Flashing in Public

Real Men Don't Wear Clothes 

An interview with Berkeley's "Naked Guy" Andrew Martinez 

Copyright © 1993, 1997 phdtop.com 

Andrew Martinez is a student nudist. Unlike the streakers of yesteryear, Andrew walks around Berkeley, California, wearing nothing but sandals, and a key and a peace symbol on a chain around his neck. When he needs to carry things, he wears a backpack. And when he goes to class, he wants to go totally nude; in a nod to health and social conventions, he sits with a towel or sweatshirt between himself and the seat. 

Andrew is straight, but as his gay fans know -- from seeing him on talk shows such as Maury Povich, Montel Williams, and Jane Whitney -- he frequently compares his campaign for public nudity with the campaign for gay rights. Add to this the facts that he has a killer bod on a 6-foot-4 frame, a winning smile, a Playgirl photo spread, and an unaffected manner and you get a natural media celebrity who may well have more than his fifteen minutes of fame. 

I have had the good luck to interview Andrew on two occasions: first on the phone, in preparation for bringing him to San Diego for a scientific panel, and second in person, when I visited him at his student coop in Berkeley. We also talked later, as his case proceeded through UC Berkeley's tortuous student discipline system. 

I discovered that Andrew has a philosophy behind his nudist activism, and a personal history that doesn't quite account for the courage and straightforwardness of his quest. At the scientific meeting he walked around with his shirt off, which instantly identified him, and he told me that it was uncomfortable to be questioned by the psychology types he met there. "You could almost hear their minds going 'click click click'," he said, as they tried to figure out why a nice boy like this would risk his college career over what some consider to be at most a publicity stunt. Of course, the same could be said of some of the early gay rights activists. People would have asked them, Why not keep sex in its place? In the closet? An unimportant detail in your life? Then activists fought their battles, won a lot of them, and now more people realize that their sexual fantasies and sex lives are at the center of their lives. The more you think about it, the more Andrew's quest for total acceptance of the visibility of every part of the body resembles gay liberation's fight for acceptance of every part of our sexuality. 

By the way (as I told the conference), Andrew has no scrapbook into which he puts 8 x 10 glossies of his nude escapades, no videotapes of his "Nude-In" on the Berkeley free speech plaza, and no copies of the newspaper articles which have been written about him. As you search for explanations -- and you will -- scratch "narcissism" off the list. 

These were some of my thoughts as I sat down across the table from Andrew in his coop's dining hall. Accompanying me was my friend Philip, a sharp-tongued, very upfront San Francisco resident who had read about Andrew in the papers. And strangely enough, Andrew was wearing clothes: sweat pants, sweat shirt, sandals, and socks (more than I was wearing, which was just shoes) -- just as I had found him upstairs a few minutes before, tucked into bed, talking on the telephone with the Playgirl interviewer. 

PhD: Tell us about the first time you walked nude in public. 

AM: Well I never thought of taking off my clothes in everyday life as I was growing up in Cupertino. After I graduated, a week before coming to Berkeley, I walked down Highway 9 in the nude. I put my clothes in a backpack and got about a mile and a half. [By the way, an advertising agency has recently contacted Andrew to see if he would be willing to endorse their brand!] 

PhD: How did people react? 

AM: They were laughing, honking, asking, why are you doing this? One, obviously, called the cops. 

PhD: How have your parents reacted? 

AM: They think I'm going through a phase -- that I missed out on my rebellious phase earlier. 

PhD: Do you agree with them? 

AM: Well, this gets into the subconscious. My conscious decision to walk around nude is not to rebel; I'd be nude even if no one else was or if everyone else is. The reasons for it are so close to the 60s; it seems that the 60s generation sold out and so much of their work remains to be done -- pot smoking, streaking, and nudity. But those baby boomers are now in positions of power, and no one talks about these issues. There's very little dissent, everyone's wearing suits -- and 60s generation kids face even more repression. 

PhD: Let me show you this column by JoAnne Jacobs in the San Jose Mercury-News. She says, "It's no great intellectual breakthrough to notice that during much of the year, Californians wear clothing not for warmth or comfort but because it's a convention of society to keep certain parts of the body covered when in public. Is it stupid? That's not the issue. Social conventions don't have to be logical; that's not their job." 

