Ready? Strip!A recent by-women-for-women strip tease show in Tel Aviv has caused a riff in the city’s Lesbian community.

Women attending the show at the Minerva club were met by flower-holding(?) protesters urging them not to enter the venue.

The Club’s female owner, Galit Ben-Simchon said that the strip shows aim to “fill a void for the lesbian community,” adding “We see it (stripping) as a kind of art, a real theatrical performance. The women choose to do this and we provide them with an audience that respects and embraces them.”

However, Roni Hacohen, who helped organize the protest felt differently. “Women who do this for a living are not in a situation in which they can decide for themselves whether they should strip or go to law school,” she added. “Most of them work in the industry out of despair and because they have no other choice; these women are being exploited.”

Now stripping itself, with it’s notable differences from professions that involve sex (ie prostitution and penetrative pornography), is a complex and fascinating subject, particularly when coming from a perspective of empowerment vs. exploitation. The feminist responses to it are extremely varied, as the make up of customers and protesters at this particular show demonstrates.

Unfortunately, true to Ynet form, this fascinating subject yielded a somewhat boring, uninstructive and story-less story.

Nonetheless, as John pointed out regarding the women there “some love the stripping and some don’t (and thru the miracle of israel) they’re mostly Jewish women.”

Indeed. I can only imagine Herzl would be proud.

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Laya Millman

13 Comments

  • Remember when Jenny stripped as a delayed, overdramatic reaction to her Holocaust heritage and childhood rape trauma? I guess when a frummy Margot Kidder’s your mama…

  • Do I ever! I hated that whole heavy handed she-got-molested-at-a -jewish-carnival-so-now- she’s-a-lesbian-who-cuts-herself plot device. Jenny’s whole character arch in season 2 really disappointed me. Her character in season 1 however? Brilliant.

  • Umm I have no idea whi this Jenny is, but while I do know that there is some credence to the “co-ed stripping her way through Harvard tuition payments”, it is the rare case in the sex industry. Many young women like to show themselves, hence the populatiry if shows like the scummy “Girls Gone Wild” et al. So many hot women will do it for nothing but a totally unreasonable hope that they may be discovered (no pun intended) and become the next Pamela Anderson.

    So what is the big deal about women stripping for women? I guesss it just depends upon what y’all think entertainement should be. Is it objectification? Is it “taking back our bodies from men”, or is it just dirty lesbian fun. But most importantly is it good for the Jews?

  • This is a big yawn. It’s capitalism. Don’t like it? Don’t consume it. And if you’re worried about the women stripping inside, the worst thing you can do for them is kill their livelihood.

    What goes on in private clubs between consenting adults for money or for free is the business of those involved in the transaction. Granted, I live in San Francisco. We respect the rights of adults to perform and consume performance here. I think we require g-strings in bars with liquor, though.

  • Oyster – it’s there, it’s just been detained by the wonderful new Jewlicious wonderful spam filter… which apparently has bone to pick w/ me, you, Netanya and Rabbi Yonah 🙂

    I also got frantic on ck and every time I asked him WTF? the comment suddenly pops up… like bringing the car into the shop and the ping suddenly goes away. I’ve been assured that no one, not even Chomsky, gets comments kicked off.

  • Oyster – I don’t see your comment in moderation. Perhaps one of the angry lesbians in this story was hungry?

    Apologies, but mind repeating yourself?

  • I think that this is the culmination of Herzl’s dream–Jews doing for themselves at every level of society.

  • Rachel, regarding your take on “Girls Gone Wild,” I don’t think many of the girls on the videos particularly like what they’re doing. Most often they seem to be wasted and just getting caught up in what everyone around them is doing. It’s really pretty gross. I don’t think they do it to become the next anything. I would be willing to bet that a good 75% of those women later regret their behavior, or at least the fact that it is documented and commodified. There is nothing empowering or sexy about GGW, whereas I would argue that stripping, in certain situations, can be an erotic, positive sexual expression by the performer.
    While I haven’t found the time to read her book, as far as I can tell from interviews, Ariel Levy has some interesting things to say about GGW and similar phenomenons in Female Chauvinist Pigs. In fact, I’m looking forward to reading it now that I’m done with finals.