The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dancers show their support for strip club
KIRKCALDY: Protests for and against venue take place in town centre
Dancers staged a counter-protest during a demonstration against a strip club opening in Fife.
News that Sin is to be launched in Kirkcaldy next week has polarised opinion in the town, with petitions both for and against it.
As a new women’s group claimed it would exploit females working there, a small group of supporters waved placards proclaiming freedom of choice.
Around 40 people gathered in the town square, opposite the Hunter Street club, for the demonstration by Women Together in Fife.
Group founder Marie Penman highlighted Scottish Government guidance classifying stripping as a form of violence against women and girls.
She also claimed the self-employed strippers would have no employment rights and no guaranteed income and that research in Glasgow heard those in the industry were often paid by customers in 20 pence pieces.
She said: “That’s not a job, that’s slave labour. We don’t want it in Kirkcaldy, Fife Council should be making a stand against this.
“You don’t get a guaranteed salary, you get whatever money is shoved at you or stuffed in your underwear at the end of the night.
“Women are worth more than that. They shouldn’t be getting paid in small change by drunk, leering men.”
Kirkcaldy Central councillor Judy Hamilton said the club would arrive in the #MeToo era, when people were speaking out against sexual harassment and assault.
She said: “We are standing here as men and women saying ‘MeToo’ and as long as I am a Labour councillor we are not having this.”
Among a handful of people on the other side of the road supporting the club was 19-year-old Abbi Gallagher, of Auchtertool, who intends to use her earnings as a dancer to pay off her student loan.
She said: “If a woman wants to get naked for money, it’s her own choice.”
Amby Stanyer-Hunter, owner of Kirkcaldy dance studio Pole O Rama, accused those against the club of ignorance of the stripping and lap dancing industry.
He said: “For the people who say this is exploitation of women, it’s exploitation of whoever is paying for the dance.”
Responding to placards asking how people would feel if their daughter worked in a strip club, he said: “Would you want your daughter to be on a zerohours contract, on the minimum wage? No, you wouldn’t, that is exploitation.”
He also insisted lap dancers were protected by security staff and stringent laws preventing touching.
Club owner Mario Caira said: “We are providing entertainment and a venue which, ultimately, people will choose whether to use or not, whether to work in or not.”
He said almost 100 people auditioned to be dancers, and around 15 would work in the club, including two men.
Sin will be above the Kitty’s nightclub and is permitted by the same licence, so no application to Fife Council was necessary.