A logical argument against strip clubs.

"After all, history is very much "99 percent women being subjugated, disenfranchised, and sexually objectified." Women have- there's no two ways about this- really been shafted by the simple fact that men fancy them. We can see that men's desire for women, has, throughout history, given rise to unspeakable barbarity. It's caused terrible, terrible things to happen, because men have been the dominant force with no rules or check on their behavior.
....
In this context, then, it's obvious that lap-dancing club is as incongruous in modern society as a "Minstrel Show!" or ads for "Jew Beating- Sticks $1!"

Of course, the big difference here is that if a white man suggested starting a cleaning agency that only employed black cleaners, dressed in plantoon clothing, and being excessively cowed and differential to their employers, the entre world would be up in arms.

"What are you playing at?" they would shot. "We're not going to bring back a 'light entertainment' version of slavery! Not even if it's for a 'social experiment' reality documentary on Channel 4!"

But what are strip clubs and lap-dancing clubs if not "light entertainment" versions of the entire history of misogny?
...
And the men- oh, are you any gentler or happier? You cannot put your hand on your heart and say- as the music starts up, and she moves toward you- that you have kind feelings toward these woman. No man who ever cared for or wanted to impress a woman made her stand in front of him and take her knickers off to earn her cab fare home. You spend this money on nothing at all- addiction to porn and strip clubs is the their biggest cause of debt in men. Between 60 and 80 percent of strippers come from a background of sexual abuse. This place is a mess, a horrible mess. Every dance, every private booth, is a small unhappiness, an ugly impoliteness: the bastard child of misogyny and commerce."

-Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

Comments

Popular Posts