There were impassioned speeches, exchanges of barbs, tears and laughter – hardly the usual fare at a meeting of Bristol city council’s licensing committee.
But most committee members couldn’t help but smile as performers from the city’s two lapdancing clubs greeted their decision not to close the venues with cheers and cheers.
For six years, the Labor council has been agonizing over whether to ban all sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) in Bristol to protect women and girls across the city. More than 6,000 people took part in a consultation and the council’s moves were closely watched by authorities across the UK.
Women’s campaigners have argued strongly that there should be a blanket ban on SEVs from Bristol, claiming they lead to misogyny and violence.
But after hearing testimony from dancers who will be driven to less secure jobs or face financial ruin if SEVS are banned, licensing committee members on Thursday voted nine to one against a ban.
The dancers posed for photos outside the town hall and, in a statement issued through the Bristol Sex Workers Collective, said: “We are screaming, crying, throwing up with joy.”
WE DID IT!!! After two years of campaigning against people with far more institutional power and privilege than a group of sex workers, we’ve crossed the line by a vote of 9 to 1. We’re screaming, crying, throwing up with joy rn.
— Bristol Sex Workers Collective (@BristolSWC) July 28, 2022
The decision was roundly condemned by the Bristol Women’s Commission, which accused the committee of failing to take action to “address the sexist culture that underpins male violence”.
He said: “SEVs promote and profit from the sexist culture that underpins gender-based violence. We cannot tackle gender-based violence without addressing that culture.
“Today’s decision gives Bristol’s two strip clubs the green light to exploit the cost of living crisis and recruit more young women into the sex industry, opening the door to sex shopping for future generations of young men It reinforces a dangerous and sexist message to all women and girls that their worth lies in their bodies and in the performance of men.
We are very disappointed and frustrated that @BristolCouncil’s Licensing Committee has not taken this opportunity to take clear action to tackle the sexist culture that underpins sexist violence.
Read our full statement here > https://t.co/IVp31gGCPr
— Bristol Women’s Commission (@BWCommission) July 28, 2022
“We know some people will celebrate this as a victory, but the real winners here are men who want unfettered access to women’s bodies.”
One of the performers, Amelie, told Thursday’s meeting that she worked at the Urban Tiger lapdance club for three years after struggling to make ends meet as a circus performer. She said: “Stripping has allowed me to have a flexible enough schedule to pursue my dream career while allowing me to live a comfortable life.
“Closing Urban Tiger and Central Chambers [the second club] it would lead me back to poverty, precarious and poorly paid work, or most likely I’ll still be dancing in Bristol, but in riskier spaces where there will be no security staff or CCTV. I find it particularly cruel to push a workforce that is predominantly female into poverty.”
A second performer, Layla, said, “Dancing has given me financial freedom,” adding that she had been sexually harassed not while working at dance clubs, but elsewhere during the evenings.
Others had called for Bristol to be brave and ban all SEVs. Nick Gazzard, founder of the Hollie Gazzard Trust, which campaigns against violence against women, said: “We need the council to lead the way in promoting mutual respect between boys and girls, men and women, and to help educate young people on how to achieve healthy relationships, instead of giving license to the objectification of women.”
Avon and Somerset Police’s crime and police commissioner Mark Shelford also backed the idea of a ban, but members of the five political parties represented on the council voted against it.
Labor licensing committee chair Marley Bennett said the city needed to do everything it could to tackle violence against women and girls and acknowledged the industry was trying to sexually arouse men. He said he had suffered sleepless nights over the issue, but came to the conclusion that it was better to have regulated clubs rather than underground lap dances.
Bennett continued: “These are working-class women performers who would lose their livelihoods during a cost-of-living crisis. I’m a trade unionist. They have a profession they say they want to keep.”
One of the biggest cheers from the dancers went to Green councilor Guy Poultney, who criticized some of those who said they represented the performers’ interests.
She said: “Some of the voices we’ve heard are sometimes making arguments that we should dismiss some women’s voices in order to empower them and restrict their choices in the name of equality and take their jobs away for their own good.” .
The only committee member to support a ban, Labour’s Philippa Hulme, said having lapdancing clubs did not fit the image of progressive Bristol. He said: “There is a great weight of evidence that visiting these sites leads customers to objectify women and leads to misogyny.”