Month: August 2007

Invercargill “Socks” Streaker Named

Stuff.co.nz has tracked down the streaker in socks who braved freezing weather to streak at an Invercargill rugby match.

19 year old Kyle Boekhout says he did the run as a joke but his mum was horrified when she found out.

Working at a Southland engineering company, the trades assistant said his workmates were amused to hear of his rugby antics.

“They said I should do another one with a work sign on my back.” However, Mr Boekhout said the streak was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and would not be repeated.

His socks sold at a charity auction for $50.

The Waning Power Of Nudity

The Economist has an opinion piece suggesting that nudity has lost the power to shock. It follows in the wake of the Greenpeace sponsored Spencer Tunick nude photo on a glacier in the Alps.

The uproar that greeted a naked album-cover picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the end of the 1960s would not be repeated today. Lennon asked us to “be ourselves” and world peace would be sure to follow. This seems quaint now. In the next decade the popularity of “streaking” brought nudity closer to the mainstream. By the 1990s the ladies of Britain’s Women’s Institute felt comfortable enough to bare all for a charity calendar. Organisations the world over have repeated the idea endlessly ever since, increasing public indifference.

600 Get Naked On A Glacier

People pose naked on a glacier to raise awareness about global warming.Greenpeace has rounded up 600 volunteers willing to strip naked and stand on a glacier for the environment. The organisation hired famed nude photographer Spencer Tunick to take the photos which will be used on billboards about global warming.

The glacier itself is in the Alps and is slowly melting due to increasing temperatures. It’s expected to disappear by 2080.

More info here.

Penis Pops Up In Nude Gardeners’ Photo

Nude gardener photo with offending penis.The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald in the UK has made a slip-up when publishing a photo of a nude gardening day held at Abbey House Gardens. While most of the nudity in the photo is covered with cartoon flower pots, a penis managed to get past the censors, embarrassing the editor.

“Unfortunately, how shall I put it, when I saw the paper I realised that four or five very vital inches belonging to one particular gentleman had evaded my attention…”

It wasn’t long before someone was on the phone to complain about the family newspaper confronting readers with a naked gardener’s equipment.

Gary said: “This is perfectly understandable but I have to say you would need to be looking very carefully at the group to spot the elusive dangly part.Watch

“Why anyone would want to garden in the nude is beyond me… all those brambles and there is too much potential for injury what with those shears and clippers and things.”

From this article.

Invercargill Streaker Auctions Socks For Charity

Stuff.co.nz reports that the male streaker who ran nude in sub-zero temperatures at an Invercargill rugby match recently has auctioned off his socks for charity.

A pair of socks worn by the nude pitch invader was auctioned on the Trade Me website last month with the funds supposedly going to the Winton Volunteer Fire Brigade.

When the auction closed it was being led with a bid of $50 by the Beige Brigade, the semi-formal group of cricket supporters who have repopularised the fawn and brown uniforms of the 1980s New Zealand one-day team.

The fire chief says he hadn’t heard about the auction.

More Streaking Articles

In the wake of Mark Roberts’ ASBO escape, the Independent has featured a general article on the history of streaking.

Police wanted to slap on Asbo on our most prolific streaker. Magistrates said no. So it’s official: public exposure is part of our culture.

Instead of being outraged when a sports event is interrupted by a flash of naked flesh, we treat it as part of the fun.

The Guardian has an opinion piece by Zoe Williams on whether streaking is offensive.

You never see people shying away, or shielding their eyes or, you know, weeping. Plus, whatever you think of a naked person in principle, it is never quite the same as a naked person in the flesh. It’s like a fart. It’s rare wind that would make you laugh in the describing of it, and yet how many audible guffs can you honestly say you haven’t laughed at?

Having said that, sporting audiences are, of course, a self-selected sample, of people whose entire attention can be captivated by the watching of some running about. Of course they’ll laugh at nudity. They’ll laugh at anything.

The End of Mark Roberts’ Streaking Career?

The Guardian reports that serial streaker Mark Roberts has avoided being given an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) by a British court following his streak at a golf event last year.

The district judge ruled that Roberts’ behaviour was annoying but not anti-social.

Mark’s lawyers say he’s turned over a new “fig leaf” and won’t be streaking anymore. Mark himself seems to have decided to hang up the joggers.

“My motivation has only ever been to entertain people. I’ve been doing this for 14 years and never once have I been booed. The day I get booed by the public is the day I stop.”

Mr Roberts said his career in streaking had run its course.

“They should have brought this Asbo when I was in my prime, but I’m 42 and there’s nothing left that I want to do.”

I’m not sure I believe him.