Shame Online Papers can't be used for Chip Wrapping

So over the last couple of weeks I have seen the failure of the press to provide accurate information. We all know sex sells and a good story about any SEV is worth a photo or two of a scantily clad lady while the headline seems to say this is terrible we must get rid of it and protect the community. Facts have no place in these articles but are there to hide partial or "misinterpreted" quotes along with subjective rants hiding moral judgments. And that line I have no moral objection but means you do have a moral objection but you are trying to hide that and come up with an excuse to not allow a club, the moment you throw a but into the conversation you are painting a sign look at me I am modern and have realised the world has moved on since 1958.

So first award on the journalism stake is a man labelled by brute as clueless (which may be rather kind to be honest) Ryan Barrell whose piece for Tab an online Uni paper (here)  had me wondering if it was tongue in cheek at first. Obviously when attending a strip pub and sitting in the corner not intending to enjoy yourself you sort of are setting yourself up to fail at the outset. The fact that he seems to be taking "friends" word for the place begs the question just how much exposure he has to clubs to be able to judge any as "the seediest". Certainly when I asked him on twitter how many clubs/pubs he had been to so that he could make this judgement no answer was forthcoming. No really surprising when you read the language used it comes across as a mixture of prude and rad fem. Certainly judging by his pictures on his twitter feed he is a right foodie and is desperately seeking approval. Sort of junior hipster with a hint of wannabe popular. Still he has managed to make me laugh as he acts like he is knowledgeable in the subject of striptease which hints that maybe he has a secret life? Or else he is just very judgmental with no facts to back his case and I could find seedier without even thinking so really what a joke (note I am being polite here).

Haringey not exactly a hot bed of action considering the council adopted a nil limit and because no clubs exist in the borough no one fought it. Well one bar decided to have a burlesque evening and judging by the on line report the world is about to end in fire and brimstone. According to the Haringey Advertiser there was outrage that women danced and kept their clothes on(maybe not as many at the end as the beginning). Well the outrage was a local bulletin board which when I checked had 5 complaints, the paper and a councillor on it; not exactly an outrage more of a storm in tea cup. Still Haringey being Haringey the bar owner has had a warning. Which considering that the lodge has continued to operate using burlesque suggests that the councillors in Haringey do not understand that in Burlesque no nipples get shown (nor the lower bits) and thus an SEV would not be required. I should point out that the Haringey Advertiser in it's banner states An Independent Family Owned Newspaper, which means exact what? A woman in Leotards and high heels is not exactly a naked image but the press and council have turned it into a horror show (Rocky!).

Now dear friend to this blog Tim Wheeler seems to go out of his way to court controversy (or be an idiot your choice) as noted previously he is prone to make comments that when you examine them make less sense than normal. Well he has struck again, not this time on striptease but it is so amusing I had to share. During the world cup semi finals there was an advert for Dawn of Planet of the Apes which contained violence so Tim Wheeler does a what about the Kids cry because it was shown at Half Time. Now the issue for the we're not football fans out there is the game kicked off at 9pm UK time so the advert would not have been shown before 21:45 which to the best of my knowledge is after the "watershed" in the UK (children expected to be in bed). Also it was a school day the day after so you would expect that youngsters would have gone to bed. Also the film is rated 12A so any child could watch it with an adult. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant by a member of the BBC. We have even seen Wheeler comment on a team shirt that has the Logo TITZ on it which of course is a district of Duren in Germany or a German company, but no its an outrage. Maybe he is the light relief story reporter trying to make a name for himself?

Have to say the press have a habit of misreporting, misquoting, misleading and generally being a misery. I would expect it in the Guardian with the feminists there being behind Object but more and more we are seeing headlines about clubs that bear little relation to the truth but want to scaremonger. I e-mailed the reporter who quoted(?) Cllr Udall and not really any surprise but no reply thus far. And the biggest miss of all is the misrepresenting of a handful of complaints as a baying mob with pitchforks, we see 5 complaints or 8 complaints and this is suppose to be masses depending on the paper/councillor.

This is your friendly blogger commenting on behalf of the thousands of dancers and millions of customers in the UK.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Well So Much for Peace and Quiet.

Well it has been a busy few days and on this blog piece we have a couple of councils that may be actually taking note of what is going on around them rather than applying rhetoric and guesswork to what is going on.

As mentioned in my twittering post Worcseter has been running a consultation. Of course this has got local press coverage but it appears the press have been editting the comments of at least one councillor who I recently wrote to. He replied and a screenshot of that reply is below. And I think most people are concerned about the welfare of the dancers, this blog has no time for anyone who abuses dancers which is why we spend so much time addressing radical feminism. Councillor Udall is quoted as saying trafficking exists in the UK but as we know the striptease industry has not found any trafficking in any venues. So judging by the councillors comments we start to wonder what was said in the interview and what was made up. At this point I intend to try and contact the journalist involved to get a take on his position. Certainly there seems to be a gap between what the councillor says and what he has been quoted as saying.

