The Mayor has even banned her man!

Fact of life: (most) guys like strip clubs, and, as usual,  I have a theory as to why. There must be that titillating thrill of being able to look and not touch, that dangerous reassurance that they probably could cheat, but wouldn’t. Plus, it’s a weirdly bonding thing for men — though that particular ritual is beyond me. Personally, I don’t care if my boyfriend forks over his extra ones to the Lucite heel-wearing ones every once in a while. It’s not like I’m going to head to the Spearamint Rhino and ogle some oil-covered muscle men, but I don’t consider exotic dancers to be competition. Not all women are like me, though, including the Mayor of Italy‘s Bagnolo Mella — who has actually banned her husband from hanging out at a bar with similarly scantily dressed dollies.

Bagnolo Mella, near Brescia, lies in the northern part of Italy. It is the home to Le Cafe, a bar so congested with male traffic due to the bartenders’ skimpy outfits that Mayor Cristina Almici has considered trying to pass an emergency bylaw to limit traffic in the area.

The reason for the surplus of double parking violations and all-male crowd is none other than owner Laura Maggi. She comes to work dressed in leather pants, boob-baring tops, skimpy skirts and sky-high stilettos (I’ve tried this behind a bar before, and for the record, Maggi deserves a bit of credit for performing the unthinkable). She also hangs provocative photos of herself dressed in a bikini or in an American flag on the walls of her watering hole as decor.

Naturally, the passionate Italianas are not happy and have declared Le Cafe to be a no-drink zone for their boyfriends and husbands…and for the mayor’s husband.

She said said: “We have received several complaints from women about the bar and we are looking at what we can do with regard to public order.

“There has been a huge influx of traffic into the town since the news of Laura started to spread and this has led to incidents of bad parking and some minor acts of vandalism.

“We can’t stop people from going to her bar and I know it is very popular with men in the town – personally I don’t see any problem with how she looks or dresses.

‘If anything, it’s the men who go there who have a problem. My husband is certainly not allowed to go there.”

The 34-year-old Maggi simply shrugs when she hears complaints about her clothing.

She went on an Italian TV program last week to say: “I don’t see what the problem is – it’s just a bit of harmless fun. If the guys come here what can I do? I know I have upset the women but that’s not my problem.

“It’s not my fault if guys want to come and have a drink in my bar.”

I can’t say I blame her: sex sells, after all.

But a bar is different from a strip club. Strippers are skilled in the art of escapism, creating a fantasy place where a man can occasionally go but doesn’t actively want to stay.

Lounges, bars and nightclubs are more dangerous. They are places — especially local pubs — where guys always go to relax, unwind and have a fortifying end of day drink.

While I can’t hate Ms. Maggi for trying to keep herself in business, I also can’t blame the women of Bagnolo Mella for being worried about what will happen when they’re men go there….or for a woman of power to literally lay down the law and prevent her guy from going there.

Dangerous deeds can happen when you mix fantasy and reality, after all.