The Skin in Maine Is Causing Some People Paine

Nick Gillespie | November 28, 2005

As winter starts to freeze Maine solid until sometime next July, you'd think the residents there would be happy for any sort of diversion, especially one that is fleshly in nature. But as Rogier van Bakel blogs at Nobody's Business, a live lingerie window installation in Augusta has royally pissed off some Mainers:

Some people grouse at the scantily-clad young women in the window of an Augusta lingerie shop, girls who smile and wave at passers-by. The naysayers consider the publicity stunt an assault on family values.

Take Carrie Rossignol, the co-owner of -- of all things -- a video game store across the road, the kind of emporium where superior morals surely rule the day:

"It's tainting the wholesome businesses down here. I think it's selfish, and I think it's morally reprehensible."

Van Bakel notes ironically that Ms. Rossignol gleefully sells the naughty video game Grand Theft Auto; yeah, yeah, you can make arguments that a window display of real live lingerie offends in a way that a video game never can, but why take all the fun out of this bit? The whole thing here.

Comments

|11.28.05 @ 11:22PM|#

For a moment I thought the name of that store was "Needful Things", not "All Things."

|11.28.05 @ 11:24PM|#

A window full of girls in underwear across the street from a video game store?

Augusta, Maine, prepare for the coming influx of doughy single men.

|11.28.05 @ 11:34PM|#

Heh... A couple of months ago a suburban-Milwaukee fundie group started picketing a local Mall demanding that the Victoria's Secret store cover up the "provocative" mannequins and posters and Spencer's to stop adult merchandise, lest their children see a scantily-clad dummies or raunchy greeting cards and think filthy, un-Christian thoughts.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep05/355797.asp

And people wonder why I've lost my tolerance toward the religious.

|11.28.05 @ 11:45PM|#

I just RTFA. All I can say is that those girls need to show some more skin.

|11.29.05 @ 12:03AM|#

All I can say is that those girls need to show some more skin.

Amen thoreau. That's not even PG-13

Also, nice Stephen King reference. If I opened a store in Main I'd Definitely name it Needful Things :)

|11.29.05 @ 12:03AM|#

Great marketing. Why doesn't the video game store have kids banging out skateboard tricks with Tony Hawks game in hand?

Creativity gets the business, am I wrong?

|11.29.05 @ 12:19AM|#

Actually, ideally I'd incorporate a township called Salem's Lot, which would hopefully be more reminiscent of Galt's Gulch than Stephen King's paranormal epicenter. ;-)

|11.29.05 @ 12:24AM|#

How much is the blondie in the window...

|11.29.05 @ 12:31AM|#

Akira - hmmm..I think that mannequin thing happened somewhere else, too.

I'm with thoreau about the chicks.

And hell, I think they should get scantily clad 16 year olds in there. Younger is just creepy, and 16 year olds are allowed to be scantily clad models, and it would get the Full Family Values Freak Out Effect. Nothing makes me happier than the family values crowd shitting their pants. The only thing that comes close is when Chuck Schumer shits his.

Bonus points for 16 year old hot illegal immigrant chicks.

|11.29.05 @ 12:33AM|#

L I N G E R I E . . M O D E L S



...have nothing to do with this post.

Just a quick threadjack to let everyone know that the pics from the Denver Reasonoid gathering have been posted.

Click here to see 'em.

|11.29.05 @ 12:51AM|#

A window full of girls in underwear across the street from a video game store?

Augusta, Maine, prepare for the coming influx of doughy single men.

Hey!

Anyway, all I want to say is: I love my country.

|11.29.05 @ 2:06AM|#

So there really is a state called Maine? It's not just a front for something or one of the government's secret prisons?

|11.29.05 @ 7:15AM|#

I just RTFA too. I hope those offended never go to Miami Beach--they'd have an aneurysm just from what they'd see walking down the street.

|11.29.05 @ 7:57AM|#

I think this type of stuff is just fine right now.

I think it should be banned and punished with prison time in about 5 years (after I've started my family).

I think it should be relegalized about 21 years after that, especially with Adam's suggestion of 16 year old hot illegal immigrant chicks.

|11.29.05 @ 8:23AM|#

Mo gets the award for cleverest post!

|11.29.05 @ 8:31AM|#

As a resident of Augusta Maine. I can't say I blame the store owner. They need to do whatever they can to attract business.

|11.29.05 @ 9:06AM|#

Akira - hmmm..I think that mannequin thing happened somewhere else, too.

I wonder is the pants suit the fundie's equivelent to the burqa? I remember reading Ken MacLeod's "The Star Fraction" where a Christian enclave in a futuristic London produced "Modesty" brand women's wear (full length dresses with broad-brimmed hats, viels, and gloves so no skin would show) along with creationist Astronomy software and other items for the faithful. Somehow I fear that satire may once again become fact in Dubbya's America.

How long until Phyllis Schlafly or Jerry Falwell decides to break into the fashion world?

|11.29.05 @ 9:41AM|#

I'd advise those concerned in Augusta to steer clear of Tampa. The cops here just busted a busload of exotic dancers. They've been parking outside of the stadium before football games and have been, well, entertaining. According to the news reports, the charge was $20 for a topless dance, $40 for full nude. Apparently, the infamous six-foot rule was not complied with.

Huh. I just looked at an article about the bust, and it appears that my hometown is going to make headlines again for cunning linguistics and football:

Sgt. Bill Todd, Tampa Police Department:
"[T]he other thing the undercover officers observed, that at least two of the young ladies while engaged in lap dancing began performing oral sex for the patrons, on each other, not on the customers."

