Streakers

January 6, 2010 9:48 AM

From late January through late May 1974, a wave of "streaking"—roughly defined as running naked in public—occurred in the United States, primarily on college and university campuses; the brief phenomenon eventually spread around the world. Although the exact number of streaks during this time is unknown, one group of researchers gathered data on over 1000 incidents on U.S. college campuses alone (Aguirre et al. 569). Streaking generated significant press coverage and spawned a plethora of streaker-related consumer items including coffee mugs, t-shirts, necklace pendants, "Keep On Streaking" patches, "Streak Freak" buttons, a "Nixon Streaking" wristwatch, pink underwear embroidered with "Too shy to streak," and two dozen novelty singles (one of which, Ray Stevens’ The Streak, became a major hit). ... The important point is that the campus politics that were being contained in the spring of 1974 were precisely the ones that most threatened to consolidate and advance the gains of the previous decade in terms of opportunities for women and people of color. While many Americans were longing for the Age of Innocence of the (white, patriarchal) 1950s, the university continued to lead the way in altering the gendered and racialized relations of power on campus and in American society at large. And it was at precisely this socio-historical juncture that young white men began stripping off their clothes and running in public. << Perhaps the best academic paper you'll ever read about streaking.
posted by billysumday (58 comments total)

I suppose a [more inside] would be contrary to the spirit of the post.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:52 AM on January 6, 2010 [14 favorites]

When, as a wide-eyed freshman, I took Gov10--the introductory course for all Harvard kids who secretly (or publically) believed they would be President someday--the professor had the TFs debate whether such students should participate in Primal Scream. The lead TF argued that naked pictures could derail a political campaign. The opposition said the American people were more likely to elect someone *because* photos of them running drunk and naked in college appeared on MSNBC. A few weeks later, George W. Bush was re-elected. Go figure.
posted by jefficator at 9:53 AM on January 6, 2010

The most famous non-collegiate streak, and the one that gave network executives sleepless nights, occurred during the 1974 Academy Awards show: a streaker ran behind David Niven as he introduced Elizabeth Taylor.... The streaker, Robert Opal, was soon getting gigs as a "guest streaker" at Hollywood parties.

No thanks to the Academy for the pointless commentary in the clip.
posted by maudlin at 9:56 AM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best work on Streakers ever: Bare Ambition, by Famous Mortimer
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:59 AM on January 6, 2010

Damnit. Correct Link
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:59 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

While many Americans were longing for the Age of Innocence of the (white, patriarchal) 1950s, the university continued to lead the way in altering the gendered and racialized relations of power on campus and in American society at large.

See also.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2010

It's thorough. He even mentioned Robert Opal.
posted by zarq at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2010

up through the quad and into the gymnasium!
posted by pwally at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2010

Bah! Should have previewed. :P
posted by zarq at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2010

I wore a vintage WWII gas mask to obscure my identity when I streaked the prom in 1974. Just felt I had to confess that.
posted by bonefish at 10:09 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Saxon,
Damnit, I wanted to be the first Mr. Show geek to post in here!
posted by gagglezoomer at 10:11 AM on January 6, 2010

Enjoy The Streak in comic form.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:14 AM on January 6, 2010

Even in the burbs there was streaking. Tower records in Walnut Creek (a suburb of SF) had a "Streak and get a free album" promo.
The place filled with nude people, hardly bothering to streak, grabbing albums by the arm load.

It was downright interesting in retrospect, but seemed like no big deal that the time.
posted by cccorlew at 10:14 AM on January 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

I used to streak, but now I drink windex.
posted by Mach5 at 10:25 AM on January 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

Damnit, I wanted to be the first Mr. Show geek to post in here!

Me, too, gagglezoomer. Me, too.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:27 AM on January 6, 2010

Best work on Streakers ever: Bare Ambition, by Famous Mortimer

That's the safe choice, Saxon Kane. StreakDome '97 is long overdue for a reappraisal.
posted by Iridic at 10:29 AM on January 6, 2010

I never thought I'd write this, but I sorta miss the 70's. Streaking seems so...innocent. And benign.
posted by mosk at 10:34 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

My college did and still does an annual winter mass streak (more like an organized, school-sponsored naked lap around the quad). And every year, crusty old townies line up around the periphery with their video cameras and footage ends up on the internet.

People still get really excited about it for some reason.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:41 AM on January 6, 2010

I was not out of high school, working at Fenton's Ice Cream Parlor in Oakland. Hah. We two very clear pathways through the floor, with lots of families sitting for their Sunday sundae. Oh, god, so many streakers. The manager kept a pitcher of ice water at the ready and would clear the counter in seconds in hot pursuit and douse their nether bits. Those were the days. ;)
posted by effluvia at 10:43 AM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Very timely, given that streaking will soon be mandatory for international flights to the US.
posted by Aquaman at 10:50 AM on January 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

And like the moral crusaders predicted, it lead to a new age of hedonism and the death of America as we knew it.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:54 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hey, I was BORN in Walnut Creek, and photographic evidence shows I was born naked! Where's my free records?
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:56 AM on January 6, 2010

Someone needs to post the video of the woman streaker who scores a soccer goal.
posted by caddis at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2010

A professor of mine liked to tell a story about his encounter with a streaker. Once, on his way to a conference, he looked up from his reading to see a naked man running up the aisle of the plane; at the cockpit, the man turned around and ran back to the bathroom, then locked himself in until landing. About the same time, some airman at the base my dad was on streaked in front of visiting brass. Also about the same time, when we were (very small) kids, my brother and I used to run around the house naked singing "The Streak."
posted by octobersurprise at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2010

I never thought I'd write this, but I sorta miss the 70's. Streaking seems so...innocent. And benign.

