CENSORING REAL ART
Police shut down bar showing
musical revue with nude performers

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Police shut down a bar that was showing a successful musical revue featuring nudity because the business didn't have an adult entertainment license.

The manager of The Armory bar in midtown Atlanta, Doug Youngblood, said police overreacted Saturday night. He said the show had been running since August and is theater -- not adult entertainment.

The revue, "Naked Boys Singing," has spent six years off-Broadway in New York and road show versions are playing in several cities. The gay-themed show, billed as celebrating "the splendors of male nudity in comedy, song and dance," features six male actors who are in the buff for much of the performance.

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This is annoying. Naked Boys Singing may very well be a stupid musical, but it's a legitimate piece of theater. Onstage nudity has been pretty much acceptable since the 1970s, even in Atlanta. What's going on here? Reading between the lines, my best bet is that this has much more to do with the fact that it's gay nudity, with lots of threatening, floppy penises, instead of good, old fashioned titillating female nudity. In other words, this blatant act of censorship is homophobic in nature. Which is no surprise at all, especially in the deep South.

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