The Naked Guy (aka Andrew Martinez) was a fixture for a time in the early '90s at the
University of California,
Berkeley. Berkeley has always been known for its liberal attitude. Martinez wondered "well, how liberal?" The
Cupertino native decide to see if he could attend university, year round, wearing nothing more than a pair of sandals. But first he wanted to test the waters. In his freshman year, he attended class shirtless. Despite some behind-his-back hissing, he managed that. The following year he started attending class completely in the nude. Naturally, many students and the administration protested, but there was technically nothing in the rule books about
dress code. Other students rallied behind Martinez and this somewhat ultimate example of
free expression (which apparently also included, as several students witnessed, Martinez getting an erection in a Russian Lit class).
In 1992 he became something of a national celebrity. He appeared on TV (
CNN,
Sally Jessy Raphael), in
Time magazine, and gave numerous interviews. A
USENET groups
alt.fan.naked-guy was created (although it seems it was only ever used for porn spam). However, his days as a famous naked guy were cut short by the Berkeley administration that passed an anti-nudity bylaw. The law required students to keep their sexual organs covered. Martinez flouted the spirit of the law by attending class with a bandana wrapped around his pecker. The Berkeley administration was not amused. They called him to a meeting. Martinez showed up naked to that meeting. In response, the Berkeley administration expelled Martinez and banned him from campus for life.
Martinez took his go nudity campaign to the city of Berkeley itself. The Berkeley city fathers enacted their own anti-nudity legislation and arrested Martinez. He was given a two year
suspended sentence.
Martinez's public nudity stunt gave rise (hrmm) to a Berkeley area performance-art/ theater group called the X-plicit players. The X-plicit players would conduct nude plays in public. They too were arrested (several times). Unlike Martinez, their experience with the court system had been more successful. The group has successfully fought each case on
First Amendment grounds.
* * *
Oh, he's dead now
From yahoo news Sat May 20. 2006
Former 'Naked Guy' at UC-Berkeley Dies
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The former college student known as the "Naked Guy," who gained notoriety in the early 1990s for attending class in the buff, has died in jail, authorities said.
Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down strolls at the
University of California,
Berkeley, got him expelled and prompted the city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found unconscious Thursday in a Santa Clara
County jail, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi.
Officials are investigating the death as an apparent suicide.
He had been in custody since Jan. 10 on charges of battery and
assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.
In 1992, Martinez organized a "Nude-In" protest at the university. He said he was trying to make a point about
free expression.
The message caught on, and nude spottings spiked on campus. Martinez, who landed on national talk shows, was
expelled the next year after the university banned nudity