No justification for skimpy industry: Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper quoted in media
Industry at odds with efforts to end men's violence against women
Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper was asked to comment on the survival of the "skimpies industry" in a post #METOO era during which women have increasingly testified to and called for an end to sexual objectification and harassment.
The inherently misogynistic skimpies industry is built on the practise of dressing female bar attendants and wait staff in bikinis and lingerie to serve as sexual entertainment for male customers.
Read moreTavern submits application to exploit women
It has come to our attention that Merriwa Tavern The Sixty 30 has made an application to vary existing trading conditions to allow topless waitresses or ‘skimpies’.
As an organisation that fights against commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls, Collective Shout strongly opposes this application on the grounds that:
- The use of women’s bodies in sexual entertainment and services is a form of prostitution
- Sexual trade in women’s bodies both causes and contributes to gender inequality by reducing women to mere objects for men’s use and enjoyment, with adverse impacts on women who are directly involved as well as women as a whole
- A significant body of research links sexual objectification of women with violence against women
- Sexploitation venues pose a threat to women, with women reporting increased incidents of sexual harassment, abuse and violence in areas in close proximity to strip clubs