The Great Naked Debate is a new series that brings some of the top seven nudist bloggers together, offering you a different perpective in one place on a number of key naturist issues. For this second installment, the panel was asked:
Would you ride nude in the World Naked Bike Ride?[You can click on blog names to visit participating sites.]
Nudist Travel Guide
[Newest panel memnber]
On February 11, 2007, over 800 Bare Necessities nude cruise participants on
a Holland America cruise raised over $15,000 “On Deck for the Cureâ€
benefit walk for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer research foundation. Great cause, great success. I wish I had been there. The same goes for World Naked Bike Ride.
WNBR supports many great causes and I’d like to ride in it,but the event is not the right fit for me. My wife is worried about privacy and the scariness of being nude in front of a non-nudist public. We do everything together, so her vote wins. We like the private, safe environment that AANR-affiliated nudist destinations provide and are on the lookout for a good charity event at a nudist resort nearby.
Naturist Journal
It depends on how well organized the group is. If the group has an understanding with local law enforcement then yes I would participate. If on the other hand there is more risk of arrest involved then I’d have to know what the legal issues are going to be, as well as what kind of planning has been done for such cases. I’m all for helping out to further a cause!
Gymnophiliac
Sure, why not? I think it’d be fun to ride nude through a city in a safe
and (presumably) legal manner. Though the event isn’t designed to promote
the acceptance of nudity, it still does that by its very nature. Tying nudity
to political speech helps bolster the first amendment argument in favor of public nudity (in the US, at least), and it puts nonsexual nudity in front of a lot of people who might not otherwise have been exposed to the idea.
Tom Mulhall
I would not bicycle in the World Naked bike ride, but that is due to a permanent knee injury. However, I would walk the course nude as long as the group has an understanding with the local police where there would be no threats of arrest. I feel that the more people see nudity in a non sexual environment, the more they will accept it.
Diary of a Nudist
I would participate in the World Naked Bike Ride if it began to reach the scale of a Spencer Tunick photo shoot with hundreds or thousands of participants. I’m not so sure that I would feel comfortable riding naked with only a dozen or so people through city streets, because the attention focused on the event would be from the police, the media and the voyeurs. From what I understand, London has the largest ride and more are expected this year, so it is a growing event. As for Tunick, my wife and I are signed up online should he ever come to central Ohio for a shoot.
Nudist Day
No. While we support the cause and it does promote body acceptance a bit, we personally wouldn’t feel comfortable having our picture taken and exhibited in the non-nudist media.
USA Nudist
Promoting acceptance of nudity in public in appropriate places is important.
I support that effort, but would not personally participate in the World Naked Bike Ride. Unfortunately, the premise that the World Naked Bike Ride promotes the acceptance of nudity is false.
The WNBR is a demonstration protesting the negative aspects of petroleum fueled vehicles and dangers of these vehicles to bike riders and pedestrians, and not to promote acceptance of appropriate nudity. It uses the nudity for shock value to gain publicity much the same as are done in the PETA campaigns. Both are treated by the media as a freak show. This negative perception overshadows the public’s acceptance of their messages and associates nudism with the same negative feelings.
There are many other ways to promote nudism with less controversial methods.
Hundreds of fun-loving nudists eager to let it all hang out this week in the breathtaking Berkshires will also be noodling around the threat that their aging ilk are becoming an endangered species.
