THE NAKED MILE

Victor Bloom MD

The Naked Mile is getting more and more media coverage. Tuesday midnight, April 21, hundreds of coeds shed their clothes and streak down State Street stark naked. It is a U of M tradition that may go back to the panty raids of the fifties. In the eighties, it was men who streaked and in several years, probably as a result of women's lib, coeds joined their student brothers. The runners and appreciative fans grew in numbers from year to year and now it is a well established tradition.

Something happens in spring, when the sap runs (or saps run?) before June is busting out all over. In spring a young man's thoughts turn to love and it seems now that some modern women turn to exhibitionism, as if to attract that love (or incite to lust).

Now exhibitionism sounds like a perversion, and it can be that, the male flasher being an example, but isn't it interesting that no one wants to prosecute or label a young woman who is sufficiently unfettered by societal disapproval or embarrassment to expose herself totally in a like minded crowd. Women cannot help but know that their bodies are the source of erotic interest. Just look around any art museum. Somehow, the female form is more interesting to artists than the male form. Men have a direct connection from their eyes and occipital cortex to the lower centers. Some women have this connection too, and they whoop it up for A Full Monty.

What is a psychiatrist to think? The joke goes, how can you tell a psychiatrist in a burlesque show? He's the one who is looking at the audience! Similarly, I look at the phenomenon like the social observer, like I was an anthropologist. This is some primitive tribal rite. Yes, the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky created a riot because of the powerful primitive emotions provoked by the music. It no longer disturbs or incites modern audiences. The rite of spring does go back a long way in recorded history.

With the advent of spring and the end of winter, many societies to this day celebrate fertility rites. It was believed that couples making love in the springtime in farm fields help fertilize the soil and induce the gods to provide an abundant harvest. So the rite was both fun and practical. All societies have outlets for the release of primitive emotions, whether they be sexual or aggressive. The athletes of the early Olympics were nude, and all Vigeland's statues in the Froglund Sculpture Park in Oslo are nude. Nude is natural. Clothes make a secret of the body but most fashions for women are a combination of concealing and revealing.

Not being a primitive society, we are expected to control ourselves and adhere to societal norms. Nowadays fertility rites are taboo, but the great writers historically spin tales about primitive instincts out of control. Otherwise, what would make the book interesting?

The Call of the Wild. Anna Karenina. Dr. Zhivago. Gone With the Wind. The Bible. In classical Greek drama, The Bacchae reveals the Bacchanalian rites in which every taboo is violated. Of course there are consequences, and they must be borne. Greek tragedies acknowledge the power and presence of primitive animal instincts. They serve as a warning to the audience members, as well as entertainment. The great writers are always teaching us a lesson about the human condition.

What will be the consequences of U of M coeds running down the street naked? According to group dynamics, it is OK if everybody is doing it. It is another matter for one woman to do it alone. She would be a candidate for hospitalization. Is there peer pressure? Would some young women rather run down the street in her Nikes than be called, 'chicken'? Does she want to show off her body? A certain percentage of college women become models and go-go dancers.

It seems that education is felt to be oppressive, stressful and burdensome, and at the last day of classes some want to throw off all inhibitions. In previous years, lecherous voyeurs have seized the opportunity to photograph and grope, but this year the University, along with volunteer student monitors and the local police are going to make sure the runners are safe. T-shirts will be provided at the end of the run and cameras will be verboten.

Naked Mile has a website and offers videotapes of previous years' naked runs for sale. One would think that the women who were photographed might have trouble running for public office, as participating in a naked run might be considered irresponsible or poor judgment.

Or the other possibility is that when these women are old enough to run for public office, their appearance in videos will be cheered and applauded. The next century may be a "Brave New World" for all we know.

Dr. Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and corresponding editor of their quarterly journal, Academy Forum. He welcomes comments and questions at his e-mail address: vbloom@comcast.net.