Anybody remember the Alamo? Perhaps someday, historians will remember another divisive San Antonio battle, this one over the proud chests of local strippers. And, though Texans are not known for a “give up” attitude, that’s exactly what has happened with six prominent exotic dance clubs. After an arduous three-year legal battle with the city over a controversial “human display ordinance,” the clubs are calling it quits. The law requires topless dancers to keep a distance from customers, restricts the use of private rooms and requires dancers to register with the city and wear “stripper badges,” to prove they have done so. That’s right, fellow Americans, this is current day Texas, not WWII Germany.
The clubs aren’t giving in completely, however. Dancers will be asked to put on pasties. Dancers with pasties won’t be covered under the human display ordinance, and will be able to touch customers and perform lap dances at the tables. One dancer put it in a logical, economic-based context: it’s more profitable for a dancer with pasties to perform a lap dance than for a topless dancer to stay three feet away from clients. Damn right.
