Men who really like women don't go to lap dancing clubs

Image via Wikipedia

The word on the street is that West Street's lap dancing club will be opening this weekend, after a lengthy period of refurbishment.

What a peculiar world we live in, where men will pay for fake foreplay with women they must not touch and who may well despise them. One wonders if they realise that the women are acting. That it's just a job. Or are they hypnotised by their hormones? Do they succumb to the fantasy that the woman entertaining them might actually want to mate with them?

Would it make a difference if they knew:

• that many women who go into the sex industry do so because they have been sexually abused and think that this is all they are worth;
• that the women have to pay to work in the club and are exploited financially by the club owners;
• that in places where clubs have opened, the incidence of rape in the vicinity of the club has gone up by as much as 50%;
• that lap dancers have reported a 100% sexual assault rate;
• that lap dancing clubs perpetuate an unhealthy image of women as mere sex objects; and
• that the women they are paying to see are someone's sister, someone's daughter, someone's wife?

Lucy, 19, works in a lap dancing club. She is a single mother, with a three year old daughter. The only way she can look after her daughter and earn some money is by working unsociable hours in a lap dancing club, when her mum can look after her little girl. She has to pretend to like the men she is dancing for but she doesn't. She hates being propositioned for 'extras' and being groped and she hates having to shave her genitals every night. It hurts! She hopes her daughter never has to go into an environment like this. She wants to stop working in the club and is looking for a way out.

Thanks to S.P.

Footnote: The provisions within the Policing and Crime Bill will reclassify lap dancing clubs as ‘sex establishments’ under Schedule 3 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. This will give local communities a stronger say over the establishment and location of a lap dancing clubs and allow them to make objections on grounds wider than is currently allowed. Local people will be able to oppose an application if they have legitimate concerns that a lap dancing club would be inappropriate given the character of an area, for example, if the area was primarily a residential area. Local authorities will have the power to set a cap on the number of lap-dancing clubs that they think is appropriate for a particular area and impose a wider range of conditions on the licences.

Dissenting voices

Not everyone is delighted that the Old Market Community Association has come into being.
There are some who feel that, far from uniting the community, its effect has been to split it. That there are greater tensions now than there ever were before.
Most agree that the closure of the massage parlour at 70 West Street was the right thing to happen. But now it's done, they think the meddling in Old Market's affairs should stop.

There are fears that the complaints about litter and fly-tipping will lead to even fewer parking spaces, because the council may install those large rubbish bins in the road. Their advice: leave well enough alone!

It's an offence!

If you park your car for too long, or at certain times of day, outside the last remaining massage parlour in West Street, Old Market, it may not be there when you return. But the brothel will.

At the first meeting of the Old Market Community Association, a week ago, attendees were told by a senior policeman that little was done about the crimes taking place in so called 'massage parlours', because they are a lower priority than dealing with street based sex workers.

He told the group that it was considered better for these women to be working in licensed establishments than out on the streets.

He was wrong. There are no licences for massage parlours. It is not possible to license a brothel.

At a local PACT meeting, recently, a former policeman, who had worked in the vice squad at Trinity Road Police Station and whose beat had included Old Market, expressed a similar view.

He told the meeting that the women had chosen their work and were happy doing it!

If someone is holding a gun to your head, you may have the choice to close your eyes - and you may be 'happy' to do it - but would you call it a choice?

Isn't it more likely that a person would turn to prostitution through desperation - lack of choice - than choice?

When you talk to the police about brothels, they rarely mention the criminals.

They talk about the sex workers. It's not illegal to be a sex worker at a brothel.

It is an offence, a criminal act, for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of a brothel.

...

There was a sponsored walk a few nights ago in aid of One25, an organisation whose aim is:

"...to enable women marginalised from mainstream society primarily through involvement in street based sex work to access appropriate services and to become aware of alternative possibilities for their lives..."

The One25 website reports the following facts about street sex-workers:

• 99% are addicted to one or more Class A drugs and/or alcohol
• In 2007 we recorded 123 violent incidents reported to us by the women including domestic violence, rape and armed attacks
  
• All suffer from chronic physical, mental and/or sexual health problems and half suffer from acute ill health*
  
• 66% are homeless *
  
• 62% were abused as children*
  
• 38% have been through fostering or children's homes*
  
• 46% went through the criminal justice system in 2007
  
• 32% left school at 14 or younger *
  
• Their age range is 17-49
  
• 65% have had children but 79% of those have had their children removed from them
  
• Only 1% of violent incidents against street based sex workers results in a conviction**

* Jeal, N and Salisbury, C (2004) @Self reported experiences of health services among street based prostitutes' British Medical Journal 65 pp 123

** (2001) 'Violence against sex workers' British medical Journal 332 pp524

You think they're not listening - They are now!