Now on to Cheltenham where a new club Fantasy has been given permission to open on a vote on the licensing committee on a vote of 5 to 3. Now the antis have kicked up a stink in particular the salvation army and the 655 signatures it gathered. Now I can bet my regular readers are guessing like me what was in the content of the petition would contain moral objections and we all know the guidelines say objections made on moral grounds should be ignored by the council committee. However there have now been anonymous hate mail aimed at the councillors and I do hope the police take action on this. It is strange that the threats all come from the side of the good moralists, whereas us dirty perverts seem peace loving hippies in comparison. What does make this amusing is the councillor applied the letter of the law to the application and are attacked for doing their job, sort of says a lot about some aspects of those protesting who will willing ram the law down people's throats when it suits them but the moment some uses it as intended to grant a license then it is all wrong. That would be assuming they actually understand the legal aspect.

And we haven't said much about Tower Hamlets but they are popping up all over the place on the political front, seems that ejecting a member of the press that doesn't like Lutfur but the one that had me really sniggering was the article in the Telegraph (here) where the sleight of hand for remaining mayor was ridiculous (thanks Brute for this). Whilst our interest is in the venues remaining opening in Tower Hamlets we will keep our eyes on those who seem to be on a course to try and close legitimate businesses.

So considering how quiet it has been we now see a little more cropping up, there is the second club in York applying for a license which I am trying to get more information on certain aspects as our friends the York Feminist Network has popped their heads up even though it seems the university is in favour of clubs. Hopefully I will get some more in depth info.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Scotland Home of the Brave?

People may remember there has been a consultation in Scotland about how to regulate SEVs. Well the results are in and make interesting reading (pdf here). In fact in part is shows the bias that the Scottish Government has towards pushing their own agenda no matter what the public thinks.

"In total 1,017 responses were received. Of these 941 were largely identical in substance and reflected a campaign organised by the Scottish Association of Licensed Adult Entertainment Venues. It is presumed that the majority of these responses were from those who work in the industry together with customers."

This is taken direct from the summary of response where 92% of respondents wish clubs to remain open. The way the statement is written has got my hackles up as if it was Object organising a campaign or a similar group I can see that being perfectly okay but the clubs, dancers and patrons decide to write and the council just want to point out what everyone else had said even though it relates to less than 8% of responses. Not sure in the long term how it will pan out but so far not happy.

There are whole areas of questions I could make comments but I want to pick a couple of choice ones that gave me the giggles "the regime would need to be supported by inspection and monitoring arrangements by staff trained in violence against women and gender equality". Now given that Eaves commissioned the Lilith report you do feel that people with this "training" will see violence everywhere. I also loved the comment about the high quality employment Scotland needs. Struggling a bit to not laugh my head off.

I note that the wording across the report seemed to suggest that 92% of opinions were not as important as fleshing out opinions of the minority. Given the fact that the only "report" previously in Scotland is the Bindel one for Glasgow that is totally useless and just a voice for the opinion of Ms Bindel, shoddy methodology but it seems to echo the opinions of a handful who unfortunately seem to be MPs and Councillors. Obviously this was just a summary and we can but hope that when the report in fully is put out the majority view is recognised.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Police Raids... And the Rad Fems Were Bitterly Disappointed

Normally I don't post things so close together but something came up and it just has to be put out there to let the world know. What am I rambling on about?

Well it seems the police and immigration officials in Scotland "swooped" in to raid 3 Lap Dancing Clubs. The raids took place on Friday 13th in the evening. The clubs Diamond Dolls, Baby Dolls and Club Earth are all owned by Stephen MacDonald. Officers were looking for victims of human trafficking, illegal workers and drugs so we can only imagine the overly aggressive handling of the situation but would be happy if anyone can provide more information on the raids.

So the raid in Glasgow resulted in 2 offences. First was a lady in possession of an offensive weapon, no idea what the weapon was but I would see it as protecting her personal safety however the police obviously need some results after all the money spent. Another Lady was found to be in possession of a small quantity of cannabis, one guesses by the description this amount would normally warrant a cannabis warning but not sure of Scottish law on this either. The fact it was just reported and not an arrest certain suggests no more than personal use.

So the estimate on the number of officers used is around 200 including a raid on Mr MacDonald's home. Now I can't be certain but I would guess if the police hit 3 or 4 night clubs in Glasgow they would have turned up more drugs, more weapons and more likely to have found staff working illegally. Because here is the real result from the raids... No illegal staff arrested and even more importantly NO VICTIM's of trafficking. We hear things around the web and fingers being pointed at clubs for trafficking etc and yet now after these raids, the whole thing turns out to be a myth.

