WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Jersey City is poised to vote down the newly proposed nudity law which, in its current draft, removes all mention of gender, defining nudity as “The complete exposure of the anus or genitals or pubic area.” Only 3 Council Members support this law as written; the other six want to create a new law that restricts women’s bodies and upholds the concept of gender as binary. You can help keep that from happening!

HOW JERSEY CITY RESIDENTS CAN HELP

Call your Jersey City council member and tell them you want a gender-free nudity law. Click here to find your ward! Click here to find contact info for your council member! They need to hear from their constituents who support a non-discriminatory bill. You can help them understand why they should be proud to support this law.

I DON’T LIVE IN JERSEY CITY BUT I’D LIKE TO HELP

Tweet at Mayor Fulop We’d like him to loudly support the new proposed nudity law that doesn’t discriminate by gender. Ask him to get the rest of the city council on board too! Or call him if you like phones. Edit: I’d like to note that the Mayor is on board with this new law. We are hoping he can sway the council members who are leaning nay.

Tweet at James Solomon to tell him thanks for proposing such a progressive law. He is pretty rad.

OK, SO WHAT HAPPENED? FROM THE BEGINNING, PLEASE

A couple of months ago, the Burlesque show I produce in Jersey City was mistakenly targeted as obscene by our city’s top lawyer. We cleared everything up and our show is back on, but this dust-up shone a light on how much archaic, ridiculous stuff was in the obscenity code ( you can’t own 6 or more sex toys, for example) and the city council is now re-writing the law.

This is great news, but there’s lots of confusion about what’s happening, what’s already happened, and how to support the new law. I’m hoping I can clear all that up here.

The new law has not been passed yet, and won’t pass without your support

The female nipple is the main sticking point. Most of the council members say they are voting no on the new law as it’s written because their constituents want to keep female breasts concealed. Some of them are downright appalled at the notion of top equality. That’s why we need to tell them it’s not okay to create a brand new law that discriminates against women and also alienates and ignores our Jersey City neighbors who are Transgender , Non-Binary, Gender Fluid, or elsewhere on the gender spectrum by upholding the concept of a gender binary. See glossary and links below below for more information on these terms

My show and the new law are two separate things.

Our Burlesque show was never obscene, as defined under the Miller/SLAPS test, as our show has significant artistic and political value. The old JC obscenity/nudity law was created in 1982 to run the strip clubs out of Jersey City. Our show never had any full nudity, exposed nipples, or exposed genitalia, and we don’t have any go-go or lap dancing. We’re still waiting to hear back from the State liquor board (Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC) for clarification on attire because the language in the handbook is vague, but the show is back on stage and the next performance is at FM, 340 3rd st at Newark Ave, Jersey City! The new law took out everything regulating sex toys and some of the other old vague language, and would no longer longer consider the public display of “female breasts” as obscene. Nudity would be fully exposing your genitals or your anus. There are 17 states where toplessness for all is either explicitly or functionally legal. Although NJ state law doesn’t have the word “breasts” in it, most NJ townships have local laws against top equality.

Opposing Council Members haven’t been vocal on their specific objections If we just can’t get the votes for the gender-neutral law, the law will go through a re-write. But what will it say? None of the opposing council members have spoken up about proposed changes. How much of the breast should be concealed? Will there be a contingency for nursing mothers? Who decides the female-ness of the exposed person? At what age should breasts be covered? I also haven’t heard from most of the council members about why their wards are so against it. I presume it’s a combination of protecting women from men, protecting men from themselves, and “That’s nasty.” But I haven’t heard one actual explanation as to why breasts are a danger to public safety or a true offense to our community sensibility. Here are some common objections to top equality, and arguments against them:

Topless women are a public safety issue

Are we protecting women from men? I’m not aware of any rise in violence against women in states that have top equality. Women are already being attacked, and then told they’re “asking for it” because of their attire, when they are fully and legally clothed. Women are harassed and assaulted no matter what they’re wearing. Everyone should be able to make the choice for themselves and saying it’s for our own good is patronizing and strips us of our agency.

Are we worried that men cannot control themselves? This places the blame on anyone who’s attacked by any man claiming he was overcome with lust. Why are we shielding men from the responsibility of their own actions? This assumes that breasts are lewd and obscene just by existing. Even if the owner of those breasts isn’t doing anything sexual with them, it’s saying that someone’s morals could be corrupted just by laying eyes on them. This upholds the idea that women and trans women’s bodies exist at the pleasure of men, and perpetuates their objectification.

