The night-time economy is often described as repelling consumers fearful of the 'undesirable Others' imagined dominant within such time-spaces. In this paper we explore this by describing attitudes towards, and reactions to, one particularly contentious site: the 'lap dance' club. Often targeted by campaigners in England and Wales as a source of criminality and anti-sociality, in this paper we shift the focus from fear to disgust, and argue that Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) are opposed on the basis of moral judgments that reflect distinctions of both class and gender. Drawing on documentary analysis, survey results and interview data collected during guided walks, we detail the concerns voiced by those anxious about the presence of lap dance or striptease clubs in their town or city, particularly the notion that they 'lower the tone' of particular streets or neighbourhoods. Our conclusion is that the opposition expressed to lap dance clubs is part of an attempt to police the boundaries of respectable masculinities and femininities, marginalizing the producers and consumers of sexual entertainment through 'speech acts' which identify such entertainment as unruly, vulgar and uncivilized. These findings are considered in the light of ongoing debates concerning the relations of morality, respectability and disgust.
In England and Wales, with the introduction of Section 27 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, lap-dancing clubs can now be licensed as Sexual Entertainment Venues. This article considers such, offering a critique of Section 27, arguing that this legislation is not evidence-based, with lap-dancing policy, like other sex-work policies, often associated with crime, deviance and immorality. Furthermore, it is argued that sex-work policies are gradually being homogenised as well as increasingly criminalised. Other criticisms relate to various licensing loopholes which lead to some striptease venues remaining unlicensed and unregulated, potentially impacting on the welfare of erotic dancers. In addition, restrictions on the numbers of lap-dancing venues may exacerbate dancer unemployment, drawing these women into poverty. Finally, The Policing and Crime Act reflects how the political focus is being directed away from the exploitation of workers, on to issues relating to crime and deviance, despite limited evidence to support this focus.
Despite important moves towards gender equality, the experience of the night-time\ud city remains profoundly different for women and men. The visibility of self-styled\ud ‘gentleman’s clubs’ where female dancers perform for a predominantly male clientele\ud has been taken as prime evidence of this persistent inequity. Opposition to such\ud clubs has hence been vocal, with the result that many local authorities in England\ud and Wales have moved to ban clubs within their jurisdiction utilising the powers of\ud the Policing and Crime Act, 2009. This paper explores the arguments that have persuaded\ud policy-makers to refuse licences for such venues, particularly the idea that\ud sexual entertainment causes specific harms to women. The paper does not question\ud the veracity of such arguments, but instead explores why sexual entertainment\ud venues have become a target of feminist campaigning, situating this opposition in\ud the context of long-standing debates about the vulnerability of women in the nighttime\ud city
There has been much debate about the study of British youth cultures, often\ud involving the analysis and critique of two dominant theoretical frameworks: the\ud Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) ‘subcultural’ position and the\ud ‘post-subcultural’ position. This paper, will engage in this debate by offering an\ud alternative set of arguments, drawing attention to the early empirical contribution\ud made by the Chicago school of sociology to the study of youth, and the\ud inadvertent role some of their work played in developing the first model of\ud ‘subculture’. To demonstrate this, the work of Cressey (1932), who explored the\ud ‘social world’ of young female taxi-hall dancers, will be considered, and in\ud highlighting its relevance to the study of contemporary youth cultures, his work\ud will be discussed in relation to a recent ethnography of lap dancing in which a\ud hierarchical occupational subculture of dancers has been identified. Both\ud Cressey’s (1932) ‘social world’ of taxi dancers and the subculture of the\ud contemporary lap dancers, share similar features that define the unique, enclosed\ud worlds of which each respective group is part. By drawing on Cressey (1932) and\ud this recent study of lap dancers, not only are mainstream notions of youth culture\ud questioned, but it is suggested that modes of work, as well as leisure, may hold\ud ‘cultural’ significance
PurposeThe purpose is to assess the impact of online platforms on the sex industry, focusing specifically on direct sex work, and evaluate what approaches to platform regulation is likely to align with the interests of sex workers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a review of interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical literature on sex work combined with analysis of key issues using a transaction cost framework.FindingsOnline platforms generally make sex work safer. Regulation aimed at preventing platforms from serving sex workers is likely to harm their welfare.Research limitations/implicationsRegulation of online platforms should take great care to differentiate coercive sex from consensual sex work, and allow sex workers to experiment with governance mechanisms provided by entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates how a transactions costs approach to market behaviour as applied to personal services like ridesharing can also shed light on the challenges that sex workers face, partly as a result of criminalisation, and the dangers of over-regulation.
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