Bay to Breakers 2016

[defier]

Looks like the year with least female nudity so far?

[zorian5]

Originally Posted by defier

Looks like the year with least female nudity so far?

I agree. I’ve constantly searched for images and have scoured through countless videos from this year’s event and I can honestly say that this could indeed be possibly the worst year for female nudity ever at bay to breakers as far as I can recall. I mean what gives? Great weather, warmer temps etc…. I don’t know but I do have a theory. There are probably many other theories as well including the fear of being discovered naked on social media etc.

To me, it seems as if the current conditions or mindset for female nudity at this event has shifted more to an almost exclusively male nudity is acceptable only mindset. These days, most female participants are either middle-aged conservative soccer moms types or younger college-aged females who are more interested in dressing up in Halloween style costumes versus baring anything of significance. Many of these women at the same time though, are extremely infatuated with the idea of CFNM. While certainly not new at b2b, the CFNM phenomenon has in my opinion reached fever pitch.

Many of the regular and veteran nude male participants now have their own Flickr/social media pages filled with literally hundreds of these types of CFNM photos as I’m sure many of you have noticed.

Here’s a quick video that sort of encapsulates the type of women at b2b and their current attitude regarding nudity.

youtube.com/watch?v=zI9844Q5FHE

28 sec- 32 sec
58 sec – 1:36

In my opinion, this is a sad day for those of us who love female public nudity particularly at b2b. Hopefully, the tide will once again turn into our favor within the coming years. Only time will tell.

[bigfatpig]

Originally Posted by defier

Looks like the year with least female nudity so far?

Definitely, in truth there has been a slow decline in the amount of female nudity at B2B for quite some time. The first time I went to B2B was in 2003 and I saw quite a few naked women. I went again in 2015 and didn't see one. I pin this down to several reasons.

1.) Nudism is declining. Many of the people that have gone naked at B2B are practicing nudist and nudism across the western world is in serious decline.

2.) Social Media. I think most women are worried that photos of them naked at B2B will be splashed all over social media and the internet.

3.) Stricter rules at B2B. The race organizers have cracked down on a lot of the debauchery at the race. Nudity included.

[stevin6]

Originally Posted by bigfatpig

Definitely, in truth there has been a slow decline in the amount of female nudity at B2B for quite some time. The first time I went to B2B was in 2003 and I saw quite a few naked women. I went again in 2015 and didn't see one. I pin this down to several reasons.

1.) Nudism is declining. Many of the people that have gone naked at B2B are practicing nudist and nudism across the western world is in serious decline.

2.) Social Media. I think most women are worried that photos of them naked at B2B will be splashed all over social media and the internet.

3.) Stricter rules at B2B. The race organizers have cracked down on a lot of the debauchery at the race. Nudity included.

This could be the main reasons. On the other hand, i'm wondering if the sponsors (main sponsor) also has influence on the stricter rules. Because i thought i saw that they have now a different main sponsor then in the past when the Dutch ING bank (American subsidairy) was the main sponsor. And if the local authorities don't care, the ING bank won't care as they are common with the gay-canal parade in Amsterdam, Carribean carnaval parades, WNBR's, etc.
I hope that this has no effect on the forthcomming WNBR's in this area.

[bigfatpig]

Originally Posted by stevin6

This could be the main reasons. On the other hand, i'm wondering if the sponsors (main sponsor) also has influence on the stricter rules. Because i thought i saw that they have now a different main sponsor then in the past when the Dutch ING bank (American subsidairy) was the main sponsor. And if the local authorities don't care, the ING bank won't care as they are common with the gay-canal parade in Amsterdam, Carribean carnaval parades, WNBR's, etc.
I hope that this has no effect on the forthcomming WNBR's in this area.

I don't think this has much to do with the sponsor and more to do with the changing demographics of the city.

[crispus]

Originally Posted by defier

Looks like the year with least female nudity so far?

And yet, plenty of her at flickr.com/photos/51205467@N04/

[pennywiseguy2]

Some

PWG2

[stevin6]

Originally Posted by pennywiseguy2

Some

PWG2

Great finds, showing that there still some woman, although not many, to go sexy and (half)nude/topless. May be there is still future for female public nudity in San Fransisco and in particular B2B.

[crispus]

Few more:

[Fingersp]

I've photographed every Bay to Breakers since 1999. I noticed the decline after 2009 and if you look at the raw clicks on my camera you can see the decline: 2009 - 1800; 2010 - 975; 2011 - 900; 2012 - 880; 2013 - 1400; 2014 - 500; 2015 - 760; 2016 - 670. Also, in more recent years I've moved my burst mode from 3 shots a second to 6, so the count should have gone up.
I think that the reduction has happened for a variety of reasons (not in any order)

1 - Social media
2 - The San Francisco Nudity Ban
3 - Elimination of floats / crackdown on alcohol / backpack ban / complaints from the panhandle

I've always noticed three types of nudity: 1) the serious runners who run nude (few and far between, but there were two nude women near the front of the pack this year. 2) the middle of the pack, and this would include all the Bare to Breakers crowd and nudists. There were NO nude runners with the bright green Bare 2 Breakers caps on this year (although I did see a few of their members). 3) the partiers at the back of the pack. These are those who typically were a little inebriated and less inhibited.

(1) I get in the middle of the street and ask people if I can take their pictures. In the 2000's I'd sometimes get asked it it was going on a website. A few years back I'd get asked if I was posting to facebook or social media. Now nobody asks, they assume, and I think that has reduced the nudity.

(2) A group of men would hang around The Castro naked all year (which I can't fathom as SF is typically in the 50's). The Castro's supervisor and the mayor pushed for a nudity ban which was passed. Public event organizers such as The Folsom Street Fair, B2B and the Pride Festival can ask for an exemption to the ban. Bay to Breakers did NOT ask for this exemption, and some runners were asked to put on clothes in 2015 and a few were cited. I din't know if that happened this year. It's always been illegal to be nude in Golden Gate Park. The ordinance prohibits genitals, so women can be topless, but that is not well understood.

(3) Old timers will remember the infamous "Tiki Hut", a rolling bar pushed through the seven miles of the route with a large Parrot Head type crowd hanging around. Shopping carts with beer kegs were pushed through the route. The back of the pack party crowd would get wild, and sometimes naked. The party would roll on into Golden Gate park, but around 2010 the party in the panhandle section (at the park entrance) became the spot this group would stop and hang out at. Some residents complained and that began the beginning of the crackdown on alcohol. Now there are several checkpoints on the route where security confiscates any alcohol.

(4) I think in this age of sexting being naked in public is just not as big of a deal.

Meanwhile - here are a few of my shots from this year - enjoy!