This move was hailed as a feminist decision, and one which would hopefully be a catalyst for changing attitudes towards women: ‘I guess the men of Iceland will just have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale’, said one Icelandic politician. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the country’s first female Prime Minister and the world’s first openly lesbian head of state, introduced a law making any commodification of nudity illegal, thus implicating the closure of strip clubs. These sorts of concerns are why, in 2010, Iceland placed a ban on strip clubs. Whilst I recognise the value of a female right to choose, I cannot help but see strip clubs as a space which legitimises the idea that female bodies are vehicles for male enjoyment. On the contrary, feminists like myself are concerned with the potentially exploitative environment sex work and the objectification of women that strip clubs undeniably perpetuate. On the one hand, there are feminists who advocate a right to choose stripping as a profession as an exercise of autonomy over one’s body and understandably many strippers resent others claiming their victimhood. Buzzwords such as ‘empowering’ and ‘degrading’ seem to be thrown around, with a lack of consensus on which is the more appropriate description. For the modern feminist, an undeniably contentious and complex debate surrounds strip clubs.
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