VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
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COVER STORY Regardless of how prudish local laws and culture may be in reality, Las Vegas has been deemed a sexy place in the court of public opinion, and that alone creates an impact. that depends, explains Kevin Bagger, senior director of marketing at the LVCVA. "For some people that means staying up past 9 o'clock," he says. "For others it's wearing those leather pants they'd never wear anywhere else." It was this research that led to the now-legendary ad campaign "what happens here, stays here," which launched in 2003 and is used to market the city to American tourists. It suggests Las Vegas as the place to let your inhibitions run wild without repercussions. argue that what these shows are selling isn't really risqué or even real . As of 2007, there were 37 gentlemen's clubs with nearly 100,000 registered dancers and about 2,500 dancers work on any given day. On most holidays, during big conventions and on weekends, as many as 4,000 will work. This marketing of fantasy should not be mistaken for reality, but often is. Outsiders and newcomers to the city are frequently surprised at the community's reactions to things such as non-commoditized nudity or alternative sexuality. Consider this: In late 2009, the Erotic Heritage Museum was forced to put adhesive pasties and stickers over exposed nipples featured in a mural painted on the building's exterior walls. It seems ironic for the community of a city whose reputation is centered on raunchiness to be morally opposed to nipples painted on the side of a building, yet, it happened. And it wasn't the only case of its type. Seems that "anything goes" attitude applies only to the strip of pavement known as Las Vegas Boulevard—and nowhere else. Actually, when you compare state, county and city laws, Las Vegas isn't a more-relaxed environment when it comes to sex-related industries such as strip clubs. One example: Adult establishments must choose between fully nude dancers or alcohol. They can't have both, unless they're the Palomino club, which is grandfathered into a license that allows both. More high-end, mainstream revues such as Crazy Horse Paris at MGM Grand must also cover the genitalia of their performers. Sally Dewhurst, marketing manager for Crazy Horse Paris, remembers a promotional event in Paris where the performers appeared topless in the production's storefront—an occurrence you would never stumble across at a gift shop on or off the Strip. "You know, that's France," she says. "A lot more seems to fly there, but, out of all the American cities, I would say that Las Vegas is pretty progressive." Brents says Las Vegas is full of "sanitized debauchery." Consistent and reliable data on the sex industry are difficult find, but Brents and fellow UNLV sociology professor Kathryn Hausbeck have written extensively on the issue of the sex industry and determined that we don't deliver the amount of sex that people might assume—we simply market it better. "We're making a whole lot of money off of sexuality," Brents says. "We're the image and the icon of sexuality, but the reality is that we aren't that much different from other places. There are nightclubs in every other big city. We have a prostitution industry that runs illegally that isn't as big as it is in other cities, and the brothel industry, for all its hype and symbolic importance, is really quite tiny." Even if Hausbeck and Brents are right about this, it may be irrelevant, because in a city where 44 percent of people's jobs are directly or indirectly related to tourism, perception may matter more than reality. IN, to LVCVA understandably chooses to focus on the 80 to 85 percent of potential travelers who would consider the trip, but it very well could be on moral grounds. Perhaps more easily quantified is the effect our sexed-up reputation has on locals, especially vulnerable populations such as teenagers. UNLV psychology professor Cortney Warren studied body image issues of Hispanic teenagers living in Las Vegas. As a part of this, she went to Valley High School to conduct an eating disorder prevention and media literacy intervention program, which teaches individuals to question the unrealistic images of beauty portrayed in mainstream media and advertising. She found that male and female teens had negative opinions of their own bodies. While this isn't exactly uncommon among teenagers, Warren thinks the issue is far more pressing in Las Vegas, where unrealistic body images are reinforced everywhere—on cabs, in billboards and by scantily clad casino employees. Average amount att endees of AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2009 spent on sexual In July, AlterNet.org placed Las Vegas third on its list of the kinkiest cities in America—behind Roselawn, entertainment, per day: Less than $150. Amount they spent on gambling: More than $500. and New Orleans. In its explanation, it directly referred the "Sin City" label, but also cited "plentiful strip clubs, unabashed dungeon parties and bondage-themed Cirque du Soleil shows." In a study released in June, tourism professor Seyhmus Baloglu of UNLV's hotel college asked tourists to think of Las Vegas as if it were a person and list three personality traits that reflect the city. "Sexy" was the fourth most common response, The average age of an exotic dancer is 23, and some are older than 50 . Las Vegas boasts about a dozen revues, both male and female. MGM Grand, New York-New York, Planet Hollywood, Flamingo, Stratosphere, Rio, Luxor, Excalibur, Riviera, Bally's and Hooters all have nightly revues, and other Strip properties have debuted revues that ultimately failed. With or without full nudity, many academics 22 behind "fun," "exciting" and "outgoing." When asked to describe a typical visitor to Las Vegas, "sexy" appeared in third place, after "young" and "fun." When visitors were asked to name images they associate with Las Vegas, gambling won out, which should surprise no one. Sex came in seventh, behind shows, fun, drinking, casinos and lights. So, regardless of how prudish local laws and culture may be in reality, Las Vegas has been deemed a sexy place in the court of public opinion, and that alone creates an impact. It very well may play be a deciding factor for 15 to 20 percent of Americans the LVCVA acknowledges would never even consider coming to Las Vegas. Not much is known about this demographic, as the Yet perhaps more worrisome, Warren says many ninth-grade girls "I was mortified by this," Warren says. "I was blown away. In most cities in the world you wouldn't come across so many girls saying they want strippers. It's seen as dirty from a cultural perspective. It's not glamorized. Here, strippers represent something positive—the ability to make a ton of money. It's a desirable opportunity." The Valley freshmen Warren interacted with may be extreme examples, but the sentiment that growing up in Las Vegas instills a thicker skin when it comes to sexy and raunchy images is something many locals agree with. Sometimes, the images may be so prevalent that locals don't realize how accustomed they are to them until they are gone. At least this is exactly what I experienced when I ran off to the Florida Panhandle at the ripe old age of 18. I'd spent the majority of my formative years in Las Vegas. The white-sand beaches and 60 varieties of sweet tea did their best to welcome me, and, sure, they were nice, but the only time it ever felt like home was when I stood on a pier in Destin and saw a Girls Gone Wild bus drive by. It was Spring Break—and I smiled. That Las Vegas affects its locals, especially its youth, isn't shocking. Every city does, in one way or another. So, again, the question is: In what way does all this matter? Do businesses give any thought to the sociocultural climate of their host cities or are they solely driven by the almighty dollar? Somer Hollingsworth, CEO of the Nevada Development Authority, concedes that Las Vegas' | 29 AUGUST 2011 | she interacted with expressed a desire to become exotic dancers. to be