bikini barista stand

[ultravioletdreams]

Originally Posted by GrizzDawson

Honolulu, Hawaii

It's nice to see that the trend is spreading across the ocean. I can't wait until this is normalized.

So...c-strings. Like pubic hair on display, it's a fairly elusive niche as far as baristas go, but god damn, the pink c-string with the gem pasties made my jaw drop.

[GrizzDawson]

Not sure where she works seems to move around.

[ultravioletdreams]

I love all the little costumes and gimmicks, but 4th of July at a bikini coffee stand is probably my favorite.

[ultravioletdreams]

So the cute blonde with the selfie stick is the owner of a particular coffee stand in Washington, so no surprise she's on point with the stars and stripes on 4th of July. I appreciate all of the girls who do the job, but she's definitely one of my favorites. We'll call her Bella, without giving away too many more details...

[ultravioletdreams]

Apologies for any reposts, as there might be one or two that people have seen before. It gets a little hard to tell when you're sifting through multiple Instagram feeds. And btw, the return of one of my favorite barista fashion statements: the scarf.

[ultravioletdreams]

A few more of Bella in here and her employee / co-worker Paris (with the camo pasties).

One interesting thing to note is that not always, but often, if I post a pic where the girl is not showing here face, then there are no pics with her face showing. Some girls want to stay relatively anonymous as baristas, so you won't see faces and they don't have social media. Sometimes you'll get a name, but often they'll just be identified as "the new girl" or something along those lines.

I'm sure there's lots of reasons to remain anonymous while doing the job, I just find it interesting since the more successful baristas seem to use social media and fan interaction as a way to keep guys coming to see them.

[ultravioletdreams]

As much as I do enjoy the classic stars and stripes bikini, I do appreciate when the girls try something different, like our pink army girl.

[SpyStrip]

There is a current movement to end licenses for such places.

Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled cities and states can regulate the clothing, and that court is very liberal. The 3 judge panel ruled the problem is in how the word "bikini" became absurd, and that g-strings and pasties, or even genuine bras and panties. have become owners' idea of "bikinis". If these owners would have kept them as bikinis that covered the servers' bodies, it would have been okay. But they really pushed the envelope, to the point that there has been near nudity.

The owner said she would appeal the regulations, and that means she would ask the entire 9th Circuit to rule on the matter; that's called "en banc". Or she could ask SCOTUS to consider the matter. She'd certainly have Brett Kavanaugh on her side.

[ultravioletdreams]

Probably the last batch unless I find any last minute additions. I was happy to see that Allie put up some pics of her in a patriotic outfit.

[ultravioletdreams]

Originally Posted by SpyStrip

There is a current movement to end licenses for such places.

Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled cities and states can regulate the clothing, and that court is very liberal. The 3 judge panel ruled the problem is in how the word "bikini" became absurd, and that g-strings and pasties, or even genuine bras and panties. have become owners' idea of "bikinis". If these owners would have kept them as bikinis that covered the servers' bodies, it would have been okay. But they really pushed the envelope, to the point that there has been near nudity.

The owner said she would appeal the regulations, and that means she would ask the entire 9th Circuit to rule on the matter; that's called "en banc". Or she could ask SCOTUS to consider the matter. She'd certainly have Brett Kavanaugh on her side.

I saw this story! It's a little surprising to see the 9th Circuit come down on it in this way, but, the Supreme Court is fond of reversing decisions made by the 9th Circuit as judicial overreach, so, this sets up a pretty interesting dynamic from a jurisprudence perspective.

One thing that's interesting about the opinion issued by the 9th Circuit is the rationale for why the 1st Amendment challenge failed:

The free speech argument was basically that the outfits worn by baristas communicates a message of body positivity and female empowerment.

In brief, the court stated that to be protected speech, expressive conduct needs to satisfy 2 requirements:
1) an intent to convey a particularized message and
2) a great likelihood that the message would be understood by those who viewed it

The court goes on to explain

Context is everything when deciding where others will likely understand an intended message conveyed through expressive conduct. To decide whether the public is likely to understand the baristas intended messages related to empowerment and confidence, we consider "the surrounding circumstances[.]" Spence, 418 U.S. at 411. [...]

The Dress Code Ordinance applies [...] at retail establishments that invite commercial transactions, and in these transactions, the baristas undisputedly solicit tips. The baristas act of wearing pasties and g-strings in close proximity to paying customers creates a high likelihood that the message sent by the baristas' nearly nonexistent outfits vastly diverges from those described in plaintiffs' declarations. The commercial setting and close proximity to the baristas' customers makes the difference.

What's interesting is that the court also notes:

We stress that plaintiffs deny that they engage in nude dancing and erotic performances, thereby disavowing the First Amendment protections available for that conduct.

So there's a few interesting things to unpack there.

First, there's something weird going on with the rationale that conduct is not expressive if it results in financial benefit to the person making the expression. Granted, I haven't read every 1st Amendment case, but it's unclear to me why that changes the context of the speech at issue in this case.

Second, the opinion seems to assume that baristas deriving tips based on their physical appearance is somehow incompatible with a message of body positivity and female empowerment. I think you can definitely argue that the two things are related.

Third, the reference to nude dancing shows that there's a bit of subtext to what's going on with the court's opinion. By rejecting the 1st Amendment argument, the court seems to be suggesting that proprietors of bikini coffee stands are not being honest about the type of business they run. I think, from the court's perspective, a bikini coffee stand is a type of erotic service - and you can have 1st Amendment protection for a business like that, but you have to admit the nature of what it really is. The reason why a bikini coffee stand can't come out and say that it's an erotic service is because even though erotic expression would be protected speech, it's still subject to time, place, and manner restrictions - meaning that they could be regulated in a manner similar to strip clubs.

I think there's enough there to argue that the court got it wrong in this case, either because it applied the legal standard incorrectly or because it's assuming facts which are basically unknowable.

As for the future of bikini coffee stands, they're probably going to have to make a choice about what kind of business they want to be. If they maintain the premise that it's not inherently an erotic service, then eventually they're going to run up against a case like this where a city is going to pass ordinances that make operating your business impossible. If they admit what the business really is - which is adult entertainment - then, you can probably continue operating, but you'll have to be subject the same regulations and licensing requirements as strip clubs.

That's not game over, but it does present a hard choice that not everybody is going to want to make in order to remain in business.