Naked riding 'round the world

Just type "World Naked Bike Ride" or even "WNBR" into Google or any search engine, and you'll find a wealth of information about people riding bikes naked, not just in one or two places, but in cities around the globe. According to the official web site of the World Naked Bike Ride, the nude cycling event is intended to "celebrate cycling and the human body," as well as illustrate cyclists vulnerability and protest oil dependency. The site claims to have inpired events in 70 cities and 20 countries.

Nakedism itself has participated in multiple naked bike rides, including one we reported on in 2011.

But while WNBR is not an erotic event, the fact remains that just being around other naked people (especially in repressed societies like ours) can be, well, stimulating. On multiple occasions I have seen men sporting varying degrees of penile tumescence. Boners are a natural part of life, but unfortunately they can be interpreted by law enforcement as "lewd behavior," even if there is no sexual behavior per se surrounding the arousal.

Of course, to us at Nakedism it seems strange and wrong to criminalize the human body or even its sexual expression, so long as that expression doesn't infringe on the rights of others. And sorry, but the rights of prudes don't include getting to choose exactly what you do or don't see in public. We're all exposed to images, fashion, and events both private and commercial that we'd rather not see. In a live-and-let-live society, we have the freedom to look away.

But until that ideal is realized, we will enjoy what public nude events we can — including public hard-ons. It may not be the World Naked Boner Ride, but we can always dream.

This month, however, you don't need to limit yourself to dreaming. For our September photo set, we've collected images by photographers Andrew Adam Caldwell and Breefs from the 2010 and 2010 WNBR events held in Seattle. These include the local tradition of having a group "shower" at the International Fountain at the Seattle Center, near the world famous Space Needle.

Curious? Head over to our photo department, and check out Naked for a Cause. And get ready for a hard ride.