So after that embarrassment for not only the police and immigration but also for any and all "feminist experts" who link clubs with trafficking they now have to rethink their understanding. If any "feminist experts" like Ms Bindel would like to comment I would love to see what they make of the issues raised by the failure of the raids.

TonyN(tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Hmmm Some Twittering's

So I was pointed at twitter by Reason where Tim Wheeler of the BBC commented on a club advertising on the side of a bus. Now the advert contains images in silhouette (here) and is less suggestive than your average M&S clothes advert. Now unless the advert is braking the terms of the club license I can't see the issue, however things seem to be in people's heads making images dirtier than they really are. The reason being of course is that people apply moral judgments based on their personal subjective opinion. And I do wonder if the BBC should be commenting on censorship considering the way they protected IDS on question time. Journalists trying to censor legal adverts based on a point of view says to me that they need to look at themselves.

And speaking of twitter I have been taking a bit of a break from it as it has a habit of causing me to swear at the computer. However I decided as I was on to have a scan of the Object twitter feed and noticed that a while back a picture was posted saying that as part of the 10 year anniversary they should celebrate the dancers they have rescued. I was a bit WTF at that as the only one I know of co-authored a book with Object to promote their opinion pieces. Just how much did that "save" cost? We have seen grants given to Object but never seen completed projects as Object seem to jump bandwagons every 5 minutes. I tweeted the question at them from that picture but I am expecting the usual being ignored because the question can't be answered.

Black Cherry is applying for it's SEV license in Worcester. At the moment a consultation period is under way and due to end 27th June. Anyone who lives in the area can e-mail the council at wrsenquiries@worcsregservices.gov.uk certainly considering the usual local press hysteria the club may need support. Wouldn't be the same without a scare mongering headline selling the concept sex takes place in the venue. Laughable as readers of this blog will know but nothing like paving your way for a move from the local press to the BBC.

At this point a little sad news  that Victoria pub in Hayes has had it's licenses revoked. The Victoria was raided by the police and cocaine dealing was found leading to the arrest of 9 people. I am saddened that we have lost a venue for the foreseeable future but this blog has ALWAYS been about clubs operating within the law and about the possible beneficial results in the lowering of sexual crimes from venues being in an area. So a message to all venue owners I know that times are hard but if you allow criminals to operate from the venue you face the very real risk of losing your business. Now I have been told that the dealing was taking place from the toilets which people could access without going through the bars. However the license holder is responsible for the building and what goes on in them. Without more intimate details of what happened people will have to make their own judgments but at this point we have to say farewell to one of the more traditional venues.

There is one thing I would like readers of the blog to do if they can and that is to ask just how many dancers they "rescued" on twitter. I am sure there are organisations that gave Object grants that would love to know what the money went on.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Social Rituals, an introduction to the customer dancer dynamic.

So I have been quiet for the last couple of weeks one because the industry has been fairly quiet but two because I have several things ongoing including studies on the World Science University website. I have also been looking at the comparative nature of crime around SEVs and nightclubs, from what I have seen it would make a fantastic study for someone working in the sociology departments of a university interested in this field. You have clubs located in high crime area alongside nightclubs but when a SEV is located away from nightclubs crime and especially violent and sexual crime drops. When you look at night clubs in the same town or city though their crime rates are much higher than SEVs. Given the vocal calls by Object and the like to close SEVs with the disproven claims of causal links to sexual violence you would think there would be calls to close night clubs. Strange that Object has never seen the wood for the trees with this.

So why are SEVs less likely to have sexual violence around them? These are only personal thoughts and I would be interested to see what others think of my crazy thoughts! Those of us who at some point in our lives been fairly regular to lap dancing bars or strip pubs understand there are social rituals in which we become educated. Hardy, Kingston and Saunders published in 2012 about the social rituals and fun for dancers. This logically extends into social rituals that define behaviour between dancers and customers. Obviously there will be a minority who do not engage in the social rituals that create a non threatening behaviour pattern but the number is small. Amongst those who are not or have not attended clubs often enough to understand the social rituals behaviour patterns will be different. Depending on the length of exposure to clubs and who they have attended with guys will recognise social rituals at a different rate. The social interaction in their peer groups, reactions of dancers, bar staff and bouncers will all define the development as individuals in clubs.

So given a climate where acceptance is based on understanding and obeying rules that seem to deliberately provoke customers you start to realise that clubs may be acting as a pressure valve that teaches men to accept their desires and know that they cannot take them beyond a certain point. The self control of sitting watching a performance of a dancer within feet of you without being able to do anything is actually a really good lesson in self control not just in terms of sexual behaviour but in life in general. The fact that clubs are so rarely closed or even challenged (legitimately) over sexual violence in and around the club you begin to see a picture where the social rituals including zero contact are a positive rather than the negative that those people who do not understand club dynamics would claim.