AM: [Interrupts] Oh, god! [Laughs uproariously.] 

PhD: What do you think about that? 

AM: [Mocking the point of view] "Cause that's the way it is, dude!" 

Philip: [similarly] "Put your pants on, young man!" 

AM: She's not addressing how convention perpetuates certain social conditions, whether they be [social] class biases that you don't want or repression of different groups. Her point of view doesn't go any farther than, "because that's the way it is." 

PhD: Well, she goes on to say, "Some people choose to visit naturist camps or clothing-optional beaches where the social contract says nudity is fine and if it bothers you, stay awayä. But these conventions no longer command respect. New York's highest court ruled this year that women's breasts can be bared in public for fun but not for profitä" 

AM: [Laughs heartily for several seconds] That's hilarious! I gotta read that decision. 

PhD: "At least Madonna, for all her exhibitionism, has the grace to make people pay, which means that those too cheap to peep may go about their lives sexually unliberated. However, she can't just take the money and shut up about it." We talked about Madonna on the phone. Remind us what you think about her. 

AM: I think she's great! She's definitely on the side of the same cultural war lines that I'm on, so she's working towards the same thing, I think: on the one hand, sexual liberation -- which goes beyond just accepting nudity -- but [also] accepting homosexuality, accepting women liking sex, and doing [sex] not just for marriage, but having the full range of sexual desires and all that. Madonna's view goes into deviant sexuality, doing things in positions other than the missionary position, too. She has the charisma, or the confidence, to take all the criticism [in stride] and it gets to the point where you can't even really criticize her, you know? I mean, other people might get all defensive, but she just says, well yeah, that's what I did, and it's all right -- so what's the problem? She silences a lot of criticism. 

PhD: I think you're right: Madonna has that amazing self-confidence, but I also am curious about how she gets away with it in general, because the right wing really did believe for awhile that they were getting the media under control. Then Madonna just blasted that all away, and it must be frustrating to those media control freaks who think that they can keep people repressed -- Madonna makes freedom look so easy. And in a sense you make it look so easy -- just take off your clothes and let it all hang out. 

[Then I brought out an article in which it was reported that Martinez had once gotten an erection in Russian History class.] 

AM: Oh, you want me to tell you about the boner thing? 

PhD: Frankly, yes. Inquiring minds want to know. 

AM: Well, it only started getting half hard; it wasn't even a full-on boner or anything. And it was during class, and then it went soft again by the time the lecture ended. It was one of those things that just happened. 

[When Maury Povich asked Andrew a similar question, he launched into a similar explanation, using the word "boner" frequently. It was bleeped out of the broadcast; Povich and the audience cracked up, totally unable to deal with the term.] 

PhD: Of course, a lot of people equate sex with nudity. 

Philip: I'm one [who thinks so] -- I mean, not always, but I get naked to have sex, and for me it's part and parcel of the whole thing. [Andrew laughs.] 

PhD: So what's your attitude? Do you think nudity always has a sexual aspect, or just sometimes? 

AM: Well, more traditional nudists would argue very strongly that there is no relationship between the two, and I think the fact that nudist colonies are as repressed or more repressed [sexually] than mainstream society would indicate that you can totally eliminate the sexual liberation aspect of nudity and make it just as repressed as normal society. But nudity would tend to have a liberating effect on people's sexuality. It's not like being nude is a sexual act, but there is some sexual relationship; if you start getting in touch with your body, and accepting your body, accepting pleasure, you're feeling all these sensations all over your body. Inevitably you're going to feel good. Accepting skin touching and seeing skin are going to break down a lot of the sexual barriers which are created. So in that sense, there is some relationship, and I think that's where I break from more moderate nudists. They would argue that if you do break down one of these two taboos [sex and nudity], it's going have an effect on all the others. 

PhD: OK, now what about the argument that having someone as handsome as you nude in the classroom would be too distracting. 