Not so fast, mosk!

The 'benign...innocence' of streaking was but the tip of a reactionary iceberg, so to speak.

The author concludes, in part:


In other words, through streaking the campus became a site of temporary backlash—against leftist politics, against the feminist movement, against the civil rights movement. Streaking may have only briefly reclaimed the American university for white patriarchy, but it would be a mistake to dismiss it because of this brevity...

(From page 5 of the paper.)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hey gagglezoomer... put your clothes on!
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:00 AM on January 6, 2010

...just to add a shorter version of the paper:

George W. Bush - natural born streaker.
Barack Obama - absolutely not!
posted by Jody Tresidder at 11:03 AM on January 6, 2010

I think I actually saw streaking in person in the late 90's, but I'm not sure you can really call it "streaking" if they didn't run. Let me explain.

I used to participate in the twice-a-year trivia contests held at Williams College, broadcast over their campus radio station; my friends and I would drive up and play on campus, finding some team of students that needed a boost. (We were all in our late 20's and early 30's, and consisted of one alum and his friends who just thought it was fun.)

Once, about 6 hours into the contest (at about...dawn), three completely naked guys just wandered into my team's room. There were about 25 of us, all deep in the throes of game play, and...no one really knew how to handle the situation. People gradually drifted over to them after a few minutes asking...what was with the naked, here? Was this a stunt, or a frat thing, or...? They said no -- they just felt like taking a stroll. And just...being naked while doing so. They hung around for a while (one of them realized he was starting to get an erection, and they lingered, the afflicted guy sitting with a newspaper in his lap, until he got under control and they could leave), and while they were there I noticed that gradually all the guys in our team were drifting as far away from them as they could -- while the women were subtly getting close to them. After about 20 minutes, they just got up and ambled out.

I've never been sure if I could call them streakers because they weren't running.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:04 AM on January 6, 2010

Streaking may have only briefly reclaimed the American university for white patriarchy

except that in many sectors of the "white patriarchy", one can be branded a sex offender for life by streaking, which seems to be against the idea that this was some kind of conservative acting out

i have my own idea on this - the tenor of those times was that a lot of people could get away with doing a lot of stupid things, even illegal things - authority had been shown to be bankrupt and so people were doing things like this for the hell of it, just because they could

like most fads, it got boring and people found other things to do
posted by pyramid termite at 11:14 AM on January 6, 2010

I represented a high school kid about ten years ago who ran through the biggest shopping mall in town wearing only a Bill Clinton mask. Strange, but funny.

I also represented him for mooning his friends during lunch at his high school. Yes, he was charged criminally for mooning his friends at his high school. Strange, but sad.
posted by flarbuse at 11:16 AM on January 6, 2010

So, where is the line between "innocent" streaking and flashing someone?

I guess doing this nowadays, you could be running the risk of ending up on some sex offender list.
posted by marxchivist at 11:16 AM on January 6, 2010

Gotta speak up for my university's streaking tradition, which is still ongoing: Rice's Baker 13 (officially not affiliated with Baker College). While I was too shy, not to mention slow, to participate in it, I knew a lot of people who did.

Yes, you use shaving cream, but the important thing to cover is your face!
posted by immlass at 11:17 AM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Streaking ain't dead. Not by a longshot. It's just been driven underground by those pesky sex-offender laws, and is in need of a hero to bring it back into the limelight. Luckily, several intrepid adventurers (read 'bored liberal-arts kids') are doing just that. I'm actually most proud of my alma mater for the accomplishments of its Varsity Streaking Team.

Vaguely NSFW; contains pasty white man-ass, one of which belongs to my freshman year roommate. Ah, memories
posted by Mayor West at 11:18 AM on January 6, 2010

It's like people don't even see the links at the tops of these things.
posted by enn at 11:20 AM on January 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

Ah, my small catholic high school had a couple. Best one involved a confrontation between the streaker and an angry older nun in full habit. She was yelling, and waving a yard stick at him, he stopped right in front of her and sort of... wiggled, before running off.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:25 AM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Americans were longing for the Age of Innocence of the (white, patriarchal) 1950s

I sorta miss the 70's. Streaking seems so...innocent.

It's an interesting article, but I'm skeptical that streaking was a reaction against leftism, feminism and civil rights et al. Was it really only white guys who were streaking?