The scientist in me, trying to get out, sees several areas that could be researched that would be interesting but unfortunately it is not down to me to decide what is and isn't researched. Perhaps any sociology researchers that read this blog (and I know a few of you do) could consider looking at why customers from clubs that are no contact do not commit the sexual crimes as claimed in the past. Given that in fact we have seen reductions in Newquay and Camden surely the implication is that SEVs are actually good for the community. Men that may have issues in speaking to women or self image issues are accepted the same as any other man and are never discounted out of hand. The social ritual of acceptance helped me after major illness and a long period in hospital. Dancers don't care about what you look like, they do not judge men based on looks but are positive in their dealing. Yes we understand it is a fantasy but sometimes a little bit of acceptance goes a long way in rebuilding or building an individual's confidence to deal with life.

So from this guess I am saying that the so called rape claims and no go areas in fact are not valid. I am sure on occasion there will be an idiot making stupid comments outside a club but you get a lot more of that outside pubs and night clubs but we never see any calls for the banning of pubs and clubs. And sociologists if you are looking for research then the social rituals between dancers and customers and the positive message it sends would be one I would look forward to reading (and yes I am sure they will be one or two that ruin the perfect result). If anyone wants to follow up off the comments field my e-mail as always is at the end.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

May the 4th Be With You

TonyN here on a sunny Sunday morning and getting my geek on. So the past few months we have seen a constant attack on clubs and some attempts to close them. Also we have seen in the past couple of days some of the crazy that goes with the moralistic minority that want to decide for people how they live their lives. That is not directly related to dancing but I will cover it at the end.

An article recently appeared in a Manchester Matters on line paper, nothing new there apart from it was a piece about striptease and had the views of a dancer and also that "Human Rights" organisation Object. You can read the piece here. To be honest we get the fact that Object has to claim to be Human Rights, the moment they come out and admit that they are a lobby group it turns into an epic fail for them. As you can see from the comments Brute, Edie and myself have all commented. The only thing I would say is that in some ways the call for legislation is correct in as much as there needs to be a standardised approach and if a club is to be closed either a breach in the conditions or a proper consultation. A tiny proportion of the population is not a representative figure for a council to act on, when you read 27 letters sent in for places with populations of over a million it just suggests a we can't be bothered attitude by the council.

So a little while back we were reporting that the Platinum Lounge in Chester had lost it's license. Well it seems that we have another reprieve, as reported here. So the council did not follow it's own constitution in it's attempt to close the venue. Now this is only a temporary breathing space but it does show that the councils just make things up as they go along, which anyone who has worked in local government will tell you is pretty much standard policy unless their is a long term plan to get what one councillor wants. Can see the clubs that are under threat rushing back to the minutes of council meetings and checking them against the procedures that are suppose to be followed. I wonder how many mistakes have been made.

So thinking of comment sections and pages where members of Object post I am getting rather tired of finding one to engage with and then finding that they actually don't want to discuss, debate or look at both sides of the situation. Hearing a lot about the mynameisnot which is dealing as a hashtag on twitter about some of the street harassment that some women face. Not detracting from the hashtag but just to point out to some of the people I have tried to debate with mynameisnot "pornboy", "dirty old man", "ba*****d", "kiddie fiddler" and a bit like my real life mynameisnot "Oh my god what happened to you" nor is it "I hope you don't mind me asking but". I try to treat everyone with respect and hope I never behave boorishly, guess after a lot of the name calling that goes with having this sort of view I am a bit jaded when people get onto the name is issue.

Finally I want to pick up on a horrible hashtag #PGPDVice who are the Prince George Police Department in Maryland who are intending to live tweet an undercover sting of prostitution. Now this blog central focus is/was and always will be striptease in the UK but occasionally you read something and it is wrong on so many levels you feel you have to comment. Now originally the police were saying that they were targetting prostitution and had a picture of a woman being led away in handcuffs. Now the imagery and original discussion sounded like women were going to be the targets and there was a massive backlash on twitter where a lot of people had an opinion (including myself). Then the mission statement crept to say that they were only targeting customers and intend to help the trafficked women out. In fact they claim they have previously helped loads of trafficked women in the past but strangely there seems to be nothing to back up this claim. And this is where I got a bit hot under the collar about it. The fact that women choose to do what they want with their bodies and I would never make a moral judgement on this but it seems that the only reason anyone does "that sort of work" is because they are trafficked or coerced. The problem is if you allow that sort of sloppy belief system to influence decisions it will be applied to other adult work industries and hence we get on to a slippery slope. This is just a personal belief but long term shoddy thinking is our worst enemy. One final thought on this is a sting is supposed to be a surprise not sure how that is going to work now as it is all over social media.