AM: I guess I would say that we all have to deal with sexual arousal in the classroom at some point -- let's say, a woman walking in wearing a really tight skirt and tight blouse. That could be very arousing for a lot of people, and yet none of us would be empowered to say, "Oh, would you please put on more baggy clothes, because you're making us all aroused?" I deal with it by turning around when I get aroused by women, and I hope a similar thing would happen for guys or women who are aroused by my nudity. And I guess also it's a gradual thing. I don't think nudity is that much more arousing than wearing no shirt and shorts. You know, there's not that much more flesh being uncovered. As the amount covered gets smaller, maybe it increases sexual arousal a little, but the curve probably goes like that [gestures in the air]: reaching an asymptote [two lines getting closer and closer without ever actually touching]. 

PhD: I heard you mentioning in your interview with Playgirl that your "Nude-In" was actually the first time you were fully nude on campus. Before then, you'd been stripping down slowly, but you didn't start going to class totally nude until then. 

AM: That's right. My freshman year was normal in terms of nudity, except at one point during the year I started taking off my shirt in class or wearing it a lot less often. 

PhD: When was the first time that you noticed people reacting to the fact that you weren't wearing enough clothes (by their standards)? 

AM: It would create a scene, walking with no shirt down a big lecture hall aisle. I'd be walking around and people would whisper "No shirt! No shirt!" And maybe some guy would say [in deep, disapproving voice] "Put a shirt on, man!" Just the lack of a shirt was enough to set them off, inside a classroom. 

PhD: So how does that make you feel? When everybody is looking at you? 

AM: Well, it makes me a little self-conscious. I start being aware of how I'm walking, and the kind of ethos I'm having with the people around me. 

PhD: Ethos? 

AM: It's a speech term. [Andrew planned to major in Rhetoric.] There's ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is the moral standing of the speaker to the audience -- how the audience sees him in terms of his credibility, that he's a good person who can convey something that they want to hear. In general I thought that it sucked that people freaked out so much about my not wearing a shirt, but it was to be expected, kind of. 

PhD: Now tell us what you were saying to yourself the first time you went naked. 

AM: It was a series of small steps. Any time I go to the next big step, there's a mental process that goes on. In my head, I say to myself, "OK, Andrew, you know, this is something you can do, you're willing to do, you want to do, it's right to do. So do it!" And then there's still part of me going [using a singsong voice] "No, oh, I don't wanna go, oh shit, uh, oh, God!" and "You just have to do it, Andrew, do it!" And then I'll sit there and say things like, "Oh shit!" to myself. [At this point, he motions with his hands on his hips as if he's about to pull his underpants or pants off.] And then eventually I do it, and I go "Whew!" but then I have to deal with all the consequences. 

PhD: So you're testing yourself, to see if you have enough nerve to do it. 

AM: Well, it's like I expect myself to do it? And I think it's right to do it? And I resent myself for not being able to? Like if I didn't do it, I'd really resent my weakness? 

PhD: Is there a sense in which you're testing Berkeley to see if they're as strong as you are? 

AM: Maybe a little, I mean, it's like I'm saying, "OK, you guys talk about all this multicultural stuff, and so much of the liberal arts curriculum now is learning how fucked up Western society has been, and how many people it's oppressed, but yet we still act very Western -- the way we dress, the way we talk, the way we expect justice to come around -- and so maybe I'm saying at least in Berkeley, are you as open and multicultural as you thought? I'm hoping they will be [tolerant], and they'll just let me do my thing. 

PhD: The city of Berkeley is basically letting you do your thing, with some exceptions, right? 

AM: [Enthusiastically] Yeah! I don't even know about any special exceptions for me. 

PhD: So if we both took our clothes off right now, we could walk around the city today and that wouldn't be any problem. 

AM: Yeah. 

PhD: Speaking of which, other than the Nude-In and the X-Plicit Players [a nude performance group], has anybody ever joined you in the nude, here in Berkeley, walking down the street or whatever? 

AM: This one lady did. She came up and said, "aren't you going to get arrested for this?" And I said no, it's pretty much legal, now, and she goes, "you mean I can take off my clothes, too?" And I said, Uh huh. This happened right down the street. And then she took off all her clothes, and walked with me for two blocks or so. And then her friend came up to her and said [switches to high, mocking sing-song voice], "Put on your clothes! Put on your clothes!" But other than that, no, not many people have done it. [Right after this interview Andrew shucked his clothes, and he and I took a nude walk out to Telegraph Avenue. There I lost my nerve, so we turned around and walked back.] 

