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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

What should I do about these boobs?

38 replies

MakeTeaNotWar · 07/06/2015 06:45

Went to a local pub last night- one I hadn't been to before - with a large mixed group. Packed busy pub but everyone was distracted by some kind of movie projecting on a wall of the pub basically of topless women, dancing and writhing provocatively - looked like it was from the 70s. Please can you help me word a complaint as it was out of line.

OP posts:

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 15:16

Ah sorry Lass I misread your sentence - missed the all important "but" out of that line!

We'll have to agree to disagree I think most UK men esp younger demographic would really not be bothered by this. They might find it a little surprising, but they wouldn't mind. The men I know would have no problem with it - they would however know that if they were out with their OH they would be ill advised to sit there looking well pleased with the torn of events!

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 15:18

& not all of them obv. DH for example says that sort of thing makes him feel uncomfortable. But others, not so much. And I don't think that this would make any of them leave a venue if they were out without any female friends or partners.

LassUnparalleled · 07/06/2015 15:54

whirlpool thanks.

OP I've seen your explanation but I'm not sure I would have stayed even then.

I don't know the law on this and licensing laws have regional distinctions but it might just be possible this is a breach of licensing.

A theatre for example may have a play with nudity or explicit sexual or violent content but that will be disclosed in the information about the performance. A lap dancing club is obviously upfront about what it's offering as is (I assume a pub with strippers)

If this pub wasn't giving any prior warning that might be a breach or indeed showing the film at all might be.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 16:12

That's a nice thought lass but I'm not sure the law has changed since pubs used to have pictures of topless women under the peanuts, and of course it's not illegal to look at topless images in public, or indeed be topless on a beach say.

It's not the same as the underpant area being exposed (male or female).

LassUnparalleled · 07/06/2015 16:39

As far as I recall the peanut pictures weren't topless and there are oddities in public performance legislation and public performance licences.

Choosing to look at topless pictures in a magazine you have bought or to look at women who have chosen to be topless on a public beach is not the same as inadvertently stumbling into this performance.

A pub is not strictly a public place. It is a place to which the public has access subject to its licence.

I'm clutching at straws but the lack of any warning of what OP was going to see might be a valid point.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 17:00

If you are on a train sitting next to a man looking at Page 3 you are not choosing to look at it and that is not uncommon (although less common than 20 years ago).

Also the wording around men looking at women who have chosen to go topless on the beach seems to imply that the women are doing it knowing / because men will look which is not the general purpose! I'm sure you didn't mean it to sound like that

I do think the peanut women were topless maybe they put bikinis on them in the 80s/90s? I am sure as a little girl I saw them in the pub, although I was little so maybe they were covered more than remember.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 17:02

I think topless is only a problem in terms of "entertainment" if it is live? I am sure there are differences in rules when there are women there in the flesh and images.

I was in a pub the other day which had a cartoon drawing of a topless woman I was it was advertising a golf night or something.... I was baffled as to why it needed to be a topless woman to advertise it.

TeiTetua · 07/06/2015 19:20

The first response in this thread asked "Was it a pornographic movie showing?" and the response was "Not a porno as they weren't having sex" but I think it was. If we say something is only pornographic if there's actual sex, then I think we're showing that we've accepted the escalation of pornography, and the milder material has fallen off the bottom and become something else, an annoyance in some way, while "real porn" is the nasty stuff.

I'd rather keep the definition of pornography as being body exposure for a sexual purpose, and since our society regards women's breasts as erotic, that makes this tit-show into pornography. In my opinion anti-porn activists are sometimes wrong in concentrating on the worst forms of pornography, because they're leaving behind the soft-core forms which build up the idea of women as sexual objects. Maybe objects which the viewer can see really exciting things done to later, when not so many people are watching. It's all part of the same outlook.

LassUnparalleled · 07/06/2015 19:21

Good point.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 07/06/2015 21:02

I agree as well with that Tei.

Porn is something which has been produced with the main or sole purpose of sexual titillation, surely. What form it takes and how society reacts to the different forms varies but at it's heart that's what it is.

pinkyredrose · 09/06/2015 15:35

Was it Brighton? A mats club night has those images as a backdrop for their 60s night.

pinkyredrose · 09/06/2015 15:35

mates

pinkyredrose · 09/06/2015 16:22

OP was it Sticky Mikes on Middle St? If so then it's a bar not a pub and it's over 18s only, also they've been showing this film for yrs.

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