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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” –Gloria Steinem
Dec
27
Texas to tax strip clubs, use funds to help rape victims
Filed Under class and economics, feminism, legislation, marketing, misogyny, objectification, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sex and sexuality, sex work, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara |
Starting in 2008, Texas plans to instate a tax of $5 per strip club patron, with the money going towards help for rape victims. I have to say that I’ve been mulling this over for a few days, trying to figure out my feelings on it. Strip club owners, of course, have sued to block the tax.
Starting on New Year’s Day, Texas plans to tax strip clubs $5 for every customer who shows up to watch performers bump and grind.
Using figures for liquor sales, state officials estimate that the tax will raise about $40 million a year.
The state plans to use most of the proceeds to help rape victims, but club owners are suing to block the tax, saying it infringes on their First Amendment right to freedom of expression.
Despite the noble cause, the owners say, the tax will drive some clubs out of business and unfairly links their industry to sex crimes.
State Representative Ellen Cohen, Democrat of Houston, sponsored the bill, which was approved by the Legislature in May. Ms. Cohen is also the president of a women’s center that could receive financing from the new law.
“This is an industry that largely employs women, and this gives them an opportunity to raise funds for a crime that affects women,” Ms. Cohen said.
She added, “I’ve been told the fees to get into these places can be $10, $15. I don’t think another $5 is going to prevent someone from going.”
I don’t really buy the First Amendment contradiction argument. After all, governments have placed special taxes on products we find to be both unnecessary or unsavory for some time. Cigarettes, alcohol, soda and potato chips when other foods and beverages aren’t taxed, etc. One person in the article argues that if we choose to tax one unpopular industry (strip clubs), there’s nothing stopping extra taxes on other unpopular establishments, like abortion clinics. And though I see the point and certainly wouldn’t put it past anti-choicers to try such a thing, the two are fundamentally different: one is entertainment, the other is a medical service. With all of this being said, though, that doesn’t make it a good idea.
I’ll admit: on the surface, it’s hard to find anything wrong with the proposal. Money going to help rape victims is a great thing. And I can’t say that I’ll shed any tears over men who frequent strip clubs having to hand out a few more dollars to do so. But something bothered me about it from the beginning; it just took me a while to figure out what it was.
While I couldn’t care less about whether or not men will still be able to afford to get their naked dancing women fix, I do care about the women who work in the clubs. I personally think that the claims that this could shut down strip clubs are overblown; I imagine that your average strip club patron probably doesn’t go every day. An extra $5 each week won’t likely deter most of them. But it could very easily mean that they’ll hand out less in tips to the women working inside. And that’s not okay with me. High end clubs will be fine; most patrons will never miss that $5, and the women working there could probably find jobs at other clubs easily if they had to (and which they probably won’t). For women working at the lower-end clubs, it’s a different story. If each man pays an extra $5 to get in and then gives out a few less dollars in tips, the women are definitely going to miss that money. I’m sure that anyone who has worked a crap job for tips to make ends meet knows the terror of losing those tips. So if we’re going to do this, it seems to me that the far wiser and fairer thing would be to instate a tax that is a percentage of the cover charge rather than a flat tax. Bars and clubs need those cover charges, so I don’t see them lowering them significantly to try to beat the tax.
But again. That still doesn’t make it a good idea.
There are a few reasons. The first is indeed the fact that the tax is linking strip clubs to rape. Now, I actually agree with those who say that strip clubs and rape have some sort of relationship, it being that the sexual objectification of women contributes to rape culture. But I also think that as far as cultural entities that encourage rape go, strip clubs are waaaaaay down the list. And I think that it’s highly disingenuous for Ms. Cohen to suggest that rape victims were chosen to be the beneficiaries of the tax simply because rape affects women and the strip club industry mainly employs women. If this was their goal, they could have picked any other number of issues. They picked rape for a reason.
But it’s not really the linking of strip clubs and rape that I’m opposed to; it’s the way that the link is being portrayed and used. This is in no way a nuanced discussion about rape culture, which is very multi-layered. Instead, the idea here is that strip clubs contribute to the prevalence of rape, when in reality the actual impact is quite minuscule. If we were to somehow get rid of all strip clubs (this is working under a fantasy where illegalization would actually lead to eradication), how many rapes would actually be avoided? Exceedingly few, because there are plenty of other fixes in our culture for sexual objectification and dehumanization of women, and it is in the end only one of many problems. Of rapes that would be avoided, they would likely be rapes that are perpetrated against the women who work in the clubs. (And that doesn’t mean that other victims wouldn’t take their places.)
