Forget about the problems of binge-drinking and its negative consequences — there is a new campus enemy No. 1 in town. This new enemy is public nakedness and its negative consequences.
According to reports, after last Saturday’s arrest of two women for alleged engagement in sexual activity in the store window of Nogginz, crowds angrily booed the police for breaking up the show. According to reports in November, crowds also reacted angrily after a strip show reportedly finished in an apartment window over State Street.
With these two high profile events, State Street nakedness is becoming an increasingly common occurrence. Unfortunately, these types of events always end when the participants get bored, or when police eventually step in to shut the free shows down. It is clear that State Street crowds for whatever reason cannot handle these endings in an appropriate manner.
The university’s project to curb binge-drinking, PACE, repeatedly explains that students will inevitably drink, and the group’s aims to prevent the negative consequences of over-consumption. Similarly, it is becoming an increasing reality that students with access to windows will inevitably strip, and in some cases go even further. Acknowledging this reality, the university and surrounding community must work together to prevent the unruly behavior of crowds who feel slighted when the lights are turned off on a peep show.
The community should not need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to geographically and statistically analyze unlicensed strip shows to address the problem. We can nip things in the bud by educating students and downtown partiers about how to react when they see a naked person in a window. State Street revelers are an intelligent group, and there is no reason they cannot be taught to go home or head to Qdoba after witnessing a public sex act.
Beyond educating onlookers, local exhibitionists would be wise to organize and agree to a voluntary ban on weekend stripping and public love-making. These activities are already heavily regulated (OK, perhaps illegal), and a voluntary ban on the weekends when voyeurs seem most unruly could prevent further regulations and harsher penalties.
