Exotic Dancing and Lap Dances are not Art?
The New York Court of Appeals came out with a decision that Lap Dances are not art - are they kidding!?!?!?
Now strip clubs in NY have to pay sales taxes. And so do the dancers! Just at a time when the economy continues to tank and the strip club industry is hitting a bump in the road! In the dancers only Industry Insight forum, Melonie said: "And keep in mind that the ability to tax is also the ability to regulate." Well put Melonie - and a scary thought.
A quick Google search came up with this following definition:
Many definitions of art have been proposed by philosophers and others who have characterized art in terms of ...., expression, communication of emotion, or other values. (From Wikipedia)
From my reading of the above definition exotic dancing sounds like art to me. The unfortunate thing is that the NY club now has to pay $125,000 in back taxes (another article said it was up to $400,000).
Here is a link to one of the many articles on this story:
http://gothamist.com/2012/10/23/lap_...ys_nys_hig.php
Re: Exotic Dancing and Lap Dances are not Art?
Uh, lap dancing is not an art. Shake dancing is an art, pole dancing is an art. It doesn't take any skill or training to flop down in someone's lap and grind. I hate lap dancing has a part of our industry. It makes everyone looks bad and devalues the relevance and image of the whole industry. Once upon a time, touching customers was completely disallowed and skills were necessary to be a part of the exotic dancing world. They should not tax it because I am sure the club owes the girls money.
We need to get together and unionize to show we are valuable and we will not be taken advantage of by club owners. Join today!
:)