Lap Dancing is pretty seedy isn't it? I've been to a few lap dancing clubs in my time, and in each case I found these experiences to be rubbish - a complete waste of money, set in a highly-charged, slavering sort of atmosphere and, crucially for a lap dancing club, the product to be totally unsexy. I may not enjoy these places but plenty of people do. As if you didn't know sex sells, and lap dancing is the public face of the sex industry. Clubs are popping up all over the place. But is this a good thing?
As you would expect in a documentary like this, there was a fair amount of flesh on show. All secretly filmed flesh, but flesh nonetheless. The show used a couple of undercover reporters - a guy called Peter and a wannabe lady dancer - to show just what happens when someone goes into a lap dancing club. Guess what? What happens when you go into a lap dancing club is people try and get you to spend money and then take their clothes off if you pay them.
The questions that this episode of Dispatches was keen to answer were: Are the rules that govern these clubs being flouted? Does any transgression of these rules constitute a sexual service? And why does lap dancing get the same licensing status as a café or a karaoke bar?
Any sane people knows the answers.
Undercover footage revealed that the all-important three-feet rule was constantly being flouted, and lady-parts were shoved relentlessly into our brave undercover reporter's poor naive face.
"You walk into a club, and five minutes later two girls who you hardly know are completely naked in front of you. It's quite shocking."
Is it Peter? Is it REALLY shocking? No offence, but what were you expecting when you went into a place like this? A cup of tea and a Digestive? Get real son. This type of journalism is so lazy and makes me angry. The whole programme was just a shock tactic to try and rile Middle England into shrieking at their television sets.
There was also a laughable bit when Peter was chatting to two dancers in a Blackpool club. They had offered him sex for £300. That's obviously prostitution and against the laws, but the exchange was hilarious:
"So, if I pay you £300 you will have sex with me?"
"Yeah, back at your hotel room."
"So... sorry... you'll have sex with me in my hotel room for £300?"
"Yeah."
"So [a little louder so the mic would pick it up] you will have sex with me for £300?"
"Yeah"
"Let me get this straight. You will HAVE SEX WITH ME FOR £300?"
"Yeah"
Only if you were terrifyingly stupid would you not realise something up while being interviewed in this cack-handed way.
As ever there were MPs and licensing 'experts' frowning at the secret footage of lap dancing ("Hmmmm, yes. This flouts the rules most definitely... don't take the laptop away, let me look at the footage one last time to be sure."), and plenty of shots of 'sleepy market towns' now infested with this filth.
Jeez. It was like watching the televisual of equivalent of the Daily Mail.
Where I do sympathise with people who don't like lap dancing clubs is the location question. Let's face it - most blokes who get drunk get horny (and bilious), and they find misguided solace in these clubs because young women shove their bits in their faces when paid. And after their liaisons? Late night drunkards spilling out onto the street with the horn is not a nice thing. Inner cities (or one strip of these places) are obviously preferable to these neanderthals cavemenning about 'sleepy market towns'.
What I really object to is that these places bring out the very worst in my fellow male people (sexualisation of women etc), and that's where the danger lies.
But this was so disappointing. I didn't watch it because I wanted to see boobs or bums, what I was hoping for was a balanced look at the whole industry. But where were the interviews with dancers to see if they were exploited? Where were the interviews with the punters themselves to find out what possesses them to go one of those clubs in the first place?
These questions weren't answered. Instead, it seemed that the stereotypical attitude to sex still remains in this country and this was just designed to rile people up and stiffen their upper lips. Let's face it, lap dancing isn't about intimacy or even proper sex. It's about money, and only money, and that's why the rules are a tiny bit lax.
Dispatches exposure told us what we already either know or suspect ie that lap dancing clubs are little more than fronts for prostitution and explicit sex acts. Why worry? many may say. Well the reason I dont like it is that there is one right opposite my business, one I worked hard for 10 years to build up. Furthermore it is housed in a former Registery office, that place of sombre officialdom where all my childrens births were registered is now a sleaze pit where young single mums top up their benefits by taking their knickers off night after night for drunken stag revellers. Every day I look out from my office to see large posters depicting bare buttocks being fingered by fake nails. Faceless and dehumanising to promoted sex in its most blatant form.
The law must be changed so that people such as myself can object to having stripclubs opening all around us and can at least have a say. The sooner the better.
I thought the programme was completely biased towards showing the industry in a poor light. The clients of clubs were not interviewed nor were any club operators interviewed. I really womder how many clubs that pervert peter frequented to fish the dirt. He seemed really shocked at the idea of a beautiful woman naked in front of him. I immediately concluded he was gay! As for the licensing barrister, he came across as a complete prude. He sat there parading his wedding ring whilst deliberating like a judge and lord about the dispicable nature of the scenes depicted. He was probably gay aswell. Complete gutter television. There is a market for open minded people to attend these clubs otherwise they would not be in existence. market forces really. Get rid of pete the pervert, thats what i say!!!!!!!!!!!!
pete came across as a great guy but would be more suited in a gay lapdancing bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!