Today, councillors at Edinburgh City Council’s licensing committee will take a vote on whether to limit or impose a total ban on “sexual entertainment venues” (SEVS), in other words lap dancing clubs. Fighting for the clubs and dancers that work in them, the union United Sex Workers, has declared such a ban discriminates against women. But, when it comes to sex work, not everyone is in agreement about what equality means and how to get to it.

What is United Sex Workers saying?

In a series of tweets, the union pointed out: “If a nil-cap is implemented, over 100 workers will be forced until unemployment, or into unregulated venues without CCTV protection and security. Or into a benefits system that’s been cut drastically. In the context of unemployment rates, exponential rise in food bank use, Covid-19 poverty, stagnation of wages vs ever growing cost of living (rental prices in Edinburgh are up 50% in a decade)… It’s not about men’s demand for str*ppers, it’s about the str*ppers’ demand for resources.”

Why is this happening now?

In 2019 the Scottish Government passed legislation giving local authorities a discretionary power to licence sexual entertainment venues – and the issue is now coming to ahead as numerous local authorities make their decisions following consultations. Unionised dancers in Glasgow recently won a fight to keep already extant lap-dancing clubs open, though no new venues will be allowed to open.

There’s another feminist argument, though, isn’t there, which says that clubs like these promote violence against women?

Yes, some argue that they promote sexual exploitation. As Zero Tolerance put it in their statement to the original Scottish Government consultation, “Our support for some of the intent behind this proposal does not lessen our belief that, fundamentally, lap-dancing, stripping and all other forms of sexual entertainment are forms of commercial sexual exploitation, and as such of violence against women.

“The industry which provides SEVs sanctions objectification of women, glamorises exploitation and harms work to achieve gender equality.”

I’ve heard you can get called a SWERF (Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist) for saying something like that.

Let’s keep such acronyms out of things. The debate over sex worker rights is almost as toxic and divisive within the feminist movement as that over trans rights.

What does this actually say about gender equality?

That there’s still a long way to go.