Club faces boycott for name that 'normalises domestic violence'

Domestic violence campaigners, Edinburgh council chiefs and student leaders have accused the West End venue The Lane of "normalising" violence against women.

An online campaign is being waged against the club night, which shares its name with a controversial "post-feminist exploitation" film released last year to scathing reviews.

Promoters of the new night, due to be launched on 21 May, say they decided to choose a deliberately "in your face" identity for the night, which already has its own Facebook page, and have admitted they thought people registering protests were joking.

But the club, in Queensferry Lane, is being urged to ditch the name before the first night or face the prospect of a boycott.

Licensing leaders have also expressed their concerns at the "clearly sexist" title.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Women's Aid said: "Violence against women is never funny or clever and it's disappointing that the venue has chosen to glamorise it in this way.

"Violence ruins lives and has a negative impact on our communities.

"We support this campaign and hope that a decision will be taken to change the name to something that does not reinforce the negative view that violence against women is acceptable."

Gabi Jones, spokeswoman for Edinburgh University Feminist Society, said: "This kind of thing normalises violence against women.

"It is a much more serious problem than they seem to think it is. They are mocking it.

"At the moment we are encouraging all our members and other contacts to lobby the club to have the name changed.

"We'll see how they respond before deciding what other action to take."

Marjorie Thomas, licensing leader in Edinburgh, said: "It's a clearly sexist name and is not acceptable in this day and age. I'll certainly not be encouraging anyone to go there."

A spokeswoman for the City of Edinburgh Council added: "We are working closely with the police to reduce violence and to create an environment where violence is deemed unacceptable. This is an unfortunate name for a club night."

No-one from The Lane was available to comment yesterday.

However, Robbie Walker, one of Bitch Slap's promoters, accused critics of the name of going "over the top".

He said: "It's got absolutely nothing to do with berating women or anything like that. We were just looking for an in-your-face name and found it in a magazine. The comments that have been made are just over the top."