Strip clubs are a City girl’s sanctuary
Venetia Thompson, until recently a broker, says that the feminist Fawcett Society should not campaign to outlaw City outings to strip joints: they are harmless after-hour crèches
Unless of course the impulse to sue never arrives. Then, and only then, will she be deemed a traitor to the sisterhood; as having gone and fished her bra out of the flames.
And what of flexible working? The City is not ‘flexible’. Let’s face it: that’s the point. It is a difficult working environment for everyone. It is part of the deal that fitting children, dates, anniversaries and manicures around working for an investment bank is going to be very hard. I am not entirely sure when ‘working flexibly’ became a basic human right; or when it was decided for us that working hours (some admittedly longer than others) had become just too much of a burden; that job-sharing had to be introduced as an option for people who simply could not cope with an entire job all by themselves. Or, indeed, why the Fawcett Society helpfully decided to inform us that ‘women working part-time earn on average 36 per cent less than men working full time’ in their manifesto and expect to be taken remotely seriously.
I am, however, convinced that women, and men, should have the inalienable human right to go to strip clubs if they wish. With or without clients and without the fear of being sued. They should also have the right to rely on the common sense and humour of their co-workers and trust that calling people ‘Baldy’, ‘Fatso or ‘Airbags’, or any other playground name-calling, will be taken in the harmless way in which it is intended. Do we really need to ban much-needed stress-defusing banter and jolly outings to strip clubs from an industry already under immense pressure, and whose workers we are relying upon to get our economy out of the mess it is currently in? It is surely unwise to burn one’s bra when one is unsure where one’s next bra will come from.
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Kevin
May 7th, 2008 8:59pmStrip clubs are degrading. You are employing the tired old arguments from consent and "privacy", in which case duelling would be decriminalised.
If work is so hard that it has a corrupting effect on morals (and adult conduct in the workplace) then maybe the hours should be reduced.