Since the Policing and Crime Act 2009 provided local authorities with more control over the location of lap dancing clubs, there has been much debate about whether there is a place for sexual entertainment in Britain. Here, Phil Hubbard considers the arguments against lap dancing, suggesting that frequent allusions to the negative impacts of lap dancing clubs on young people are suggestive of a risk-averse society that is convinced that young people and sexuality don’t mix, but is not sure what the harms of lap dancing are.
In 2012, we carried out a study of clubs and venues providing striptease entertainment in England and Wales which entailed a survey of all local authorities, analysis of the license applications made by all 241 sexual entertainment venues and an online and paper survey of 941 residents living in towns and cities with a lap dance venue. Interestingly, our survey suggested that only around 3% of respondents felt a lap dance club was a source of particular nuisance in their local town or city, a figure which was much lower than was the case for pubs, nightclubs or food take-ways, all of which were more frequently identified as causing particular problems of noise, anti-sociality and littering. Moreover, while around one in ten of our respondents appeared markedly opposed to the presence of lap dance clubs in British cities, the majority (55%) suggested they are appropriate in city or town centre locations. Against this, however, only 3% claimed clubs are suitable in residential areas. Tellingly, 46% felt clubs are not suitable near colleges or universities, 65% near religious facilities and 83% near schools.
Given this is the first Research Council-funded, extensive research on the impacts of sexual entertainment venues on the communities in which they are located, it is perhaps not surprising these research findings have been subsequently picked up a number of journalists. However, this reportage has not always been of the type we anticipated:
“It may seem obvious to some but a new £118,000 study has discovered people do not like the idea of strip clubs being outside schools. It took a whole year for the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy to reach the conclusion of their report which was paid for using taxpayers’ money”
(Daily Mail, 23 January 2013, ‘Council pays £118,000 for year-long study revealing parents don’t like the idea of strip clubs outside schools’, online edition)
As such, we stand accused of revealing the ‘obvious’: people are uneasy about sexual entertainment near children’s spaces. But we would counter by suggesting that ‘commonsensical’ ideas still demand explanation and critical scrutiny. Before we ban lap dance clubs in areas where children are present, should we not establish that it is a generally held assumption that this is the right thing to do? And do we not need to identify the specific nuisances caused by such venues before we decide how to regulate them? Apparently, we live in societies where such discussion is not required. This was demonstrated to us repeatedly in our survey: when we verbally quizzed people as to why lap dancing clubs should not be located near schools, the stock response was simply ‘because not’: it simply feels wrong.
But if we assume that children and minors are not allowed on lap dance premises, that any displays of nudity or pornography are not visible from the exterior of the premises, and that clubs can be required to open after a time when children would not routinely be on the street, it is worth questioning what harms are caused to children when such clubs are opened, and how these might be mitigated via their distancing from facilities used by children. Such questions are surely important in the context of politicians’ frequent pronouncements that our children are being damaged by the ‘hyper-sexualisation’ of society. They are also worth asking given the home itself is far from a safe haven for children, with ‘sexting’ via social media and the availability of adult online content as likely to have an impact on young people as the sight of a ‘gentleman’s club’ on the local high street. Quite what it is that children are vulnerable to here needs to be stated. Is it the idea that the presence of such clubs normalizes particular attitudes towards women’s sexuality? Or do we actually think that lap dance clubs are breeding predatory sex fiends from whom the young deserve protection? These are difficult questions to raise in the current climate, but they deserve consideration given that the sex industries provide a livelihood for many, with ‘over-regulation’ likely to displace this type of work into less formalized and potentially less salubrious surroundings (something that will have costs and benefits for owners and dancers alike).
Our research suggests that in practice, the licensing of Sexual Entertainment Venues in British cities is nonetheless informed by ‘commonsense’ assumptions that they are incompatible with certain other land uses, and need to be distanced or ‘zoned’ away from ‘family spaces’ of residence, education, leisure, and retailing. Local authorities adopt varying approaches here, stipulating premises are unacceptable within 200m (Hackney), 250m (Camden) or 500m (Coventry) of a school or other ‘sensitive’ land use. Indeed, where licenses have been refused, explanations have alluded to the incompatibility between sexual entertainment venues and such land uses. So, while the ‘dread fears’ of child sex abuse and paedophilia are not explicitly noted in council decisions, there appears an implicit acceptance that some degree of distancing of lap dance clubs from ‘family space’ is sensible, pragmatic and commonsensical. There is then a precautionary logic in play here given the lack of compelling evidence that lap dance clubs are actually associated with any more criminality than other licensed premises, but given we live in societies where we are all ‘riskophobes’ and actual risk is no longer a basis for decision-making, the adoption of a risk-averse approach is understandable. From a governmental perspective, ruling that lap dancing is illegal would be difficult given the impossibility of enforcing such a ban, and the potential allegation that this is an infringement of civil liberties: instead, ‘visible precaution’ is practiced, with public fears addressed through a licensing process that is able to consider these fears through a deployment of local, commonsense knowledge about ‘what belongs where’.
