Remember Bennifer? The iconic celebrity couple name of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. We can blame, or praise, Brandi’s, the local strip club on Hornby, for the ultimate demise of the power-couple after rumors of Ben cheating whilst in the Show Lounge made public rounds.
It’s scandals like this which may be a thing of the past. It seems that the exotic dancing industry is on the decline. Tim Lambrinos, director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada, in an interview with the CBC, talked about the obstacles facing the industry. “Using Toronto as an example went from 63 clubs, from ten years ago, now down to 14,” according to Lambrinos.
He provided some reasons for this decline: the aging baby boomer population, massage parlors—literally more bang for your buck—and technological distractions. Lambrinos added, “It seems like young Canadian males are distracted by other types of interests, Gameboys and plugging in things, so on.”
The eight minute interview overlooked the issue of porn. A simple mouse click away seems to substitute a lap dance in a strip club far away. Porn is a huge reason for the rapid decrease in demand for strippers.
A quick google search for statistics shows astounding numbers on internet porn consumption. According to respected research firms which Arbitrage magazine sources, every second, there are 28,258 internet users watching porn. Sunday, ironically, is the most popular weekday for porn. It also seems 25 per cent of all search engine requests are porn related, which translates to 68 million a day. According to Top Ten Reviews, every single second $3,075.64 is spent on pornography, 28,258 people are viewing pornography and 372 people are typing adult search terms. This means 42.7 per cent of internet users watch porn online.
Beware: not all statistics online are accurate according to the BBC. But the sources cited above appear to be credible.
Strippers and porn are two different kinds of experiences, but sitting at home and enjoying the show is quick, efficient and free without the fear of being caught out in public actively seeking sex. Strip clubs are a rarity for the young generation. We go for the show’s entertainment value during a rare night out rather than a sexual fix which was the case back in the day when sex was a repressed taboo and the strip club was one of the only outlets.
Our technological evolution has completely changed the sex industry. Yes, some of the decline can be attributed to the large population of baby boomers growing soft from old age or massage parlors which provide a cheap and happy ending but, like it or not, internet porn is raising and fostering the younger generations.
Whether the last 40 years have been a sexual liberation or an exploitation is still open to debate but is not Gameboys distracting the young from strip clubs. It’s that in this day and age we have access to sex through apps like Tinder, websites like Craigslist and downloads from internet websites. We live in a pornographic culture. Sex is everywhere, all the time. We no longer seek it in a seedy bar where we have to pay for a dance, we prefer a dingy nightclub where it’s free.
Written by: Sarine Gulerian
Photo Credit: Jake Guild
