Streaking

This essay, which has not previously been formally published, was written in 1988 by Richard Kilminster. It is published posthumously. In it, the author examines streaking as a (then) contemporary social practice that raises important concerns regarding behavioural standards and the longer-term processes of which these form a part. Through drawing centrally on Norbert Elias's theory of civilising processes and Cas Wouters's concept of informalisation, Kilminster argues that the relaxation of normative codes relating to dress, the body and sexual conduct from the 1960s onwards presented heightened demands for more nuanced and differentiated self-restraint, albeit that they look like a playful 'relaxation' of codes entirely. The practice of streaking, in which people are in motion, typically evading capture, offers a transient and playful release from these heightened demands before a return to quotidian constraints. The essay also considers why most streakers are men, relating this to shifting power balances between the sexes, and to the unequal cultural weight of idealised male and female corporeality.