Abstracts: September 2004
September 2,
2004
Lap Dancers and Credit Controllers
According to this article:
Glasgow's efforts to introduce lapdancing into the city have been met with
woman's rights campaigners objections. Reports are that the campaigners
plan to photograph male customers visiting the clubs and post them to a website.
The tactic was used in Newcastle but abandoned after club goers retaliated with
their own website called "
It has been reported that these campaigners will take photographs of male
customers visiting lap-dancing clubs and post them on a website.
This tactic was first used in Newcastle which involved placing pictures of the
men on a website www.theyhavetopayforit.com . It was abandoned after club goers
retaliated by publishing photos of protestors at
www.thesewomencantgiveitaway.com. Scottish Women Against Pornography stressed it
would not bow to similar action.
(the rest of the article deals with emerging websites naming debtor
organisations and posting details on websites exposing them as account
defaulters) You may be forgiven for asking what this has to do with Credit
Controllers?
September 5, 2004
MoD's Summer Secret
According to this article:
Camden councillors are fighting plans which are being drawn up that will force councillors who have
visited lap-dancing clubs to declare their visits publicly
to avoid potential conflict of interest claims when it comes to renewing the
clubs' licences. The council's lap-dancing-club
protocol decrees councillors must stay no longer than the average time it
takes to consume a non-alcoholic drink, which they must have bought themselves.
-
"MoD's summer secret" Guardian. Sept.5 2004
<http://politics.guardian.co.uk/backbench/comment/
0,14158,1297655,00.html>
September 7, 2004
Anti-lapdancing group walk a tricky
tightrope
According to this article:
Scottish Women Against Pornography plan to photograph
punters going into the For Your Eyes Only lapdancing bar in Glasgow and publish
them on the web at www.theyhavetopayforit.com.
The website has apparently closed down. SWAP argues that if there is
nothing shameful going on in the clubs than no-one can object to photos of the
customers. Legal difficulties are anticipated. Strathclyde Police believe it is
likely to lead to public disturbance and constitutes a breach of the peace.
Punters may decide to take SWAP to court. SWAP argues that photos taken on
public streets are allowed (i.e. celebrities / paparazzi), however House of
Lords held that Naomi Cambell's privacy was breached when photographed leaving
Narcotics Anonymous.
The fact the photograph was taken on a public street was a defence
successfully employed by the paparazzi for a number of years in allowing them
to snap celebrities, but this is no longer straightforward. "But you can imagine SWAP would be only too pleased to get into an argument
about whether the harm they seek to prevent to women in general outweighs an
individual’s right to have a lapdance on the quiet. I know where I’d put my
money - and it won’t be into a G-string."
September 8, 2004
40 apply for
Barrow lap dance jobs
According to this article:Former "exotic dancer", Joanne Scaife, 21, advertised at a local jobcentre for
performers for her Barrow lap dance club "Sub Zero" and over 40 women applied.
She hopes to open in October 2004. It was the first time Barrow’s Jobcentre Plus
in Michaelson Road had advertised sex industry jobs like stripping and pole
dancing.
A successful court challenge by the Ann Summers sex chain in July 2003 ruled
that Jobcentres can no longer ban such adds.
A North West company Evolution advertised in the Barrow Jobcentre because it
wanted to hire £100-a-night strippers and £75-a-session pole and lap dancers to
perform throughout the region.
Former exotic dancer Joanne Scaiffe, 21, plans to open what would be Barrow’s
first ever lap dancing club at Sub Zero.
The advert said: “Duties will include dancing and nudity which may cause
embarrassment to some people. “Salary plus commission for personal dances.”
- "40 apply for lap dance jobs" NW Evening Mail Sept. 8, 2004
<http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/
viewarticle.aspx?id=133568>
September 13, 2004
Women need to be protected from sex trade
Opinion
The writer expresses her thoughts regarding the proposed prostitution tolerance zones in Liverpool. She asks the readers to imagine the possibilities and discusses historical attempts by Josephine Butler to help sex workers.
Quotes:
"When it comes to prostitution, there is no system that will manage it into
safety, no law that can make it a sweet profession, no use of language that will
make it synonymous with liberation.
Prostitution is a form of sexual slavery. It exists to be `managed' in 2004
because significant numbers of men think that women are objects to be bought.
Yet it remains true that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged women put it into
practice. These women sell themselves because of desperation -- to support their
children, keep their homes going, because they need a fix of some kind.
They face terrors every day. Their lives will not be improved by establishing
this zone.
If any of my sons grow up thinking it acceptable to pay for sex I would have
failed not only as a mother, but as a woman.
If my daughter thought her only option was to sell her body, I would consider
life not worth living.
I believe every woman who sells herself is a precious person worthy of respect.
She is worth more than having the council acting like a civic pimp to clean her
up and push her out to some well-lit, unpopulated area to sell her body.
Josephine Butler will be turning in her grave."
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