Readers: Municipalities Shouldn’t Change Ordinances To Keep Out Semi-Topless Establishments
A majority of people in the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll do not agree with municipalities changing their ordinances to keep out some establishments. Here were the results:
Q: Agree or disagree: Municipalities are right to change ordinances to keep out establishments where female breasts are covered only by body paint.
- Strongly agree 7 [18.92%]
- Agree 3 [8.11%]
- Somewhat agree 2 [5.41%]
- Neither agree or disagree 1 [2.7%]
- Somewhat disagree 6 [16.22%]
- Disagree 6 [16.22%]
- Strongly disagree 11 [29.73%]
- Unsure/No Answer 1 [2.7%]
Nearly two-thirds disagreed with the above statement.
This is a tough issue for smaller municipalities in a region. No nothing and be perceived as not a good place for families. Take quick action, as many have this year, and be perceived as moral puritans. There are parallels to the 19th century temperance movement, witch led to prohibition:
The country’s first serious anti-alcohol movement grew out of a fervor for reform that swept the nation in the 1830s and 1840s. Many abolitionists fighting to rid the country of slavery came to see drink as an equally great evil to be eradicated – if America were ever to be fully cleansed of sin. The temperance movement, rooted in America’s Protestant churches, first urged moderation, then encouraged drinkers to help each other to resist temptation, and ultimately demanded that local, state, and national governments prohibit alcohol outright. (PBS) http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/roots-of-prohibition/
On the other hand, the objectification of females by heterosexual males can have serious consequences, including rape and sex trafficking:
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center defines human trafficking as a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against their will.
Since 2007, more than 1,500 calls have been made from Missouri to the National Human Trafficking hotline, the same site reported.
St. Louis and Kansas City are hotspots for human trafficking. Missouri is responding through legislation, law enforcement and grassroots organizations that work to combat and raise awareness about trafficking.
“The FBI has stated that St. Louis is one of the top 20 trafficking destinations in the country. Because of our highway system, highway 70 and 44, we have a lot of possibilities for that. So we do know it’s a problem,” said Republican Rep. Elijah Haahr, chair of the Human Trafficking Task Force. “People attribute it to being an East Coast, West Coast problem. It’s a Midwestern problem, both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. (KMOX)
I’m not sure where the line should be drawn. I have no problems seeing the female nipple, our notions around nudity, decency, and morality are weird. But, as a gay man, I’m not affected the way straight men are.
Still, laws forcing women to cover their nipples where men don’t have to seems unjust — simply because some straight men are unable to control themselves.
— Steve Patterson
You certainly can relate to the attraction toward the male gender that you find attractive, can’t you? Gay men and straight men are driven equally, I would think–same spark, different igniter. The first time my wife and I lived in STL, before the 1st kid arrived, we sometimes drove to a bar in Soulard called Clementines, known for inexpensive, well-prepared prime rib, cheap well drinks and a really fun crowd. Sometimes after finishing dinner, we’d exit the restaurant area and walk around the bar toward the entrance/exit in the lounge area into an ongoing wet jockey short contest, where patrons and bartenders, using water guns, soaked the crotches of the competitors who were wearing nothing but jockey shorts and dancing on the bar. The boys were competing for a cash prize, or free drinks, or whatever. This sort of activity was fairly common at Clementines on Friday or Saturday evenings when we visited. I wonder if this activity amounted to “objectification” and if so, why this sort of “objectification of males by homosexual males wouldn’t have (similar) serious consequences of rape and child trafficking?” And I wonder if wet jockey shorts contests and provocative male performances in gay bars should be allowed in STL? I personally don’t have a problem with it, but based on one argument offered in today’s post, maybe the morality police need to start locking the boys up when they’re having more fun than the morality police think they should be having, certainly harmless fun unless one wants to over analyze it!!!!!! Government needs to stay out of our lives!!! IMO