Public nudity doesn’t have to be a dirty or scandalous thing. It can be useful. If you’re trying to get attention for a good cause, stripping down in the town square is one way to turn heads — and sometimes even change minds.
After the birthday suit protest held by PETA in Seattle last Friday — showing skin to save animal skins, if you will — here’s a look back at a brief history of in-the-buff demonstrations.
PETA is well known for its “bare skin, not bear skin” protests staged around the globe featuring scantily-clad ladies. It’s not far from the organization’s celebrity-centered “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” print campaign. PETA has also staged anti-meat protests featuring bloody naked women under cellophane in New York’s Times Square.
Similarly, baring bare breasts has been a popular tactic for groups fighting for everything from peace to, well, the right to bare their breasts. Ecofeminist warriors from Code Pink and Breasts Not Bombs went topless in 2008 to draw attention to the true indecency in the world: war. One brave woman even did naked yoga on top of a London taxicab in front of Parliament in 2010 for the same reason, all the while chanting, “Troops out of Afghanistan!”
While they seem more comical than serious in their mission, women in the Swedish Just Breasts group, as well as various stateside women’s organizations (links NSFW), seek a world without gender bias, in which men and women alike can bare their chests as they see fit.
Participants in the annual World Naked Bike Race ride bareback — literally — to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities cyclists face on the roads, as well as the dangers of carbon emissions. The ride brings together thousands of cheeky bicyclists every year. Now in more than 70 cities in 20 countries, it won’t be long before a privates pride parade comes to your neck of the woods.
Greenpeace and installation artist Spencer Tunick kept it classy in 2007 when 600 stark naked activists stood in the Swiss Alps to symbolize the vulnerability of the planet when it is stripped bare and left unprotected. Trying to visually demonstrate the seriousness of global warming, standing on fragile glaciers that will likely disintegrate by 2080 unless we act now, Tunick said, “I want my images to go more than skin-deep. I want the viewers to feel the vulnerability of their existence and how it relates closely to the sensitivity of the world’s glaciers.”
While it may not involve saving the planet, the German “Fleshmob” group is certainly committed to saving personal liberties and restoring dignity in air travel, one nearly-nude body scan at a time. After the fleshy flashmob converged on the Berlin-Tegel airport in January 2010, they stripped down to reveal messages written on their bodies, words like “piercing” and “prosthetic” marking exactly those features. While to the best of our knowledge, a naked sit-in has yet to be attempted, these brave crusaders certainly made the prospect of standing in line for the invasive X-ray machines a bit more fabulously X-rated.
Photo 1 courtesy of Greenpeace International, photo 2 by Steve Punter.