All Right All Right All Right! Iceland banned strip clubs for FEMINIST reasons, crazy enough, and they have a totally awesome lesbian Prime Minister. A friend of mine posted the following link to the Atlantic, with two dissenting opinions, which both basically say: if a woman wants to voluntarily take her clothes off for money, who are we to say she can't?
I mean, who are we to say SHE CAN?! It seems really fucked up to me that we would prioritize the idea of capitalism over leveling the playing field (even if it's just a tad, and even if it's just in Iceland) for women? Because, at the root of it all, we know that the motivation for ANYBODY to become a stripper is MONEY. You don't hear about little girls raising their hands in first grade class and expounding on the reasons they want to become a stripper. When people tell you to "do what you love and figure out a way to get paid for it," 99.999999% of the time they aren't talking about stripping. And maybe stripping is a safer job than prostitution (which, if you read the articles, Iceland has already outlawed), but that doesn't mean that it's not degrading or objectifying.
When I took Gender and Women's studies there was a lot of discussion about how sex workers should be allowed the right to choose their sex work. Obviously this fell under the Choosy Feminists let you Choose your Choice branch of feminism, one that I ultimately agree with. I'm not here to shame prostitutes or strippers--ultimately, if we lived in a completely non-sexist (and non-racist, non-classist, etc) society, than I think the ability to be a stripper or a prostitute should be anyone's god-given right. However, it seems to me that when someone is a stripper, too many societal forces come in to play: the (wealthier) male has the power of the cliched male gaze, possessing the female body, and ultimately determining her (monetary) worth. The idea of strip clubs really icks me out, and maybe if we lived in a society without them that would be an improvement.
Jezebel's take on it
However, if you are the kind of person who worries about the government controlling everything, than for sure, this does not bode well for the people of Iceland, who better like their socialism! (For real though, I can haz your socialism pleaze?)
However, if you are the kind of person who worries about the government controlling everything, than for sure, this does not bode well for the people of Iceland, who better like their socialism! (For real though, I can haz your socialism pleaze?)
/In the interest of full disclosure, I feel like I should include the fact that I actually wrote this post about a week to two weeks ago, whenever the news actually broke that Iceland had banned strip clubs. I wanted to write about it immediately because what an incredible idea! What if we could actually *ohmygod don't say it girl* LEGISLATE EQUALITY?
I'm still not sure it's possible. And for those of you who would argue that limited a woman's right to choose a profession in which she shows her body for money is somehow inherently anti-feminist: well, maybe you're right. I wouldn't go so far as to claim that it goes against FEMINISM but I will agree that it certainly ISN'T pro-choice.
The bottom line, though, is that I would much rather live in a society that attempts to remove the institutional barriers that perpetuate inequality (read: classism, racism, sexism, etc) than to live in one that encourages these barriers (read: parental notification laws for abortion, for starters), so I'm going to continue to argue that YES, Iceland really does rock for doing this. And NO there is no way in hell this is going to happen in the United States anytime soon. It would be interesting if the idea of outlawing strip clubs went to vote, however: would we have a group called the "Pole Grabbers" standing around with signs like "KEEP YOUR COMMUNIST HANDS OUT OF MY STRIP CLUB"?
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