‘Women should be able to be as sexual as they like’

Two prospective Labour councillors have voiced their concerns over proposals to ban strip clubs from Bristol.

Just months away from the end of his inaugural term as mayor, Marvin Rees could fulfil one of the promises that he made on the election trail back in 2016.

But dissenting voices to the plan are now coming from within his own party as Thomas Pearce, Labour candidate for Bishopsworth, and Lee Starr-Elliott, who is standing in Hengrove & Whitchurch Park, both speak out against the plans.

They join a growing number of people from across the city who see the ambitions for an outright ban on sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) as misguided and which could potentially push a regulated industry under the radar.

Pearce said: “I hope councillors won’t vote to fire these workers. They are legal venues and we have already got increasing unemployment. I would encourage the workers to unionise to better protect themselves from exploitative practices.”

Starr-Elliott added: “We should be looking to work with groups of these workers and venues for all sexes to secure safe working venues and rights not forcing it underground where the risks are higher!”

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Speaking when he was still a mayoral candidate in 2016, Rees said that “the price paid by wider society for having sexual entertainment venues is just too high”.

He told BBC Radio Bristol: “It feeds into wider inequalities. It feeds into a culture in which men objectify women and treat them lesser.”

Women also go to strip clubs, however, and female punters are among those dismayed about the plans to ban the venues from Bristol.

Writing on Facebook, Clara Nicholls said: “As a woman, I’ve loved going to Urban Tiger. The girls love their job and who are our political leaders to make moral judgements on how women make their money? If you don’t like strip clubs, don’t go! Don’t remove them for people who enjoy them.”

Lindsay Thorn said: “I’m a woman and I love going to Urban Tiger I don’t then go out and commit crime or violence?! Why is it on the dancers and the women? If you’re worried about men’s behaviour educate your men!!!”

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On Twitter, exotic dancer Tuesday Laveau, founder of Bristol Burlesque Festival, strongly criticised Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire and Avon & Somerset police & crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens.

She tweeted: “I am sick of the misogyny & fake feminism spat out over working women in this city by @ThangamMP & @SuMountstevens. You do not represent the will of this city & the majority of its people who have no problem with SEVs.”

Commenting on Bristol24/7’s original story about the proposals to ban SEVs, Jazzz wrote: “Well, after nearly a year away from my longstanding job as a stripper I feel this is kicking us whilst we’re down!!

“I miss my colleagues so much, the fun we have, the support, the friendships (not the same on Zoom!), I miss dancing, moving my body in beautiful erotic ways, I miss performing on the stage, I miss getting dressed up in my ridiculous dance gear, I miss the loud music, the bar staff, the managers and the security staff.. I miss it all!

“There are specific customers that would come regularly, people I got to know over the years; I miss them, I miss chatting about their lives and telling them about mine.

“I miss the customers – not the occasional idiots, before you argue that it is impossible for me to like all the customers – I miss the fun ones that make me laugh, and the ones that I can have interesting conversations with, a glimpse into someone else’s life, into a job I’ve never heard of or places I’ve never lived.

“I love my job as a stripper. Being forced by the lockdown to be away from the club for so long has made me value even higher than I previously did.

“There is no stress, no deadlines, no boss telling me what to do, I can take a week off or a month off whenever I want, I can travel and work wherever I stay (in the local strip club).

“I have been able to ‘be there’ for my family whenever they need me and I have done a lot of volunteer work with my spare time. We’re not all bad, us strippers!

“I get your arguments, against the industry, about objectifying women, and I am right behind any work being done towards equality and increasing the safety of women and girls.

“However, I am also a huge advocate of women being able and free to be as sexual as they like. Women’s sexuality has been viewed as dangerous and has played (is playing?) a considerable part in the oppression of women.

“It is not me and other women who need to stop doing anything, we don’t need to change; it is the men who commit violence against women who need to stop doing something, namely their oppression and violence.”

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Robyn Rooke, a pole dancer, instructor, performer and judge, and owner of 360 Pole Dancing on Philip Street in Bedminster, called the proposals “ridiculous”.

She said: “Every year the clubs are made to jump through more and more hoops, to the point that you barely know they are there. As above, there are few to no complaints to the police about antisocial behaviour.

“And in the last year they haven’t been allowed to open at all, but still have to pay their license fees and have little to no government help. All closing them will do is to push them into less licensable activities.

“The women who work here do so because it suits them, their lifestyle and their families, and customers prove that there will always be an appetite for entertainment like this.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more: Is it time to ban strip clubs in Bristol?