EDGE Rewind: Worldwide Roar (a.k.a. Warwick Rowers) Break Down Barriers with Sizzling 2023 Calendar

EDGE is reaching into its archive and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past.

In 2009 a chance encounter between a LGBTQ+ photographer and a straight athlete led to a photo shoot, and from it the Warwick Rowers calendar was born. The photographer told the athlete that he, like many gay men, felt excluded from the sport on the grounds of their sexuality or because there seemed to be no place for them within sport's deeply masculine culture.

"Following on from that conversation, a group of mainly straight athletes committed to getting naked for a calendar with a specific message for LGBT+ men: we want to celebrate your sexuality and prove that you are welcome on our team," reads the Rowers' website.

And from the calendar, the Warwick Rowers fame grew, allowing them to expand their web presence with films, digital downloads, art prints, clothing, and luxurious coffee table books, a range of products you can buy today.

"For ten years, our project grew in popularity. With the support and encouragement of leading celebrities, politicians and activists, including Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, Kylie Minogue and many more, WR went on to become one of the leading voices in the 'straight ally' movement."

With the rising fame, came commitment. "In 2014, our growing sales funded the establishment of registered charity Sport Allies, which works to make sport a more inclusive environment for everyone. The Worldwide Roar remains the charity's key funder, as part of a continuing commitment to promoting inclusion through sport," adds their website.

During the ensuing years, the Warwick Rowers became Worldwide Roar. Project founder and creative director Angus Malcolm explained how on their website:

"We started Warwick Rowers to challenge homophobia. But research at Sport Allies (the registered charity that now receives all WR profits) shows that homophobia is part of a bigger problem: hegemonic, heteronormative masculinity. I know that's a bit of a mouthful, but what it boils down to is that economically-privileged straight white men still get a different deal to everybody else. That has got to change. Of course we need to keep challenging homophobia and promoting LGBT rights, but we also need to address gender inequality and structural racism.

"Part of what perpetuates hegemonic masculinity is the lack of diversity in leadership in most areas of our society. We could not stand in front of the world as one small group with a relatively similar lived experience and ask the world to take advice from us. That's exactly what's been going on for much of history, and we don't want to be a part of that.

"We started from an authentic desire as a very small group of men who wanted to tackle the homophobia in sporting culture, which by the way remains a problem. But we have been on a journey of our own, and we have come to see that truly healthy versions of masculinity MUST embrace a broader range of more diverse perspectives. In particular, we must hear the voices of BIPOC, queer and trans communities. We could only do that by becoming the Worldwide Roar, so that men from all lived experiences could come together and share new ways to experience life as men."

Moving forward, Worldwide Roar sees their work as breaking the paradigm of the way male nudity is perceived. The men find posing nude liberating, their website writes. "Over the course of our shoots, they come to recognize how many rules and boundaries there are around the way we look at men and around any kind of intimacy between men."

The 2023 calendar features rugby players from around the United Kingdom, American Football players from Madrid, waterpolo players from Manchester, England, plus a few returning favorites.

To purchase the 2023 calendar, follow this link.