RCNI Press Release 10 January 2006

Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) today expressed their dismay that Mr Stringfellow’s lap dance club should have defeated attempts by local residents to halt its opening. There can be no getting away from the fact that lap dance clubs are part of the problem.

Fiona Neary, RCNI Executive Director said, ‘it is important to bear in mind that any such venue of this nature adds to the culture of degradation and objectification of women in our society.

We live in a society where women, men and children are daily subjected to casual sexual violence perpetrated by men who claim and may even believe that what they do is ‘normal’ and cannot be called an assault or an offence. This defence can only come about and be sustained in a society where we tolerate the use of women as sex objects; where we tell men they should and are always up for it and where women are portrayed as always available to men. In these circumstances is it any wonder so many men fail to seek consent from women they intend having sex with? It is the Rape Crisis Movement’s strongly held belief that levels of sexual violence in our society cannot be separated out from the increasingly pornographic backdrop to our everyday lives. The merits or demerits of this particular lap dancing club are not at issue here, what is certain is that this club is one more nail in the coffin of any hopes for an equal and safe society.’

Notes:
• The RCNI is the national forum of Rape Crisis Centres, which provides a strong voice for survivors and is a catalyst for social change to end rape and all forms of sexual violence.


For information please contact: Cliona Saidlear 087 2196447

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