So it's been a while since there has been a good old fashioned flame war around here...

[anwyn18]

It seems Iceland has now outlawed strip clubs, and there has been some press citing Iceland as now being "the most feminist" country in the world, based on their openly lesbian head of state, a greater number of female politicians, and this most recent move

Comments

[sim_james]

My first reaction is that it appears the government of Iceland has somehow not learned that criminalising things as a response to a social ill generally fails to work and has unexpected negative consequences - cf Prohibition, the War on Drugs, and certainly America's experiences with sex workers. It's a knee-jerk reaction and generally makes the perceived social ill worse, while creating new ones.

On further consideration I would be forced to accept that I do think that sometimes legislation that restricts or controls certain types of property is good, based on my belief in gun control. However, I would hasten to point out that I do not think this is a suitable comparison to sex work, an example to which restriction/control may not apply (and certainly, I do not mean to imply that sex workers are any kind of property). I am not aware of a suitable comparison, and I'm not trying to draw one; I'm just accepting that I am not an absolutist on decriminalisation.

Thinking about the matter some more, it occurs to me that Stripper Speakeasies would be an interesting feature of some alt history pulp setting.