Abstract

Despite important moves towards gender equality, the experience of the night-time
city remains profoundly different for women and men. The visibility of self-styled
‘gentleman’s clubs’ where female dancers perform for a predominantly male clientele
has been taken as prime evidence of this persistent inequity. Opposition to such
clubs has hence been vocal, with the result that many local authorities in England
and Wales have moved to ban clubs within their jurisdiction utilising the powers of
the Policing and Crime Act, 2009. This paper explores the arguments that have persuaded
policy-makers to refuse licences for such venues, particularly the idea that
sexual entertainment causes specific harms to women. The paper does not question
the veracity of such arguments, but instead explores why sexual entertainment
venues have become a target of feminist campaigning, situating this opposition in
the context of long-standing debates about the vulnerability of women in the nighttime
city.