Nothing new under the sun. Reserved people in discos have always existed and one can now be outraged by what is going on inside them that the thing will remain in shambles. Regulatory awareness lasts as long as the controversy lasts and is extinguished when the question ceases to occupy the window of the newspapers or that of the networks. Private ones are too lucrative a business to shut down, although that’s what I would do if I had my hands on it, because disgust is the first symptom they elicit. It is clear that by strengthening (in some cases, starting to apply) security protocols such as Ask for Angela it is not enough to avoid situations of sexual abuse when the night gets crazy. Sadly, not even the Alves case will change the inertia of nightlife to use women as a lure to deposit tickets.
Let’s first point out something politically incorrect in these times of dogmatism. This debate should not be approached from the angle of puritanical paternalism, so common in recent times. In this puritanism fall men and also women who always treat adults as if they were indiscriminate minors, who do not know what they are doing, lost souls. Nothing is more sexist. On the other hand, there are also those who seek solutions in paternalistic puritanism. Another error. It’s not about Freedom of the weakest or most vulnerable part, but the Freedom and the responsibility of those who take advantage of these vulnerabilities.
Men who pay a fortune for a booth demand the company of young women
Now let’s leave the Alves case aside.
This Thursday, the program Iceland from RAC1 interviewed two servers who received the calls girls pictures for the reserved Nothing new either. High heels, short dress and smile until dawn. Objectification and excessive sexualization: welcome to a disgusting reality. Always forced to accept drinks from strangers at the tables in the VIP area to collect the 50 euros in cash that the nightclub pays them. It’s young people who get in for free every night, with the supposed perk of hanging around the booth and not paying for a drink. The mission entrusted to them by the discotheque is to be an advertisement, that the room is full when the boys enter and, if necessary, to respond to the invitation of a customer who believes himself to be the king of mambo and who pays a real mortar to occupy this VIP space and drink a lot, even without obtaining sexual favors in return.
These situations give rise to a thousand interpretations and a million questions. Do they do it freely? Is it the freedom to submit like this in exchange for money? Is it a way to launder prostitution and should it therefore be prosecuted? What is clear is that there is a red line marked on the fire that should never, ever be crossed. It may be lawful for private spaces to be spaces of intimacy, but under no circumstances should they become spaces of impunity for having committed a crime.