Court Opinion

ID: 9886227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 15:47:40.484564+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:49:23.174972
License: Public Domain

THACKER, Circuit Judge, concurring:
I concur in Judge Wynn's opinion in this case. However, I write separately to address my colleagues' perplexing suggestion that the Ordinance's use of the phrase "fondling or erotic touching" may render the Ordinance applicable to nonsexual touching in mainstream artistic performances. See ante at 718-20.
We have previously held that the word "fondling," as used in a North Carolina statute prohibiting "fondling of the breasts, buttocks, anus, vulva, or genitals," has a particular meaning in the context of a law regulating sexually oriented businesses: "manipulation of specified erogenous zones." Giovani Carandola, Ltd. v. Fox , 470 F.3d 1074, 1080-81, 1084 (4th Cir. 2006). That construction applies with equal force to the Ordinance here, since its purpose is also to regulate adult entertainment.
Further, in arguing that the word "touching" is overbroad, American Entertainers reads the word "erotic" out of the Ordinance entirely. The word "erotic" amplifies the meaning of the word "touching" in the Ordinance. Mere "touching" and "erotic touching" are not the same thing. "Erotic" means something. Specifically, it means "of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire." Erotic , Webster's Third New International Dictionary (2002). An action is "erotic" if it "tend[s] to incite sexual pleasure or desire" or is "directed toward sexual gratification." Id. "Erotic touching" might also be described as touching that is "lascivious," "lustful," "prurient," or "vulgar"-the opposite of touching that is "decent," "polite," or "innocuous." See Erotic , Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/erotic (last visited Apr. 4, 2018).
Quite simply, "erotic touching," like "fondling," has a sexual connotation that is plainly not present in mainstream artistic performances. Dancers performing a lift during a ballet surely do not intend for their touching to incite sexual arousal in the manner contemplated by the Ordinance. The same is true for athletic endeavors such as wrestling, where participants often come into contact with intimate body parts. Indeed, if "erotic touching" includes as broad a description as American Entertainers ascribes to it, the sports world is in trouble. Given such an extensive reading, a sports arena may well be considered a sexually oriented business, considering, for example, players' frequent celebratory slaps on the buttocks.