I'm always torn on this issue. I don't particularly think that using sex to sell oneself is feminist. It's not even really humanist, in my opinion.

Also, in the same way that people have ethical issues about buying clothes made in countries that exploit people and pay them incredibly low wages, I have issues with supporting an industry where an extension of it exploits underage girls who are often faced with severe brutality just because someone wants to line their pockets.

Yeah, and it would be great if the government of Iceland can help these women who are being displaced.

I'm kind of with Laura on this. My first thought was: awesome! My second thought was oh dear, the sex-positive feminists are going to be down on this. And my third thought was, hang on, how is this in any way NOT sex-positive? All it says is you can't commodify or exploit sex. Doesn't say you can't have lots and lots of it, with whomsoever you choose. Pole dancing, stripping, cheesecake photos, fine, as long as you're doing it for the love of it, which strikes me as incredibly sex-positive. Go Iceland!

I like the idea that women are not a "product" to be sold, but at the same time, I think that a better way to promote women's rights would be to make laws to reduce the possibility of exploitation (like fair wage laws, or raising the minimum age of the dancers - or making it so women do not need to strip, by making education and childcare, etc. more affordable). I don't generally support any government action that deprives a consenting adult female the opportunity to earn a good living.

I consider myself a feminist and I also put myself through college as a stripper. Certainly, I was making a commodity of myself, but I found it to be empowering for a few reasons: 1) I was a pretty young woman, and was often getting looked at, propositioned, hired just for my looks, etc. Stripping at least gave me a chance to demand some real compensation for being the "object." 2) It was very illuminating to see that, no matter how many flaws I felt I had, to the audience I was hot. It made me realize confidence, not perfection, is what matters. 3) It gave me the money to finish school, travel and have a lot of fun without breaking my back working 80 hours a week.

I don't think stripping is "feminist" any more than I think sex is "feminist." These things can be celebrations of women and female desire and they can be exploitative and degrading to women- it all depends on the individual circumstances.

Nicely put, Amansa. I love the smart women on this site!

..Im moving to Iceland.

As for the question of whether it's ethical to ban sex work because that's how some women make a living: depends on your outlook. In my opinion, it's completely ethical. Just because a certain job brings enjoyment doesn't mean it's always ethical, no matter what the intentions of the worker are. A stripper could absolutely love her job, love stripping, love everything that comes with it, but is the whole idea of strip clubs or escorts really empowering to women? I think it's a lie to say that the strippers are the ones who hold the upper hand in this scenario. The men are there to gawk at some T & A, and to basically have fun viewing women as sexual objects that you can pay to seek gratification. A stripper or sex worker may call herself a feminist, but she's really just allowing, even encouraging, men to follow the same mindset and behavior that disadvantages so many other women. A women's sexuality is not to be bought or sold, it is to be given when she so desires, and taken with respect. Go Iceland!!

You know, approval/disapproval of stripping aside, this could very well go the way of prohibition and prostitution: Make something that people like illegal and people are still going to do it anyway; it will just turn into a criminal enterprise, which will definitely be worse for the women involved. There are likely always going to be women who strip for a living just as there are women who are still prostitutes illegally. If it's illegal and behind closed doors, that just leaves more room for women to be taken advantage and less ability to get help when such things happen. Besides, judging from my own lack of athletic ability and those classes they offer, stripping is not merely women ripping off clothing and standing around while drunken men stare, and it's not fair to those women to belittle something they apparently had to learn/practice. I've never been to a strip club, but there is some skill/dancing ability involved right?

Amansa - amazing post and I totally get where you're coming from. While I don't like the general idea of women engaging in sex work, I do get why women do it and I even have friends who did exactly what you did. That's why I am torn about the whole idea.

Enchantra108, I also think you make a great point. While I don't like it, I do think that making it illegal makes it a lot worse for the underage and other girls who are forced into the industry.

However, my overall statement would be - if there were not a market for this kind of stuff, that would really solve the problem. But that's never going to happen. But truth be told, I would gladly love to see all porno just go the fuck away if it would save the girls in other countries from getting forced into it. As a society, let's go for intellectual pursuits and encourage our young women to do the same.

GO ICELAND!!
Don't kid yourself ladies, stripping for the boys for money (in, I would take a wild guess, clubs that are 99.9% owned by men) is 100% anti-feminist. I don't care if you get a thrill from having men drool over you and that they (CHOOSE TO) give you money because you're putting your goodies in their face. That, my darlings, is not feminism, it is not empowerment. If you get rid of the strip clubs, men are going to respect you MORE and with more respect comes more leverage in society and better paying jobs. It's simple. Think about it in the opposite way. If MEN were in this position, in tons of strip clubs, etc., and we held the power and the best jobs, would we be inclined to treat them as equals?

Hmm. So many good points here, on a complicated issue. So, what would be the most "non-exploitative" stripping venture? Well, theoretically, wouldn't it be a feminist collective-owned strip club, where all the dancers are owners? In that case, however, the women are in charge of their own exploitation, and aren't the men also being exploited?

It is such a large, complicated issue, and I don't have any answers. I'm still trying to extrapolate this multi-layered issue out all the way, in order to come up with a logical, comprehensive and ethical (to my personal standard) position.

I am very glad, however, that Bust is here to host this issues, and so many strong feminists (I'm not saying women, because I do believe that men not only can be and are feminists, but also really have something to offer) come together here to respectfully discuss and debate these issues.

I know that prostitution inevitably goes "underground" when it is made illegal, but I find it hard to believe that there will now be illegal, underground strip clubs as a result of this new law. People simply won't seek out and pay for an illegal strip tease or lap dance. Icelandic strippers will either turn to another facet of the sex industry (the most obvious choice being prostitution) or they'll get out of the sex industry all together (probably more of the former than the latter, which is just going to create a new dilema for Iceland).

There's nothing wrong with paying for sexual titilation or gratification. What's wrong is that sex work is still seen as women's work, just like teaching, librarianship, cosmotology, and nursing. What I want to see is a more equal ratio of men and women in the sex industry, both on the buying and the selling ends. That means more straight and gay women have to start seeing professional sexual services as valuable, as something worth treating themselves to.

Also, frankly, I'm much more exploited and demeaned as a teacher than I was as a sex worker, and I make a lot less money as a teacher, too.

I don't think this is such a complicated issue.

No one should be bought/sold as if they are a product. If there are a number of people who choose to strip for a living, there are just as many who are working in the strip bars/massage parlours/prostitution who have been trafficked or are economically vulnerable, drug users or people who have been sexually abused.

Furthermore, it is not just the impact of stripping clubs on the women involved but also on the whole of society and how women are seen by men. Iceland is putting a strong message across that women are not commodities and should not be seen as sexual objects. This benefits all of us. Research has shown a strong link between the number and visibility of strip clubs in a particular area or town and the number of sexually related attacks on women and also the perceived feeling of safety of women. There are also strong links between the sex industry and pornography with wider violence against women.

There is a strong link between what we enact in law and what we feel is ethically correct. Compare drink driving with how is perceived today when it in against the law and how it was perceived several decades ago. If you criminalise something, it really changes the way the majority of the population see it.

I think this is an amazing step for Iceland, I hope this has some affect on other countries. I will certainly be lobbying the UK government and the EU to make changes over here.

Sex for money. Isn't that what marriage is all about? What's the big deal? If an adult wants to show his/her body for money, why should the paternalizing state get in the way?

Darn. There goes my chance to move to Iceland. They used to offer stripper visas. I guess now I'll have to find me an Icelandic man to marry. I hope my husband doesn't mind!

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