PhD: OK. Now let's go back to your boner. Throughout the semester, as you were taking clothes off bit by bit, probably some people who saw you regularly in class were wondering how far you'd go. And they were shocked when they saw that you'd gone all the way and taken off your underpants. But in fact that's not "all the way," sexually speaking; you could have started acting overtly sexual next. So where do you draw the line? In other words, if someone is offended by the idea of seeing you masturbate in class, and you're not offended, does that give you the right to jerk off in public? Of course, some people would say sure, what's wrong with sex? And other people say, no that'd be totally inappropriate. Where would your logic draw the line? 

AM: I draw the line at doing everything I would normally do, except for being naked. I wouldn't beat off in class with my clothes on, so I wouldn't beat off in class with my clothes off. 

Philip: But when you're clothed sometimes you hug and caress and kiss and do things which may cause sexual stimulation. 

AM: Yeah. But in Russian History class, if someone had seen me getting a boner, I would have been embarrassed. I would have been really embarrassed. I would have thought, "Oh, my God, holy shit!" But then I would say to myself, Andrew, OK, this is another one of those mental things. Andrew, there's nothing wrong with it, you need to deal [with it]. You need to get over this, it's another one of those steps. You have to progress. So I'd just sit there and act normal, even though I would be embarrassed. Does that make sense? 

PhD: Sure. 

PhD: Now what about nudity at the other left-wing Berkeley coops? 

AM: There are three coops which are the really far left ones. And there's this ongoing debate about who's "the most left," and who's the most open minded about things. At one of the other coops, they really stifled me pretty hard when I went over to visit a friend; when I walked around there in the nude they said, oh, you're so gross. But they're opening up a little now that it's the "left" thing to do. 

[I found it amusing how similar this seemed to fraternities arguing about what was the most pro-frat thing to do. Andrew's coop's walls are covered with graffiti, much of it with an anti-frat mentality.] 

PhD: What do you do about stores or restaurants that say something like, "no shirt, no shoes, no service"? [pause] You're smiling. 

AM: I probably would walk in, pretending I didn't read that sign or whatever, and then wait until they said something. And they probably would, and then unless I was feeling really militant or had a lot of people to do some kind of nude-in, I'd probably just put on clothes. Because at a certain point I've just got to live my life. 

PhD: Right. Speaking of living your life, it sounds to me like Berkeley is likely to kick you out. Do you think that's likely? [In fact they did several weeks later.] 

AM: Um hum. 

PhD: So what do you think will happen now? As I thought about the possibilities, doing something with the law is one choice. Or you could start your own nudist camp or become some kind of entertainment figure... 

Philip: A nude talk show! Just do a regular talk show, but naked! Pretend you're telling people, "Just get over it, OK? We're not wearing clothes!" 

PhD: Yeah, you could start on public access cable, and have a nude talk show. 

AM: Well, I can really just go with whatever happens. I'll probably be learning a lot about law, not necessarily through law school, but from doing my own thing, because I doubt if any law school would accept me. 

PhD: Well, they might accept you, but you need to have graduated from college first, and they probably wouldn't let you go to class in the nude. 

AM: Yeah. And I'd have to have decent grades, which I don't have. I think you have to focus a lot to get good grades. You have to be very aware of where you're standing and what the teachers want and all these things. And that's OK; I could do that -- I have done that in the past -- but it just generally gets in the way of my education. 

PhD: You have to take it all seriously. 

AM: Yeah, there are so many tricks to keep your grade point average up.. And then within the semester, doing the nice little homework assignments, like all neat -- you know it's such a game, and that's just not my scene at all. 

PhD: So your grades your first year and a half have been what, roughly? 

AM: Like a C plus, something like that. 

PhD: Now let's move to the topic of why people react to you favorably or unfavorably. What do you think people's reactions would be if you weren't so handsome? What do you think they would say? 

AM: Well, they definitely wouldn't say, oh, he just wants attention, or he just wants people to look at him! 

