THE CASE AGAINST

By Marie Penman

We’re objecting to the strip club opening, we’re not criticising those who want to work in the strip club, that’s up to them.

Stripper Amby Stanyer-Hunter and anti-strip club campaigner Marie Penman. Pictures: Fife Photo Agency

We are objecting that this club exists at all.

Stripping is an act of violence against women and girls.

Those aren’t our words, those are the SNP Government’s words.

The workers there are going to be self-employed and they don’t know how much they will be paid, and there’s no guarantee of salary other than money shoved into your underwear.

You don’t get a guaranteed salary.

They will be getting their earnings based entirely on what men think their value is. Women should decide what your value is.

When you look at a survey done in Glasgow by a women’s charity, the average amount paid for a lapdancer in Glasgow was £5. But most of the women who worked there said they are often paid in 20 pence pieces.

I’m sorry but I think we’re worth more than that. We shouldn’t be getting paid small change by drunken leering men.

Women are being paid to take their clothes off, I don’t like that. I wouldn’t want my daughter thinking that’s acceptable.

It’s outdated, old-fashioned, and objectifies women.

Petitions and protests: How Kirkcaldy's strip club sparked huge debate

THE CASE FOR

By Amby Stanyer-Hunter

We have people who are being very negative about the strip bar opening.

At the end of the day what they need to realise is nobody is being forced into this.

I have known many strippers in my time – I have been a stripper – of all the strippers I have known, I have only ever met strong, confident independent women who are basically taking men for a ride. So all this about the exploitation of women is absolute nonsense.

The exploitation is of the guys who are handing over their money for three minutes of, let’s face it, not very much.

Everybody seems to think this is some sort of den of inequity and that they’re starting a brothel and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

This is about choice. The women’s lib lot always like to shout about women having the choice to do whatever they want to do.

If you want to be a stripper, then be a stripper. If you want to be empowered with your body, go and use it.

I would rather any of my friends went to work in a strip club than end up on a zero-hour contract on minimum wage – that is true exploitation.

I’m just all about equality. Despite the fact that the WTF campaign is predominately concerned with how women might be exploited, this is one of the first ever strip clubs that I have known about in the UK to offer men and women doing lap dances.

This is unheard of, and Kirkcaldy isn’t maybe known for its forward thinking, but by having men and women here it’s very diverse.

These women are going to be protected far more than any of the girls that you’re going to see going into a nightclub. These girls have got the protection of the staff, the bouncers, and of the law, and that’s what counts.

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Kirkcaldy Strip Club: The cases for and against