07-04-2011, 11:06 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian...ess_n.html
Anna Griffin: Strip club's 'Pitiful Princess' name oversteps the good-neighbor line
Excerpt: "As a feminist, I find strip clubs offensive and worry that they contribute to violence against women and sex trafficking.
As a fan of free speech, I believe a business owner who stays within the law and local zoning code has the right to run whatever kind of operation he chooses. Naked or otherwise.
Yet every entrepreneur, regardless of their trade or customer base, also has a responsibility to be a decent neighbor. Sometimes that means keeping the storefront tidy, keeping the music down after dark or sponsoring a Little League team. Or not going out of the way to add insult to injury and rub the rest of the world's nose in the fact that the law gives them the right to behave reprehensibly.
Tom Webb apparently does not subscribe to this version of the social compact. He's been in the nudie bar business for 37 years, according to records with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, and owns a new Southeast Division business, the Pitiful Princess Gentleman's Club.
If you have a daughter, a granddaughter or a niece, odds are you know a girl who has, at one time or another, been obsessed with princesses of a more wholesome, clothed sort. My 4-year-old, still not quite a reader, recognizes four words. All are family members' names except one: Like most of her peers, she's got princesses on the brain and responds to their merest mention with the hyper inquisitiveness in which small children specialize.
Imagine the conversations Webb's marquee, "The Pitiful Princess" in purple-pink letters, will generate for parents in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood. Imagine trying to explain to your kid what "pitiful" means or how "gentleman's club" might relate to royalty.
Oh, for the good old days when strip club owners lacked any creativity, and every topless bar in town seemed to be named after a stripper with vocabulary issues. (Mynt, Spyce, Spyllchyck.)
In the grand scheme of sexual politics, this is a tempest in a teapot, as Webb was quick to point out when I called him last week. Several readers had called to complain about the club's name, not to mention its mere existence. Their point: We're used to adult entertainment establishments in East Portland. But isn't this over the line?
That seemed like a fair and reasonable question. Webb disagreed. He said the name came to him "out of thin air" and wouldn't offer his thoughts on what exactly would qualify a princess to be classified as "pitiful." He didn't give me a chance to ask about the language in a Craigslist ad seeking dancers for the Pitiful Princess and another club, Shimmers: "Prefer 21+ but will take the right HOT looking minors."
Before hanging up, Webb did tell me he considered me an idiot but was thankful for any free publicity I wanted to give him. "You don't have anything better to do than write about the name of a strip club?" he said. "Go smoke a big one. Drink a glass of wine. Sounds like you need it."
After certain conversations, yes.
Oregon voters have repeatedly decided, rightly, that we believe freedom of speech is worth the price we pay in strip clubs, lingerie modeling shops and other perfectly legal, morally questionable businesses that exploit their female employees and their male customers. The least the owners of those establishments can do is not taunt us with this fact."
Anna Griffin: Strip club's 'Pitiful Princess' name oversteps the good-neighbor line
Excerpt: "As a feminist, I find strip clubs offensive and worry that they contribute to violence against women and sex trafficking.
As a fan of free speech, I believe a business owner who stays within the law and local zoning code has the right to run whatever kind of operation he chooses. Naked or otherwise.
Yet every entrepreneur, regardless of their trade or customer base, also has a responsibility to be a decent neighbor. Sometimes that means keeping the storefront tidy, keeping the music down after dark or sponsoring a Little League team. Or not going out of the way to add insult to injury and rub the rest of the world's nose in the fact that the law gives them the right to behave reprehensibly.
Tom Webb apparently does not subscribe to this version of the social compact. He's been in the nudie bar business for 37 years, according to records with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, and owns a new Southeast Division business, the Pitiful Princess Gentleman's Club.
If you have a daughter, a granddaughter or a niece, odds are you know a girl who has, at one time or another, been obsessed with princesses of a more wholesome, clothed sort. My 4-year-old, still not quite a reader, recognizes four words. All are family members' names except one: Like most of her peers, she's got princesses on the brain and responds to their merest mention with the hyper inquisitiveness in which small children specialize.
Imagine the conversations Webb's marquee, "The Pitiful Princess" in purple-pink letters, will generate for parents in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood. Imagine trying to explain to your kid what "pitiful" means or how "gentleman's club" might relate to royalty.
Oh, for the good old days when strip club owners lacked any creativity, and every topless bar in town seemed to be named after a stripper with vocabulary issues. (Mynt, Spyce, Spyllchyck.)
In the grand scheme of sexual politics, this is a tempest in a teapot, as Webb was quick to point out when I called him last week. Several readers had called to complain about the club's name, not to mention its mere existence. Their point: We're used to adult entertainment establishments in East Portland. But isn't this over the line?
That seemed like a fair and reasonable question. Webb disagreed. He said the name came to him "out of thin air" and wouldn't offer his thoughts on what exactly would qualify a princess to be classified as "pitiful." He didn't give me a chance to ask about the language in a Craigslist ad seeking dancers for the Pitiful Princess and another club, Shimmers: "Prefer 21+ but will take the right HOT looking minors."
Before hanging up, Webb did tell me he considered me an idiot but was thankful for any free publicity I wanted to give him. "You don't have anything better to do than write about the name of a strip club?" he said. "Go smoke a big one. Drink a glass of wine. Sounds like you need it."
After certain conversations, yes.
Oregon voters have repeatedly decided, rightly, that we believe freedom of speech is worth the price we pay in strip clubs, lingerie modeling shops and other perfectly legal, morally questionable businesses that exploit their female employees and their male customers. The least the owners of those establishments can do is not taunt us with this fact."