Don’t hate on our dancers
It’s always hard to be the first one. When BJ’s got the call from Dallas Voice about participating in the first online “Dancer of the Month” feature, we were excited. That excitement and enthusiasm died with the Voice’s June 21 National Pride issue — and quickly turned to anger and a feeling of exploitation.
We like the online feature of Trey Aaron (the monthly item is a great idea), but the #IMHO feature in Viewpoints is a forum for people to be mean and nasty. Everyone is a critic.
The reality is that a large number of the young men who work at BJ’s are in school and have career aspirations. To print absurd and hurtful public remarks that a majority of dancers are prostitutes, or pole dancers, and the business is about sex, money and drugs may not accurately portray a featured dancer or the business.
Whether a person’s work wardrobe is a suit and tie, skirt or underwear, all people deserve respect and kindness. Whether a person’s profession is saving lives on a police beat, governing at City Hall, teaching in the classroom, or dancing — every person deserves the right to earn a living in their chosen profession.
We call for the Dallas Voice editors to consider the messengers and the message when publishing the reader comments. Writers may be calling you to task, but the underlying homophobic message creates sensational headlines and drama.
In our humble opinion (#IMHO),
Ron Adams, BJ’s owner
Kathy Jack, BJ’s general manager
Juan Lucero, BJ’s assistant manager/dance manager
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 5, 2013.