For those who have never encountered the term, Pole Dancing has nothing to do with folk dances of Polish origin, Maypoles, or drunks who believe that the telephone poles are following them as they drive home -- although alcohol is sometimes involved. Pole Dancing is the performance style common to "exotic" dances in strip clubs, and involves a series of gymnastic or even acrobatic maneuvers executed while clinging to and spinning around a pole extending from the floor of the stage to the ceiling. Clearly, this is not something you'd want located in (or moving into) a retail space in the center of town, or anywhere families with small children are likely to encounter it, unless you take an unusually tolerant view of sex education. But the case that came up a week or so ago demonstrates once again that things are never that simple, especially where First Amendment Rights are involved...
As reported in the York PA Daily Record, a woman named Stephanie Babines is attempting to open a dance studio in rural Adams Township, where she will teach (among other things) pole dancing to local women who want to learn how to do it. Note that this is not a strip club or a "gentleman's club;" there will be no men allowed in these classes, and spectators will not be permitted either. In fact, there will be no nudity involved, and nothing will go on in any of the studio's classes that could not be shown on network television in prime time. But this hasn't stopped the local authorities from going berserk over the studio's business permit application...
The township government seems to be taking the position that anything that might be remotely defined as a sex-based business, or even anything that might be remotely defined as promoting a sex-based business (or even anything implying that there are such things as sex-based businesses, one supposes) are in violation of a town ordinance that governs business permits. This is often considered a slippery-slope situation, in the sense that once a given municipality has one sex-based business, it is no longer possible to prevent other such businesses from opening. And we all know how dangerous THAT could be!
In fairness, there are cetain public safety risks associated with bars of any kind, and strip clubs in particular. But this situation isn't about increased rates of public intoxication (the dance studio doesn't serve alcohol), noise polution (the studio will be sound-proofed and will not operate at night), drunken driving (no alcohol, no drunk driving), or associated crime (no drunks with cash to rob, no cash register full of cash to rob, no dancers with handfulls of dollar bills to rob, no scantily-clad women to assault, no crowds of drunks to get into brawls, and so on); it's only about whether this type of business is going to be difficult for families with small children to deal with. Which is hard to imagine in this case...
The bottom line in this case seems to be at what point does the township's collective right to live in peace (without troublesome reminders that people do, on occasion, behave in risque fashions) outweigh the rights of a law-abiding citizen to operate a business that teaches people how to dance in a risque fashion? If the good people of Adams Township don't want a studio like this one, can't they just not do business there? Or does the Township government have a responsibility to protect their citizens from the (possible) effects of such an operation?
It's worth thinking about...
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2 comments:
I didn't know that one had to "learn" pole-dancing. I mean, its not like one's talent for pole dancing is the point of these clubs. If men really want to see 'dancing,' there's going to be other places. A strip/gentlemen's club tends to have just one type of entertainment, and its not dancing.
Okay, let's accept for the sake of discussion that none of the techniques used by exotic dancers is actually hard to do, or anything you need to be trained in. Even assuming that's true, it's not the point of the article (or of my ethics question for the week). The question was about whether the owner has the right to operate this type of business...
Let's say that all the studio is doing is teaching suburban women how to duplicate the moves a performer in a strip club might do - which is what the owner is claiming she will be doing. Does the township have a right to censor such activities? Especially when none of the public safety issues associated with an actual strip club apply to this business? What if the studio also teaches other forms of dance and provides aerobics classes, as well?
The truth is, it's not that simple...
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