From the Salt Lake City Weekly:
Utah law generously gives those who want to partake in a smattering of clubs where women can earn a living by entertaining mostly men (yes, Martha, women go to see women dance, too) who have more money than common sense. In the upward spiral of social Darwinism, I think it’s damned fine that dancers separate those louts from their Jeffersons. Not all the men in dance clubs are louts. Just the louts. If you’ve ever been to a dance club, you can tell the difference. I can tell the difference.
I doubt that people like newly appointed liquor Commissioner Bobbie Coray, who openly admits to being a Democrat and a feminist, can tell the difference. On her first day on the job, she cast the lone dissenting vote against renewing the liquor license for Trails Men’s Club. (Just as Coray refuses to call Sexually Oriented Businesses “SOBs,” I refuse to call places in which women dance with poles “strip clubs.”) Coray also voted to deny license to an Ogden club that features “exotic dancers”—in both cases because such places are “demeaning to women.” Not all women who work in SOBs would agree.
Anyway, SOBs are equally demeaning to both sexes. Ever seen a dirty dollar bill twisted around a man’s tongue, for instance? Or stuck between the gap in his teeth? I have, and it isn’t pretty. But Coray’s solution to rid Utah of demeaning environments is not based in reality. Her rationale for removing liquor is this: “You wouldn’t have much of a business if all you offered was Diet Coke.”
I have a hard time telling a consenting adult that a behavior I many not personally agree with. Maybe stripping is demeaning toward women. But if it is, so is the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Playboy magazines and so on- and we certainly cannot ban these activities (and if we did, it would merely spawn a black market with associated crime). Simply being demeaning isn’t justification for government to intervene and ban or limit the activity.
I agree, there is simply no way to legislate this. It has been entrenched for long enough that there is no practical way to fight it anyway. And I agree that sex businesses are equally demeaning to both sexes, although not necessarily for the same reason as the writer. I feel that men really come off looking worse, because we have a duty to value women, and not succumb to every urge we have.
Most of the people involved in the management of these types of organizations are complete and total sleaze, happy to break whatever laws they can get away with to make a buck. I had the unfortunate distinction of meeting some of these societal scum-suckers when I lived in Las Vegas. I felt like I should wear a glove when shaking their hand.
Legalizing the industry hasn’t done much to make it honest. If nothing else, it’s made for a better generation of scofflaws who know how to manipulate the system and intimidate employees, er, “independent contractors” into waiving their rights. Just look at the effects of Operation G-Sting in Las Vegas and San Diego to get a good idea of who these dirtbags really are.
Then what is the consequence of banning such establishments?
i don’t think strip clubs are demeaning to women per se. here’s why: women have always been sex objects, whether we like it or not. i highly suspect that we’ll continue to be sex objects, too, if not for the simple fact that our bodies will forever be prettier than the hairy, utilitarian male form.
selling diet coke instead of liquor is going to keep the ladies’ clothes on?? that’s just bad logic. it’s going to keep women from being treated as sex objects? get real.
i think it’s far more demeaning for a woman to be traded to man for marriage for 3 goats and a buffalo than for a women to strip for an income.
“i highly suspect that we’ll continue to be sex objects, too, if not for the simple fact that our bodies will forever be prettier than the hairy, utilitarian male form.”
jess, you kill me.
And you are right. The alcohol question is completely peripheral to the sexually oriented business question.
well, i am NOT trying to kill you, but i am glad you laughed.
Tom, it’s going to take rigorous enforcement of the laws already on the books. The feds found out what illegal pies these guys had fingers in and collapsed them indirectly. Cities, counties and the state can collect complaints about violating employment laws and nail ‘em with a huge lawsuit. In short, you jail and bankrupt the owners. The honest ones (if they even exist) would be the only ones left and then I wouldn’t care so much.
Amen, Jess. Men are hideous. Although I have to say I do have a cute little muffin ass.