Crackdown on 'Cleavage of the Buttocks'
by : Tim McElreavy
June 9th, 2009



Lawmakers in the city of Yakima, WA, have apparently had enough. Yesterday the city council voted 5-2 to change the city's indecent exposure laws to include "cleavage of the buttocks," that is, exposing a thong or G-string in public. Women caught showing off their assets can now be fined $1,000 or face up to 90 days in jail. If a child under the age of 14 is considered a victim of indecent exposure, those penalities are increased to $5,000 and up to a year in jail. The new law was spearheaded by Yakima's Mayor Dave Elder in response to a new trend in hiring scantily clad women to work in coffee shops. Dubbed 'sexpresso,' businesses are now using sex in the form of attractive barristas exposing thong underwear to sell coffee. Three such establishments have opened recently in Yakima. Many of the town's women have complained about the new law. One resident wrote in a letter to the editor in the local newspaper, "For those who do not have horse's blinders on, it's the society that prohibits that ends up being like the Taliban." However, Elder, a church pastor, defends his position, "If you want to create an environment where crime can happen, you turn a blind eye to adult businesses. And that's why this is important to me." Sounds like somebody in that town needs to turn the other cheek.