Strippers win three-year battle to bare all in Bristol’s sex clubs
City councillors reject proposed ban after dancers put forward impassioned plea to save livelihoods
FOR years campaigners – including the police and feminist groups – have urged Bristol council to protect women by shutting down the city’s strip clubs.
The only problem for this progressive coalition was that the strippers wanted to carry on shedding their clothes for the entertainment of others.
Adult performers were last night celebrating after persuading a majority of the city’s council to reject the proposed ban on strip clubs and other sex entertainment venues.
One self-described exotic dancer told the council’s licensing committee that she had taken up work in a strip club when she was unable to make ends meet as a circus performer.
“Stripping has allowed me to have a flexible enough schedule to pursue my dream career while enabling me to live a comfortable life – not living in constant stress due to living from paycheck to paycheck,” she said.
Another performer, who gave her name only as Scarlett, said she suffered from chronic pain and fatigue but stripping had given her a future.
“I have never seen a future for myself that didn’t end in poverty, hospitalisation or suicide, because I never thought I would be able to survive in a world designed for neurotypical, mentally well, able bodied people,” she said.
“Working in strip clubs has made me realise I do have the means to survive, and not only just survive, but provide myself stability and opportunities for the future.” Such was the strength of feeling among the dancers and performers that Guy Poultney, a Green party councillor, received a round of applause when he accused women’s rights groups of arguing that “we should discount the voices of some women in order to empower them and to restrict their choices in the name of equality and take away their jobs for their own good”.
He added they were acting “as if some women can’t be trusted to make choices for themselves”.
A consortium of groups had long campaigned for Bristol to follow in the footsteps of Edinburgh and impose a blanket ban on strip clubs.
The city currently has a cap of three strip clubs in the centre, although only two – Urban Tiger and Central Chambers – are currently operating.
Tuesday’s vote was the culmination of a review and two public consultations stretching back three years, with more than 17,000 submissions received by the council.
Katy Taylor, a director at Bristol Women’s Voice, argued that strip clubs and similar venues acted as a “gateway into further areas of the sex industry, including prostitution”.
She said they could also be a gateway for men to buy sex, adding: “Research shows that men who buy sex are more likely to hold negative attitudes towards women and to perpetrate sexual and domestic violence.” A representative of a trust, set up in memory of Hollie Gazzard who was killed by her ex-partner at the hairdresser’s where she worked in 2014, said strip clubs promoted “sexist attitudes that can lead to tragic results”.
In the end the committee voted nine to one to maintain the cap on licenced sexual entertainment venues, with some councillors arguing that it was better for dancers to work in well-regulated establishments rather than forcing strip clubs underground. The only committee member in favour of the ban was Labour’s Philippa Hulme, who said there was a “huge weight of evidence” showing that strip clubs objectified women and that this was linked to violence against females.
Steve Pearce, the council’s Labour group leader split with those in his own party backing the ban, stating: “I cannot see how these voices can be speaking for women in this city. The evidence suggests you are more at risk in a city centre pub or club than you are in one of these premises, and evidence would suggest that up until fairly recently you were more at risk in the Oval Office than in one of these clubs.”
There was a loud cheer after the motion to maintain the current limit was passed, with several dancers in the public gallery sobbing with relief.
Bristol Women’s Collective condemned the council’s decision, stating the strip clubs “promote and profit from the sexist culture that underpins male violence”.
But the Bristol Sex Worker’s Collective said its members were “screaming, crying, throwing up with joy”. A spokesman said: “It should never be this difficult for a group of workers to defend our right to safe working conditions.”