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About Streaking

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In America, we value individuality and like to think that everyone is different.

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It is expected that most youth will be somewhat rebellious sometime around college age.

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Youthful rebellion is often seen as a healthy and normal groping toward individuality,

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especially as needed to become distinct from one’s parents.

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The rebelliousness may be related to major social issues —

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peace, or racial justice, as we had in the late 1960s.

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On the other hand, normal, healthy rebelliousness may be an individual test

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of the line between foolishness and trouble.

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Early teens may try to shock and worry their parents.

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Tattoos, pierced noses, and brightly colored hair are examples.

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By college age, students may be expected to be testing broader social norms.

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Of particular delight are actions that point out the hypocrisy of older generations.

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Streaking, or “running naked through a public place”,

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is a fine example of that kind of testing.

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Public nudity is widely condemned by officialdom and can be punished.

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However, as long as the streaker escapes without being caught,

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streaking is clearly harmless;

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one would be sorry to miss seeing a given instance.

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Streaking is a fad.

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A fad allows everyone to demonstrate how different he is — in the same way.

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Fads wear out. Fads come and go.

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Streaking became a fad in the fall of 1973,

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soon making national headlines.

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It faded out and then came back in the 80’s and again in the 90’s.

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On at least one campus (Princeton University, a highly respected school),

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a form of streaking has become a tradition.

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Each year at midnight on the night of the first snow,

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nude sophomores run around Princeton’s Holder Courtyard.

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The tradition has taken hold to an extent

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that it gets favorable treatment in the national press,

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and official attempts to end the practice get no public support.