If Villahermosa, Mexico, is your winter getaway of choice, don’t get caught with your pants off there — even inside your hotel or hacienda. According to a news report, the hot, steamy southeast Mexico town has a problem with residents going about their business in the buff and sometimes being seen by passersby.
To protect public morals and sensibilities, the local powers that be have passed a complete ban on indoor nudity. Offenders can expect to pay a $121 fine or spend up to 36 hours in jail.
The story quotes Blanca Estela Pulido of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, a member of the city council: “We are talking about zero tolerance . . . for a lack of morality.” Pulido also said she believes people will report offenders, despite the fact the same law prescribes jail time for peeping toms.
Clearly, the Villahermosa City Council is not controlled by a team of rocket scientists.
A law calling flashers to account would make sense. It’s not so much a matter of a flasher’s nudity doing harm. The problem is the deliberate foisting of the flasher’s nudity on others in an attempt to shock and cause discomfort.
But to penalize people for being bare in their own abode, no deliberate flaunting involved, is another matter entirely. It seems there’s no limit to the mindless excesses of prudes who get their hands on the levers of power.
