest, there evolved the tradition of "co-ed naked soccer." Every year the campus made national headlines when students played the world's most beautiful game stark naked. The college administration finally put the clamps on that tradition, but only after it had gained considerable momentum as an annual news story.

College kids always seem to be getting naked for one reason or the other. But now it seems like everyone on the face of the earth thinks they're back in college. That also means nakedness is all over the internet, because where there is nakedness, there always seems to be a camera.

All this nakedness has the responsible people in the world up in arms, so to speak. Career advisors do not recommend posting naked photos of yourself anywhere on the internet, lest those revealing photos be discovered someday by a potential employer. Of course people ignore that advice in spades, because nakedness is first and foremost about thrilling irresponsibility. So of course people keep posting naked pictures of themselves on their own sites or submitting naked pictures to all sorts of sites featuring "amateur" photos.

Some of these naked photos probably do qualify as pornography. But, really? You can make all sorts of arguments about what porn is and isn't, but you are then forced to recognize there are millions of people shedding their clothes for the fun and thrill of it, under no sort of coercion. That kind of nakedness needs a new name. Instead of pornography we should call it ownography.

Of course there are plenty of entrepreneurs willing to exploit these tendencies for money. It is an admittedly weird universe in which people voluntarily submit naked photos of themselves so that someone else can sell advertising on the site that hosts the pictures. This is "selfploitation." Nakedness as a commodity. People trading their nakedness to see the nakedness of others. For curiosity. For comparison. For vicarious thrills. For prurient joy. For voyeurism. For intimacy. For defiance in the face of conformity. There are all kinds of reasons to get naked.

One of the best reasons to "get naked" is to simply make a statement about being alive. The term "get naked" essentially means "be in the present." It is also a highly individual way to thumb your nose (or something else) at authority by breaking social taboos. Events and organizations like the "World Naked Bike Ride" turn nakedness into a form of protest. The WNBR organizations protests vehicular dominance of the road and pollution through auto emissions. But most it seems like a good excuse to ride your bike around naked without getting arrested. Biking is also a much better "go naked" activity than running. There is less painful jiggling involved.

Yes, Post-Modern nakedness is adding a whole new layer of expression to modern society. Increasing numbers of regular people are saying "screw it, I'm taking off my clothes" as a means to redirect dialogue about what it means to be human and live in this world.

I attended a party once where "Naked Guy" strolled the floor wearing nothing but his socks. "Naked Guy" was actually a world class distance runner who competed in the Olympic Trials. He did not drink and was not a sexual predator by any means. He just liked to be naked and frankly was one of those guys who was lucky enough to look good naked. Women who attended parties with Naked Guy seemed to appreciate a man who could be naked around them without getting an erection. Naked Guy was a fun person to be around, and he livened up many parties.

You may recall that another Naked Guy in California attended classes without clothes. Aside from the fact that some people were grossed out by the thought of his naked butt on the seats at school, the school pretty much allowed him to go around undisturbed. Naked people are not, by nature, an automatic threat to human society. If we made soldiers fight wars naked there might be a lot less willing combatants. Better yet, we should make our world leaders sit naked around a table to negotiate agreements before sending young men and women off to die. Nakedness is a great equalizer.

Nakedness is an expression of that universal human need for attention. It may also represent a yearning for the peaceable kingdom, like Adam and Eve, where being naked could mean living without worry. Some people get that, and are not afraid to face the world without clothes. We all stand naked before the world at some level. May you find your way to be naked, and be fulfilled.