TheAgitator.com
Just Another Saturday Night in Tampa
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Talk about taking the show on the road.
Déjà Vu, a gentlemen’s club located on East Adamo Drive, has started driving what it calls the “Stripper Mobile” around town. The “Stripper Mobile” is a large truck with Plexiglas sides featuring a stripper pole and dancers inside, sort of like a peep show on wheels.
Reaction so far, according to Déjà Vu dancer Bree, has been crazy.
“Everybody’s taking pictures and running up and screaming and trying to get on the bus and throwing dollars outside. It’s actually very exciting,” she said.
The “Stripper Mobile” was originally driven in Las Vegas until local leaders there put the brakes on the vehicle last November. The owners eventually sent it to Tampa, where Déjà Vu’s general manager says they’re taking it out on Friday and Saturday nights between 10 P.M. and 2 A.M. in places like Ybor, Channelside and South Howard Ave.
“We have had a few frowns here and there, but for the most part it’s all thumbs up,” he said.
Apparently, even Vegas passed on the idea when it was first tried there.
The sad part is nobody gets more naked than outfits seen on the beach everyday, but there will still be a collective freakout because this country has a real problem dealing with sexuality in any form.
Bonus fun fact: Woman can legally walk topless in NYC anywhere a man can go without a shirt. Unsurprisingly Cops are of course ignorant of the law so every so often you’ll see an activist get arrested. However there are no repercussions for Cops arresting someone on false charges.
I think it was called the “voyeur bus” or something, but IIRC, Jim Norton, Lewis Black and some other people were arrested driving in a bus like this in NYC.
Ah, Dale Mabry Boulevard in Tampa. Makes Vegas look like the Vatican.
How exactly does the Stripper Mobile make money? Is it just to drum up business for the club?
I would think a “collective freakout” is somewhat appropriate here.
I have no problem with a strip club or a sex shop or any other house of vice that has walls and a door and requires some affirmative decision to enter and be subjected to the show. I even have no problem with Mardi Gras or spring break in Daytona where there’s an implied consent by being there. Unless the areas they are driving are particularly seedy (thus providing the implied consent), taking the show on the road – literally – removes that decision and forces everyone to participate.
It seems that part of the libertarian movement depends on the “don’t like X? Then don’t do it!” argument, and it is a persuasive one. I guess you could say “Don’t be out on the street between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.!” or “Don’t look at the strippers they are driving around in the plexiglass truck!” but that is a stretch.
Eric – Ybor, Channelside and South Howard are the party areas and bohemian areas of Tampa.
I’ve seen the strippermobile, er, outside the Deja Vu as I was leaving, I mean, driving by.
Actually, I think it’s a case of you have not right to not be offended.
Of course this country seems more and more predicated on the right of every person to never be offended in public.
Yes, it’s an advertisement. The article says so, somewhere near the bottom, I think.
It was especially funny reading the comments on the article. One hysterical person after another, bitching about corrupting the children and/or the downfall of morality.
Next up, we must ban the ultimate cesspool of depravity, beaches. There, as here, not only are we likely to find sinful human bodies not hidden to Vatican specification, but those sinful human bodies might not have yet completed their 18th trip around the Sun, damning everyone who so much as catches a glimpse of the evil shapes to 10 years of prison rape, the rest under a bridge as a sex offender, and then eternal fiery hell.
On my 40th birthday, my wife hired a stripper to come out to the research park where I work and perform for me. She came to my office and took me out to the lab where she seated me in a chair in the middle of the room and did a strip tease and what was essentially a mild lap dance. I have a couple Polaroids somewhere. That’s the day that we found out we could squeeze everyone in that building into that one lab, including the ones who complained later (after watching it from start to finish).
That was the first and last time that anything like that happened at that company and possibly the entire research park. That was before sexual harassment made anything involving sex the equivalent of a hate crime.
I think our research park could really use the Stripper Mobile. People really need to lighten up a bit. Maybe someday… …after they legalize sex toys.
I support single moms.
Cops love strippers, otherwise there’d be no strippers.
morality aside, I see problems with this. truck probably constitutes a major distraction for drivers and seems unsafe for the dancers if they perform while the truck is moving.
