https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_xvf5v3tr

The nude protesters in this video clearly state their motives and cause, which is that they are against Donald Trump and his presidential campaign. The next footage will be from the movement I am focusing on for this project, the World Naked Bike Ride. My main argument regarding WNBR is for the lack of clarity and meaning between the protest strategy of public nudity and for their actual cause that they are protesting for. If I didn’t tell you what they were protesting about, what would you guess? For more bike paths? Nope. But that’s what the people in this photo are protesting about in Peru. Yet, it doesn’t look different from the WNBR, right? Well then, what is the World Naked Bike Ride about? Why are these people riding bikes naked in public streets?

The use of public nudity as a part of a protest’s strategy has been widely used throughout history for various causes and movements. In this image, the protest is about women’s rights from FEMEN, which is a radical feminist activist group. In the past, women protested about their right and equality but with more clothing. In this image, it’s about animal cruelty, specifically against seal slaughtering by PETA, an American animal rights organization. This movement is for against the use of animal fur for production in things like clothes.

The WNBR is actually mainly about the fight against climate change and the use of carbon-emitting transportation like cars. In the following images, these nude protests are also for battling climate change. But the location of the glacier or the surrounding shrubbery is intuitively more meaningful and relatable to climate change than naked people riding bikes. Now, as a counter argument, you could say in these select images of the WNBR, there are words and phrases like “one less car, ride bare for clean air, no fuel used” explicitly painted onto the protesters and this helps to describe why they are naked to onlooking bystanders. However, many footages of the WNBR show that not all of the bike riders explicitly label on themselves for why they are riding a bike in public naked.

The protest strategy of using public nudity is quite a peculiar choice for protesting the use carbon-emitting transportation like cars. The meaning of the message behind the World Naked Bike Ride can certainly be more transparent and clear to onlooking bystanders.

By definition, the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) movement  is “an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together on human-powered transport to deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world.” The bike rides take place all over the world in various select locations. I am interested in the WNBR, specifically the protest tactic of full or partial nude bike riding. Although the main reason behind the movement is for environmental causes like global warming, I think the tactic of naked bike riding can initially be misinterpreted by onlooking bystanders for other causes such as body-image issues and gender issues. The actual main aims of WNBR is “to promote bicycle transportation, renewable energy, recreation, walkable communities, and environmentally responsible, sustainable solutions to living in the 21st century. Participants celebrate the many benefits of a car-free lifestyle: reduced emissions, free parking, and overall a greater feeling of freedom.” I think the full or partial nudity is a protest tactic/strategy that is used in order to be more visually powerful and attention-drawing.  However, behind each specific bike ride, I believe each location is strategically chosen to promote the widest visibility possible. I think the use of clean-energy technologies, like bicycles, is applied well via the form of a bike ride. I think that once you understand the main motive for naked bike riding, which is for environment concerns, then the message does seem to line up with clearly stated goals. I think the locations and times for the naked bike rides are all chosen purposefully in order to ensure maximum public visibility and awareness.

I am mainly focused on the strategy of naked bike riding. I think it is visually very powerful and is very abnormal to see in public. I am proposing my main argument to be that the World Naked Bike Ride could be misinterpreted for various causes, such as gender issues and body-image issues. I am planning on utilizing audio that will clearly state what the WNBR stands for, which is for clean transportation and a carbon-neutral society. I plan on using visually captivating images and video to show how the bike rides can differ; for example, some may have full nudity, all-male, or both.

The argument for the naked bike ride protest strategy is to promote clean, “natural” transportation by going full or partial nude bike riding. To use visually provocativeness to more effectively spread awareness of our protest’s message, which is about promoting environmentally-friendly, carbon-neutral methods of transportation. I think this protest strategy is effective. I think that nude bike riding is a very powerful and effective way to grab a large amount of people’s attention. I think the visually-powerful, controversial method of public nudity helps illustrate the meaning of promoting clean transportation. For this protest strategy, I think there is definitely high risk involved. The protest participants definitely convey passion for their cause. They are willing to expose themselves in public in order to draw attention for the movement. As for clarity, the protest can be misinterpreted by bystanders. For certain bike rides, a majority of the riders were male so onlookers could have misinterpreted the protest for a gender-related issue. The protest could also be misunderstood for body-image issues. My main argument for this protest strategy is that although it is visually-suggestive and peculiar in nature, it is effective in achieving its goal, which is to spread awareness of its cause (global warming).