Government Regulation of the Skin Trade Is Starting to Look Scarier Every Day

[NashVegas]

This is in my local paper today:

Metro Nashville is seeking a bigger cut of strippers' income as the board that regulates adult clubs considers a large increase in permit fees.

Strippers pay $50 for a dancing permit, and the board has discussed upping that to $500.

The Sexually Oriented Business Licensing board, as it's known, is costing much more than the revenue it gets from permits and licenses. The final amount has not been set, but the board needs to cover a $48,000 shortfall and wants it covered by adult businesses, not taxpayers.

...

According to the Metro ordinance that regulates sexually oriented businesses, dancers must get a background check or fingerprint scan from the Metro police.

The check ensures that there are no sexual crimes in their past that would keep them from working in the industry, officials said.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/NEWS03/710250408

When it comes to several vices, I've leaned more towards the idea they should remain illegal and left for those with an inherent need for risk-taking behavior, rather than try to popularize and clean them up for the masses. In cases like the above, which is worse? Regular Joes may or may not exploit sex workers, but the government most definitely will.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Big Republicon Brother has a 'special' interest in controlling this." - Sen. David Vitter

"Huh, huh, huh - especially in the Diaper Stripping, and - huh, huh, huh -- Diaper _- huh, huh, huh - Sex, huh, huh, pant, huh. It is a HOLY republicon tradition. Pant, pant, huh, huh. Smirk."

- Sen. David Vitter (R)

[maine_raptor]

2. Strippers need a License???????????????

WTF?

I mean do they have to pass a stripping test too? Do they get a learner's permit before they get an actual license?

:crazy: :silly:

[NashVegas]

3. Yup

We can't have no unapproved strippers, no. We only have nice girls (and boys, I suppose) we can push around.

[Tesha]

4. Yes, but curiously, ...

> I mean do they have to pass a stripping test too?

Yes, but curiously, a "C" or a "D" on the test
is considered a better grade than an "A" ;).

Tesha

[girl gone mad]

5. I don't know..

I bar tended at a strip club in college, and I think many of the dancers would have liked the increased regulation. At one time in the club I was at, there were a couple of skeezy girls who used stripping as a means of procuring clients for prostitution, and I rarely saw the dancers as upset as on the night these two were found out. The dancers all wanted to beat the prostitutes up, and the managers had to escort them both out of the club and give them a lengthy head start driving home for their own protection.

It's my opinion based on my experiences that most exotic dancers seek a higher profile and credibility for themselves. A license and background check could be viewed as a positive and a way to distinguish their profession from other types of legal and illegal sex workers. Many professions require as much. I had to go through background checks when I was an in-home tutor, and I had to pay for TABC training and certification when I worked in bars.

[NashVegas]

7. Credibility?

I know belly dancers who don't take off a stitch, and they voice the same frustration.

The public perception of strippers is that they aren't doing what they do for the sake of art, not even erotic art. They're there to get men and women turned on. Period. It takes an amazing dancer (not an athlete!) to elevate the strip-tease to art - and those who do tend to get acknowledged.

[BB1]

6. licenses are not that bad.

Plumbers, lawyers, cabbies all have a license of some sort. In Holland, protitutes pay income tax. The have a workers Union. They're insured against all kinds of 'shit'.

Of course, our republicans are still grilled by the media for 'buying their goods'.