“As a feminist, I find strip clubs offensive and worry that they contribute
to violence against women and sex trafficking.”
She doesn’t like strip clubs and admits it right up front. But she couples the admission with a couple of accusations or violence and human trafficking.
Do strip clubs contribute to violence against women? Let’s do some quick math. The Washington and Oregon have dramatically different laws regarding strip clubs; consequently there are significantly more clubs in Oregon than Washington. I think Mcloughlin boulevard in Portland has more strip clubs on it that the entire state of Washington. Oregon has a population of 3,826,000. During 2009 there were 1167 forcible rapes in Oregon. If you divide the population by the number of rates reveals that one person out of 3278 was a victim of rape. In Washington (population 6,664,000) there were 2539 forcible rapes, which gives a rate of one person out of 2624 was a victim. Despite the fact their higher number of strip clubs, Oregon has a lower overall rape rate. This is a single data point, but at least it based on real information.
The accusation of sex trafficking I find extreme. Exactly why would a strip club owner want to get involved with sex trafficking? Dancers pay the strip club to work there. Exactly what would the advantage of sex trafficking be? The owner is losing a source of income. A club owner would risk a serious jail time to replace dancers that pay to be there. Why? A club is going to be inspected by the health department, the OLCC will make undercover checks, and random people (including police) will be walking in off the street. Not to mention other dancers trying to audition there. Trying to keep something like this secret in a strip club would be impossible.
By phrasing it in terms that “she worries” the author can cast any sort of accusation without having to provide proof. It’s her opinion. As long as it’s your own opinion you can make any claim you want regardless of facts. A lot of anti-strip club folks use this tactic. Since most of the public is unaware as to how clubs operate and what really goes on there, most people will accept accusations as fact. The other advantage is that it difficult to refute these types accusations. She wrote exactly one sentence of innuendo but it takes me an entire page to put together counter argument. An author can bury a subject in bullshit this way.
The author continues on the major point of the article; she doesn’t like the name ‘The Pitiful Princess’ for a strip club. I actually agree with her here but for different reasons. The name is stupid. Outside of it being alliteration, it has no other redeeming value from a marketing point of view. Why would you associate the word pitiful with your business. But it's his business so he can call it what ever he wants.
The author’s issue is a bit different. In her opinion his business name is offensive to the neighborhood. Since little girls are usually into being a princess and this will force parents to explain strip clubs to small children. I have five nieces and at some point in their life they’ve all been into princesses. They also wanted to be ballerinas and Broadway dancers too. I’ve been in that exact position. I was taking my niece to Fred Meyer’s in Beaverton when we drove past Stars Cabaret. My niece saw ‘Cabaret’ and got really excited. She wanted go there on her birthday and see the ‘cabaret’ dancers. I just simply explain to her that it was just a fancy name for a bar and there were no ‘Cabaret’ dancers. She was disappointed but that was the end of it.
I know that it’s always not that simple. There are a lot of bad things in the world I don’t want to have to explain to children. The author reasoning goes adult (sex) businesses should not use anything in their marketing that could be strongly associated with children. The problem is where do you draw the line? By picking a something very subjective you can bend the rules to what suits your agenda. Little girls are also really into cosmetics should Club Rouge change its name?
If you expand the concept to include adult issues that aren’t sex related a lot of fairy tales become bad things. Hansel and Gretel has cannibalism. The Princess and the Pea has a very subversive message, that the somebody is better purely because of their heritage. Basing somebody’s worth by the situation of their birth is the basis of bigotry. Should we censor the story?
The author is very honest in her opinion, she doesn’t like strip clubs. The problem is a starts with ideology then tries to make the facts fit it. Would the author be so upset if the Pitiful Princess was a second clothes store? Probably not. Most of the anti-strip club folks operate this way. They start out with an agenda and begin looking for any facts that support their opinion and ignore all the facts that don’t. This is a typical method a politicking. Where I have problem with articles like this is they take focus off where it should be. Sex trafficking is serious stuff, why focus on strip clubs when they aren’t the problem. It just wastes time and resources.
The author is complaining about the name, but a lot of groups are trying to shut down businesses using the same type of logic. There are a lot things out side my door I don’t like. Just because I don’t like them and find them uncomfortable doesn’t mean they should be banned.