Distancing lap dancing clubs from ‘family spaces’ certainly appears unobjectionable given the imagined vulnerability of the child, but I would conclude that it is ultimately a form of social ordering that reaffirms the connection between commercial sex and the socially marginal, rendering it potentially more disturbing and constructing it as Other to the assumed moral codes of ‘family residential areas’. While it was not the stated intention of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 to push lap dancing premises away from wealthier, middle class ‘family’ spaces, that is a potential outcome. The fact that the spatial regulation and licensing of sexual entertainment reinforces dominant ideologies that connect property, propriety, and family life is surely worthy of investigation, no matter what the Daily Mail thinks.
Note: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, Grant ES/J002755/1 ‘Sexualisation, nuisance and safety: Sexual Entertainment Venues and the management of risk’: the Co-I was Dr Rachela Colosi, University of Lincoln. See http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/ES.J002755.1/read Professor Phil Hubbard’s book Cities and Sexualities was published by Routledge in 2011.
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.
Phil Hubbard is Professor in Urban Studies in the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.
If your club and others closed it would be a ” breath of fresh air”. Also the only bra swingers around seem to be sad people like Victoria! I am surprised she knows what a bra is as she obviously doesn’t wear one that often.
Honeybee it would be a fresh of breathe of fresh air. A so call family friend abused my daughter after visiting someone like victoria, But hey keep calm its only Lap Dancing
I do love this artical.. Its fair and concise. I agree with everything said. BUT.. It concentrates a lot on children and family concerns around lap dancing venues. Listen, I work in BLACKPOOL. You cant get more family oriented than here. Its a destination for family’s every weekend. But the fact is us clubs HELP our local businesses. Without adult entertainment, where do the adults go? It’s not just for men either let me tell you. My club is out the way of things (sometimes to our disadvantage) and we pay heavily for it. We aren’t as busy as the clubs directly on the prom. So we conform and adapt to try and make business. Our promotion isn’t identifiable walking around the streets with the club name on their clothes. Its quiet, invisible and above all discreet.. We’re also NOT ALLOWED to advertise our club ANYWHERE. How does a business survive without advertising? Its hard. The only thing near us that may cause concern is a church. But its behind our building and hidden away. We’re around half a mile from the nearest school. If you look at my club head on its just 2 red double doors and 4 windows that are blacked out. Hardly identifiable.
The council in our town are very out of touch and out of date with today’s requirements for lap dancing clubs to exist. We aren’t allowed to go fully nude (again, to our disadvantage) nude allows more money to be earned by both management and dancers. Punters certainly don’t understand why we aren’t a nude club in this day and age and especially IN BLACKPOOL its just silly. Preston up the road are nude. And guess where our customers end up going!! Its not fair. They see it as giving into that side of things. Fact is. Blackpool thrives on its adult business and ventures. The hotels would die if it stopped. Blackpool is a massive destination for adult groups and conferences that want adult entertainment..Our Councillors need to get with the times and reform local law because for now, its dated and very harsh. Business HAS declined. Ive seen my earnings drop off a cliff in the last 5 years (I’ve danced for 6) Wether it’s the economy or strip clubs are just too common nowadays or have simply lost the illusion of mystique and display.. one fact remains. They are here to stay. We have enough rules to follow without the added threat of closure every week, increased license prices, activists and bra swingers. I’m a woman. I dance because i choose too and can make good money doing it. It’s not exploitation and i wish everyone would pick another subject to bang on about. If my club closes it would be terrible. So i leave you with this..
Keep Calm
Its Only Lap Dancing
Well I don’t call an advert being one hundred metres away from a school a heavy restriction!!
Lets face it, a strip club is a place where perverts get off on themselves watching slappers prancing about. That is their choice and that is fine! However, to have this type of industry pushed in the faces of people who are highly offended by it by massive billboard advertisements is totally wrong. Rightly or wrongly it is a very sensitive subject for a lot of people and should be advertised discretely.
It is not just about protecting children, as there are a lot of adults that I know that are highly offended by the billboards in my area concerning these type of clubs.
It simply sends out the message that women are nothing but sex toys for the entertainment of men and my two teenage daughters cringe every time we drive passed one. Personally I find these billboards intimidating, insulting, embarrassing and degrading. I actually find myself feeling very angry towards men each time I drive passed one of these billboards.
