New lap dancing rules are steps in wrong direction
JULIA HORTON
THE plunging neckline and hip-high split of her (very) little black dress leave little to the imagination as Summer leans forward, extending a tape measure out in front of her.
Lining the walls on either side of the dimly lit rectangular room are a row of comfy chairs where punters sit to enjoy a private lap dance.
Night after night in the middle of the floor, Summer and the other scantily clad girls at Edinburgh's Liquorice Club gyrate provocatively, one in front of each paying customer, stripping off slowly until they are completely naked.
This morning, however, Summer is posing to demonstrate the impracticality of controversial new proposals aimed at tightening control of Scotland's adult entertainment industry - and keeping performers safe.
Whatever your view of the industry, it is increasingly hard to ignore. Lap dancing clubs like the Liquorice in Tollcross help to bring in an estimated £300 million plus to the UK's economy per annum.
A year ago, amidst fears of exploitation of women, the Scottish Executive set up the Adult Entertainment Working Group (AEWG) to review the industry and suggest ways of improving the way it is regulated.
One of the list of recommendations handed to ministers by the group last month is that there should be at least one metre between a performer and anyone else.
"I would be constantly looking at my feet to check if I had stepped too close to the customer, which would distract me and them from my performance," says Summer.
"We have quite a lot of space here compared to a lot of clubs but I would be practically dancing back to back with the girl behind me," the 28-year-old laughs. Stepping forward again in her shiny black platform sandals, sticking one hip out suggestively and putting her hands on either arm of the chair in front of her she adds: "A lot of what we do brings us a couple of feet in front of the customer like this, which I wouldn't be able to do under the new recommendations."
Quite apart from the fact that the one metre rule is impractical, she adds that, more importantly, it is not needed.
"We do not touch customers and they are told not to touch us. We hardly ever have any trouble. I remember one guy grabbed my arse in the main bar once and I was raging. The security staff threw him straight out."
She turns to point out several CCTV cameras and a two-way mirror which along with the club's ever-present security staff make her feel secure. There is also safety in numbers, she says. Unlike other clubs, the Liquorice has no private booths so no girl is ever alone with a customer.
Instead as many as 15 to 20 lap dancers perform "private dances" in the club's back room, where Summer, the head dancer, is standing now.
She is not keen to talk about how much she earns, but the going-rate for dancers in most clubs is £5 for a topless dance rising to £10 for a full strip. On top of that punters are generally charged a £5 to £10 entrance fee.
Which brings us to another of the AEWG's recommendations, which is that "all adult entertainment activities should be at all times fully visible to the public visiting the premises". This would ban private booths altogether, which is something that Summer agrees with wholeheartedly.
"I would not want to be on my own with someone in a booth, I wouldn't feel safe. I think dancing in open space like this will be fine under that recommendation. There are cameras and security staff everywhere so if anything did happen you only need to call to them and they will throw the customer out."
But other Edinburgh performers are horrified by both the proposed one metre rule and the ban on private booths. They believe that implementing these proposals will hit dancers' wages, and force the industry underground.
Far from making performers safer they believe they would put them in grave danger of falling victim to pimps and rapists.
One Edinburgh lap dancer, who does not want to identified, says: "[Banning private booths] is downright dangerous, disproportionate and unreasonable.
"Most of dancers' income is earned from private dances. Some dancers will get round this ban by dancing in unsafe environments like hotel rooms and private dwellings and parties, believing they can charge premium rates for a forbidden product. Banning something merely makes it more attractive and will place lap dancing squarely in the sex industry.
"Agents and escort agencies will get more involved; pimping will become a growth industry. It will be a rapist's dream."
In contrast to the working group's view, and to Summer's, she believes that private booths empower the lap dancer, adding: "It misunderstands the purpose of the private booth. Dancers like private booths because it means they are not performing to the entire club all night.
"Performing in a private booth hands power to the dancer, not the operator or the customer."
The city lap dancer objects to another proposal which warns that the recommendations "designed to minimise exploitation [do] not, by accident, restrict genuine artistic freedom."
