Strip Club Argues That Lap Dancing Is Art, Wants Tax Exemption

Art stewards applaud a dancer on her electric performance of "Love In An Elevator: A Jungian Examination of the Human Psyche" (Shutterstock)

Are lap dances considered legitimate artistic expression? 75 year-old University of Maryland professor Judith Hanna believes so, and she testified as much in state court for Nite Moves, an Albany-area strip club that is seeking exemption from the state's sales tax that other purveyors of "dramatic or musical performances" receive on cover charges. If Patrick Henry High's Joan Henderson is reading this: Scores WAS a legitimate detour on that 10th grade field trip.

"People of gentleman's clubs aren't just there to look at nude bodies," Hanna tells Bloomberg News. "They want to read into it. It's not just the eroticism, it's the beauty of the body, and the fantasy they create." And free copies of The Economist and the n+1 printouts that most strip clubs have lying around keep patrons stimulated while Dwayne fixes the jukebox.

Nite Moves may have lost their initial plea before the Tax Appeals Bureau, but hope to secure the exemption when the New York Court of Appeals hears their case next year. In the meantime, Hanna will continue to testify before courts across the country, earning around $3,000 for her expertise. According to the CEO of a adult website and strip club chain in Texas and Minnesota, she "plays a really important role in letting people see our side." Another important factor in seeing their side? Ratt and a whole lot of blacklights.

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By Christopher Robbins in Arts & Entertainment on December 5, 2011 5:54 PM

Comments [rss]

The Sapphic Stripper

First, I don’t know any strippers who DO pay their taxes. (Actually, that’s not true: I know one.) This point is kind of irrelevant, as the article doesn’t have anything to do with strippers getting tax breaks.

Second, strip joints are cash cows and fronts for some oftentimes
crazy illegal shit. The whole point of running a strip club is that you
can’t monitor how much money actually goes in and out of the place.

If the whole scene was legal and not fucked with Mafioso and other
kinds of bullshit I always keep my nose out of, maybe I’d look at this
as an opportunity for entertainers to actually be recognized as skilled
workers. We could unionize! We wouldn’t be FINED for not showing up
when we sprained our ankle and couldn’t come to work!

… and now I’m dreaming.

Trying to pass off stripping as ‘art’ for the sake of taxation won’t
do shit for the ones who actually work hard, bouncing out lap dance
after lap dance every night. We are still illegal, we are still judged
and we are still going to be paying ludicrous house fees to the pimp
who wants to pay less for the sake of ‘art.’

It’s a dark industry. I usually highlight the hilarity of
it all, but it’s a dark place run by fucked up people. Requesting tax
breaks smacks of piggy corporate personhood politics and other
structures that keep the rich richer and the poor poorer.

rnrnys

Absolutely it's art!

Better than a lot of that old dusty crap at the Met (except the nudes of course).

tsol

It's more of a science, really.

marco_esquandolas

I'll admit, I've got "Mixed Emotions" about this.

FU Boy

I can get behind this. I mean, it's called 'art' to wait in an insanely long line and stare at a woman sitting in a chair for one minute. Why not when the woman's shaking her ass for one song - with no wait, too!

Guest

That's exactly what I thought of. That same woman had two nude people (one man, one woman) standing and facing each other at an opening to another room, so that you had to walk between them sideways to get to the other room. The "art" of that situation is seeing which way you would face to get by.

virgilstarkwell

assuming you're on the three month plan with shutterstock - where you can download 750 photos per month for $709 - that photo cost around 31¢. you overpaid.

man, if there isn't already a blog that highlights shitty stock photography, someone with more time than me should definitely start one.