PhD: Yeah, that's what they say now: "oh, you just want to do this to show off what a great bod you've got." 

AM: Let's see. If I were older, they'd probably say, "oh god, cover that up, it's so disgusting!" 

PhD: Right. You've taken that possibility away from them. Just like, if you were a woman doing this, there'd probably be fewer guys complaining. 

AM: Exactly. I think it would be a lot easier [for the movement] if women would get nude more often. On the other hand, people would say that women need to be chaste, and this is obviously not a chaste act. 

PhD: In other words, if you were a woman going nude they'd call you a slut. 

AM: Yeah. 

PhD: So what aspect of going around nude do you enjoy? 

AM: Just the physical comfort. Not having the restraints. The wind touching all over. It's cooler, it really is! You know, if it wasn't for all the political stuff, it really wouldn't be worth it. 

PhD: You mean, politics are a big part of doing what you do? 

AM: Well, they play a big part in why I'm continuing to fight. If it weren't for the politics, then I probably wouldn't do it anymore, just because the hassle of being this big spectacle -- people saying things, like, "oh my god he's nude!" and police having to deal with all this stuff continually -- it isn't really worth the small pleasure it is to have this one part of my body exposed. But the politics really give me the motivation to continue with it, although the original motivation isn't political: it's just because I don't like clothes. 

PhD: Now, when you're on a talk show, what do you enjoy about that? 

AM: Free propaganda! Propaganda is the most powerful tool for changing society, and normally you have to pay for a billboard, pay for posters, pay for public announcements. But on a talk show they're offering me to come and tell them what's on my mind. A lot of times it's tiring. But generally, it's still good cool. If people want to know why I'm doing it, it's my obligation to let people know what's up. It shows a little more community oriented mentality than propagandistic Orwellian terms, but... 

PhD: Some people would just assume that you're doing it because you like being the center of attention. Is that part of it too? 

AM: Well, I don't know subconsciously what's going on. But I get very tired of being the center of attention and it's really wearing me down. Being the center of attention is maybe OK every once in awhile, but it's like headlines all the time: "Naked Guy goes to go get a drink," "Naked Guy walks into a pub." You know, I just, I think it sucks. I'd rather just live normally and blend in like I did before. 

PhD: And you kind of blend in here, at the coop. 

AM: Yeah. Generally, being the center of attention sucks for me. 

PhD: They're having a dance here at the coop tomorrow night; are you going to be coming? 

AM: I think so. 

PhD: If you do, will you be nude? 

AM: Not unless something clicks and I feel like it. Last night, I was nude at a rave [nightclub]. Throughout the whole time I was the only nude one, but at one point there was a circle of guys dancing, and they'd pull down their pants halfway, showing their boxers, and then they'd pull them down all the way, but they still had their boxers on, and then it was kind of like this machismo thing, like "Dude! How far can you go?" And then the other guy would almost pull his underpants down, and then he'd pull them up and they'd laugh at him. And then one guy'd show his butt. But they'd only get completely nude if something like that happens where it becomes a question of "how far can you go?" 

PhD: Let's see, here's a question for the Teen Beat crowd: Whom do you admire and why? 

AM: Historical people who really stood up, did their thing, and faced criticism. Socrates, Pasteur, Thoreau. 

PhD: Makes me wonder, did Thoreau ever walk around Walden Pond in the nude? 

AM: I think he would have. If he's all alone for a year, what would he continue to hide for? 

PhD: What other kinds of people? 

AM: Well, the leader types I admire a lot, like Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Timothy Leary, Allan Ginsburg, those guys, they really started the whole psychedelic movement. 

PhD: Right. Allan Ginsburg's done a lot of stuff in the nude, too. 

AM: Yeah. Those guys were getting stuff done and getting shit happening. I admire that. 

PhD: I think one of the reasons why you've gotten the good reaction that you've gotten is that there's a lot more innocent nudity in American history than you would realize growing up today. For example, I've got friends who grew up on farms who say they had a swimming hole, and everybody -- mother, father, sister, brother, little kids, big kids -- everybody went down to the swimming hole and you didn't bother with a bathing suit. Even in big cities, where there used to be men's clubs and the YMCA, you just assumed as a matter of course that you would swim in the nude because it was all men. My freshman year was the last year my college was all male, and in the pool there you could swim in the nude, which most guys did. It was considered perfectly normal and natural if there weren't members of the opposite sex around. That made it a lot of fun for gay people... 

