Author: The Streak

Valerie Fortney at the Calgary Herald gives her opinion on the record-breaking number of streakers at the Labour Day football match:

Rather than feeling aghast when I heard the blow-by-blow account of the various streakers, I at first laughed. Then, I let out a big yawn.

That’s because while these brave young things prancing on the field may believe they’re doing something daring, perhaps revolutionary and definitely 21st century, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Streaking, the bastion of mostly young males fired up on liquid courage, is so last century — early 1970s, to be precise.

She then gives a brief history of streaking.

Is it all so very out-of-date? Maybe. But then again, it’s still funny. People still laugh. A naked person in that situation doesn’t cease to look ridiculous just because it first happened in the 1970s. And people will still get drunk at sporting events and think it’s a good idea at the time.

That’s why there’ll be streakers popping up here and there for a long time to come, I suspect.

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.

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.

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 Observer notes that officials at Wimbledon are concerned about “unwelcome intrusions” from birds, mice and… streakers.

It discusses last year’s court streaker who interrupted the women’s quarter final.

Last year, Maria Sharapova was startled by a streaker who leapt on to Centre Court during her quarter-final against Elena Dementieva.
She averted her gaze as he cart-wheeled naked in front of her before being bundled off court by security guards who wrapped him in a red blanket.
“I didn’t want to look at all the details,” Sharapova said.
But when told that some women spectators had been impressed by his physique, she replied: “Maybe next time I’ll take a look.”