Image by theparadigmshifter via Flickr

Don't you wish you could tell the police what they really ought to be spending their energy on in your area?

Wouldn't you like to tell those developers a thing or two about their projects - before it's too late for them to change their plans?

Well, you can!

Believe it or not, it's a lot easier these days to influence decisions affecting your local area than than you might imagine. Especially, if you've never tried, or if it's been some time since you last attempted it.

In fact, it's possible not only to have your say, but also to have it listened to and acted upon.

You can do it at the public meetings of your local community partnership and Safer Bristol. In the case of Old Market, the Easton Community Partnership and PACT meetings.

Here's an excerpt from the Community Safety page on the Bristol City Council website:

Community Safety is about delivering local solutions to local problems that have been identified by local people. [...]

Residents can raise their community concerns and priorities through PACT meetings (partners and communities together). This new approach called Partners and Communities Together (PACT) gives residents the chance to meet the team and influence priorities in your neighbourhood. [...]

You can do most of your complaining from the comfort of your own armchair!

For PACT Priorities, you can do it online here.

For planning or environmental issues, you can email or call Neighbourhood Facilitator, Matthew Cheney, at Easton Community Partnership:
Phone: 0117 377 3640
Email: matthew.cheney@eastoncommunitypartnership.org.uk

But it's much more fun to turn up at one of the meetings and get it off your chest in person.

The surprising thing (when you first try it) is that everyone listens and then passes your issues on to the right person in the council or police or whichever local partner(s) it needs to go to - even councillors and MPs.

Of course, you don't need to have anything to complain about - you may just wish to be more involved and influencial in what happens to your neighbourhood.

For Environment Issues: A chance to raise issues and concerns about the environment such as fly tipping, graffiti and dog fouling, and to work with the council to reduce the impact of this on the area.
All meetings are open to anyone.
Next meeting: 22nd July - 6-8pm, Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Street (map)
If you'd like to join the mailing list contact matthew.cheney@eastoncommunitypartnership.org.uk

For Planning issues: Want to find out what new developments are planned for the area?
Interested in making sure any new planning applications will be of benefit to the community?
Come along to this resident group to discuss local planning applications and make recommendations to developers and the council.
All meetings are held at Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Street. (map)
Next meetings: July 6-8pm. August 11th 6-8pm.
If you'd like to join the mailing list contact matthew.cheney@eastoncommunitypartnership.org.uk

A Parable of the Local Economy

The following is quoted from Plugging the Leaks a handbook on how to nurture sustainable communities.

The African Savanna is a plain that has an astonishing variety of wildlife that live off one another and the plant-life in the area. A key part of this ecology is the elephant, which eats the small budding seeds of a particular type of tree. Although few in number compared to the countless herds of grazing animals, if the elephants were to be removed then there would be no other animal to eat those saplings. Soon they would grow into large trees and the Savanna would become a forest. And with it the entire ecology of the area would change, as the type of plant-life and animals that happily survived in the plains would be quite different from the type that thrives in forests.

Just as removing an elephant from the Savanna would have huge impacts on its ecology, so it is with vital components of the local economy, like village shops which support a dense network of local producers who sell through them. The removal of the final cashpoint or Post Office facility can be just as devastating to the local economy as the high-profile closure of a factory or coalmine. The loss of the main shop that 'anchors' people to a high street or shopping parade. The wider impacts of all such decisions – and they are decisions – cannot always be foreseen. But many of the impacts can frequently be predicted if they are carefully thought through. It really should have been no surprise when Wheathampstead lost a bakery, dry cleaners and newsagents in the months following the high street bank's closure.

So – if your economy has bits you like and bits you would like to see developed then you need to take action to make that happen. It isn't going to happen naturally.

Quoted from: Plugging the Leaks - Making the most of every pound that enters your local economy

Photo by Roddy Smith. Roddy Smith is a wildlife conservationist and safari guide based in the Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia.

One person's musings on Old Market...

This may not be to everyone's taste, but it has some thought provoking images of Old Market.
Found on YouTube:

If you wish to see part two, it's here.

What could you do with a defunct massage parlour?

Just a thought...

How about opening Old Market clubs for coffees and lunches?

Loads of nightlife and hardly any 'daylife'.

That's one of the problems with Bristol's Old Market.

Now, if the clubs could be persuaded to open during the day for lunches, teas and coffees, wouldn't that attract more people into the area?

The pavements are wide; the hanging baskets are up. With the glorious summer that's promised this year, why not go for a little more of that continental feel in Old Market...