Margaret Atwood defends women's right to work in strip clubs because she thinks it's 'empowering'

[stumbledin]

Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live's Headliners, the 79-year-old said women who work in strip clubs can 'feel in control of the room' and earn more money than coffee shop staff.

Ms Atwood, whose new book The Testaments was published this week, told BBC Five Live that people protesting against the clubs should 'put their energy somewhere else that's really really important – like with environmental protests.'

The author said it was important to ensure women were not exploited, adding: 'Some of the most empowering women in the American West were the madams who were running the brothels because in that era they were saving up the money up for the girls, they were setting them up after they made that money they were taking care of them and it was much better than having a pimp.'

Ms Atwood also spoke out about different kinds of feminism, adding: 'I don't refuse the label of feminism, I say, 'which kind are you talking about?'

'I am the kind that endorses organisations like Equality Now. I am not the kind that says things like all men should be pushed off a cliff or all that all male babies should be killed at birth.'

(This is the Daily Mail so not sure if accurate transcript. Did anyone listen to the interview?)

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7457063/Margaret-Atwood-defends-womens-right-work-strip-clubs.html

It's the PMs that get me every time. Like clockwork.

Anyway Courtney, surely you have something better to do on a Friday night than waste your time with the fake feminists on mumsnet of all places?

Or has your income stream dried up these days?

'Ladies'! Bingo.

Uh oh....is this the first one I received (well part of it and with her name blocked out)

Oh deary me

You thought people women would think money laundering and tax evasion were the same thing?

Why?!

That is just so weird!

Is it because It's about money and money is sort of like maths and - as Barbie astutely pointed out - 'Math is hard!'?

Well, after 5 pages of discussion, the one thing I can say with certainty is I’m very glad indeed Courtney isn’t my accountant.

This made me actually laugh out loud. You win the award for best come back.

No? No fake feminists got a bullshit answer to pretend that's a lie too?

Must be my third degree in Photoshop

😱 🤣

As an aside, when I was listening to Atwood, I kept thinking how much she sounded like Cher. Upon googling, I think they look a bit alike too.

'...and then everybody clapped and cheered'

Oryx and Crake was absolutely mindblowing in the opening chapters. I found it unfolded slightly disappointingly, though.

As a teenager, I really loved Atwood's poetry, I think these days I might find it a bit ... well, the kind of poetry a teenager loves. Maybe time to dig it out again and have a reread.

People obviously have very different inboxes

It’s probably like the desktop and mobile version

Anyway...back to Atwood

Never noticed the cher resemblance 😀

I did Surfacing at uni. For some reason. It really wasn't good enough for that level tbh. It was a course on Postmodernism actually.

Angela Carter was on it too though. So, you know, swings and roundabouts. I love that woman.

@Courtney555

Actually I used the phrase money laundering/tax evasion.

Because most people that generally don't have a clue think the two are the same.

You mean like you?

And seeing as this thread is populated predominantly by that level of understanding, I assumed a level of ignorance about everything, and spoke to the level the audience indicated they were working at.

Riiight. ROFL.

Should have realised they do understand tax evasion and money laundering being different is a concept they can get their heads round, it's just lap dancing they like to be beautifully ignorant about. To every single dancer. On both threads. Girl power!!!!! grin

Nobody here mentioned tax evasion but you. It's obvious you didn't know the difference, and were called out on your lies by another poster. Proof? See your statement below.

Most of the high value transactions are by card, because most people don't plan to spend £'000s before they've gone out, so for the say, £200+ amounts it's nearly always on card and they can't "hide" that. But there will be loads of £50's in cash taken throughout the night. For little dances. For stag shows on the stage. And like any bar, loads of drinks via cash. The club won't declare half of that. There's no drugs in that actual, true scenario though, sorry...

Actually. She's not concerned.

She was. She really was trying not to be, but she was.

Until she read my account and saw it matched her daughter's account exactly. Because (again, for those at the back) it's the experience 99.9% of us have.

Sorry all our real life experience doesn't play along to your imagination's contrary hypothesis.

Well, no, we're not sorry. We're not sitting in silence listening to utter bollocks dressed up as feminism about a profession we're proud to be a part of any more.

I thought for a minute that angela carter was actually there shesdressed

You thought people women would think money laundering and tax evasion were the same thing?

Why?!

That is just so weird!

Um, as I just explained. If they're incapable of understanding how our industry works, despite many of us spelling it out as simply as we possibly can, it's not too far fetched an assumption that they are not capable of any simple level of understanding on other topics.

Turns out it's just selective stupidity. My mistake

She wasn't sadly no Rufus. She was already dead I think.

I think she is what some people seem to say/think Atwood is. Truly woman centred. An incredible writer. Bawdy and irreverent and honest. Just amazing.

Well i just googled her and she did a company of wolves didnt she

Might have to check the library and give her a go

Any one in particular that you’d recommend?

Rufus and shedressed Angela Carter was awesome. I still remember being blown away the first time I read the Bloody Chamber.

Perhaps the take-home from Atwood's car crash of an interview is a new variant on "never meet your heroes", in this case, "never listen to your literary heroes being interviewed."

The weird thing is that on re-reading the Handmaid's Tale in middle age (having first read it as a young lib fem, but then, as one of my friends puts it, having been radicalised by motherhood) one of the characters that most struck me was the off-screen character of the heroine's mother. The heroine is, of course, an unreliable narrator. So we see the mother through her eyes as this tedious bore of a second wave feminist, still banging on about women's rights when all the battles have been won... Then we realise that she's actually Cassandra, speaking to the need for eternal vigilance in the face of forces that would like to roll back the freedoms your mothers fought for.

Which I guess is why the "killing male babies" crap comes as such a kick in the guts. That she could write that nuanced an account of what is, essentially, the tension between liberal and radical feminism. Then fuck it all off with yet another cheap jibe about "extreme feminists who hate men and want to kill male babies..."

Hi all,

We just wanted to post to ask for the thread to move on now - it's turning into a bit of a bunfight and we don't want to delete it. If we could draw a line here, that would be great.

he heroine is, of course, an unreliable narrator. So we see the mother through her eyes as this tedious bore of a second wave feminist, still banging on about women's rights when all the battles have been won

Oh now that’s interesting...didnt get that at all

We read it for book club, (no idea why as its a very ‘lite’ bookclub...unfortunately) everyone seemed to ‘enjoy’ it

........thread has indeed moved on now - refreshed a bit late! (thank you and as you were)

You denied a FACT, which is in Canada, the majority of strip clubs are owned by biker gangs. Nobody mentioned tax evasion but you.

Admit the truth - you are either not an accountant, or an incompetent one, because no accountant would confuse tax evasion and money laundering. Your backtracking though, is humorous. Yes, we saggy titted women are all too stupid to know how concepts such as money laundering work. We all need to be educated by the accountant by day/stripper by night.