She says: "This is another example of labelling and unconscious stigmatisation. The degree of athleticism, fitness, skill and practice required to perform a good pole dance or striptease would put many a street acrobat or mime artist at the Edinburgh Fringe to shame."
Summer has also experienced prejudice, which is why she will only give her stage name.
She says: "I got into lap dancing four years ago after doing a general dance course at Telford College. I just wanted to try it. I've always been an exhibitionist. I really love it. It's not degrading or sleazy. I have had hassle, though, mainly friends of friends calling me a slag. I don't really care what people think of me and I'm not ashamed of what I do. But it does annoy me that people think we're stupid or desperate for cash, or forced into this.
And unlike some dancers whom the working group spoke to who reported being disowned by their families, Summer says her relations are very supportive.
"My mum has been here," she says, "although she hasn't seen me working. It's probably not the ideal job she wanted me to do but she knows I enjoy it and I'm doing well. I've just bought a flat. I think all any parent wants is to see you standing on your own two feet. My boyfriend is OK with it, but he hasn't been to see me here and I wouldn't want him to."
The members of the Scottish Executive's working group on adult entertainment included councillors, academics, police officers and a representative from the Bar Entertainment and Dance Association.
Summer is also angry that none of the people appointed to the working group were lap dancers, and only a handful of the several hundred women in Scotland who work in the industry took part in the consultation. "This is the first time anyone has asked me for my point of view. I didn't know anything about the report or the consultation. They should have had a lap dancer on the group. It's all guesswork. I don't think they know what we do."
jhorton@edinburghnews.com
ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DRAW A LINE ON THE FLOOR?
"IT'S about frivolity, it's just a bit of fun." The owner of The Liquorice Club Peter Ramsay gives his definition of what goes on inside the Tollcross lap dancing venue.
The Scottish Executive working group tasked with making recommendations on how to improve the industry gives a slightly more wordy definition of adult entertainment as: 'The performance in a public place of any activity that a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances, consider to be for the purpose of providing sexual gratification and/or titillation.'
But he is quick to stress that the safety of the dancers and his customers is of paramount importance to him.
And he welcomes anything that will improve that. But he thinks some of the recommendations of the Working Group on Adult Entertainment are ridiculous.
"Are we supposed to draw a line on the floor?" he asks, in reference to the suggestion that a one metre distance should be kept between girls and punters at all times.
"I know it is still called lap dancing but girls don't sit on customers laps any more.
"When customers ask for a private lap dance they are brought through to the back room. They are told that they are not allowed to touch the girls. We have very good security here. We rarely have any problems with anyone. If we do they are thrown out."
PROPOSED RULES
THE recommendations of the Scottish Executive's Working Group on Adult Entertainment:
1. There should be national regulations applied to adult entertainment (AE) activity regardless of venue to replace the current licensing régime which allows unfair differences depending on the type of licence.
2. All AE activities should be, at all times, fully visible to the public visiting the premises - ie no private booths.
3. There must be a distance of one metre between the performer and any other person during entertainment activities to ensure that performers do not touch, and are not touched by, customers, to ensure performers' personal safety.
4. There should be adequate health and safety protection for performers, including dedicated and private changing, washing and toilet facilities and a minimum temperature of 20C in all working and changing areas.
5. There should be adequate security to ensure compliance with the AE regulations and prevent illegal activity. This should include CCTV as a minimum, with recordings retained for at least one month and sent to the council within three working days of a request.
6. All AE performers, other venue staff and customers should be 18 or over.
7. It is up to the council to decide whether full nudity is appropriate for performers at a specific venue. Factors for consideration should include proximity to customers and security risks.
8. Councils must have a policy on appropriate levels of provision for AE in their area, controlling the number and size of venues providing particular types of AE in specific locations.
9. Venues should have external signs to show what the premises are so that members of the public can make a reasonable informed choice before going inside.
10. There should be a "national exemption" so that the regulations do not apply to artistic representational performance.
11. The Scottish Executive should develop a co-ordinated strategic approach to the wider issue of gender-based exploitation to address underlying attitudes.
Many dancers say that the proposals are unworkable, and have distanced themselves from the idea. Picture: Justin Spittle
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