THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 144 lines
Cheesy T-shirts and sleazy photos and postcards will be shunted away from impressionable young eyes in Virginia Beach - especially at the Oceanfront - under new rules that the City Council approved Tuesday.
Though not restricting the sale of such goods, the ordinance requires shopkeepers to keep provocative materials away from the inquiring eyes of anybody younger than 18.
The new rules include a detailed and blush-inducing list of things that cannot be displayed openly. If strictly enforced, it could remove from view not only the most graphic depictions of things sexual, but also those naughty little cards that men and women send one another as their 40th birthdays approach.
``There was a real concern,'' said Councilman Linwood O. Branch III, who operates a resort-strip hotel, ``that some of the depictions were so graphic that they had gone beyond the limits of what a lot of people consider to be appropriate.''
Branch grimaced, though, when shown a T-shirt prominently displayed in the doorway of the souvenir shop of his own hotel. On its front was a cartoon doctor who was, to put it delicately, checking the pulse of a shapely female bottom.
``Oh, my God,'' the councilman said, confessing that it would violate the new code. ``I've gotta call my brother. I had no idea we bought this kind of stuff.'' The cartoon of the cheeky doctor would be removed right away, he said.
Branch said he later found out his younger brother had displayed the T-shirt Tuesday as a joke and that the shirt was not for sale.
Civic assaults on lurid shirts and graphics are nothing new at the Oceanfront, but Branch said attempts to get merchants to police themselves had not worked.
``We've made efforts to deal with this on a voluntary basis,'' he said, ``but then you get these bigger chains that operate in Myrtle Beach (S.C.) and Ocean City (Md.) . . . Well, let's just say the efforts at voluntary compliance have not been successful. Not really.
``I'll tell you,'' Branch said, ``Some of the raw stuff that's out there is really offensive. Freedom of expression is one thing, but your freedom of expression should end when it infringes on my freedom of quiet enjoyment.
``If society doesn't try, the message is, `Everything goes.' ''
The ordinance presents a conundrum: The city will try to rein in the displays, but there is no way to rein in the tastes of someone who insists on strolling the streets in a vulgar T-shirt.
``We cannot regulate what somebody wears in the general public,'' said Randall Blow, a deputy city attorney who helped develop the ordinance. ``If somebody wants to buy a T-shirt that's offensive and walk up the Boardwalk or Atlantic Avenue, well, the law doesn't give us a lot of latitude to deal with that.''
But the courts, he said, allow some control if the intent is to protect youngsters.
``What we're trying to do,'' Blow said, ``is to assist parents and assist in the health and welfare of juveniles. The idea is to keep unsuspecting parents with small children from walking into a store and all of a sudden being confronted by an indecent T-shirt or button. They can't avert their eyes, and at that point the harm already has been done.
``All we're saying is that, as a business owner, if you choose to display or sell indecent merchandise, it has to be in an area of the store that has no access for juveniles and is out of plain view.''
Some shops will have to build special partitions, he said. To give owners time to comply, the new rules would take effect in 30 days. A violation would be a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $250.
Enforcement will be up to the police, Blow said. ``We're not going to have some special task force of police officers to look for violations,'' he said. ``It will be more in the nature of a complaint basis.''
Few overtly obscene items could be found on the shelves of beachside shops Tuesday, but there were many shirt designs that a parent might not want to see on the back of a boy dating his daughter. Most stores had at least a few items that would fail the city's taste test.
Leery of crossing swords with the city, most shop owners declined to discuss the issue. One man who manages seven souvenir shops would speak only if not identified.
``If they want to do this, then we'll deal with them. There's nothing wrong with this stuff,'' he said, gesturing at shirt displays. ``It's not like we're selling drugs or anything.''
One of his shirts was a particular design that Linwood Branch had mentioned as an example. It makes a crude pun on the word ``faggot'' and features a coyote making obscene gestures with both paws.
``That one?'' the manager asked. ``That shirt is just flying out of here. How is that obscene? Look up what that word means in the dictionary, you'll see.'' (Webster's New World Dictionary says: ``Slang: a male homosexual: term of contempt.'')
``We used to sell the really bad stuff,'' the store manager said, ``things with the f-word, you know, all that stuff. But we got rid of all that because we sell to families. We like families in here.''
On that point, at least, he and the mayor agree. ``Decent people,'' said Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, ``more and more are being forced to stay in their own homes, they won't journey out into the public square. At the Beach we say we want families to come down and not only physically be safe, but also not have to explain to their children why there are tasteless displays on T-shirts, with words we would not use with children.
``We're not trying to enforce taste,'' she said. ``We're just asking that if it's truly tasteless it not be flaunted, that they keep it in a separate little area in the store where people who have that sort of taste can go and rummage through and choose and select what they want.'' ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot
Civic assaults on lurid shirts and graphics are nothing new at the
Oceanfront, but council members said attempts to get merchants to
police themselves haven't worked.
[SIDE BAR]
EXCERPTS OF THE ORDINANCE
Excerpts from a Virginia Beach ordinance to regulate the display
of certain merchandise in areas accessible to juveniles:
The City of Virginia Beach hereby finds and declares that
juveniles are confronted on a daily basis by the public display and
sale of merchandise which graphically depicts or describes sexual
activities or organs in an indecent manner and which is, therefore,
inappropriate for their viewing.
It is the intent of the city to aid parents in the exercise of
their primary responsibility for the health and welfare of their
children . . . by shielding juveniles from the harmful exposure to
such merchandise in businesses which are open to the general
public.
(The term) merchandise shall be deemed to include, but shall not
be limited to, any banner, button, clothing (including hats),
figurine, game, greeting card, magnet, photograph, postcard, poster,
sculpture, souvenir, sticker, towel or similar item, whether or not
offered for sale.
To depict or describe sexual organs in an indecent manner shall
mean to graphically depict or describe, by visual representation
and/or language, sexual intercourse, masturbation,
sadomasochistic abuse, sexual penetration with an inanimate object,
sodomy, bestiality, uncovered genitals, covered genitals in a state
of sexual stimulation or arousal, or the fondling or other erotic
touching of genitals, the pubic region, buttocks or the female
breast.
Any person who owns, leases or manages a business establishment
which displays and/or offers for sale merchandise which depicts or
describes sexual activities or organs in an indecent manner shall be
required to place such merchandise in an area of the establishment
whereby the merchandise is inaccessible to and out of the plain view
of juveniles.
KEYWORDS: OBSCENITY RULE LAW ORDINANCE VIRGINIA BEACH by CNB