Friday, January 05, 2007

Spray-on Strippers Spite State Statute

Talk about stupid. In Alabama, anti-nudity laws require exotic dancers to wear opaque covering on critical body areas. An agreement between 18 adult clubs and the state's attorney general's office allows the women to spray themselves with flesh-colored theatrical latex, which makes them appear to be completely nude but technically still covered, in order to comply with the strict laws.
The state, which already was defending against a lawsuit filed by strip clubs challenging the law, says it reluctantly went along with the clubs rather than having a federal judge follow through on his threat to throw out the entire statute as unconstitutional. "The choice we were faced with was some covering or no covering," said Keith Miller, the chief deputy attorney general. "We decided it was better to have these coverings than nothing at all."
It's really hard to believe that these state officials are really such idiots, but apparently they are. The anti-nudity laws in Alabama serve no purpose, it would have been better for the adult clubs to challenge the laws and have them thrown out altogether rather than subject the dancers to the latex treatment.
Judith Hanna, an anthropologist and dance expert at the University of Maryland, said the idea of dancers covering themselves with latex to create the illusion of bare skin is "preposterous." "All over Europe people go topless, and in theater and dance you have nudity. There's an element of the Christian right that is fearful of anything sexual," said Hanna, who frequently serves as an expert witness for clubs challenging anti-nudity laws.


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