Protesting Nude

Credit: Carlos Felipe Pardo

Louis examines the various ways in which the naked human body has been used in protests

The human body, with all its imagery and connotations, remains a prime vector for protesting. Naked skin gives impactful power to a message, marking the minds of those who see it.

One may recall the recent hullabaloo over Dr Victoria Bateman’s naked protest of Brexit on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, wearing nothing but the words “Brexit leaves Britain naked” painted across her bare chest. Or the FEMEN, a radical women’s rights activist group that favors high-profile, topless protests across Europe. These public displays of nudity as a form of protest, while not illegal in Britain, are still uncommon enough that they gain a lot of attention from the general public.

Harvey Allen is the organiser for the London edition of the World Naked Bike Ride. He says the naked aspect is important to its cause. “It’s to emphasise body freedom and it’s also to show how vulnerable cyclists are”, he explains, “cause when you’re naked, you appear to be very vulnerable, so it’s to draw attention to that.” But too much attention can be as much a boon for a cause as a headache for planning, as Harvey describes the London naked bike ride’s issues with attention. He says the bike ride used to have one start, at Hyde Park Corner, but that “because of journalists and their cameras and other people that have been a little bit leery” he and the other organisers now start the ride in several different spots at once, in places like Clapham, King’s Cross or Regent’s Park.

You can learn more about Harvey Allen and his philosophy of the naked body in Stripped: The Enduring Appeal of Naturism, published in the March issue of UNHEARD Magazine