Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy, and a Christian Right

Front Cover
University of Texas Press, May 1, 2012 - Religion - 348 pages

Across America, strip clubs have come under attack by a politically aggressive segment of the Christian Right. Using plausible-sounding but factually untrue arguments about the harmful effects of strip clubs on their communities, the Christian Right has stoked public outrage and incited local and state governments to impose onerous restrictions on the clubs with the intent of dismantling the exotic dance industry. But an even larger agenda is at work, according to Judith Lynne Hanna. In Naked Truth, she builds a convincing case that the attack on exotic dance is part of the activist Christian Right’s “grand design” to supplant constitutional democracy in America with a Bible-based theocracy.

Hanna takes readers onstage, backstage, and into the community and courts to reveal the conflicts, charges, and realities that are playing out at the intersection of erotic fantasy, religion, politics, and law. She explains why exotic dance is a legitimate form of artistic communication and debunks the many myths and untruths that the Christian Right uses to fight strip clubs. Hanna also demonstrates that while the fight happens at the local level, it is part of a national campaign to regulate sexuality and punish those who do not adhere to Scripture-based moral values. Ultimately, she argues, the naked truth is that the separation of church and state is under siege and our civil liberties—free speech, women’s rights, and free enterprise—are at stake.

 

Contents

Acknowledgments
Church and State Conflict
1 Scripture and Hostility to Exotic Dance
Call to War
Striptease 101 or Seduction by the Devil
Marginal or Mainstream?
Bench Trials
Jury Trials
Appendix 5 Messages of Physical Distance
Appendix 6 Expressive Contact in Exotic Dance
Lap Dance Heritage
Appendix 8 Exotic Dance Patrons
Appendix 9 Judith Lynne Hannas Exotic Dance Expert Witness Court Testimony
Appendix 10 Illustrative Jurisdictions that Attack Exotic Dance
Appendix 11 Key Christian Right Political Activists and Revenue in the News 19952010
Appendix 12 Arsenal of a Segment of the Politically Active Christian Right

Need to be Saved?
Where Are the Bodies?
9 Stripping Your First Amendment and More
Appendix 1 Exotic Dance
Appendix 2 Comparison
Appendix 3 Exotic Dance Criteria for Serious Artistic Merit
Appendix 4 Nudity in Exotic Dance
What Neighbors Say about Exotic Dance Clubs
Appendix 14 Protection under the Constitution of the United States of America
Notes
References
Index
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

A leading dance scholar and critic who has served as an expert court witness in more than one hundred exotic dance cases nationwide, Judith Lynne Hanna is Affiliate Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland. She has written hundreds of articles and numerous books, including To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication; The Performer-Audience Connection; Dance, Sex, and Gender; Dancing for Health: Conquering and Preventing Stress; and Partnering Dance and Education.

Bibliographic information