A wet T-shirt contest is a form of beauty contest in which the participating women wear a white or light-colored T-shirt without a bra, while being sprayed with water to make their clothing semi-transparent. The water is often ice-cold to induce erect nipples, as in sexual arousal. The participants sometimes remove their T-shirts, appearing topless or even totally naked.

Wet T-shirt contests can be considered a form of striptease or erotic dance. The performance is intended to cause sexual arousal among the audience, which usually consists predominantly of heterosexual males (or lesbian women).

Analogous "wet boxer-short contest" with well-endowed young male participants are also held, for audiences of heterosexual women (or homosexual men).

The origin of wet T-shirt contests is generally traced back to Jacqueline Bisset's appearance in the film The Deep (1977), in whose opening sequence she was seen swimming underwater and surfacing, wearing a white T-shirt with a topless bikini.

Wet T-shirt contests were used in the UK in the 1980s to find new "big boob" models. Both Stacey Owen and Debbie Quorell were discovered in this way.

Controversies

Catherine Bosley

In 2003 the Youngstown, Ohio TV news anchor Catherine Bosley caused a controversy by entering a wet T-shirt contest at a local bar while on vacation in Key West, ultimately stripping down to appear totally naked. The competition was videotaped and later broadcast on the Internet. After this became public knowledge, Bosley resigned.

This caused intense debate at the time as it was felt that, although high-profile media people customarily have morals clauses in their contracts, her behavior in Key West was not necessarily immoral. She took her clothes off at a regularly planned event in a location where the behavior is considered acceptable. Bosley also claimed that she had just recovered from a deadly lung disease and wanted to celebrate life. She is now a reporter for WOIO (CBS) in Cleveland, Ohio.

In-flight wet T-shirt contest

In 1998 a group of Portland, Oregon teenagers celebrating their high school graduation on a chartered Boeing 727 flight to a Mexican resort held a rowdy wet T-shirt contest after a flight steward encouraged the activity.

An FAA investigation followed, as the aircraft's pilots supposedly judged the contest on the flight deck, while federal aviation rules state that passengers are not allowed in the cockpit. A video had been taken that clearly showed the contestants emerging from the cockpit wearing their wet T-shirts, and the pilots were disciplined by the FAA for sexual misconduct.