Columnist Susan Snyder: Dancers point to class bias

Friday, Aug. 30, 2002 | 9:17 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Ihave poked fun and dismissed as insignificant the concerns of the valley's lap dancers, on whom Clark County commissioners recently placed restrictions.

And although I still think there are better ways for a woman to make a living, something one young woman said this week stung.

"I find it particularly telling that the commissioners took an entire class of women and berated them. I find it absolutely egregious," said Treasure Brown, who is helping the Women & Entertainer's Anti-Defamation Society stage a rally and festival this weekend.

"It's as if dancers are the one politically correct whipping boy left," Brown said. "But they are not vapid, horrible, disease spreaders, and you wouldn't use such defamatory language with any other group."

Except, maybe, politicians. But Brown has a point. Maybe we are missing where the real shame lies.

Brown isn't a dancer. She's a 28-year-old high school teacher with philosophy and English degrees and law-school aspirations.

But she says "we" when she speaks of the dancers she defends because she sees a different -- perhaps bigger -- picture than those of us who judge, defame and disapprove. She sees a group of women whose character is attacked and stigmatized with stereotypes.

"Women are still being berated," Brown said. "Listen to me. I sound like a feminist.

"But I guess I am. They would've never suggested men were spreaders of disease and pestilence."

Nor are they deriding the men who enjoy and pay for the dances.

The ordinance, which commissioners have decided to rewrite, prohibited women from taking tips in their G-strings, touching patrons with various parts of their bodies and prohibited women younger than 21 from working in clubs that serve alcohol.

The upcoming Dancer March & Rally is designed encourage people to vote and also will give residents a chance to see dancers simply as women who are their neighbors.

Andrea Hackett, of the Las Vegas Dancers Alliance, says at 3 p.m. Sunday dancers will march from Garces Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard to the Clark County Government Center, 500 S. Grand Central Blvd. A rally with speeches will follow. He's guessing 500 to 1,000 dancers will participate.

"We're hoping to have a good showing," Hackett said. "It is a risk, but you never accomplish anything without taking risks."

Brown says her group is hosting a post-rally festival in the parking lot of The Talk of the Town erotic dance club, 1238 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

It is to feature music, a voter registration table and booths including "The Witch Dunk" dunking tank. Brown likens the prevailing attitude toward lap dancers to that of innocent women who were burned at the stake as witches in 17th-century Salem, Mass.

She says they will be selling T-shirts that say, "I dance. I vote," and "I am a dancer supporter." You'll have to go to the festival to see for yourself the graphic on the latter shirt. Go early. I suspect they will sell out.

Admission is free to dancers. Other people will be asked to make a $1 tip -- taken in hand, of course.

"The First Amendment guarantees the right to peacefully assemble and air your disagreement with your government," Brown said. "So practice it."