In their ongoing efforts to regulate sexual behavior, Texas Republican geniuses have created Senate Bill 1601, which is a doozy designed primarily to hammer drag shows. In recent years, urban areas have seen an increase in the art form, also often presented as a brunch, like ours in Phoenix, and generally most people attending have a good time.
In Texas, Republican men think that only Republican men are allowed to determine what is a good time, what should be allowed as a good time, if the good time goes too far, and the punishment if their version of a good time that goes too far happens in the presence of children.
Now I have never been to even one strip club, drag show, or burlesque performance where a school field trip was taking place, but I have been to plenty of football games where the booty shaking tripped the richter scale. But what happens when the tribute to wealthy male sexism, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, gets swept up in the rush to discriminate? And will this affect notable Texas A&M alum, and ex-cheerleader, Rick Perry?
The proposed bills would make it a criminal offense “to engage in sexually oriented performances on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise, or in the presence of a child.” While the intent was to ban drag shows from public libraries, the broad language could affect NFL cheerleaders, popular restaurants like Hooters and Twin Peaks, R-rated movies and even youth cheerleaders.
So we know that if this law passes Rudy Giuliani will likely have his makeup bag confiscated at DFW Airport, but we all know these good upstandin’ men that hail from Farm-to-Market roads were only trying to stop drag shows right? They would never go after those beauties that sometimes eclipse interest in the game itself. Right?
Luke Macias, a political consultant from New Braunfels who supports the bill, was asked point blank by Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat whose district includes Arlington, Grand Prairie and Mansfield, if banning “prurient content” in front of kids would apply to NFL cheerleaders.
Macias said “maybe.” ”Worst scenario is we have a few less cheerleaders in Texas for a year and a half,” he said. How about taking kids to the movies? “If this bill actually extends to rated R-movies in theaters, I think that would be a huge blessing,” Macias said. “I hope it does.”
Ok, so now Texas Republicans want to decide what kind of movie your teen-ager can watch even in your presence. And of course, children do attend NFL football games. So now we have to determine what constitutes “prurient content” in the context of this proposed law. While I find cheerleading to be a sexist relic of 20th century gender role assumptions, I also do not want to tell a person who likes to dance, and wear clothes that accentuate what they choose to accentuate, that those choices are illegal.
It is if you are saying that presenting oneself as attractive according to their own choices, is inherently wrong. One can be attractive without appealing to sexual desires. In fact, as it turns out, whether or not a man can keep a gun in his holster is a him problem, not a them problem. But let’s define “prurient.”
adjective
having, inclined to have, or characterized by lascivious or lustful thoughts, desires, etc.
causing lasciviousness or lust.
having a restless desire or longing.
Oxford Languages goes a different route:
-
having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.
"she'd been the subject of much prurient curiosity"
To this I will say that one person’s excessive sex is another’s happy marriage.
In Europe, there are such things as co-ed saunas. Nudity is not inherently sexual. So neither would being scantily clad. Dancing is not inherently sexual. But being sexually suggestive is subjective as it is both a personal choice, and a personal reaction. If I am looking particularly good that day, and a person hits on me, I can’t control that reaction.
Macias goes on to say, that, “the less twerking the better.”
Now see, that is not really any of his business. When I was younger, it was well known that one of the ways universities recruited “good upstanding boys” for college football was the extensive Texas network of strip clubs. Twerking was plenty popular then, back when it was called, “putting girls through school.”
It would be peak Texas if the thing that catapulted Democrats back to power was men’s reaction to overreach against their own, ahem, prurient interests.
I can hear the conversation in my head:
“Dag gum, Jimbo, I didn’t say anything about the phillys. Them gals can dance as much as they want.”
If Texas wants to ban drag shows, the Republicans might get away with it. But the truth is, if these fools want to stop drag shows, they kind of have to go this route. There is no legal recourse to use gender to carve out approved prurient interests from unapproved. That is to say, were the cheerleaders to hire a transgender performer for the squad, any law specifically banning only that one performer would be unconstitutional. Texas can only reasonably ban an act, not the gender identity of a person performing the act.
In a sense, this is a good thing, because not only will it infuriate beer drinkin’ Bubba Yank-a-Lot, it shows the stupidity and bigotry in this movement altogether. No government in this country will be constitutionally allowed to determine who gets to explore their sexuality. The whole “in front of children” thing is a red herring. They are forced to either ban it all, or take a losing argument to the courts about why only hetero cis-suggestive dancing is ok.
So we now live in a world where Republicans are not just merely politically shooting themselves in the foot, they are taking said wounded foot, and mowing the lawn with no shoes.
If they force this issue, and end up banning strip clubs and cheerleaders, the state will turn blue faster than Ty-D-Bol in a toilet, which makes sense, seeing as that is where the Republican party is rapidly headed.
Let’s just hope Texans are willing to flush this time.
-ROC
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Love,
-ROC