And if this is the case, why is the money going towards rape crisis programs instead of programs for sex workers? Education about safe sex, lessons in self-defense, education and job training for those who want to get out of the sex industry, these are all worthy and very underfunded causes. But there seems to be this “bad woman” myth going around, that women who work in the sex industry are doing some kind of great disservice to the rest of the female population. Like men wouldn’t rape and cheat if they would just go work down at the fast food place instead, and like women who are simply trying to pay their bills the best way they can owe something to the rest of us. Though of course there is a ripple effect, and no industry can claim no consequences (positive or negative) on greater society, the sexual assaults that we can unproblematically blame entirely on the sex industry are against sex workers themselves. On its own, of course, this should be enough to want to do something about the sex industry. But somehow, the public rarely sees it that way.
And while strip clubs are actually far more a symptom of our rape culture than a cause, the very idea of this tax proposes otherwise. The concept isn’t based in reality, so it serves to reason that the proposed solution isn’t, either. You’d think that if strip clubs were actually contributing to the rape problem that any tax levied against them would go towards prevention. But it doesn’t. And though money for support for rape survivors is extremely important, it seems to be where just about all anti-rape funds go. Clearly, the best prevention programs in the world aren’t going to completely solve the problem. But that doesn’t make rape an issue that we have to resign ourselves to only dealing with in its aftermath. Though, again, money for helping rape survivors is extremely important, when done in isolation it allows us to ignore the most important part of the rape equation: the rapist. Like the “she was raped” (vs. “he raped her”) language problem, it presents rape as some kind of mysterious, unstoppable force that men don’t really have a whole lot to do with. And something strikes me as inherently wrong with telling men that their patronage of strip clubs contributes to the problem of rape, but giving money to help the women who endure this horrible crime makes it better. You know, let’s point out that rape is a big problem, but not ask men to do anything meaningful about it like, oh, not rape.
So: we’re oversimplifying the rape problem, potentially financially punishing the women who work in strip clubs, ignoring the actual consequences of the sex industry and not even bothering to present the idea that rape is something we can prevent and something that men control. Clearly, none of this is good for anyone. And as BFP recently argued, constant vilification of the sex industry allows us to pretend that we’re doing something about labor issues affecting women, when in actuality we’re ignoring even more violent and pervasive worker issues. Obviously I don’t think that’s a reason to start ignoring labor issues in the sex industry — there are a lot of them — but it is a reason to take pause and wonder why we’ve latched onto this one industry above all others. And it’s also why we need top stop acting like the sex industry is the industry that does the most damage to women.
In the end, my problem isn’t so much with placing taxes on strip clubs, so long as it is done in a more responsible way, like I suggested above. And my issue isn’t with funneling tax dollars to rape crisis services; if that money was coming from just about any other revenue source, this post would be about what a great thing it is. My problem is with yet another dangerous, false framing of rape and with even more misplaced blame for the problem. I find it to be not only unproductive, but also counterproductive.
But I have a feeling that not everyone is going to agree with that sentiment. So, what do you think?
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
I’m confused. Which other industry does more damage to women than the sex industry?
I left a link. But the garment and farm industries would be two of them.
Unless the law requires differently, the strip club owners are going to pass the burden of collecting that tax onto the women who work in the clubs. They aren’t going to increase the cover charge if they don’t have to. They’ll just pull more tips away from their workers.
I wasn’t aware that they could legally take their workers’ tips. I feel like there would/should be laws against that. They do have the option of taking the money out of their profits, but almost all of those in the article were talking about increasing cover charges. If you have a reference, though, I’d love to see it. And it would just strengthen my current convictions against the tax.
A very though-provoking piece. I have a few reservations.
“But there seems to be this “bad woman” myth going around, that women who work in the sex industry are doing some kind of great disservice to the rest of the female population.”
Is that a strawfeminist? I haven’t really heard any women’s rights supporters take that line.
I also do think that the sex industry does a unique form of damage to women that makes sex worker issues distinct from damaging labour practices in, say, the garment industry or farming. Sex workers generally face many of the same problems as those workers – terrible health & safety record, casual contracts, absence of basic benefits, anti-union policies, etc.
But the effects of the exponential rise in human trafficking over the last fifteen years, in addition to sky-high rates of drug abuse, infectious disease, and rapes and beatings on the job, means that sex workers deal with a complex and unusual set of problems. There’s also the question of public attitudes to their job: I don’t recall any rape trials collapsing recently because some idiot judge or jury considered that all garment workers are “just asking for it anyway.”
It’s not a question of which job is the worst. Each industry contains its own set of problems. But I don’t accept that sex work is a job exactly like any other. I also don’t accept at all that the garment and farming industries do *more* damage to their workers than the sex industry.
Furthermore, I don’t think you can just dismiss the idea that the sex industry feeds into rape culture as well as from it. You say that “strip clubs are actually far more a symptom of our rape culture than a cause” – rather a sweeping generalisation. I don’t think many feminists argue straightforwardly that strip clubs cause rape. Surely such things are chicken-and-egg anyway. But it’s hard to deny that strip clubs are part of a cultural trend which seems to be moving towards increased commodification and abstraction of women’s bodies.
