Central Chambers on St Stephen’s Street has had its sexual entertainment venue licence renewed by Bristol City Council despite vociferous campaigning from Bristol feminist groups.
Only three lapdancing clubs are allowed to operate in the BS1 area – Central Chambers and Urban Tiger in the city centre and T3 Temptations in Old Market.
Central Chambers successfully petitioned to retain its licence, the stipulations of which include removing the silhouette of a scantily-clad woman from the front of premises that the Bristol Post business directory innocently refers to as a wine bar.
Feminist campaigner “Bristol_Jane” was live tweeting yesterday’s hearing at City Hall, during which she called Conservative group leader Peter Abraham a “sexist, misogynistic fuckface“.
On the other side of the debate, lapdancers signed a petition started by Central Chambers manager Carrie Hale stating that they should be free to earn money how they like and that their venues are important to Bristol’s nighttime economy.
Typical “fuckface” feminist if you ask me.
Helpful Josh, and really well thought out response to the story. Thank goodness we have people like you taking a vested interest with the issue at hand.
Sigh.
Typical idiot reporting when someone is getting threats of violence etc from SEV supporters in Bristol. Irresponsible in search of a headline and a disgrace to the profession. Grow up Martin and learn some journalistic standards.
Whilst i don’t condone the threats of violence (none of which i saw) the fact of the matter is this woman took it upon herself to decide what feminists thought about the situation and spoke for us with little to no knowledge of what people thought and hadn’t even bothered to meet the women who worked there and ask how they felt about working there.
I was blocked for disagreeing with her as she threw her toys out of the pram, not fully understanding that she was threatening the jobs of women who CHOOSE to work there then smearing their profession because it doesn’t live up to what she considers a “good feminist”.
Its lovely you all want to stand by her and decided to let all of us who didn’t agree with her rampant abuse and trampling of rights that we could “go fuck ourselves” but may i suggest next time she and the rest of the militant feminist force take time to speak to the women they claim to be saving.
Also she might do well to remember that she isn’t immune from people questioning her behaviour and opinion if she wants to put it on the internet either.
I think the concerns of the objectors to SEVs in Central Bristol are predicated on the bigger picture. Namely the increase in the objectification of women and girls, quantifiable increased trafficking of women, men and children for sex work and the apparent shift in attitude of some men towards women. When sexuality and sex become a commodity surely it is clear that attitudes will change for the worse. Of course nobody holds lapdancing clubs entirely responsible for this social and societal change but I think people might concur that the ready availability of SEVs in the centre of Bristol may well be a contributing factor.
I do not imagine for a second any of these ‘militant feminists’ want anyone to lose their job, of course not.
Also I doubt that everyone who is opposed to SEVs in Bristol City Centre could be considered a militant feminist. There are a fair few men who have signed the anti-SEV petition and who have declared their opposition.
With reference to the pro-SEV petition, it would be interesting to know how many people who have signed it actually LIVE in Bristol and how many are managers and employees of the many lapdancing clubs etc to whom the manager of Central Chambers tweeted the link.
Charlie you may not have seen the threats towards the tweeter I did. They were an appalling example of cyber bullying and were being encouraged by certain individuals. Which is irresponsible and disgraceful behaviour and hardly that of a ‘business person’ Nobody deserves that. And I believe the pro-SEV faction have not received any threats at all.
Questioning behaviour is absolutely fine. all activists do that, when it spills over into violent threats and the encouragement of same then that is not acceptable.
My objection to this piece is the naming of the tweeter, originally her full name. That was irresponsible and arguably journalistically ethically suspect, especially as the threats were visible online. I doubt that the Post or Bristol 24-7 would stoop to that.
Fortunately Josh, nobody is asking you.
Bristol has a strong history of supporting activist campaigns. People like this lady make our city great!
Her comment, regardless of your personal take on the SEV issue, was fueled by a passionate desire to drive change and educate on an issue she see’s as fundamentally wrong. That, is always worthy of respect.
Yours was a blind citing of an ignorant stereotype.
Nobody…absolutely nobody.. who is standing up for what they believe in is worthy of criticism for that alone. Take issue with a specific issue they are raising sure.. but don’t blindly troll.
Good luck to her.