Squeezing Nude Juice Bars in South Dakota
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:39 PM

It turns out that not everyone thinks that nude dancing in public establishments should be tolerated. In South Dakota, some local activists are taking their case statewide:

Citizens Against Nude Juice Bars and Pornography has been gaining signatures on informal petitions that ask South Dakota lawmakers to approve an effective state obscenity law...

The organization chose this path after Bob Rieger took advantage of an exception in McCook County's nude-dancing ban last summer to reopen Racehorses Gentlemen's Club as a movie theater outside of Salem. It offers black-and-white and independent movies, as well as nude dancing.

One suspects that it is not the cinema that is the main draw at Racehorses, despite South Dakota's reputation for embracing independent films.

The name of the group is a bit puzzling, for two reasons. First, what will happen to those concerned citizens who disapprove of nude juice bars, but approve of pornography, and vice versa? Second, just what is a nude juice bar, anyway? Morality in Media to the rescue:

An entrepreneur who does not have a liquor license or who has lost it for violations of a nudity-alcohol ordinance, or who may want to avoid the prohibitions or provisions of such an ordinance, will frequently turn to the "Juice Bar" gambit where, instead of serving alcohol, he or she will serve soft drinks or juices and continue presenting nude "dancing." These establishments may also admit minors since no liquor is served. This latter element makes such establishments doubly pernicious.

[Update: A Vice Squad reader writes in about nude juice bars in one California region. Alcohol licensing laws come packaged with restrictions that preclude total nudity in establishments that serve alcohol (this is the case in Chicago, too). But at places without an alcohol license -- such as juice bars -- total nudity is permitted. The California juice bars, according to the VS reader, allow in patrons who are 18 years old or older, while the alcohol-serving clubs are only for those 21 and up.]

Labels: dancing, pornography, South Dakota