Why stripping can be empowering, by Handmaid’s Tale author Atwood
MARGARET Atwood has defended women’s right to work in strip clubs, saying it can be ‘empowering’ and make them feel ‘in control of a room’.
The Handmaid’s Tale author said dancers in the clubs should be allowed to make their own decisions about how they earn money.
The 79-year-old was responding to a debate over strip club licensing which has divided opinion among feminists, with critics arguing the industry is outdated and exploitative.
The debate has attracted attenit tion this week ahead of the release of the film Hustlers, starring Jennifer Lopez as a stripper who scams wealthy customers.
Miss Atwood, who published The Testaments this week, told BBC Radio Live’s Emma Barnett: ‘A lot of women actually do find [stripping] empowering. They feel that they’re in control of the room when they’re doing that.
‘But it depends very much on whether they are being exploited or not, whether someone is taking all the money... or whether they are in control of it.
‘If it’s a choice a woman has made ... and you get paid much better for than if you’re working a shift in a coffee chain, then why are you not going to let that woman make that choice?’
But Miss Atwood, who has put climate change at the centre of her dystopian novels, suggested that was a more pressing issue for debate, saying: ‘If we don’t solve that we’re all going to stop breathing and then it won’t matter who’s got their clothes on and who’s got their clothes off.’
United Voices of the World, which represents strippers in the UK, welcomed Miss Atwood’s comments and stressed ‘the need to fight against exploitation’.
In April, the Scottish Government brought in legislation that allows local authorities to limit the number of strip clubs – including effectively banning them by setting the limit to zero.
Hustlers review – Page 55
‘In control of the room’