AM: [Laughs heartily] That's really interesting. If you accept gay people of the same sex in the same bathroom together, with all the sexual tension that is possible there, then why not accept men and women sharing bathrooms, too? You know, that segregation of sexes kind of falls apart. 

[Let me note for the record that Andrew's coop is coed, and when he took a bathroom break, he pissed with the door open.] 

PhD: It's strange what that implies about heterosexuality, isn't it? It suggests that heterosexuals are so sex-crazed that you have to separate them in the bathrooms and the shower stalls because otherwise they might attack each other! 

Let me change the subject. What would you say to women who say that they would be very upset if they ran into a naked, 6-foot-4 male jogger late at night in Berkeley? That they would worry that you were some kind of crazy rapist? 

AM: I guess I would talk to them about why it would be so threatening, and about the social symbols and attitudes that would make them so intimidated? [Here, as often in the interview, Andrew's voice rises in a questioning inflection.] The fact that I'm big and brown and I have short hair -- I don't think it's really fair to hold that against me, and it's not fair to hold the nudity against me, either. So I'd try to convey that point of view. But generally, there's nothing really I could say to make the fear go away. 

PhD: In other words, if they're scared of being raped, then they're scared of being raped, and they're going to be scared by seeing a naked man that they don't expect to see, is that right? 

AM: Yeah. I don't want to sound callous, but let's say I was just walking around with shorts on, and jogging... You can't argue these things, because at that point it's not a rational discourse in social policy -- it's someone's fears and emotions which are really affected. I guess the most I could do is to sound understanding, say I'm sorry, but generally that doesn't change my position. 

PhD: Let's go back to your internal dialog, because I'm intrigued by the way you kind of talk to yourself. I think a lot of people do that; half of the brain wants to give them courage and the other half of the brain is being rational and conservative; there's that split in everyone. But you seem to be really listening to the part of you that wants you to be consistent and strong, and make a difference in the world. 

AM: Yeah, there's a lot going into it. There's so many streams of thought which say, "you need to do this, and don't hold back." I value the embarrassment very little, especially since I see it as colonial -- mental slavery? Malcolm X said it well: you're socialized to buy into something you don't want to buy into? So I see all this embarrassment and shame as holding me back from freeing myself from society? I definitely want to get rid of it, and there are very, very few reasons why I would want to act on those embarrassments?

PhD: Now let's play psychologist for a minute. As you know I invited you down to that meeting in San Diego and you were spaced out by all these psychology types going, as you say, "Click click click" in their brains trying to figure out why is this nice boy doing all this stuff? In your years growing up did you ever get the feeling that you were inadequate in some way and that you needed to test yourself or needed to prove that you were strong? 

AM: I don't think so. Maybe I saw a lot of people saying one thing but acting in another way. 

PhD: So you saw hypocrisy. 

AM: Yeah, maybe. And that annoyed me when I saw it in others, so I wouldn't want to do it myself. But I can't think of any strong instances where I sat there going, "My God, the hypocrisy is just unbearable." 

PhD: I think I remember you mentioning that you had a stepfather, so what happened to your genetic father? 

AM: Well, he's around, I see him about once a year; I saw him a lot more when I was little. He's kind of a rambler -- he worked washing buses for awhile, but then he got fired, and now I don't even know if he's working. He might just be getting unemployment checks or something. Once every few months he moves. 

PhD: Doesn't sound like a very responsible kind of guy. 

AM: Well, not in the classic notion of responsibility. 

PhD: How about in your definition of responsibility? 

AM: Well, I don't know him that well. All I know is that moving a lot isn't so irresponsible: it's just kind of different. He got fired because he said these people are working us like niggers, and that's a very un-PC thing to say, but in talking to him I think he really didn't mean to put down black people. He meant that they're treating us like we're slaves. He had held that job for 10 years or whatever, so he was fairly responsible, although he gets into fights a lot. He was telling me recently he got hard... 

