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grrr
grrr
182 posts

Re: Spearmint Rhino
Dec 10, 2002, 14:35
depends on the job, surely...

does working all hours for minimum wage (or less) make make you more or less vulnerable than working 4 hours at £20 an hour?

hopefully I'll never have to find out first hand, but it's not easy to answer from this distance.
necropolist
necropolist
1689 posts

Re: Spearmint Rhino
Dec 10, 2002, 15:11
Well very few will earn £20 ph, and even then not very often. These women have to pay for the privilege of performing! Often they go home having made a loss (apparently). And this pushes them to at least consider offering ‘extra’s’ in the private booths. And once some women have started offering the extra’s, there is pressure upon the other women to do so too – they won’t get as much work otherwise.

As such they probably a more at risk than the large majority of people doing jobs at minimum wage.
grrr
grrr
182 posts

Re: Spearmint Rhino
Dec 10, 2002, 15:30
I think you are probably right.

I would love to see these places not exist, but just feel that they are a symptom of an oppressive society rather than a cause of it.

Let us know how it goes tonight.
MonkeyBoy
1008 posts

Re: Spearmint Rhino
Dec 10, 2002, 16:01
"I’d certainly be up for defacing/subvertising the posters (hopefully with something better than just ‘global pimp’, but hey ho)."

What about something along the lines of 'Oh Britney'.
grrr
grrr
182 posts

How was the meeting?
Dec 11, 2002, 09:42
Hope you went!
necropolist
necropolist
1689 posts

Re: How was the meeting?
Dec 11, 2002, 10:51
Indeed I went, a most interesting (in its way) meeting. Arrivd to find two coppers on the door - there because the European Manager of Spearmint Rhino had turned up, along with a couple of 'the girls' and his security bod (who used to work for the council, shock horror, negotiating contracts for places like...Spearmint Rhino), and they probably feared they'd get lynched. Bloody loads of media there too - apparently there was a 5 minute slot on the local news going out live!

Meeting itself tried awfully hard to be ever so polite and reasonable - but that didn't last too long really. Bloke from SR defending themselves, another from the 'Cultural Industries Quarter' (another quango based round promoting the area the strip club is to be) saying why they couldn't really oppose it, a self-appointed do gooder (from the SWP, not that she said that, strangely) & the Womens Officer from the University - which has recently built a new set of student flats, which are right next to where the SR will be!

You can probably guess most of the things that were said, it's a perfectly decent place; abuse of women; not only 'gentlemen' who went there (he meant 'ladies' too, but it still got a right good laugh); lures women into prostitution, what about the kiddies, is this the image we want, blaah blaah blah. There was very little moralism - of the we just don't want them dirty types here - or off the 'why dont you just set up in Attercliffe' (where there are already a couple of strip joints and various other kinds of sex club), most of the arguments were based around women's safety (in and outside the club) and the blatant sexism of it - especially the (absolutely vast) numbers of posters around the city. There were a couple of speakers who went against the general mood - one (a woman who runs an erotica store, clothing and accessories generally rather than porn) who told people to stop being so f'ing prissy, it's only sex, and a couple of people who were far more up for defending the rights of the women in the club, unionising them, which would probably do more to make the inside of the club a lot safer, and to oppose the stigmatisation of some of the people who work in the sex industry. they got a smatterring of support. o there were also a few small business owners from the Cultural Industries Quarter who spoke saying how it would impact upon there businesses, because they run creative companies and a strip club would just put them off there work (sadly no one seemed tohear my comment that that didn't seem to do Toulouse Latrec much harm)

Eventually the meeting decided - well it didn't really, the SWP (with a couple of other feminist types) had already decided, and even printed up leaflets - that there would be a protest called outside the opening of the club on saturday, calling for it to be shut down. Expect lots of 'fun' costumes, bad placards, and streams of abuse at the saddo's who go in there. The SWP woman did insist that she supported the call for unionisation and would join work to unionise the women. Quite how you can argue for both is somewhat beyond me - 'join a union to defend your working conditions, and to put yourself pout of a job'. Don't think I'd recruit many people to a union on that basis somehow.

Be interesting to see what is in the papers about it today.
grrr
grrr
182 posts

Re: How was the meeting?
Dec 11, 2002, 11:34
do you think you'll go on saturday?

The demo, not the club.
anthonyqkiernan
anthonyqkiernan
7087 posts

Obligatory Mark Steel Quote
Dec 11, 2002, 11:40
"It's like sniffing glue or going to see Ben Elton's musical about Queen, it would be immoral to ban it, but indulging in it indicates a sickness that needs putting right as quickly as possible."
necropolist
necropolist
1689 posts

Re: How was the meeting?
Dec 11, 2002, 11:53
No. Even apart from the fact that I'm going to see Pulp that night I don't think I would. While I've nowt against abusing some of the sad gits that go in there, I got the impression that they wouldn't just be abusing the men. Cetrtainly there will be people there who will just be moralistic assholes, Idon't want to be seen to have anything to do with them. It would be interesting to see just what does go on, but, as i said, I aint there anyway!
necropolist
necropolist
1689 posts

report
Dec 11, 2002, 12:20
Fairly full (and accurate, amazingly) report in today's Star

http://www.sheffweb.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=224406
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