» Strippers speak out
What do lap dancers make of claims that they are being exploited by their jobs? Rachel Pegg reports
Brighton and Hove is replete with brothels. Dozens advertise in the local press every day. Yet it is the city’s lap-dancing clubs that have lately incurred the wrath of local female politicians. A group of MPs and peers are supporting a national campaign by lobbying group Object to change the law to allow local authorities to refuse licences to these clubs.
In this feature, we talk to Lilly, Peaches and Cleo
Object launched its campaign last week and is working to put forward a bill in the Commons. The group wants the clubs to be recognised as ‘sex-encounter establishments’ which would give local authorities greater powers to turn down licence applications, like they can with sex shops, and to place clubs under tougher controls.
Celia Barlow, MP for Hove and Portslade, argued in an article for New Statesman that lap-dancing clubs exploit women and increase sexual violence. She claimed that: “Since 2005, Brighton and Hove has seen five such clubs open where none existed before.” In fact, the city has three lap-dancing clubs and one of them, the Pussycat Club in Grand Parade, has been open for 11 years, first in Dyke Road, Hove before moving to Brighton to take over the premises of its sister club Top Totty.
“The men are the ones who are spending loads of money. They are the ones being exploited”
The others are Rouge in East Street, which is owned by Spearmint Rhino and opened last September, and Grace of Brighton which opened in North Street in March last year. Grace is run by 22-year-old Siobhan Hodgetts, a former lap dancer, and her fiancé Kevin Roberts, a former nightclub doorman. Miss Hodgetts said their main clientele were stag parties aged 20 to 60 who come down to spend money across the city.
She said: “It is traditional for stags to come to a lap-dancing club. When they come down, they go to hotels and restaurants. In the longterm, it is making money for Brighton.”
Behaviour, she said, is monitored by CCTV everywhere in the club. “It is a very controlled environment. Sometimes it has quite a bad reputation. Each girl has their identity protected by a stage name.
“When a gentleman comes in here, it is all a show anyway because they’re all acting. None of the girls have ever gone home with a client. The girls have very strict dancing they all stick by. It is no touching, not even near enough to touch. We have got brothels in Brighton but they like to focus on us.”
The club has 26 dancers aged 20 to 30, who are all self-employed. The club charges £20 for a naked dance, of which £16 goes to the dancer and £4 to the club. The three dancers I spoke to said they only have to work a few nights a week to make enough money.
Peaches, 24, who has been dancing for about two years, said: I got into it because I was £1,199 into my £1,200 overdraft. I went out to drown my sorrows in Crawley and there was a wet T-shirt competition. I was really drunk and my mate entered me. I got £100 for winning.
“I choose to do this. Other people are mathematical and they use that to their advantage”
That was really easy. My friends said, ‘Why don’t you try stripping?’
“Once you get into it, it is really hard to get out because it is quick money. It is not easy money but it is quick. It is the only job I have ever had that I like everyone who works there.
“There has been times when I don’t want to do it any more. I’ll say, ‘I am leaving’, but I come back because I miss it. I am doing it because I am saving for a mortgage. Most people are here for a reason.” She said occasionally men tried to break the rules and touch her but it was not the norm. “It is worse in a normal nightclub. If I go out I am being constantly groped by horrible men.”
Peaches thought it was unfair that male strippers were not accused of being exploited. “I could do any other job if I wanted. I choose to do this. Other people are mathematical, they use that to their advantage. Some people are musical. Everybody’s different. You have got to take it on face value. Blokes come in and have a few drinks and go home with a smile on their face.”
Lilly, 21, who has been dancing for a year, said: “You’ll rarely find a girl in this job who doesn’t want to be here. All of us want to be here. It is a really nice lifestyle.”
Cleo, 24, who has been lap dancing for six months, said: “Exploitation of women is an absolute joke. As far as I’m concerned, any girl that works in this industry – you have to be a certain type of girl. The men are the ones who are coming in and spending loads of money. They are the ones being exploited.
“To say that stripping is in some way inappropriate is another form of suppression of women. We are saying, ‘We are all powerful creatures. This is our empowerment’. Let us have it.”