Just a thought to people who justify these places- would you feel proud if your own daughter worked in one of these establishments and would you want your friends to know?
Although many people may not be able to articulate it, I believe that there are two reasonable objections. One relevant factor is that school attendance is largely mandatory, not voluntary. The level of school choice may be higher in the UK, but for many in the US the level of practical school choice is quite low, and lower the lower your family’s income. This has two important implications.
First, in the US at least, we generally want to give parents the freedom to take the lead in providing the moral aspects of sex education to their children. (Not that this hasn’t had its downside, but it is nevertheless true.) Having sex-oriented establishments near a place people are compelled to send their children is an intrusion on a parent’s ability to decide when it is age appropriate to teach them about this aspect of sex.
Second, from the perspective of the student, school attendance is compulsory. Compelling an adolescent (or younger) girl (or boy) to attend school in the proximity of sex work may be an intrusion. When she is an adult she can choose to be near it or not, but as a minor she doesn’t have that freedom. I recall being around 13-14 and having to pass X-rated theaters (or wait for a bus near one) depending on which way I went home from school. My friends and I always found it quite creepy, especially when the men emerged just as we were walking by. Perhaps we were not genuinely at any elevated risk of a sex crime, but as 13 year olds we were in no position to be sorting out the ambiguities of that situation. Things may be different in the UK, but here strip clubs are often open for lunch, so the assumption of being closed during school time is not a certainty.
In summary, I think the fact that school attendance is compulsory is relevant and was overlooked in this discussion.
“Having sex-oriented establishments near a place people are compelled to send their children is an intrusion on a parent’s ability to decide when it is age appropriate to teach them about this aspect of sex.”
With all due respect, local authorities in the UK already place heavy restrictions on the manner in which striptease venues advertise their activities; indeed, I can think of at least one venue on the edge of central London which isn’t even allowed to mention the fact that they have strippers at all!
Given that the clubs are not open during school time it realistically comes down to discreet signage in areas closer to schools. Given that the report actually stated this it is logical that rather than moralistic judgements being made councils work with clubs to tone the presence down. It is a bit like claiming it is wrong near churches, not many clubs are open on Sunday mornings.
I read the early report which shows only 2% of people of the 971 surveyed actually believed that clubs have no place in society. Given that 98% of those surveyed are not completely against clubs we need guidelines that protect dancers and customers but not bans on clubs.
“[W]hen we verbally quizzed people as to why lap dancing clubs should not be located near schools, the stock response was simply ‘because not’: it simply feels wrong.”
Precisely: it’s a case of, “BECAUSE-WE-SAY-SO!!!”, rather than a reasonable, considered response. Time and again, when the opponents of strip clubs are challenged to produce either evidence to support their views, or some rational basis for them, they are unable to do so.
“[I]t is worth questioning what harms are caused to children when such clubs are opened, and how these might be mitigated via their distancing from facilities used by children. Such questions are surely important in the context of politicians’ frequent pronouncements that our children are being damaged by the ‘hyper-sexualisation’ of society.”
Until one realises that the ‘hy-per-sex-u-al-i-ty’ meme originated with anti-strip club activists, who removed the word from its correct, scientific context as a description of a specific medical condition, and employed it as an emotive scare-term; that politicians have picked up on that term, and have apparently repeated it without any understanding of what it actually means, only serves to demonstrate the shortcomings of our political culture, and the need to insist on hard evidence in such matters.
“Distancing lap dancing clubs from ‘family spaces’ certainly appears unobjectionable given the imagined vulnerability of the child, but I would conclude that it is ultimately a form of social ordering that reaffirms the connection between commercial sex and the socially marginal, rendering it potentially more disturbing and constructing it as Other to the assumed moral codes of ‘family residential areas’.”
Indeed. What’s more, it’s being used as a way of sneaking moral objections – prohibited under the terms of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 – through the ‘back door’ of the licensing process.
“that any displays of nudity or pornography are not visible from the exterior of the premises”
This assumption is certainly false, at least in spirit. Lap-dancing clubs advertise what they do – it would be absurd if they didn’t. These advertisements are not permitted to be explicitly pornographic, but are strongly suggestive. Even the most sheltered child will understand, when faced with a lap-dancing club, that this is a place where women take their clothes off, even if they don’t understand why.
I don’t think young children need to know that.
Note that in my view, music videos by the likes of Rihanna and Beyonce, who seem to equate simulating sex whilst wearing lingerie with dancing, are much worse than the presence of a discreet strip club on the high street. Both tend to commodify sex in a way I find odious, but famous singers are much more of a draw to kids than buildings are.