Rape crisis group angry over arrival of lapdance club

The arrival of a Stringfellow’s lapdance club in Dublin is another nail in the coffin of a safe and equal society for women, it was claimed today.

Dublin District Court yesterday granted an application for a public dance licence to Peter Stringfellow for the controversial premises on Parnell Street which local residents tried to block.

But the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI) said today that lapdance clubs create sex objects of women and won’t help the battle against sexual violence in Ireland.

Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) today expressed their dismay that Mr Stringfellow’s lapdance club should have defeated attempts by local residents to halt its opening.

“It is important to bear in mind that any such venue of this nature adds to the culture of degradation and objectification of women in our society,” said RCNI executive director Fiona Neary.

“We live in a society where women, men and children are daily subjected to casual sexual violence perpetrated by men who claim and may even believe that what they do is ’normal’ and cannot be called an assault or an offence.

“This defence can only come about and be sustained in a society where we tolerate the use of women as sex objects; where we tell men they should and are always up for it and where women are portrayed as always available to men.

“In these circumstances is it any wonder so many men fail to seek consent from women they intend having sex with?”

The RCNI said that sexual violence in society cannot be separated from the increasingly pornographic backdrop to our everyday lives.

“The merits or demerits of this particular lapdancing club are not at issue here, what is certain is that this club is one more nail in the coffin of any hopes for an equal and safe society,” Ms Neary added.

The RCNI is the national forum of Rape Crisis Centres, which provides a strong voice for survivors and is a catalyst for social change to end rape and all forms of sexual violence.