UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 29, 1993
0.7
(Above) A customer slides a bill into Tracy's G-string. Almost all of Tracy's income comes from tips. (Above left) Tracy and her boyfriend, Shawn Trosper, Lawrence senior, shop at Dillon's grocery store, 1015 W. 23rd St.
Tracy's high-high boots and bathing suit are one of the many outfits she will wear during an afternoon of dancing at the Flamingo Club.
makes most of these dancers hate men, Tracy says. But the money keeps them coming back.
"For them the good money is a trap," she says. "They are so burnt out on dancing. They are the ones you see sitting drinking and are drunk by two in the afternoon."
Knowing that dancing is only a means for achieving her goals has kept Tracy from that trap.
"I'm lucky because I go to school," she says. "I had set goals for myself before I started dancing. In fact that why I started dancing because I want to achieve those goals."
Aman in the front row offers Tracy a swag from his bit. She takes one and then pulls herself up on the pole that is above the stage.
A grin comes across the face of the man as he takes his seat. Tracy lowers herself to the stage, turns to the back mirror and runs her fingers through her hair. The man eases back into his chair.
"I have drinks all over the place," she says. "Someone offers to buy you a drink while you're dancing, and then when the song is over you forget it. It is really easy to get drunk in this place. You really have to practice self-control."
Now she easily takes drinks from the men, but at first she wasn't so comfortable with the audience.
"When I first started dancing, I thought, I am standing here in a pair of underwear and there are men out there who are seeing me in my panties, men who I wouldn't even let in my front door." she says.
"I never feel exploited or like some piece of meat," she says. "People are paying money to look at my body. I have to see that as a compliment. I really don't see myself as some sexual toy for men to wig out on."
Even though she has worried about the types of men that look at her naked. Tracy says she does not feel like a sexual object.
She may see the attention as a compliment, but that doesn't keep her
from taking the negative aspects of the job home with her.
"After I've had a bad day. I come home and don't want my boyfriend to even touch me," she says. "I'm just like, 'don't touch me; don't talk to me; just leave me alone.'"
Besides these occasional evenings, dating a stripper has caused no problems for Tracy's boyfriend, Shawn Trosper, Lawrence senior.
"All my friends ask me how I can do this," he said. "I just say, 'It is because I love Tracy and this is what she has to do to put herself through school.'"
A away. Tracy walks off the stage.
Two men wave their hands to get her attention for a table dance later on.
She smiles and gives them a nod.
Route 3, another strip bar in the county but outside city limits, said that crime and drugs were not a problem at his business.
Strip bar controversy hits home
"There is a different, older clientele here," he said. "We just don't have those kinds of problems."
"We're just out there dancing like someone else goes to work in an office," she says. "We go in when the shift starts and punch in and then punch out when the day is over. It is just like any other job."
Continued from Page 1.
A's the last bars of the song fade
Kabler said the Flamingo did not have those problems either.
"I have gone five years without having a fight in this place," he said. "Not many other bars could say that. I don't even think very many restaurants could say that."
Lt. Mark Brothers of the Lawrence Police Department, said that comparing the Flamingo's and the Paradise Saloon's crime rates to bars in the city was not a fair comparison because the strip bars were under the county sheriff's jurisdiction.
For now, all the county strip bars appear to be on safe ground. The only way the county could regulate the Flamingo, the Paradise Saloon and other county strip bars is to pass a county ordinance prohibiting nudity. Camper said he wasn't worried about that happening.
"The sherif's department does not have the manpower that we do," he said. "They have the attitude that if you don't call us, then there must not be a problem, whereas we actively check out bars."
Louie McElhaney, Douglas County commissioner,
said the county commission had looked into passing an ordinance but that it did not see a pressing need to do so.
"We've talked it over a couple times off the cuff, but we haven't seen an important reason to do anything urgent," he said.
He said the county commission had received very few complaints about the bars, and unless it received more
Problems in Johnson County
Lawrence and Douglas County are not the only municipalities dealing with regulating strip bars. Johnson County has been tangled in the controversy for months.
if it would not act.
Schulte said that the Flamingo was troublesome for the city but that its location outside city limits made it untenable.
Last August Johnson County passed an ordinance similar to Douglas County's law regulating nudity in taverns. The Johnson County law restricts physical contact between patrons and customers and bans "total nude breasts, buttocks and genitalia in bars that serve alcohol."
The commission was immediately sued by Dodge's Bar and Grill Inc., which owns Bonito Flats Saloon, a strip bar in Johnson County. The owners sued on the grounds that the ordinance violated their First Amendment rights.
The Johnson County District Court ruled for the county, and the case is being appealed.
On Thursday, the Johnson County Commission will vote on an ordinance to prohibit nudity in alcohol-free establishments. LeAnn Gillespie, general counsel for
Johnson County, said questions about legality of passage an ordinance restricting nudity in non-alcoholic bars had postponed the commission's actions until now. Establishments that do not serve alcohol are not subject to the same restrictions as alcohol-serving businesses.
The outcome of that decision will affect the possibility of a city ordinance in Lawrence, Schultte said.
The moral dilemma
Topless dancing has come into the national spotlight with the opening of juice bars across the nation. Protests against strip bars usually come from homeowners and special interest groups that believe nudity as a business immoral.
The Coalition Against Pornography, an organization in Johnson County, has been an important weapon in the battle over strip bars in the area, said Sue Welter, Johnson County commissioner.
Sherry Snyder, a coalition member, said that strip bars as a form of pornography were not just a moral dilemma but also were a problem for society.
"Whenever something creates a harm to people, then the problem transcends the original moral issue," she said.
Snyder said strip bars devalued women, made men sex addicts, lowered property value and increased crime in the areas around the establishments. The devaluation of women is the worst of the problems, she said.
"Pornography devalues all women in society," she said. "I don't think women think about this. Men who are addicted to porn are not able to look at women on a normal level."
Charlene Muehlenhack, professor of psychology and women's studies, said the women involved in the sex business often were victims of sexual abuse. She also said many remain in it because of economic coercion.
"Stripping is a form of economic coercion since women cannot find jobs that pay a decent amount of money, so they turn to selling their bodies," she said.
Locally, Jo Andersen, city commissioner, has expressed interest in participating in protests against Juciers. The protests were organized by local women's groups.
Kabler said that people who did not come to the Flamingo or strip bars had no right to protest the places.
"None of those people who are complaining have ever come into the place," he said. "So I really don't pay much attention to them."
For Schulte and Wallace, the issue of stripping may not be resolved until the courts decide. Even then they both will hold opposing beliefs.
"I don't like them," Schulte said, referring to strip bars. "They are degrading to women and have the potential to create additional problems."
It is his right to open a strip bar, and if people disagree it is his right to not come, he says.
"People who are opposed to this: Don't come out."
Tracy gossips with one of her many regular customers at the Flamingo Club. Jones says she gets some of her most tips just talking to people.
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