Madison, Wisconsin asst. city attorney: "I don't know any man who wants to just snuggle"

Submitted by Mastodon on Mon, 2013-12-09 13:27

Story here. Excerpt:

'Wisconsin's ultra-liberal capital city is a place where just about anything goes, from street parties to naked bike rides. But city officials say a business is pushing even Madison's boundaries by offering, of all things, hugs.

For $60, customers at the Snuggle House can spend an hour hugging, cuddling and spooning with professional snugglers.

Snugglers contend touching helps relieve stress. But Madison officials suspect the business is a front for prostitution and, if it's not, fear snuggling could lead to sexual assault. Not buying the message that the business is all warm and fuzzy, police have talked openly about conducting a sting operation at the business, and city attorneys are drafting a new ordinance to regulate snuggling.

"There's no way that (sexual assault) will not happen," assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. "No offense to men, but I don't know any man who wants to just snuggle."

Snuggle House owner Matthew Hurtado hasn't responded to multiple requests for an interview. His attorney, Tim Casper, said in an interview last month the business is legitimate and Hurtado has put precautions in place to protect clients and employees from each other.
...
Police in Rochester, N.Y., said they've had no complaints about The Snuggery, which offers overnight cuddle sessions. Be The Love You Are in Boulder, Colo., offers cuddles with "Snuggle Stars." Cuddle Therapy in San Francisco offers packages that "focus directly with your current needs around connection, intimacy and touch," according to its website. Police in San Francisco and Boulder didn't respond to The AP's inquires about those businesses.'

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Comments

Bet they get female customers, too. But the city asst. att'y doesn't mention it, nor seemingly even considers it. Still, I do imagine the vast majority of their (now former) customers were men, but that's neither here nor there. Point is, this particular asst. city attorney has some awfully backward views about the male sex.

Based on the city's employee email address lookup page here, Ms. Jennifer Zilavy's is jzilavy-at-cityofmadison.com. The general phone number for asst. att'ys is found here and is: (608) 266-4511.

Calling or writing, bear in mind these *very important* facts:

  1. This is a city attorney's office; all calls are likely recorded, and obviously, emails too.
  2. Even ordinary modes of expression or rhetorical mechanisms can be construed negatively against you. Say nothing even remotely interpretable as threatening, even in your wildest imagination. Example: "What you said was really misandrist and sexist. How would you like it if someone talked about you like that?" Bingo, right there. That's enough to get you into trouble. You are better off just stating your opinion about the reported comments and nothing else.
  3. You may get an official denial. That's fine, the point is letting her know you saw the quotation. Don't expect any concessions or admissions of error, nor of sexism.

Finally, avoid arguing strawman points. Cuddling and engaging in sex acts aren't the same thing, neither is a "cuddle service" an invitation to rapists, nor are massage services (genuinely non-sexual services), massage parlors (sexual service fronts) nor brothels. So don't let anyone drag you down that road. Remember: Saying "Sorry, gotta go now," and just terminating the call (or just not replying to an email) is always an option.

Thinking about it, such personal services as "cuddle services" seem to be drawing a great deal of law enforcement attention. For every "cuddle service" there is out there, there have to be what, 20,000 massage parlors and brothels? Yet all this attention is on these new "cuddle services".

Just weird.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2013-12-10 02:21