Reporting on the Private Parts

This blog will track our musings on privacy over the next year as part of a series of articles on The Not-So Private Parts. This project is part of a master's program in journalism at New York University, and will be conducted under the tutelage/editorship of Ted Conover and Rob Boynton as part of NYU's Portfolio program.

A physical entry point into musings on privacy is the topic of nudism. Clothes provide the barrier between the world and those parts of our bodies that are so fundamentally private that they have earned the name "private parts." There are some people who seek to abdicate that privacy and embrace nudism or naturalism. While some feel most comfortable in the buff, it makes others terribly uncomfortable.

A nudist colony has made its way into the news recently, due to the upcoming "Lingerie Bowl," an offshoot of the Super Bowl. The Lingerie Bowl, in its sixth year, had struggled to find a home for a bunch of underwear-clad models to play football. We find this a bit shocking-- we'd think a fraternity somewhere would gladly lend their university's football field, but that's another story...

The league originally planned to play in a vacant lot in Tampa, but local residents complained about skantily-clad women cavorting in their neighborhood. Florida's Caliente Nudist Resort then offered to host the bowl, and all was set for kick-off this Saturday. But now the St. Petersburg Times reports that the game is off. The reason is not entirely clear, but it sounds like the league objected to too many nudists being around and possibly in the audience during broadcasting.

Said the league spokesperson, "we feel ultimately it is in the best interest of the league not to place ourselves in what some would consider a potentially negative environment."

So, in the end, the nudists out-scandalized the partially-nude.

Lingerie Bowl canceled over dispute with Caliente nudist resort [St. Petersburg Times]