Ireland
Justine McCarthy
Good riddance to those “icky leopard-print scatter cushions,” said Justine McCarthy in Dublin’s Irish Independent. Stringfellows strip club has been forced to close its Dublin location mere months after it opened; it simply wasn’t making a profit. “The Paddies have voted with their feet,” choosing not to patronize the sleazy establishment. I’d like to think that the Irish “have communally agreed not to collude with the remorseless global trollopization of females.” But the more likely explanation is that Stringfellows is simply too brazen about its purpose. “While other clubs half-hide in a twilight of subterfuge, Stringfellows insists on being treated as an admirable service provider.” It trots out its top-heavy dancers to give interviews about how liberating and lucrative their jobs are, to appease the consciences of men who might otherwise have scruples. This “sham of legitimacy” may work in London or Paris. But “Dublin is still a smallish town.” And Irishmen still have a healthy fear of “being caught” by their mums.
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