It’s glib in the extreme to suggest that the only sexual assaults you can link to strip clubs are those visited on strippers. I live round the corner from a very large and glitzy strip club myself, and woe betide any woman who dares to walk down the street alone when it comes to chucking-out time. I don’t work there, and I still have to deal with drunken patrons’ catcalls and the occasional one following me down the street. The regular appearance of police boards appealing for information following yet another sexual assault suggests I’ve been lucky so far.
As for this tax, it appeals to me simply because it forces patrons to think about why going to a strip club might be linked to rape. I do agree with a lot of the problems you’ve pointed out with it, but I can’t entirely hate the idea of a group of the sort of smug, entitled bankers who go to my local joint being charged the entry fee, “plus your $5 rape tax.”
A lot of what you’ve said has made me reconsider what would have been my unbridled joy at the news of this proposed tax. Yet I’m not sure whether the blame really is being misplaced in that scenario.
Is that a strawfeminist? I haven’t really heard any women’s rights supporters take that line.
I wish that it was. With regard to some particularly hard-line anti-porn feminists, it’s not. (I had a reference to a comment thread, but it seems to have been deleted). And in any case, I wasn’t referring to only feminists. Many women who are not feminists oppose strip clubs and have major problems with the women who work there.
But the effects of the exponential rise in human trafficking over the last fifteen years, in addition to sky-high rates of drug abuse, infectious disease, and rapes and beatings on the job, means that sex workers deal with a complex and unusual set of problems.
Sexual slavery is not the same as sex work, which is what most sex trafficking amounts to. But even if it were, the news regularly turns up stories of slavery in garment industry, too. Women in the garment and farm industries also face rapes and beatings. Why? Because they’re usually women of color and undocumented immigrants. So no one gives a shit. As for whether or not people blame farm/garment workers for the abuse that they face, I wish that as true, too. They get the “they wanted to come into this country” and “they’re taking our jobs” and “obviously it’s not so bad or they wouldn’t do it” lines. They can’t even report their rapes, just like sex workers, for fear of being arrested.
It’s not a question of which job is the worst.
Seeing this discussion, it kind of looks like it is.
But it’s hard to deny that strip clubs are part of a cultural trend which seems to be moving towards increased commodification and abstraction of women’s bodies.
I didn’t deny it. In fact, I said it in the post.
As for this tax, it appeals to me simply because it forces patrons to think about why going to a strip club might be linked to rape.
If the men who go to strip clubs behave in the way that you have described, it seems to me that they really don’t give a shit. And I would have said so before your comment.
As for your argument that strip clubs cause sexual assault, you’re making the assumption that the club is producing potential rapists, rather than potential rapists being drawn to the clubs. Do you honestly believe that a guy who might rape a woman after seeing a strip show isn’t the kind of guy who probably would have raped a woman, anyway? Objectification is not the same as hypnotizing. If watching a woman take her clothes off on stage is enough to cause a man to rape, I assure you that he would have found another excuse all on his own.
I wish that it was. With regard to some particularly hard-line anti-porn feminists, it’s not. (I had a reference to a comment thread, but it seems to have been deleted). And in any case, I wasn’t referring to only feminists. Many women who are not feminists oppose strip clubs and have major problems with the women who work there.
Non-feminists, absolutely. I consider myself a pretty hard-line anti-porn feminist, and I hang around with many of the same; I’m not claiming that everyone who fits that description is perfect, but none of the ones I know would tolerate harshing on sex workers. I’m sensitive to the accusation because I’ve so often seen anti-porn arguments dismissed by people saying that they’re just “prudish” or that we’re opposed to the rights and liberties of sex workers. Which is categorically not the case.
Sexual slavery is not the same as sex work, which is what most sex trafficking amounts to.
Agreed, but bearing in mind that somewhere between 30% and 80% of sex workers are estimated to be victims of trafficking (I’m going by UK govt statistics), I think it’s hard to separate the problems of trafficking from the “consensual” side of the sex industry. On the other hand, I do agree with you that there are terrible trafficking problems within farming etc in Europe. (I’m not so familiar with the situation in the US.)
It’s not a question of which job is the worst.
Seeing this discussion, it kind of looks like it is.
That’s not my intention. I’m trying to say that different industries present different problems.
As for your argument that strip clubs cause sexual assault, you’re making the assumption that the club is producing potential rapists, rather than potential rapists being drawn to the clubs. Do you honestly believe that a guy who might rape a woman after seeing a strip show isn’t the kind of guy who probably would have raped a woman, anyway? Objectification is not the same as hypnotizing. If watching a woman take her clothes off on stage is enough to cause a man to rape, I assure you that he would have found another excuse all on his own.
I didn’t say that strip clubs caused rape. I challenged your assertion that the link between sexual assault and strip clubs could only be made “unproblematically” with regard to assaults on the club workers themselves.
Of course I don’t think that the club sits there sucking in innocent, charming men and churning out rapists. I do think that the club contributes to the degradation and commodification of women, though, and my feeling is that this worsens the “ripple effect” that you wrote about.