Strip clubs to reopen in New Orleans?

Posted by Jessica Valenti at 1:03 PM on September 12, 2005.

Wow. I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to feel about this:

There's no water for the "wash the girl of your choice" service and there aren't any girls either, but Big Daddy's strip club on New Orleans' Bourbon Street is getting ready to bring back erotic spectacle to the devastated city.

Friday night on Bourbon Street, usually a throbbing artery of the party-going French Quarter, was pretty grim this time around in what has become a foul-smelling ghost town partly covered with a swamp of filthy water.

Police patrol cars and military Humvees made up most of the traffic on the street.

But Big Daddy's general manager, Saint Jones, and a band of helpers defied an evacuation order by arriving to clean up their premises in the historic French Quarter, which escaped largely unscathed from the floods.

Jones told Reuters he would open for business as soon as he could get electricity, water and dancers.

Because of the large military and police presence, strip club owners are expecting plenty of customers.

It didn't seem to occur to the men in uniform to enforce the evacuation order in effect on the city -- they preferred to ask when the strippers would be back.

One army Humvee, carrying a team of Puerto Rican troops, stopped so that a soldier could pose with his M16 rifle by a life-size picture of a naked blonde while his buddy took a photo.

Holy. Shit. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t help being disgusted.

Jessica is the 26 year-old executive editor of feministing.com. She is blogging in place of Lakshmi Chaudhry who is on vacation.