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Abstracts: March 2002
Ulster says No (again)
sex.ie Newsletter - quoting from Guardian / Observer article, Feb. 24, 2002)
According to this article:
The Free Presbyterian Church has expressed opposition to plans to open a lapdancing club in Belfast. The Rev David McIlveen, a spokesman warned that his congregation would picket the club and said that people are more puritanical in Northern Ireland and won't want this kind of thing in their province. He also said lap-dancing demeans women and appeals to the "baser instincts in man".
Le Chic is advertised as being a place of 'equal opportunity entertainment' with one of its three floors dedicated to gay and lesbian lap dancing. The owner (Jerome Brennan), who also owns a club in Limerick, also has plans to open up a club in Derry
Northern Ireland's ban on homosexuality was overturned in the European Court of Human Rights. Jeff Dudgeon, the man who brought the case to court, commented "if they can get away with lap dancing in this city it shows the fundamentalists have absolutely no grip over people's lives any more'.
March 12, 2002
The women who grin and bare it
New Scotsman
According to this article:
Sandra White, MSP, visited a lapdancing club and was disturbed by what she saw. She said "This is live pornography. Sexual exploitation of women for commercial gain... It's demeaning to women. It tells men it's OK to view women as sex objects and entertainment. How many of the men here would want their daughter to do this for a living? It should be banned." White is spearheading calls for the Scottish Parliament to outlaw table-dancing in Scotland.
The market leader in the UK is Spearmint Rhino, with ambitions, to create a "sex multiplex" in every major UK city by 2007.
Under current legislation, a standard entertainment licence is required for table-dancing clubs. Councils can only refuse licences if the character of the applicant is deemed unsuitable or the venue is unsuitable on health and safety grounds; or the location of the venue is unsuitable. The licensing board is legally bound to grant a licence unless it can find a genuine objection under these three categories.
Sandra
White has been involved with Glasgow projects to help prostitutes. She says that table-dancing cannot be viewed as "just a bit of fun". "This is not just about what goes on in these clubs or about prudishness. It is about the wider impact on society. I think it is accepted that a lot of men already feel threatened by women’s liberation. We have a lot of angry young men who feel disenfranchised and don’t know what their role is and can’t relate to women. This offers them a cheap and easy outlet for that anger and confusion, by allowing them to relate to women as sex objects whose bodies are so worthless that they can be bought and sold for men’s pleasure. "It is fostering this dreadful
laddish culture that we see in so many magazines, and in the 21st century we should not be allowing this. "We should be teaching men to relate to women on equal terms, not as something which is best used for sexual pleasure."
Glasgow City Councillor Jim Coleman says table-dancing flies in the face of several council initiatives to promote sex equality and positive relationships between young boys and girls. He says the council formed its opinion following consultation with a range of women’s groups. Coleman said "There is a clear link between prostitution, pornography and entertainment such as table-dancing. "They are all forms of commercial sexual exploitation which are degrading and demeaning to women and encourage the perception of women as sexual objects and commodities. This type of entertainment plays a part in normalising sexual violence, contributing to it being acceptable, tolerated, condoned and excused."
March 19, 2002
Suspect in court for lap dancer killing
According to this article:
Rohan Howell, 23, of, Homerton, east London, was charged
with the July 2001 robbery and murder of a teenage lap dancer, Adelle Hamilton.
Adelle was 18 years old and worked at the Spearmint Rhino club in Slough. She
was found by her father two weeks after her death - bound and gagged in
her flat. Howell is due to return to court on April 24.
Crystal Mercedes Whilby, Hamilton's neighbour was due to stand trial on March
18, but the case was adjourned. She denied charges of manslaughter
and conspiracy to rob.
March 20, 2002
Rhythm & Blue - BBC Spotlight
BBC
Barbara McCann
"The lap-dancing phenomenon, which has its roots in the United States, is currently sweeping across Britain and Ireland. Three years ago in the Irish Republic they did not exist - today there are at least ten with others in the pipeline.
The people who run these profitable clubs in the Republic are making efforts to bring the business to Northern Ireland, promoting their own brand of semi-naked dancing.
In this edition of Spotlight, Barbara McCann reports that the move is facing some tough resistance in the North and examines attitudes to this new kind of voyeurism.
The programme brings together a cleric who is strongly opposed to the trade and a businessman who is already running a lap-dancing club in Belfast."
March 29, 2002
Derry Journal
According to this article:
Eileen Calder hopes to stop plans by Donegal businessman, Jerome Brennan, to open lap dancing venues in Derry and Belfast saying they pose a threat to all women and not just the dancers.
Ms. Calder, a co-director with the NIRCC, hopes to scupper Mr. Brennan's proposal by contacting all the political parties in Derry this week asking them to collectively lobby against the move.
March 30, 2002
Meath Is Next On Lap Dance Hit List
Meath Chronicle
Christina Hession
According to this article:
Meath is set to have its first lap dancing club in six to eight weeks’ time. Martin Rossiter, promoter of The Chicken Ranch lap dancing club in Rochfortbridge, Co. Westmeath will be opening a club in Meath at an undisclosed location.
Mr. Rossiter told the Meath Chronicle that he eventually plans to establish a lap dancing club in each county.
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