Strip club ban: Edinburgh Council's change of heart suggests they think women are second-class citizens – Susan Dalgety

During a recent discussion about Edinburgh’s strip clubs on the Jeremy Vine show, I was told that I should try a spot of lap dancing myself. “It’s empowering,” barked my fellow guest, comedy critic Kate Copstick, “you might like it.”
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I could barely contain my laughter. I am open to most new experiences, provided they don’t involve heights or taking my clothes off in public, so the thought of me parading naked in front of a few dozen drunken men made me laugh. Then it made me angry.

No matter how loudly, or how eloquently, defenders of sexual entertainment protest that sex work is empowering, the depressing reality is that it degrades all women and girls. If even only a handful of women are seen as nothing more than sexual entertainment for men on a night out, then this surely suggests that society considers all women and girls of less value than men and boys. We are nothing more than sex objects, with lap dancers as living porn.

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This is clearly what the members of the city council’s regulatory committee think, judging by their cowardly decision to review their decision to ban Edinburgh’s strip clubs. Last year, councillors voted by a narrow majority to cap the number of sexual entertainment venues in the city at zero, with the ban starting this April. But following protests and court action by the United Sex Workers union, it would seem that councillors have lost their courage.

“The nil cap needs to be reconsidered for the sake of the performers,” said councillor Neil Ross, convenor of the regulatory committee, as he ordered a new consultation to “allow the committee to think again”. And now that the Court of Session has ruled that the council was wrong to introduce the ban in the first place, it looks likely that strip clubs will stay in business.

This is despite a report by the city’s chief social worker that points out that strip clubs, far from being the innocent fun their supporters portray them as, are a gateway to more seedy activities. The report points out that one-third of “sex buyers” arrange to buy sex in strip clubs and it also makes clear that the job of a stripper is not the well-paid, secure gig the sex workers’ union suggest it is.

It seems that the women have to pay a fee to perform, and while they are allowed to keep any income they make during their performance, they could finish their shift out of pocket. And there are no rules in place to stop this exploitation from happening.

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Even more depressing is a survey into the background of women who work in Scotland’s sex industry, cited in the report. More than one third (36 per cent) had experienced childhood sexual abuse, 20 per cent had become involved in the industry before they were 18, and 38.5 per cent had been trafficked.

Sexual entertainment degrades all women and girls (Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)Sexual entertainment degrades all women and girls (Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Sexual entertainment degrades all women and girls (Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

When Edinburgh councillors made their original decision to ban strip clubs last March, they were standing up, not just for those women forced to earn a living by entertaining men, but for all women in the city. Their change of heart – and the court ruling – suggests women are still considered second-class citizens.

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