Decorative Dashes: Disrobing the Fabric of Streaking

Kohe, Geoff (2012) Decorative Dashes: Disrobing the Fabric of Streaking. Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society, 46. pp. 197-211. ISSN 0590-8876

Abstract

As often as some athletes don their lycra and emblazoned shirts and shorts, others are as frequently disrobing and dashing across sport spaces. Yet, while nude performance remains not uncommon in such cultural domains as dance and theatre, its place in sport is contested, malign, and often misconstrued. Taking cues from body, sexuality, and nudity scholars such as Barcan (2004), Carr-Gomm (2010), Kirkpatrick (2010), and Martin (1991) and Shilling (2008), this paper explores the complexities of streaking and intertwining associations with sport and wider social, cultural, and political contexts. I consider how ongoing debate over nudity and nakedness, and clothed and unclothed bodies, create a space for us to consider streaking as a valid bodily mobility and aesthetically valuable practice. By rehearsing instances where streaking bodies have been thrust into various forms of (political, social, cultural, ideological) action, I argue, that we might move beyond conceiving streaking as an act of comical deviance, flagrant criminality, or ‘anti-costume’; but rather, as an acceptable mode of physicality; with its own innate aesthetic value, corporeal qualities, and individual and collective meanings.

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