Viking Moose|11.29.05 @ 10:15AM|#

"So there really is a state called Maine? It's not just a front for something or one of the government's secret prisons?"

there sure is, Rick!

and people from the NE pretend that it's all wild with these things called "mountains" and everything!

it's so cute when north easterners try going off like that. heh

|11.29.05 @ 10:27AM|#

"It's tainting the wholesome businesses down here."

There's a joke in there somewhere.

|11.29.05 @ 10:44AM|#

As a response, I think we should go after these guys

If for no other reason than their web address is ridiculously long.

keith|11.29.05 @ 10:57AM|#

Lydia of Purple? Sounds too "phantasy role playing game" to be a true Christian. Burn 'er at the stake!

I just hope no one steal smy design for the men's boxer-thong.

-Keith

Timothy|11.29.05 @ 10:58AM|#

A girl in what appears to be a halter top and a thong (which I'm going to assume isn't sheer in the front) with a semi-transparent skirt; a girl in a camisol, a bikini briefs, and a knit sarong; and a gal in what appears to be some sort of bridal get-up...yeah, that's not sexy enough to arouse a junior higher let alone anybody who's actually seen a naked woman. There's more skin in a Sears catalogue.

R C Dean|11.29.05 @ 11:14AM|#

Ahh, the Sears catalogue . . .

Fond memories. . .

Oh, is this thing on?

|11.29.05 @ 11:25AM|#

Dammit Mo! I was trying to come up with "How much for doggy-style in the window", but now mine's just lame.

|11.29.05 @ 11:49AM|#

Boobies Bad. Violence OK.

|11.29.05 @ 11:57AM|#

How much is the blondie in the window...

I got your Blondie right here!

http://www2.drury.edu/ametz/miscearl.htm

Hi Mo. Great to see you posting again!

|11.29.05 @ 12:53PM|#

I never understood the whole "underwear" mystique--those girls in the window are exposing far less skin than they would in their bathing suits! So apparently, obscenity is determined NOT by how much skin is being exposed, but by what material is covering the UN-exposed skin. If it's cotton, silk or nylon, you are wearing "underwear" and are sleazy. If it's Spandex or Gore-Tex, you are wearing "a bathing suit" and are respectable.

|11.29.05 @ 1:01PM|#

Good point Jennifer. Hell, I've seen joggers wearing less.

I think it's not so much the fabric, however, as the design and intent. The clothing is designed to be alluring.

That's still no reason for a video game store owner to be upset that a neighboring business set up a magnet that will draw her target demographic into the neighborhood.

|11.29.05 @ 1:27PM|#

As a resident of Augusta Maine. I can't say I blame the store owner. They need to do whatever they can to attract business.

Yeah, Augusta has a very weak business climate. It is in many respects one of the lamest cities in the state. I haven't yet been down to check out the shop window, but I am glad that someone is trying to shake things up a little around here. It's not much of a controversy from what I can see: most people around here don't care one way or the other about anything--which might be part of the problem.

M1EK|11.29.05 @ 1:39PM|#

Jennifer, how often do you think you get to see hot chicks in bathing suits in _MAINE_ anyways?

|11.29.05 @ 1:49PM|#

Do they make swimming suits out of Gore Tex? It just seems like an odd use for a waterproof material.

|11.29.05 @ 2:26PM|#

Gore-Tex, Spandex, whatever the hell they make the suits from. I don't think I even own a bathing suit. But I remember when I was in Virginia, working as a dancer in nightclubs where the laws required dancers to wear, in effect, bikinis. The law forbade wearing bras and underwear, even though they covered just as much skin as the official dancing costumes. So after awhile, when I got sick of paying upwards of $100 for about five square inches of fabric, I WOULD buy bras, teddies and underwear, and just cut off the tags and either sew on some rhinestones or glue on some glitter.

Dr. T, our resident physicist, may be able to explain the scientific process by which the application of glitter transforms illicit underwear into legal dance costumes; I sure as hell can't.

|11.29.05 @ 4:56PM|#

If it's cotton, silk or nylon, you are wearing "underwear" and are sleazy.

That's exactly why I never wear underware, Jennifer. Because if ever I was in an accident, I'd hate for the EMT folks to think of me as sleazy.

|11.29.05 @ 4:57PM|#

I think the owner of the lingerie store and the video game store can work out a deal. Make it a shared promotion. Have two of the girls be lingerie models, and the third be a Lara Croft lookalike. Everybody wins. I mean everybody.

|11.29.05 @ 5:18PM|#

Stevo-

I don't see much customer crossover, however. Most of the dudes at the video game store probably don't have girlfriends that they can buy lingerie for. These stores have very different clienteles. The lingerie store is providing obvious benefits for the video game store (luring guys to the neighborhood), but the lingerie store is not really benefiting from the presence of the gamers. It's a public goods problem.

|11.29.05 @ 5:25PM|#

I think you're right, thoreau, but then why is it the game store owner who's complaining?

|11.29.05 @ 5:27PM|#

I can't even begin to speculate why Ms. Rossignol, the game-store owner, would oppose the sight of pretty girls across the street. After all, I'm sure Ms. Rossignol is quite fetching herself, and even if she isn't she surely would not indulge in any emotion so petty as jealousy.

|11.29.05 @ 5:47PM|#

I WOULD buy bras, teddies and underwear, and just cut off the tags and either sew on some rhinestones or glue on some glitter.

Wow! I have a Norman Rockwell print depicting that very scenario!

|11.29.05 @ 6:08PM|#

Isn't that "Freedom From Want"?

|11.29.05 @ 6:18PM|#

I say it's really the whole smiling and waving to passers-by. I'm told that's not that popular Up North. ;)