By Caitlin Roper
There is no shortage of businesses still clinging to traditional sexism, capitalising on exploiting women’s bodies and sexuality, despite a growing societal awareness into the harms of objectification.
Ian Strover, owner of Perth tavern The Sixty30, has spent almost five years trying to introduce topless waitresses into the venue.
His application attracted objections from local residents, police and women’s rights groups…
To date, his applications and an appeal have been denied by the Liquor Commission.
“It is also important to distinguish between the public interest and private interests … the application is primarily concerned with the private financial interests of the applicant and the operators of Perth’s Best Girls,” noted the director of Liquor Licensing.
“Whilst ‘Dan the Man’, ‘Show me pussy’, ‘Robbo’, ‘Marshy’, ‘Bob’, ‘Jacko’, ‘Swanny’, ‘Fido’, and others may want to see strippers at the hotel based on their signing of the questionnaire, there is nothing before the commission that is capable of establishing that the variation of the licence is in the public interest.”
…All women are affected. And all government initiatives to address men’s violence against women undermined.
It’s time to decide where our values lie — with men’s “right” to accessing breasts on demand or with upholding the full humanity and status of women?
