Nothing about a lap dancing club is ‘right’

Why then, after a century of trying to bring about gender equality, should an establishment that debases women be encouraged in the name of entertainment? (I’m afraid I don’t buy the argument that it ‘empowers’ women.) It is even more shocking that three out of the five on the panel, voting in favour of granting Shades a licence, were women, and older women at that.

Only in the past week on television, there has been the episode of Silent Witness highlighting the horrors of the Rochdale teenage grooming gang, and then Casualty, which showed the potential issues arising from pressures of working as a lap dancer, in the absence of opportunities for other paid work and the expense of childcare. Female students sometimes opt to work in such places, as the pay is relatively good, and university costs are high. The issue or debate shouldn’t revolve around a potential increase in crime, as has been the case in the Courier, it should focus on the fact that there is nothing about a lap dancing club that is ‘right’. There is nothing ‘classy’ about lap dancing clubs either.

Women are not just objects or bodies for male entertainment. It sounds clichéd to even say this, but it is true. Sex clubs merely serve to keep women in a disadvantaged, degraded and absolutely unequal position alongside men, and it should make women angry, including those councillors. They have risen to positions of respect and responsibility entirely as a result of the stronger female activists of the past. They should use their position to help protect and really empower those women who might not have had their opportunities. Whatever other good works they might have done, for their vote in this instance, they should be ashamed of themselves. - Lucy Llewellyn, via email.