Strong news comes from New Zealand which hit a certain circle of people. The word is about a new “ethical” stripclub that opened in Whangarei, the northernmost city in New Zealand.

Ethical stripclub – what?

You may have already scratched your head when you saw “ethical” and “sex club” associated, but it’s true, no matter how contradictory it ought to sound. People from New Zealand criticize this very oxymoron, how there isn’t a single thing ethical about stripclubs.

They’re right, if you put it from the old traditional perspective. Yet, ethics teaches us about morals and branches of knowledge. Stripclubs are considered as immoral, but it still has ethical aspect by logic. But, it is comprehended as negative moral. But enough about the concept problem, let’s focus on this cause.

Still, citizens of Whangarei could have stumbled through these controversial news for the past week and the main issue isn’t the “ethical stripclub” itself. It’s about the intruded problems for the owner of this stripclub.

The problems are  given by the New Zealand’s Work and Income or WINZ for short. It’s a department agency which is part of the Ministry of Social Development, a sub-department of New Zealand’s government. To be precise, it takes advises from the government on social policies, establishing social norms and services to the people of New Zealand.

The problem

Well, now that you’re introduced to the facts, let’s research the problem. The owner Antonia Murphy, in an interview for a New Zealand’s news reporter has denounced Work and Income because of their questionable actions. She tried to seek for sex workers via concerned. They’ve been blocking her requests and job applications to hire unemployed people who languish jobless.

The stripclub opened in the beginning of 2017 and it’s named “The Bach”.

Antonia’s arguments on this interview were pretty clear, she  covered everything which might be a possible risk for the workers. Those risks are the reason why WINZ blocked her attempts to fill her workplaces by adding more staff. The organization declared their answer, saying that sex work is “unsuitable” to take place on the job listings of New Zealand.

In her defense, she asked a question about which job does WINZ consider suitable then. She continued citing instances of many vacancies looking for maids, waiters, secretaries and other jobs she deemed as “entry level jobs “, which “pay within a few pennies of minimum wage”.

Working conditions of sex workers in the stripclub

Antonia promises that a sex worker’s salary would be $150+ for an hour of work, also adding that the job and the girls workplace is isolated from the public. She states that a girl can walk in the stripclub whenever she wants and get her “street clothes” on. She can place it in the stripclub’s locker, then switching to outfits provided by the sexclub like any other working clothes.

The work hours are quite flexible, the girl can walk in to do her business at any time, and she can stay as much as she wants or is able to do so. There’s also a lobby where a woman can spend her leisure time between shifts, chatting and socializing with the other girls co-sex workers. Also, women that have children are provided with free childcare, so that these mothers stay protected and calm-minded.

She created quite excellent working conditions, ensuring women’s safety and intimacy, as well as making an ambient which doesn’t intimidate an individual. Antonia thought that there wouldn’t be a single flaw or counter-argument for her stripclub to operate in Whangarei. But as it turns out it, actually was a substantial problem, starting from the first cause. Policies about prostitution in New Zealand reformed those flaws back in 2003.

She almost did all that for nothing. The law states otherwise about the sex worker’s position in the listings, where it is forbidden to have an application for a job of this nature, nor to offer one.

Helping the workers for no money

Antonia regained back her common sense and calmed down a bit after recalling these laws set by the Ministry of Social Development. She continued criticizing and mocking the somewhat unfairly proposed law. Also, dhe took back at jobs which “sell 40-plus hours a week of your time” whilst the very job is quite dull. She justifies the women sex workers choices because they indeed have free will to pick their job.

Other than WINZ, TradeMe and Facebook’s local job boards have also permitted Antonia’s efforts of settling her politics to them. She was left with no way to sponsor and advertise “The Bach”.

The head of TradeMe, John Duffy, said that there were many applications about people selling their virginity on their site. It was strictly prohibited and they’ve blocked any similarities to this cause. He said that even though prostitution is legalized, New Zealand’s community still doesn’t accept such professions being spread out the country.

She strikes back with more defensive tactics by explaining the women’s interests in this. She said that the girls she had don’t have any personal, emotional, pathological or psychological issues, nor that they’re overflown with debt. Instead, they rather want to find a sexually fulfilling job, which is interesting and sometimes quite fun. That’s why she labeled her sexclub as “ethical”. The women are highly skilled and fulfilled as human beings, without propagating wrong morals.

It is hard to advertise such a stripclub job

An University Professor of Commercial Law studies explained that it’s still challenging to advertise a notorious job like this. Even in a country like New Zealand where prostitution is legal. It simply doesn’t fit and blend in with the people’s mentality and people’s physis.

It’s kind of a natural law which holds the sanity border. People don’t find Antonia’s stripclub like she described it. The professor also said that people’s eyes are still caught up and flinching because of the “sex” part in “sex work”. He explained that the Reformed Act from 2003 had been pointed out to clear prostitution’s defiling name, yet without showing signs of endorsing it.

Antonia still struggles with the authority and council’s policies to this very day, from the day she opened “The Bach” in January. She had been given a month to set her resources straight, but it looks like the period has quite prolonged.

There were a lot of cases like Antonia Murphy’s across the whole globe, but many of the stories haven’t been distributed or emphasized by the media. The main problem remains in prostitution’s essentials, and that is – women selling their bodies in return for money.

A majority of people agrees with it, and as an addition, crime rate is related to prostitution. After all bad being said, people don’t want even to listen about prostitution, how it starts to get cleansed from evil seeds and deeds. Because of them, potential owners establishing a stripclub in a country where it is legal to do so, are still coping with the problems set by the social standards.

Antonia’s case isn’t the first nor it won’t be the last. By the looks of things, people are becoming more conscientious, so the notoriety will fall down, as well as abuse in such institutions.