Also I think advert trucks are a terrible waste of fuel, an unnecessary addition to traffic (though at 2am not such an issue) and just adds to pollution.
@ #5 Eric,
The women are wearing bikinis; the same bikinis you would see them wearing at the beaches in Tampa. The only difference is that they are not standing in sand and are instead in the back of a moving truck. If you are not against beaches, then you shouldn’t be against the Strippermobile.
As for driver safety, that *might* be a legitimate concern.
God bless America
Finally – something to be proud of in this city!
Better than the new lame art museum redesign…
It makes sense to me that this would succeed in Tampa and not Vegas. Vegas seems much more family friendly than I remember my few nights in Tampa being. I thought the whole beach was a big strip club boardwalk. It seemed like you couldn’t go a block without running into a couple strip clubs.
Since it’s not registered as a parade float, doesn’t this violate seatbelt laws (which are a primary offense in FL)? At least back when I lived in FL, the driver was responsible for all passenger violations.
You stay classy, Tampa.
Zargon,
I’m interested in your newsletter, can you sign me up?
Does being a libertarian mean you automatically have to oppose any attempts by government to enforce public decency standards?
Elroy-
I think that’s my default setting. It’s probably not always right, but trying to keep the nannies away works for me…
I understand that this comment will get thumbed down pretty fast, but I have this strange need to write this anyway.
As a former stripper, *I* think that this is ridiculous. Now, I have no problem whatsoever with strippers, women walking around naked, sex, and so on, but I do have a problem with the way strip clubs are now and any promotion in areas where children could be influenced.
Most of the comments here seem to be from men, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe you’re thinking with your brains on this one. I’m sorry, I had to. I understand that some of you may believe this is okay through rational thinking. In those cases, please rethink =)
Sensuality and sexuality are two entirely different things. Anything, and I mean anything, that makes a woman believe that in order to get attention, she has to remove her clothes is harmful to the millions of young girls in this country.
Yeah, yeah, we shouldn’t be enforcing views on other people …
Thinking back on the lifestyle I lived because I believed that I was worth nothing more than this simply because these were the images I was exposed to every day, I literally struggle to breathe. None of you could imagine the pain involved in this line of work. These girls smile, laugh, dance, and you could probably even get them to tell you their whole life story. Acting is a part of stripping.
It wasn’t until a particularly violent incident that my survival instincts kicked into high gear and I began thinking about changing my life.
My story is NOT similar to the minority of strippers. If I was in the minority, I’d keep my mouth shut, but there are too many women who are mistreated in this industry for me to support ANY advertising of it whatsoever.
Even if the strip club was one of the best, known for treating their girls right, known for helping them with education, … most girls will not be able to work at a place like that. They will turn to the dives just to feel worth something.
This seems to be the one area that libertarians refuse to think about. You damn well know that if this was a bunch of men stripping in a vehicle around town, you’d want them all arrested. You might not say it since you know it would contradict what you believe in, but you’d be thinking it.
Anyone who thinks that pole dancing in a bikini and chilling at the beach is the same thing is not thinking straight.
I’m not well known for getting my thoughts across eloquently, but I hope I have at least managed to convey my point.
Meh. It’s not like you can’t see worse on TV. Who cares if it’s on a pole in a truck?
I can see opposing this on safety grounds. We expect drivers to ignore distracting signs, roadside nonsense, etc, but this is another car on the road. You can’t ignore it without causing another safety hazard.
This is why so-called libertarians can never be taken seriously. No common sense. I love Radley’s blog, but this is nuts. A family with children who don’t want them exposed to this have no rights in Radley’s world. Seems like he would be delighted with traveling sex shows on a flat bed trailer.
I could have sworn there was a CSI about one of those. Maybe not.
Being a libertarian is about not using the law to shoehorn the entire population into someone’s narrow idea of decency should be. It’s about not criminalizing something that doesn’t hurt anyone. And most of all, it’s about demanding that if people want to talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. In other words, if you want to call this the “land of the free”, stop chomping at the bit to lock people up for violating the public crusade for moral conformity.
