First Night: What is this film all about?

Mar 1, 2012 by Helen    1 Comment     Posted under: Films, News

This film is part of a series of EQUALS Debate Starters, designed to get people talking about whether men and women are really equals in 2012.

Sabrina
Sabrina Mahfouz is an award winning poet, playwright and performer.  She is Associate Playwright at The Bush, and is currently touring her debut solo show Dry Ice at theatres across the UK.

“I wanted to make this film with EQUALS because it’s important that International Women’s Day draws attention to the fact that women aren’t yet equal. I wanted add my ability to talk about the world of strip clubs and add to the debate.

I think the public perception of strip clubs is that it’s an empowering place for women to be, and if there are men willing to pay to see women naked, it’s the men who are getting taken for a ride. But I don’t think that this is true. It’s very telling of a sexist and unequal world that the way for women to make what appears to be quick or easy money is by taking off their clothes.

I don’t want to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t think, but hope that this film makes people question whether stripping is something women would actually choose to do if men and women
were really equal in the world.”

Are men and women really EQUALS?  Join the big inequality debate.
EQUALS is a partnership of over 30 charities and arts organisations, brought together by Annie Lennox to celebrate International Women’s Day and encourage a new generation of women and men to step up the call for a more equal world.  We believe that men and women should have equal rights, opportunities and representation in politics, education, health, employment, family life and media and culture.  Find out more about EQUALS.

What’s so bad about lap dancing and strip clubs?
Lap dancing and strip clubs encourage their customers, and wider society, to see women as sex objects. They reinforce the idea that women are always sexually available, as long as you’ve got a bit of cash to spare.

The bigger pictures is that we live in a society where men still dominate positions of power and where violence against women is endemic, with 1 in 4 women facing rape in her lifetime and 1 in 2 women facing sexual harassment, stalking or domestic violence. Those working with female victims of male violence believe that the mainstreaming of the sex industries legitimises the attitudes that ultimately lead to violence against women.[1]

In advertising, films and music videos we are bombarded with images of women in poses which depict them as being up for sex.  This cannot be disconnected from endemic violence against women, low conviction rates, and the fact that the majority of people still think that women are at least partly to blame if they are sexually assaulted.[2]

Is stripping empowering?

“If you regard having fleeting sexual power over men, for about one second then yes, (this is the moment when you actually get him to agree to dance), but this power disappears the second you start removing your clothes for him.”  Alexandra[3]

There is an element of sexual power involved in stripping or lap dancing.  But sexual power can’t get you equal pay, equal representation and an equal voice.

“For all the ‘we-love-it, it’s empowering’ talk, I think that most women who do it don’t feel anything positive about it. You just feel you can’t make money any other way, that’s the most important thing about you… you are a sexual object, and that’s what men want, and that’s all you are.”  Ellie[4]

If I don’t like the idea of strip clubs, won’t I look like a prude?
No-one accuses sweatshop protestors of not liking fashion.  Challenging strip clubs is not about challenging sexual expression, it is about pointing out the danger of continuing to represent women as sex objects who are always gagging for it in a culture in which sexual violence is so common.

What is the EQUALS coalition doing to stop the sexual objectification of women and girls?
OBJECT and The Fawcett Society are both members of the EQUALS coalition.  They joined forces to campaign against the fact that since 2003, lap dancing clubs have been licenced in the same way as café’s, leading to the industry doubling in size over four years to 300 clubs across the UK.

Their campaign was successful and in 2009 a bill was passed in Parliament which means lap dancing clubs are now licenced in the same way as sex shops.  Local councils can now choose to adopt this new way of licencing, giving local residents a say in whether lap dancing clubs can operate in their community.

OBJECT’s Anna van Heeswijk says” This is a huge victory in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation and the mainstreaming of the sex industries, and it sends out a powerful message that the sexual objectification of women is neither inevitable nor unstoppable.”

OBJECT also run campaigns on lads mags, the advertising industry, beauty pageants and prostitution.

Join the big inequality debate.  Watch more EQUALS films.

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