Michigan nude dancing and alcohol update

If this really takes effect, it would probably mean more topless bars going to nude rather than nude clubs adding alcohol, since a liquor license isn't that easy to acquire. Since most of the nude clubs in Michigan are Deja Vus, it would depend on whether they hold enough sway to get licensed, and, if they could, whether they would want to give up their 18-20 crowd. However, the article makes it sound like a temporary stay of the ban, only until the state can rewrite it.

PA is like that now, you have to choose between nude and alcohol. It's no big deal, it just results in more variety. Most of Maryland is like that too.

The question really is, where CAN you drink and watch totally nude women?

In CT you can do it in a BYOB club.

Not in NY, FL, TX, OH, MI (yet), AZ, OR, or CA that I am aware of.

Isn't this wierd? What is the connection between the sight of a pussy and alcohol? I don't recall hearing about those drunken men, unaffected by boobs and backsides, but unable to control their behavior once the dreaded pussy gets exposed. This nation has a long history of being totally confused about nudity, sex, violence, and drinking.

Bottoms up! ;-)

In the case of Michigan, a change would probably result in more variety. As it stands, you have to choose between Deja Vu and alcohol.

Harrydave a little tongue in cheek history for your education and amusement. Keep in mind that this is all coming from memory so the dates are approximate.

Early to mid sixties.

A clever bar owner decides to employ good looking young women to dance in bikinis and mid calf length white boots on little platforms throughout the bar. The boots are known as go-go boots thus is born the go-go dancer and go-go bar.

Mid sixties.

In San Francisco or so the story goes one of these go-go dancers has a wardrobe malfunction and the top of her bikini falls off. Oops. The crowd approves and thus is born the topless dancer and bar. The idea sweeps the country.

Late sixties to early seventies.

The burden of bikinis bottoms becomes too much for the topless dancers and they began to remove them. The crowd once again approves and the nudie bar is born. The idea sweeps the country. Alcohol is still being served and all is as it should be. Law enforcement seeing everyones contentment begins to act. Laws are passed arrests are made and the prosecution of dancers and bars is in full swing. Off to court they go. First one side wins then the other all the way up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court having a stroke of brilliance rules that nude dancing is an expression of free speech thus protected under the First Amendment. The crowd is pleased and praises the wisdom of the Supreme Court. All is as it should be once again.

The eighties or as I like to refer to them the dark ages of strip clubs.

Government grows more and more upset at their inability to rid the land of the cancer known as nude dancing. From their ranks arises a hero who declares if we can’t legislate them out of existence then lets spoil their fun by taking away their ability to drink while watching nude dancing. I believe this idea started in the mid west where one of the states gleefully banned the sales of liquor where nude dancing occurred. Off to court they go once again all the way to the Supreme Court. This time the Supreme Court that under the 21st Amendment, this is the amendment that repealed prohibition, the states have the right to regulate activities where liquor is served. This form of prohibition sweeps the country thus strip clubs had to choose between being nude without liquor or topless with liquor. Most clubs choose not to give up their liquor license and the bottoms go back on. The crowd is not pleased and attendance drops off. Many clubs fail and a great dark cloud block out the sun.

The nineties.

All though I do not know exactly where or when it first occurred one day a ray of light breaks through the cloud and the lap dance is born. It starts out slow at first but gains momentum and spreads throughout the land to topless bars large and small. From the neighborhood dives to the opulent gentlemens clubs. It takes on many forms and is fought at every turn by law enforcement. Even some of the nude clubs adopt it although most don’t and stick with the air dance. This battle continues on for over a decade and brings us to the current day.

So you see it is not the fact that we are unable to control our behavior in the presence of the pussy when drinking alcohol but the consequences of a battle that has been raging for over fifty years between those who would indulge in their freedom of speech and those who would suppress it.

harrydave

Atlanta, Georgia allows drinking and nude dancing, but mostly it's all airshow.

Harrydave, Baltimore also has nude dancing and alcohol but the rest of Maryland doesn't allow it. Which is why the girls dance nude at Gentlemen's Gold Club and they have a full bar, but 2 blocks away Wagon Wheel is BYOB - they're outside city limits. Both places also have topless laps and you can fondle boobs at the Wheel but not at GGC. And McDoogals, a couple miles away in yet another county, has nude laps and is BYOB but no touching boobs. And if that's not confusing enough, nearby Washington, DC, also has nude dancing and alcohol but no private dances or touching of any kind. Does all this make sense to anyone?

Robofan, that was very amusing but not very historically accurate. Both topless and nude dancing have been around much longer than you indicate. I actually think you've told half the story fairly accurately, but there's another half you missed. At the same time that bar owners were adding go-go girls there also existed the very raunchy dives of places like Boston's Combat Zone and Baltimore's Block. I think today's strip clubs are largely a merging of these two totally different kinds of places. If you want to see what those raunchy places were like, visit Baltimore's Block, which hasn't changed in 50 years. I don't think anything like it exists anywhere else in the country today. It's worth seeing, but only once, and if you go, hang on to your wallet.

As Robofan made reference to, I've always heard that the linking of alcohol and nudity goes back to regulatory attitudes upon the repeal of Prohibition. The states were very determined to keep organized crime from regaining the stranglehold they had during Prohibition on liquor sales and distribution. So, they used their licensing authority to clamp down on any activity that could conceivably be associated with vice rackets controlled by the mob - gambling, drugs, prostitution. It wasn't intended to moralistically protect patrons from sin as much as it was a heavy-handed tactic in a turf war. Originally, at least.

Chandler, I never heard that before but it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, like so many good government intentions, the application has become totally illogical and they've completely lost sight of the original objective. The whole point of PA's LCB today is to reward political cronies with high paying jobs that require them to do nothing. Other than that it serves no useful purpose that I can see. Now it's the government who is the organized crime.

Here is a recommendation for Michigan politicians:

NEW NUDE CLUB + ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES LAW:

1 to 2 drinks - patron allowed to touch anything dancer permits
3 to 4 drinks - patron allowed to touch upper half of dancer's body only
5 to 6 drinks - patron allowed to touch face, shoulders & arms only
7 to 8 drinks - patron is handcuffed while receiving lap dances, however, dancer is permitted to touch patron anywhere she pleases.

Sounds fair to me!

hd- Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale clubs have nudity and alcohol- have been that way since the 80's. However, lapdances are generally topless, stage shows nude. Tampa area is nude stage shows & lapdances, no alcohol.

Bones- That sounds like a great idea!

Well.... after Michigan's football defeat last Saturday, they'd better keep the alcohol flowing readily at ALL THE BARS!

HarryDave, a minor update: Oregon allows full nudity and full alcohol, but lap dances are all air. At one or two juice bars, lap dances are real lap dances.

None of the PA places that I know that have the highest contact sell alcohol. Seems like a fair trade-off to me. If I want to drink I go to a bar. If I want to play with strippers I go to a no-alcohol club, although many of them allow you to bring your own.