• The Worldwide Roar launches its new 2023 range of calendars, digital subscriptions, art prints and more.
• The Roar enables athletes of different ethnicities, ages, sexualities, and body types to get naked together to promote equality and inclusion.
• The Roar has arrived in American Football! The Pinto Goldbats is a Madrid-based team who were very happy to get all that kit off for the Roar!
• The Worldwide Roar inspired, founded and still funds the registered charity Sport Allies, currently in the UK news as recipients of a £5000 donation from comedian Joe Lycett, who threatened to shred the money in protest at ‘ally’ David Beckham’s central role in promoting the World Cup in Qatar.
• Worldwide Roar has also raised £5k for Sport Allies through its first virtual exhibition, Seeing Men – don’t miss it!

The Qatar World Cup has shone a spotlight on the responsibility of sport towards the wider community, particularly in relation to human rights, inclusion, and equality of life chances.  At all levels, we have seen how power and money have trumped ideals.  Yet we instinctively know that sport should be an exemplar of equality and inclusion – it is no accident that terms like ‘level playing field’ and ‘fair play’ come from the world of sport.

The cliché of the alpha male jock is a cliché for a reason.  Men who play sport at a senior level tend to be among the most privileged in our society.  Male footballers occupy a privileged place in our world.  We have seen how individual athletes and whole teams understand that they must be allies of those with less privilege.  Being an ally to those with less privilege is a powerful opportunity for sportsmen to make a difference.  But sport itself can be the barrier to success. For men who want to explore their potential and leave their mark on the world, big money is rarely the friend it initially appears to be.

Photo Courtesy of Angus Malcolm

At the Worldwide Roar, we have been supporting sportsmen to live up to their potential as allies.  They understand that sport occupies a special in many people’s hearts and mind, and rightly see this as a platform to promote positive values.

We began as a student calendar began in 2009, when mainly straight male rowers at an English university posed nude to challenge homophobia in sport. The massive global response to the Warwick Rowers calendar highlighted how taboos around male nudity relate to wider social problems that affect us all. It kick-started an award-winning campaign to change how we look at men.

Fourteen naked calendars later, volunteer athletes of different ages, ethnicities, sexualities, and life chances come together from a growing range of sports to go nude for equality and human rights.

Qatar has highlighted how difficult it is to challenge the patriarchal culture that remains so firmly embedded both within and beyond sport, the Worldwide Roar asks more sportsmen to join our movement, to make a serious commitment as men to exploring vulnerability, promoting healthier masculinity, and making a personal stand for equality.  We invite male athletes to challenge themselves and the world around them through nudity with purpose.

On why a challenging campaign has proved popular with the athletes who take part, WR Director Angus Malcolm commented:

“Allies learn to look beyond their own experience and their own immediate interests to consider the needs of others. In so many ways, this is still a man’s world. But the men who join the Roar begin a journey towards consciousness of their privilege, and their ability to be part of the change the rest of the world needs to see.” 

Photo Courtesy of Angus Malcolm

One of our featured sports this year – for the first time – is American Football. The Pinto Goldbats, a football team based in Madrid, are making their debut in the ROAR are already loving it!  The Goldbats, whose mission is to integrate sporting values into everyday life, are an exceptional team.

The Goldbats fully embraced the Roar’s mission to experience the vulnerability of others for themselves, and to show respect for women and diverse sexualities by making a long-term commitment to change. Nacho, the Goldbat’s captain said:

“Shooting with the ROAR has been an incredible experience for all of us at Goldbats. It’s more than being proud of their mission, though we are.  It’s also about how it feels for us to connect as a team by being naked together.  We can already feel how it had a positive impact on our team and how it will make us stronger approaching our sports and games.  Nudity connected to values in this way has turned out to be a very powerful team-building tool for us.  We’re confident that getting naked for the Roar will take us up a league!”

While the Goldbats are making their debut in the Roar this year, the Manchester Village Spartans RUFC are returning for their second calendar, and their third major shoot:

“What was so amazing about the shoot for the Roar was how a massive group of gay and straight men, Spartans, and guests, all got naked together and created a truly memorable and uplifting experience.  There were hilarious moments but what brought me the most joy was to see so many men drop their guards and embrace this very unusual moment together.  We’ve had a blast on every shoot we’ve done with the Roar and would recommend it to any sports club.”

Photo Courtesy of Angus Malcolm

Sportsmen from all over the UK joined the Spartans for the calendar shoot, including representatives from the Birmingham Bulls, the Manchester Sharks, and the London Stags.

Long-time participant Lucas has been stripping off for the project since 2015 and now helps behind the scenes, too.  He is proud of the calendar’s evolution:

“When we started in 2009 as the Warwick Rowers, we were all good mates from similar backgrounds with similar life chances.  It was still a big journey for us to get naked together and show our bodies to the world, but the Roar has now become a much more powerful and life-changing experience for the guys who join.  Men of different ages, sexualities, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds all come together naked.”  

Nick, who works in publishing, joined the project in 2019 through his membership of an inclusive rowing club in London. Making his third calendar appearance this year, he loves the direction the project is taking as it expands from rowing into other sports.

“We need to redefine the all-male space. The Roar does that. Instead of enabling toxic banter among men who think alike, the Roar creates a healing space where a diverse range of men can come together to explore what masculinity means to them. It gives them perspective on how differently we experience life.  It’s the key to becoming allies.” 

Photo Courtesy of Angus Malcolm

WR Director Angus Malcolm is conscious of the challenges that lie ahead for WR.

“Look at how FIFA have behaved in Qatar, silencing their players because, really, FIFA is playing a bigger game of its own.  There are parallels in our own history as a project, not least from the misogynistic, homophobic world of Big Tech.  Nudity for them takes place in a lapdancing club and is all about the dollar.  But look at Zelensky standing up to Putin, and Joe Lycett, standing up to big football.  These men, these comedians, are true allies. They show the men who think they own the room that they actually don’t.  We offer men the chance to follow in their footsteps, and learn that happiness and meaning come from finding a new and better way to own the room.”

WATCH OUR BRAND NEW VIDEO TO FIND OUT WHY we need men as allies – and men need to embrace vulnerability. CLICK TO WATCH AND SHARE, COPYRIGHT FREE!