Lap dance
[5] But in the second half of the 1970s, with the invention of the videocassette recorder and a proliferation of video cassette rental stores, the demand for adult movie theaters began to plummet.
[6] Realizing that they needed a new business model for their building, the Mitchell brothers sent manager Vince Stanich around the country to explore customer-contact shows in sex clubs.
The amount of tipping rapidly increased and was then marketed as a "lap dance", and its popularity caused lines of men to regularly appear outside the theater's doors.
[9] The Mitchells hired new dancers as fast as they could to keep up with demand, and had created another sex-show innovation which gained them international notoriety and generated more money than their film business.
[12] In 1973, an upmarket Vancouver bar called "Gary Taylor's Show Lounge" employed showgirls and strippers as waitresses who gave a free dance with every drink.
No contact between dancers and patrons was allowed at the club, but Gary Taylor's had a boxing ring where the girls performed revealing acrobatics after stripping off and then earned tips.
[13] In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a typical lap dance did not constitute an "obscene" act within the meaning of the Criminal Code.
[15] Current laws on prostitution in Canada, introduced in 2014, make it illegal to purchase sexual services (including lap dancing) but legal to sell them.
[16] In the early 2000s, lap dancing expanded rapidly in the Republic of Ireland, building on an existing strip pub industry.
[19] In April 2008 the LDA proposed that its code of conduct should become legally enforceable by local authorities as part of their licensing function.
[24] Simon Warr, who ran the clubs Platinum Lace[26] and For Your Eyes Only[27] and who was the president of the LDA In 2009,[19] gave oral evidence to the committee, describing lap dancing as "not sexually stimulating".
[30][31] Chris Knight, vice-chairman of the LDA, said that the cost of the additional licence required to run a lap dancing club from 2010 could affect many businesses[32] and questioned the right of local authorities to make licensing decisions on "emotive and moralistic grounds".
[35] In February 2014, Fiona Mactaggart (MP for Slough) asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, if he would "make it his policy not to offer job subsidies for employing teenagers as auxiliary workers in adult entertainment establishments".
[36] Her question related to employers in the adult entertainment industry being offered an incentive of over £2,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions for every unemployed young person (aged 18–24) that they hired.
"[36] In 2005 Tom McCabe MSP set up the Adult Entertainment Working Group, an advisory body within the Scottish Government, to investigate the legislative issues involved in a proposed lap dancing ban in Scotland.
It commissioned the market research organisation Ipsos MORI to examine the public's attitudes towards adult entertainment,[40] completed site visits and took evidence from a variety of witnesses.
[43][44] A prominent voice of opposition to a lap dancing ban was exotic dancer Veronica Deneuve who set out to try to involve the stripping community in the discussion to inform such legislation.
[45] The Scottish Government accepted a number of the recommendations, but it rejected the idea that licensing boards should be able to determine whether full nudity is appropriate in given locales.
This came into effect in 2016 and requires local authorities in Scotland to set out individual policies with regard to the licensing of lap dancing clubs.
It was the subject of a report on the BBC Northern Ireland TV programme Spotlight in 2008 alleging that simulated lesbian sex shows took place on the premises.
[55] Also in 2006, concerned about reports of sexual assault and illegal stage fees, San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women recommended a ban on private rooms and booths at adult clubs in the city.
The lapdancers are expected to tip the "house mothers" (women who work in a strip club to support and assist the dancers) and DJs.
[60] Concerns raised by lapdancers include patrons stalking them, exposing their penis, ejaculating in their pants, attempting to have sex with the dancers without their consent, or committing sexual assault.
A publication called the California Employment Law Letter described the case as follows: "The dancer based her suit on the fact that she was an employee of the nightclub rather than an independent contractor.
"[63] In an article written for The Guardian, which was partly based on an interview with an anonymous former stripper,[64] journalist Rachel Bell claimed that "[r]esearch shows that the majority of women become lap-dancers through poverty and lack of choice,"[64] and that "academic research has linked lap-dancing to trafficking, prostitution and an increase in male sexual violence against both the women who work in the clubs and those who live and work in their vicinity."
[68][69] They also stated that "groups hostile toward stripping disregard their right to free speech and occupational choice, dismiss their ability to think for themselves, and are patronizing and condescending".
[67] At the same time, the same study revealed various disadvantages to lap dancing work, such as uncertainty regarding earnings, having to keep their job secret from friends and family, and occasionally having to face rude and abusive customers.
Additionally, while most felt safe, almost half of the dancers interviewed had faced frequent verbal harassment and unwanted touching from patrons.
[62] In 2007, based on statistics from eighteen dancers over a period of 60 days, it was noted that female lap dancers earned the highest tips around the time of ovulation, during the most fertile period of their menstrual cycle and the lowest tips during menstruation; the average difference in earning between those two times amounted to about $30 per hour.
This has led to a pricing strategy in some all-nude strip clubs, in which a standard lap dance is considered to be just topless with no contact, but can be upgraded to include full nudity or touching with additional payment.