Are we worried about the children? There are plenty of societies where toplessness and nudity are considered normal and the children grow up just fine. Why aren’t we worried about kids growing up in a culture where women’s bodies are considered lewd regardless of what they’re doing with them? Why aren’t we worried about kids growing up in a world where men can attack someone and blame it on the victim?

Are we worried that mobs of topless women will start running men off of cliffs, a la Monty Python’s Meaning of Life? New York allows all people to be topless, and I bet you haven’t seen many exposed breasts in NYC. People generally don’t take advantage of this freedom. We should be fine if they do, but our city is not going to be a sea of nipples if this law is passed. It’s just not.

Seeing breasts is against my religion

Our laws allow for countless things that may be against religious beliefs. Drinking, smoking, gambling, premarital sex, pornography, birth control, are all legal.

Seeing breasts are a distraction and will lead to accidents

That’s what people said about ankles, knees, thighs, midriffs, and arms. Everybody’s fine. Change is incremental.

I don’t want topless women walking into my business

This law only covers public places. You can refuse service to anyone regardless of gender without a shirt on.

Beyond that, I’ve heard people say that anyone who goes around with their breasts out is a slut. *Shrug.* That’s not my experience, but being a slut is not illegal.

One final note: I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that Jersey City should be embracing people of all genders and identities, and working towards civil liberties, equality, and freedom for all of its citizens. Writing a new law that includes gender is more than one step backwards, because in addition to discriminating against women, it’s erasing and ignoring people who are not cisgender men or cisgender women. And that’s a lot of people. People who are part of our community, people who are already dealing with discrimination, people who deserve to be acknowledged. The fact that we’re ready to ignore their existence or open them up to having to defend their gender identity to cops is unacceptable. I hope you’ll spread the word about this and help get our council members to understand this too.

PLEASE, TELL ME MORE, I WANT TO READ ALL THE THINGS

OK! Here are some great articles. A lot of them are very heteronormative, which sucks, but still make great points. I haven’t read all of them all the way through so can’t vouch for each one being 100% unproblematic, but take the good stuff and leave the rest. And feel free to use any of these arguments when contacting your council member.

GLOSSARY

Transgender (adj.)

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms — including transgender. Some of those terms are defined below. Use the descriptive term preferred by the person. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.

https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender

Non-binary and/or genderqueer

Terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman. They may define their gender as falling somewhere in between man and woman, or they may define it as wholly different from these terms. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as non-binary and/or genderqueer.

https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender

Gender Identity

Gender identity is our internal experience and naming of our gender. A Cisgender person has a gender identity consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a child whose sex was assigned male on their birth certificate and who identifies as a boy is cisgender (you may hear this term shortened to “cis”). A Transgender person has a gender identity that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. So, a child who was assigned male on their birth certificate and who identifies as a girl is transgender (sometimes this term is shortened to “trans”).

The two most common gender identities are boy and girl (or man and woman), and often people think that these are the only two gender identities. This idea that there are only two genders is called the “gender binary.” If a child has a binary gender identity, that means they identify as either a boy or a girl, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth.

But gender is a spectrum, and not limited to just two possibilities. A child may have a Non-binarygender identity, meaning they do not identify strictly as a boy or a girl — they could identify as both, or neither, or as another gender entirely. Agender people do not identify with any gender.

Understanding of our gender comes to most of us fairly early in life. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “By age four, most children have a stable sense of their gender identity.” This core aspect of one’s identity comes from within each of us; it is an inherent aspect of a person’s make-up. Individuals do not choose their gender, nor can they be made to change it, though the words someone uses to communicate their gender identity may change over time (e.g., from one non-binary identity to a different non-binary identity). Naming our gender can be a complex and evolving matter. Because we are provided with limited language for gender, it may take a person quite some time to discover, or create, the language that best communicates their gender.

https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/

LINKS

Jersey City Municipal Code

https://library.municode.com/nj/jersey_city/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CH251POOB

New Obscenity law, not yet passed (Note: I copied and pasted this from another document to make it easier to read, and because the links to that document as posted by the city keep changing. As far as I know this is the current version, and if it differs slightly from the document that’s presented, please note I did not change any language! The only changes I made were to correct a couple of misspelled words.

https://www.lillianbustle.com/obscenity

Women’s body image and the law

https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3229&context=dlj

Morality and the law

https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/medical-law/relationship-between-morality-and-the-law-medical-law-essay.php

Why female nudity isn’t obscene, but is threatening to a sexist status quo

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/female-nudity-isnt-obscen_b_5186495.html

Where can you legally go topless in America? (this is from 2016 but it has good info)

https://splinternews.com/where-can-you-legally-go-topless-in-america-1793860134