JERSEY CITY — Jersey City may say "ta ta" to its ban on women going topless in public.
The City Council next week is expected to hear a revision of the city's 36-year-old obscenity law, which bans women from exposing their breasts in public spaces. Supporters say the new version of the law, which was sparked by the city's attempt to shut down a show by a local burlesque performer, is more in step with the 21st Century.
In the new version, female breasts are dropped from the definition of "state of nudity," which now includes only areas below the waist. The new version retains a ban on appearing in any public place in Jersey City while naked, and that includes "any street, avenue, highway, road or waterway." So no skinny dipping in the Morris Canal Basin, people.
The ordinance also removes all references to "obscene devices," which is legalese for sex toys. Anyone who possesses six or more is presumed to have the intent to distribute them under the current law.
The word "obscene" also gets a revamp. The 1982 law defines it as something the average person "applying contemporary community standards would find taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex." The revision says obscene material appeals "only to the prurient interest in sex" and cites a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision widely considered the final word on what is and is not obscene.
Lillian Bustle is the burlesque performer whose show led to renewed attention on the nearly four-decade-old obscenity law. The city's law department in March threatened FM with a revocation of its restaurant license if Bustle went ahead with a performance there, saying her show — Bustle often performs in pasties and a G-string — might be considered obscene. The city has backtracked, citing an exemption in the law for material with artistic or political merit.
Bustle praised the obscenity law re-write as "very simple and very progressive."
"I hope that the more conservative members of the City Council will recognize that this isn't some kind of slippery slope into the depths of degradation," she told The Jersey Journal. "Rather, it will open up a whole new chapter of artistic and personal freedom for the citizens of Jersey City."
Bustle said she did not request, but supports, the elimination of the topless ban.
Gerry McCann, who was mayor when the obscenity law was first adopted, told The Jersey Journal it was an attempt to keep strip clubs out of the city. Eliminating female breasts from the definition of naked concerns McCann, who drew a straight line from the ordinance up for council approval on Wednesday to the presidential election of 2020.
"The public needs standards and when you relax the standards to the point where you are legalizing everything that was previously not proper, you're guaranteeing the re-election of Donald Trump," McCann said.
New Jersey law appears vague on the matter of women going topless in public. A state appellate court in 2001 upheld a Lower Township topless ban, ruling that covering female breasts in public is important to safeguard the "public's moral sensibilities."
It has been legal for women in New York City to go topless in public since 1992.
Svetlana Mintcheva, with the National Coalition Against Censorship, called Jersey City's current obscenity law "confusing and strange." It could be used to charge someone who shows an R-rated movie with a nude scene in it, she said.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.