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The Guardian
27-02-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘People spontaneously strip off and join us': nude cyclists send message you don't need to be buff
This weekend in Melbourne, expect to see hundreds of cyclists with a striking difference. Instead of the usual Lycra-clad peloton, these riders will be getting their kit off in a day of nude protest to draw attention to rider safety and visibility, diversity of body image and a celebration of low-carbon transport. Dearne Weaver, a 61-year-old community worker from Canberra, says when she first attended Melbourne's World Naked Bike Ride in 2019 she was worried it might be too male-dominated – but she was pleasantly surprised. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads 'The first time I went solo and I did expect it to be mostly guys, as many nudist and cycling events are, but then we went and I found it a very welcoming, very appropriate and very supportive experience. I had an absolutely great time – I don't think you could have wiped that smile off my face if you'd tried.' Weaver is making the trip down to Melbourne again this weekend as the city's annual naked bike ride celebrates its 20th anniversary – having evolved from a small grassroots event to the largest in the southern hemisphere, according to organisers. She says one of the most exhilarating things about the 10km naked bike ride around Melbourne's CBD and inner suburbs is the responses it gets from unsuspecting spectators. 'I mean there are always going to be a few horrified glances and curses, but the vast majority of people love it and cheer us on especially when they realise we are chanting about rider visibility and safety and the environmental benefits of cycling. We've even had people spontaneously strip off and join us.' Pablo Teleg says the naked bike ride feels liberating. The 30-year-old building designer who moved to Melbourne from the Philippines in 2022 took part for the first time last year. 'A Filipino student had given away his bicycle that same morning and a few minutes later I was getting my body painted and then riding nude in the crowded city with people honking and cheering.' Teleg says as a gay person coming from a conservative country, he had never experienced anything like it before. 'There's this University of the Philippines Oblation Run, which is also a form of nudist protest, but it's exclusive to men [fraternity members],' he says. 'I had no idea about [the naked bike ride's] essence aside from being a fringe thing until I saw messages about body positivity, gender equality, climate policies and cyclists visibility in the streets painted on people's bodies.' 'The participants had this friendly and joyful energy and it was nice and sunny. The suddenness and novelty of the experience just felt like a pleasant dream to me.' Naked bike rides first took off in the early 2000s in Spain and Canada, before gaining speed and morphing into the official World Naked Bike Ride after Vancouver-based social activist Conrad Schmidt helped organise the first iteration, intended as a clothing-optional event to celebrate body positivity and to advocate for less oil-dependent transport and more cycle friendly streets in 2004. The naked bike ride has taken place in more than 70 cities and towns globally since its inception, with this year's locations including Byron Bay in Australia on 9 March this year, London, UK on 14 June, and Portland, Oregon, in the US on 26 July. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion Melbourne co-organiser and longtime participant Michael James, a 63-year-old retiree, says he has been involved in more than 50 naked bike rides in Melbourne and around the world. 'The ride started small and has grown in popularity each year.' He says those wishing to take part this year will gather on Saturday at noon at Lincoln Square in Carlton, but the route will remain a secret until the day 'to avoid large groups of people gathering to view the ride and causing unnecessary traffic disruption particularly at key intersections'. James says people can expect to see a lot of body paint, shouts of joy, bells and whistles and a once-a-year opportunity to cycle naked through Melbourne's streets. For Weaver, taking part in the naked bike ride is a chance to advocate for rider visibility on the roads and desexualising the human body. 'There's still a lot of road users that remain hostile or downright aggressive to sharing the road with cyclists. But on top of this, I see this as a reminder that being naked is not any kind of implied consent – it is just a human body. It's not just body positivity, but just body acceptance.' Weaver says especially in these times of global anxiety and violence, events such as these give participants an opportunity to do something joyful and empowering. 'At the end of the day, anything that brings people joy is vital right now, anything that distracts you from all that darkness and negativity. This brings me a lot of joy. When you're out there, naked, smiling and laughing and riding through the city, it feels outside of the box. It just feels awesome – honestly.'
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
An Andean adventurer and banana art: photos of the day
A dollhouse that inspired the stories of Beatrix Potter is going back on display after 300 hours of conservation work. Seventy-three miniature items – including furniture, plates of food and a tiny chandelier – were repaired and cleaned by National Trust conservators before the house becomes the centrepiece of a new exhibition Photograph: National Trust/PA Commuters wait in a traffic jam along a road leading to Yelahanka railway station Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images Naked student fraternity members present themselves to a crowd during the Oblation Run at the University of the Philippines. The event attempts to bring attention to important societal issues Photograph: Rolex dela Peña/EPA Tourists visiting the Tōshogū shrine, the final resting place of Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shōgun, a famous tourism spot and Unesco World Heritage site Photograph: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images A scene from Vollmond by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and Terrain Boris Charmatz Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian An artist named Impro has taped bananas around the Berkshire village, mimicking Maurizio Cattelan's artwork Comedian, which sold for £4.9m. Impro jokingly claims his banana masterpieces are worth £24.8m and could fund the new church roof for local churchgoers Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex/Shutterstock Italy's Federica Brignone finishes her second run of the Women's Giant Slalom event of the Saalbach 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images A lava flow emerged from a fissure at about 3,000 metres on the southern rim of the Bocca Nuova crater Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images A person pushes a shopping cart during a snowstorm Photograph: Brooke Hess-Homeier/AP Capybaras wade in emerald-green slime caused by cyanobacteria in the Salto Grande, an artificial body of water made by the hydroelectric dam on the Uruguay River Photograph: Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images The damaged roof of the New Safe Confinement, which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the city's former nuclear power plant, after a Russian drone strike Photograph: Iaea Handout/EPA Argentina's Julio Soler, grabs the jersey of Colombia's Andy Batioja as he falls on the pitch during a South American U-20 Championship final round Photograph: Matias Delacroix/AP A partly submerged vehicle that was swept away by a mudslide after heavy rain Photograph: Chelsea Lauren/Rex/Shutterstock The Colombian singer Shakira performs during her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry) world tour Photograph: Bruna Prado/AP A child displaced by the fighting between M23 rebels and government soldiers holds a damaged helmet at a refugee camp Photograph: Moses Sawasawa/AP A returning Palestinian uses a ladder to descend from a window of her home in a devastated refugee camp Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP The British adventurer Oli France in Aconcagua, Argentina, after completing his challenge of cycling and climbing the lowest geographical point to the highest in South America Photograph: Oli France/PA
