Well not sure if anyone has been following the amazing Wendy Davis in Texas who filibusted a change in Texas legislation where republicans were choosing for women on how, when and if they could have abortions. To anyone unfamiliar with american guidelines on passing legislation a filibuster is when a speaker talks about a piece of legislation until the time for it to become legislation has passed.
Let me be very clear this was an effort of mammoth proportions, Wendy Davis had to stand up and talk for the best part of 13 hours without any breaks, rests or even leaning against the table. Just constant talk on subject which she did using the experiences of people who connected via social media. In and of itself it was a tremendous act so you may ask yourself why would this make any difference to striptease? Well it just so happens that a lot of those radical feminist who preach against striptease had been talking about this amazing act of dedication. But the one thing they they repeated over and over was that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body and no government should impose restrictions on what women choose so long as it is legal.
And I wholeheartedly agree with that, which is where we get issues. See those rad fems that are against striptease are selective in what and when they believe something. Should women really be free to choose? Only if they make the choices they are expected to or else radical feminists like Object will declare their choices are more important like the Republicans did when trying to pass that legislation . Bit of a conundrum here. So I reached out to Edie who as a stripper has had her freedoms challenged by these radical feminists. I would point out that Edie sees herself as a feminist just she doesn't believe in the extreme radicals that are trying to deny women's' autonomy while preaching about women's' autonomy. She relates what happened when she tried to debate the issues.
"A couple of years ago I took part in a 'debate', called Lap-dancing; a choice or exploitation, which was one of the most biased and ridiculous things I have ever participated in. I was given 5 minutes to speak on behalf of the dancers, amongst a 3 hour bout of histrionics and offensive misinformation, from the so called 'feminists'.
In stark contrast to the emotive rants that night, I had prepared my speech thoroughly. I had researched and used statistics, part of this involved watching youtube videos of Kay Banyard from UK Feminista. She was going to be one of the speakers on the panel and is one of the main anti-sex 'feminists'. I watched her Newsnight interview with interest, especially when the interviewer asked her how she felt about the Burka, and whether it should be banned on Feminist grounds. She skipped around this subject, obviously uncomfortable. After dodging the question for a while she blurted out 'What I object too is women's bodies being used as a battleground.' This brought a wry smile to my face!
Kat Banyard's entire life's work is dedicated to using my body and that of my colleagues as her personal battleground. What I choose to do with my body is not what she would choose to do with hers yet rather than live and let live she has dedicated her life to persecuting people like me. This is one of the ironies of today's feminist movement. It denies freedom and agency to women who dance for a living are, models or who work as sex workers or porn actresses. A stripper friend of mine said 'no one objectifies me more than the feminist groups.' They hate men looking at us and enjoying our performances but are happy to use our bodies, without our consent, to push their own agenda. I have heard feminist groups described by dancers as 'hate groups' and if you are on the receiving end of their venom this certainly rings true.
If find it disturbing and hypocritical that feminists cry foul when men (and women) enjoy erotica yet are happy to use my body, my experience and that of my friends for their own political ends. I feel exploited and objectified by 'feminist' groups as they they view us as brainwashed automata who's bodies can be used which ever way they please. They do not credit us with independence, choice or cognitive ability.
I put it down to simple personality differences. I'm happy for Kat Banyard to be the demure academic if this is what makes her comfortable. I however am more of the creative, extroverted, performer; that's my personality. I do other forms of performance as well as dancing striptease and I wish they would just be happy for me. Rather than behave like slut-shaming playground bullies using my body and life as fuel for their twisted agenda."
So we can see that people preaching about freedom of women's bodies and yet the first thing they do is try and stop those freedoms. There are a lot of words I could use about this but think most adults can make up their own minds.
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