Iceland gives stripping the cold shoulder

25 Mar 2010, 7:59 pm   -   Source: SBS staff and agencies
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Iceland's parliament has voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. (File - AAP)

Iceland's parliament has voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. (File - AAP)

Iceland's parliament has voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

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Iceland's parliament has voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

Iceland's legislature, the Althingi, passed the ban this week, with just two abstentions and no votes against.

Nude dancing was already heavily regulated in Iceland, a north Atlantic island nation of 320,000, and only a handful of clubs feature stripping.

Kolbrun Halldorsdottir, a former lawmaker who was the first to propose the legislation, told broadcaster RUV on Wednesday that "it is not acceptable that women, or people in general, are a product to be sold."

“It is pleasing how fresh the breeze of equality is at Althingi (the Icelandic parliament) these days,” said Siv Fridleifsdótttir of the Progressive Party

A total of 31 of Althingi's 63 MPs from across the political spectrum threw in their support for the bill.

However two independent MPs abstained while some chose not to be present to vote.

The country combines liberal social values with a strong women's movement.

Almost half of Iceland's legislators are women.  
 

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Your Comments

Miss

kaitlin - from Montreal, Canada, 2 years ago

I think they should at the very least be honest about the reason why they're passing the bill. We sell ourselves in far more jobs than sex work; waiting tables and any type of performance are only two examples. It's because of the discomfort around the idea of selling our sexual expression, and in my opinion, outlawing sexual expression is more degrading than openly accepting it.

Mr

Ronald Martens - from Morley Perth, 2 years ago

The photo inset shows a woman doing pole dancing. Which is probably not stripping. Maybe the legislators should speak to the women doing striptease to see if they object to their chosen profession. Also the people that visit these venues. To admire a woman's beauty is not a bad thing. Just the minds that go through the people making laws. I don't think it is degrading to women. Like male dancers the women love them to a bigger extent than the opposite.

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