ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the stripping and 'lap dancing' clubs have become highly politicized, as a key site for the contestation not only of the clubs themselves but also of wider issues of gender and women's rights at the front lines of the feminist civil war over issues of sex and sexuality. It explores the dancer's feeling about the politics of stripping, feminism and how they locate themselves and their labour. The chapter focuses on a particular type of gender equality by anti-lap dancing feminists lacks a class and intersectional analysis and has constituted some women as deserving of rights, safety and protection, while rendering erotic dancers as undeserving of similar privileges. It discusses the case study of Sexual Entertainment Venue licensing in the borough of Hackney, London, to explore the ways in which the politics have played out in practice, demonstrating that beyond the purported gender politics of Object and others, there are wider political issues at play.
