In the 1960s, Papa Joe’s in Roanoke, Virginia, became the very first club in the state and among the earliest in the nation to feature topless dancing. While some heralded Papa Joe’s owner, George Christofis, as a sexual revolutionary, many religious leaders and local residents condemned him. But Papa Joe’s history is not a simple tale of moral outrage in a part of the country that birthed the Religious Right. Instead, the story of Papa Joe’s reveals how sexual entertainment flourished on Southern soil while upholding the color line.
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In the 1960s, Papa Joe’s in Roanoke, Virginia, became the very first club in the state and among the earliest in the nation to feature topless dancing. While some heralded Papa Joe’s owner, George Christofis, as a sexual revolutionary, many religious leaders and local residents condemned him. But Papa Joe’s history is not a simple tale of moral outrage in a part of the country that birthed the Religious Right. Instead, the story of Papa Joe’s reveals how sexual entertainment flourished on Southern soil while upholding the color line.
In the 1970s, Evangelical women published bestselling marriage manuals. These books encouraged millions of American women to have active and exciting sex lives. They also insisted that in order to find happiness, a women must submit to her husband's divinely ordained authority.
Sexing History
In the 1960s, Papa Joe’s in Roanoke, Virginia, became the very first club in the state and among the earliest in the nation to feature topless dancing. While some heralded Papa Joe’s owner, George Christofis, as a sexual revolutionary, many religious leaders and local residents condemned him. But Papa Joe’s history is not a simple tale of moral outrage in a part of the country that birthed the Religious Right. Instead, the story of Papa Joe’s reveals how sexual entertainment flourished on Southern soil while upholding the color line.
