Too Fat To Dance

While in New Orleans, a place where strip clubs and the tamer burlesque dancing can be found without much effort, I noted a controversy erupted in the local media.  It seems that a burlesque dancer who performs as part of "The Blue Book" weekend shows at the Bourbon Street nightclub called 'Lucky' Pierre's'  said she has been fired from the lineup because of her rather large weight. "Basically, it is a "You're too fat for a club that shows the body as the feature attraction. The situation is sparking debate about whether mandatory physical qualifications for a job are "fair" and has now brought about threats by people making commentaries in social media to boycott Lucky Pierre's.

Hmmm That place is a tourist dump that the locals would love to see closed, so perhaps the fatty with the stage name Ruby Rage is doing the city a favor.  Anyway,  the Lucky Pierre club stupidly offered a post on its Face book page to explain itself. Sometimes being silent on those crazy social media sites is a better option. The club wrote,
 "We would like to thank everyone for their opinion on burlesque. Let's face the facts, in the long history of the art there is an expected image." Sounds good enough to me. Some jobs require certain types. There are for example, physical qualifications about size for police officers. And women do not seem to be on the many all male professional sports teams. Size can be important to a job. How many fat Miss Universe contestants have we seen? Uh, none.

Lucky Pierre's also wrote on Face book, "We, at Lucky's, are making many positive changes to our shows and the number of days we offer the many varieties of entertainment. What is buzzing around the web is a clear case of misinformed people inciting a mob. Now, we have a situation of slandering a manager and cyber bullying. It's a shame that when a business has to make a change, people use the web as a weapon to hurt that business.

Odd, that a group of people that feel mistreated would spend so much time abusing a business that gave them an opportunity to live their dream. Unfortunately, we have had to cut many acts as we evolve our show to include swings, aerial acts, karaoke and pianos. We invite everyone to come see our show and you will see for yourself that Lucky's is the most diverse club and show around." Ruby Rage has also used Face book to respond to the situation.  Sigh, it's the way of the world that social media sites have become crying towels for the unhappy.

The club is in business to make money and the vast majority of its customers want to see slim, sexy bodies. There are other options for chubby dancers like Ruby Rage. And, If there is a market for plus size dancers (yes, there are some of those clubs out there for men and women who want to see fat performers) she can open her own club or work at any that already exists.

Why do people feel they have the right to dictate job qualifications that employers use? Oh, yes. I forgot. It's the age of political correctness in which we supposedly we all have the right to satisfy ourselves at others expense.