PhD: He got what? 

AM: Hard. Like, it's kind of a lower-class thing, like, tough, like calloused to emotions? Willing to "fuck shit up" if you need to. 

PhD: I see. So how old were you when he went out of your life? 

AM: My parents got divorced when I was two. 

PhD: You said to me, earlier, that your Mom was the one who spent most of the time raising you, not your stepfather. And that your mother was a very honest woman; she didn't let you get away with telling a lie or anything like that. 

AM: Oh, yeah, she pushed honesty pretty strongly. 

PhD: Did you have a tendency to lie when you were a kid? 

AM: No! 

PhD: I mean, all kids do to some extent. 

AM: I don't think so. 

PhD: You don't think so more than any normal kids? 

AM: No. She started raising me that way so much that lying wasn't really even an option. Occasionally I lied by omission -- telling her I'd stay overnight at a friend's house without mentioning that his mom and dad weren't home. 

PhD: Who does your hair? 

AM: I do. I have the shaver, and I shave it all off. It's just to save money; I don't have to go to the barber shop and pay 8 bucks a month. 

PhD: So it's utilitarian: you shave your head for the same reason why you walk around with your clothes off. 

AM: Yeah, I guess so. 

PhD: Some people think that when you're nude, you're defenseless. Do you feel defenseless when you're nude? 

AM: A little. It's a weird twist: on the one hand you can be very defensive when you're nude, especially if it's involuntary, like if the police strip you naked, and your holes are all exposed, and your genitals are exposed to be ripped out or pried with -- there is more vulnerability. But there's also a sense of extreme strength and power because you've removed all the labels. 

PhD: You mean Polo, or Levi's? 

AM: Partly. If I wear one kind of clothes it's like college student clothes. Or if I go out at night, it's like rave clothes, or hip-hop clothes, or stoner clothes, hippie clothes, all with their little social symbols attached? So if you take off your clothes, there's nothing they can label you with? You're just there? And you're just human? And so in a sense that's a power: the power of not being labeled. 

PhD: It's interesting: the press had to give you a label anyway -- "The Naked Guy." 

AM: Yeah. 

PhD: Have you noticed that your nudity gives you power over people? Obviously, it gives you the power to make Berkeley very upset. Do you notice that there are women who are attracted to you in some sense because you're naked? 

AM: I don't think so. A lot of people last night at the rave would come up and congratulate me, tell me I was doing a good job. When I'm walking around, just doing my thing, people start thinking, "Well, shit, can I do that? Why can't I do that?" It's almost a machismo thing, seeing how open you are? There's the power of making people feel that they're not being mentally strong because they wear clothes. 

At this point, we ended the interview. But as I headed back for San Diego, I understood Andrew's message: Real men don't wear clothes. Going nude in a nude-phobic society is a test of manhood: do you have the courage to do the right thing? Are you willing to take the medicine society will dish out to you if you break their rules? 

A stripper intrigues you as he strips down to a g-string. But he only mesmerizes you if he's permitted to step out of the g-string and really break the final taboo against exposing the penis. Likewise with a skimpy bathing suit: intriguing when you see it, but mesmerizing on a nude beach when removed. 

A few nights later I awoke in the middle of the night with an incredible fantasy. What if there were a superhero who only could access his super powers when he was totally nude? Superheros typically exercise their powers when they put on a special costume -- typically something involving dorky tights. (grin) What if you were a superhero who got your powers only when you removed your clothes? What if he had a radical bod and wanted to do good: fight homophobia, sexism, right-wing censorship, and sexual uptightness? 

This superhero would put on Clark Kent glasses to disguise his face, of course -- but he'd also wear a costume with a padded pot belly to cover up his radical bod. When the world needed him, he'd strip naked and confound the enemies of sexual awakening by leading them astray with their stares! A man walking around in shorts no longer has the power to shock us in the late 20th century. But a man walking around in his birthday suit acquires incredible power -- over friends and enemies alike. 

Marvel Comics, are you listening? Naked Dude is ready to fight -- and he looks a lot like Andrew Martinez!