ABSTRACT
Between 1987 and 1992, the number of strip clubs in major cities across the United States roughly doubled, suggesting that voyeurism was indeed the commercial sexual pursuit of choice in the age of AIDS.2 As Eric Scigliano observed in the early 1990s, “the emerging battleground in the eternal war between prudery and prurience” was none other than the “ancient, quaint, and innocent-sounding art of the striptease.”3 At the time, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was just beginning to contemplate a political career on the national scene. It would be to his advantage to conclude his mayoral career by “purging” New York City in ways that reflected the values and policies of his conservative party.
