Friday, November 6, 2009

Fantasy Fest, our community's largest event of the year, has come and gone. Tens of thousands of visitors streamed onto the island of Key West, providing an infusion of cash that once again has kept the local economy crawling along until the arrival of the winter tourist season.

Some amount of debate has always swirled around the festival. Some are critical of the nudity and ribald behavior, or lax enforcement of rules. Others embrace the weeklong hedonistic party as a good fit with Key West's image as a laid-back paradise. But overall, a bottom-line economic perspective has always prevailed -- Fantasy Fest keeps local businesses afloat, and by extension the local economy, during the slowest time of the year.

Accordingly, significant money and effort go into promoting the event nationwide.

All this is well and good, and we have no particular beef with any of it. However, considering the nature of this event, we are experiencing difficulty suppressing a collective grin at all the hoopla over establishing a clothing-optional beach in Key West.

We do not necessarily support designating an area for nude sunbathing, nor do we oppose it. But we can't help but chuckle at the fact that it has become such a hot-button issue, consuming many hours of hand-wringing on the City Commission, which first deferred the matter to a public referendum, then reconsidered and brought it back into the chambers for even more discussion.

OK, let's consider the obvious.

The city just hosted a festival with the theme: Fantasy Fest 2009 Celebrates 30 Years of Debauchery. Key West residents just spent a week with tens of thousands of arguably frisky visitors strutting about on downtown streets in various stages of undress and sobriety. The grand marshal of the city's biggest annual parade was a Playboy centerfold model.

And yet, some among us experience moral outrage -- or political paralysis -- at the prospect of designating an area of beach for nude sunbathing? Really? Isn't it a little hypocritical to look the other way when a clearly ribald activity fattens our checkbooks, then focus our fear and righteous indignation on nude sunbathing?

Let's just get over ourselves.

If the city sets aside an area where sunbathers may shed their clothes, who cares? Find an appropriate location. Establish sensible rules of conduct and enforce them. Recoup maintenance costs with concessions. (We suspect sunscreen sales could generate a few bucks.) If some residents find nudity offensive, they have plenty of other options. As with adult pay-per-view content available in virtually every household in the country, no one is forced to watch.

There are far more pressing issues that warrant this level of political angst -- such as nuisance chickens. (OK, we're joking about the chickens.)

-- The Citizen