Decency means different things to different people. To me it means not persecuting people who choose to smoke pot, sell sex, gamble, take pictures of cops, wear baggy pants, or be naked at the beach.
The reason it distracts people is because it’s so unusual. The real solution is to have more of them. In fact, if there were babes in bikinis (or even naked) everywhere, we would be used to it and would have no problem concentrating on our driving.
Decency laws are affecting our evolution. By being constantly protected from public nudity, our immune system becomes weakened and we become susceptible to even a mild infection. Decency laws are a public health menace and should be treated as such. If the nanny state had any real interest in the well being of the public, it would be encouraging nudity.
A family with children who don’t want them exposed to this have no rights in Radley’s world. Seems like he would be delighted with traveling sex shows on a flat bed trailer.
Uh, where did I write that I approve of this? Or that I’d be delighted with traveling sex shows on a flat bed trailer?
For the record, I think it’s tacky. I’d rather see businesses who feel their customers are offended by having the truck outside take up the dispute privately or in civil court than having the city criminalize it, but zoning laws that forbid roving stripper trucks from setting up shop in neighborhoods frequented by families would be pretty far down on my list of libertarian outrages.
As I understand it, though, this truck generally stays within the parameters of Tampa’s strip club district.
All the conservatives crying about the “rights” of “the family” and children and enforcement apparently believe all rights are granted and enforced by the state.
You guys really worship the state. I’d rather be a libertarian than a state sucker any day, thanks.
Let’s face it, most of Tampa is a strip club district. One of the unspoken reasons that the Super Bowl is held here every couple years is the availablility of strip clubs. And as for protecting the children, no one would take a child to Channelside or Ybor at night, for fear of having some drunk throw up on them. Most of the locals just “live and let live.” Our humble county commission, instead of tackling real issues, spent 20 years and over $1 million trying to shut down one strip club owner. Every election year, local politicians rally against “sin”, then after they are re-elected, go back to just collecting bribes from developers. Hey, 2010 is an election year. Wait for the follow up article quoting local politicians and their “outrage.” Just like clockwork…
I don’t know about Radley’s world, but I can certainly tell you that in Dave’s world there would be no right not to be offended. Families would not have the right to force the world into a straight jacket so as to make sure that their children are properly shielded from the terrible traumatizing scourge of nudity and sexuality.
On the other hand, I don’t think businesses generally go out of their way to anger residents, so I think the fears that generally lead to decency laws come more from moral crusaders than from any real danger or harm.
#1 Re: your bonus fun fact. I find it appalling that the cops who are paid to enforce the laws in this country, have no responsibility for actually KNOWING the laws. I’ve been ticketed before for non-existent violations. Of course, the tickets were dismissed, but I still had take off work, go to court and make a case. In Dallas, people were ticketed for not speaking English. Many actually paid the tickets because they didn’t know any better. And there’s no repercussions for the asswipe cops who write these bogus tickets.
For those concerned about the carbon footprint from all that driving around.
http://poleriders.blogspot.com/ – no nudity, but not entirely safe for work
I thought that what happened in ‘Vagas’, stayed in ‘Vagas’? There are no tolls on I-4 between Tampa and Orlando, come on over.
It could be just Déjà Vu, but Déjà Vu sounds familiar to me. I wonder if that just happened to be one of the clubs we visited when I was on a business trip down there to visit Honeywell in early 80s. Seems like most of the girls spoke French. Someone told me they came down from Quebec to earn money to pay for school. It could have been bullshit. I didn’t really care then, but these days that would make them victims of trafficking and I would have to feel much more guilty about watching them perform.
Those were the days. When the future held the promise of new amorous adventures instead of further physical deterioration…
Tim – seatbelts are required for front-seat passengers only in FL. seatbelts have only recently been made a primary offense in FL. I believe you are mistaken about drivers being responsible for passengers.
PRC – “…I do have a problem with the way strip clubs are now and any promotion in areas where children could be influenced.” Great, but irrelevant, since the strippermobile is driven late at night in Tampa’s club/ party areas. If children are awake from 10 pm – 2 am in Ybor City, I suggest the strippermobile is the least of their problems.