Firms sign up to anti-lap dancing charter
Tue Aug 22, 2006
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Nearly 50 companies in Ireland have signed up to a charter pledging not to spend corporate cash at lap dancing clubs.
The charter was launched in June by a Dublin-based support group for women working in prostitution and the sex industry in a bid to highlight the exploitation of women.
"We wanted to raise awareness and challenge some of the myths that this is innocent fun," Gerardine Rowley, a spokeswoman for the Ruhama group said on Tuesday.
"We're concerned that the emergence of the lap dancing industry in Ireland has normalised the selling of women's bodies for sexual activities."
Rowley said Ruhama, a non-governmental organisation, had worked with women, many of them from eastern Europe, who came to work in lap dancing clubs and ended up in prostitution.
"We've had many cases of long term harm to women from these activities including lasting psychological problems," she said.
Companies giving their support to the charter included The Irish Times newspaper group and Olympus Ireland, she added.
There are around 10 lap dancing clubs in the Irish capital, with a handful more in cities across the country.
A branch of the London-based Stringfellows chain closed its doors earlier this year after just six months of business following nightly protests by local residents.