I'm more inclined to think that it's just easier to break the law if you're white and part of the patriarchy. There are fewer repercussions. That, and what pyramid termite said.
posted by kanewai at 11:29 AM on January 6, 2010

But what about the children!? Hard to believe this is the same country that wet its collective pants over Janet's wardrobe malfunction.
posted by coolguymichael at 11:34 AM on January 6, 2010

Mark Roberts, king of streakers. (Probably NSFW.)
posted by NailsTheCat at 12:11 PM on January 6, 2010

I attended an engineering school in the 70's that had a little diversion in the form of a couple of parades of streakers. Everyone went out to watch, but I chuckled to see one proud engineering student streak by, sporting only a belt holstering his ever ready slide rule.
posted by digsrus at 12:20 PM on January 6, 2010 [4 favorites]

But what about the children!?
They were defended by my father, who stood up and shouted at the TV set every time a streaker ran across a football field, or at least every time it happened while my ten or eleven year old self was in the same room. "God DAMN it!" he would yell, "What the HELL is wrong with these people? Goddamn kids, goddamn hippies - Felicity, get the hell out of the room for God's sake. Jesus, Mary and Joseph."
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:27 PM on January 6, 2010 [8 favorites]

I remember fondly the even shorther-lived 70's fad of "gnikaerts": fully clothed people running frantically through nudist beaches and camps.
posted by newmoistness at 12:40 PM on January 6, 2010 [6 favorites]

This isn't streaking, but in the early 90s I was sitting in a coffee shop in a small southern U.S. college town. I was facing the glass store front, which looked out across the street onto the campus quad, and was enjoying seeing a rare snowfall on a quiet winter night. A few students were in the quad throwing snowballs, but otherwise the view was very peaceful and still.

Suddenly, a car drove up and stopped to let out a male student in typical college attire (with backpack). As he turned to wave a thank-you to the driver, I happened to glance into the car and saw that it was full of completely naked female students. The driver and the front and rear passengers ... all ... uh ... *cough*.

Nobody believed me.
posted by freecellwizard at 12:43 PM on January 6, 2010

Streaking is still a tradition at my alma mater, the University of Virginia. It's a rite of passage to streak the Lawn sometime during your four years at UVa. Two of my friends and I did it on a cold winter night when the Lawn was covered in snow. We kind of cheated -- we took off everything but our shoes and socks.

We ran all the way down the Lawn and back. When we got back, there was a cop waiting for us. She ordered us to put our clothes back on, so we did. Quickly. Fortunately she didn't arrest us.

Another time, a student organization I was in traveled up to Harvard for an event. We all streaked Harvard Yard that night, and there might have been some mass urination on the statue of John Harvard as well.
posted by Tin Man at 12:58 PM on January 6, 2010

I heard that streaking started on the campus of Florida State University. Of course, I do live in Tallahassee, so there may be some agenda.
posted by grubi at 1:17 PM on January 6, 2010

"They hung around for a while..." Hee hee hee.

(Oh, sorry. My Catholic upbringing compels me to eschew the overt and instead to find humour in the double entendre.)
posted by Mike D at 1:29 PM on January 6, 2010

I streaked a bit my first couple of years in college. It was never sober, and it was almost never my idea. "Let's git nekkid" someone would say, and then we'd be doing a quarter mile, maybe a half mile around campus at a pretty good clip. What the fuck?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:32 PM on January 6, 2010

freecellwizard: "As he turned to wave a thank-you to the driver, I happened to glance into the car and saw that it was full of completely naked female students. The driver and the front and rear passengers ... all ... uh ... *cough*.

Nobody believed me."

I bet nobody believed HIM, either.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 1:50 PM on January 6, 2010

I remember a photo of a female streaker on page 1 of the State News (Michigan State) back in '75 or '76. She was standing in a classroom talking to the prof. Full frontal, too.
posted by rfs at 1:53 PM on January 6, 2010

My alma mater has a streaking-type tradition. It looks like this.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:54 PM on January 6, 2010

This particular streaker during a Colorado State marching band performance got tackled hard by my former high school band director (current CSU director). Sadly, the actual tackle wasn't caught on video.
posted by Bluecoat93 at 2:22 PM on January 6, 2010

The criticism of streaking reminds me of the criticism of Disco Demolition Night.
posted by box at 2:34 PM on January 6, 2010

Well, it isn't exactly planned, it's whenever the weather happens. There's an element of spontaneity, it could be in the middle of the night or at 8 in the morning. And you'll see a small group running naked in a fine drizzle, while others hold out for a proper deluge.

But yeah, clearly it differs from traditional streaking by being motivated not by shock value as much as by a sort of communal rebellious naturalism.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:14 PM on January 6, 2010

Oh, wikipedia has "rules" I never heard of, I see. Carry on.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:18 PM on January 6, 2010

Very timely, given that streaking will soon be mandatory for international flights to the US.

Not in the UK though, unless they can get around the fact that they violate child porn laws.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:09 PM on January 6, 2010

God the 70s were fucking terrible.
posted by mattholomew at 5:57 PM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seattle Crackdown on Naked Bicyclist
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 4:07 AM on January 7, 2010

Contemporary streaking, in front of the White House, no less.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:27 AM on January 7, 2010

God the 70s were fucking terrible.
Sour grapes?
posted by tizzie at 5:23 AM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]