A WI Lady's Guide to Brothels

Last night I watched A WI Lady's Guide to Brothels on Channel 4. The programme, I think, emphasised for me that despite disagreeing with prostitution, lap-dancing, strip clubs and so forth, I do agree that if such things are going to take place that legislation should be in place to protect those involved. I was speaking to my partner during the programme and he doesn't seem to have such a strong opinion as I do. I did try to put across to him though the fact that such things as lap-dancing clubs further emphasis the opressed position of women in society. It's saying it's ok for men to pay to ogle at women. It's ok to understand women as purely sexual objects which are a commodity. It's the same mentality of magazines such as Zoo and Nuts. Some people might argue that that's not the case, that it's just some fun and the women do it for themselves; it's not a reflection of women's position in society, nor is it derogatory. If that was the case then why is it that women are in the sexualised position and not men? Do we have women's magazines on the smale scale as lad's mags (well, ok, More sometimes verges on this but still not as bad...)? And why is it then where I live that there are strip bars/lap-dancing clubs featuring women but men are absent from this objectification?

Lad Mags Age Restrictions

Whilst in Co-Op today I saw that some lad mags have now been given an age restriction with the buyer having to be over 15. I'm not sure whether this is an national move or just a move by Co-Op, but it's definitely a move in the right direction in my eyes. What concerns me, however, is the age they have chosen - why 15 or over? I'm not too up on laws in this area but isn't the age to watch hardcore porn/purchase porn from licensed sex shops 18 or over? I not implying that what features in some of these lad mags is close to hardcore porn, but they still feature the exploitation of women's bodies which is inherent within porn. As individual cases go, some people are maturer than others and so forth, but perhaps 15 should be raised to 18* - especially since to buy alcohol we have to be 18 and we now have to be to buy tobacco. At 15 we shouldn't be presenting the kind of values featured in lad mags to boys who are in the process of growing up and forming their own ideas about life.

*in an ideal world we wouldn't have lad mags but here I'm just stating that since they do exist, whilst they are circulation this is one way I see of combating certain problems with them.