The Independent reports that increasing numbers of British sex workers are becoming unionised and forming groups to improve their working conditions. A study, Sex Work - a Risky Business by Teela Sanders of the University of Leeds, concluded that there is "possibly a shift taking place from the old older of prostitution to a new economy of sex work ... divided between those who are loosely connected to the sex industry and entrepreneurs who operate independent businesses."
Unfortunately, the newspaper seems unaware that not all sex workers are prostitutes. To quote their report: "One association of prostitutes has even joined the GMB, which has helped it to negotiate a code of practice between erotic dancers and sex club owners."
Now, we at Striporama fully support prostitutes rights and have the utmost respect for their work - but to suggest that 'erotic dancers' and prostitutes are somehow the same is clearly inaccurate, and at a time when local councils are banning private booths because of unfounded fears of sex acts taking place, it's not helpful.

Actress Kiera Knightley plays a stripper in her new film Domino, but has refused to do any scenes involving nudity or sex, which makes you wonder why she was cast in the first place - is she really so popular?
The nineteen year old will have a body double - apparently a Romanian ballerina - for her nude scenes in the film, where she plays a a catwalk model turned detective who works undercover as a stripper (sounds great, doesn't it?). According to ITN News, she claimed "we had an audition. I was in an office and women came in and started stripping. They had fantastic bums and it's at that point you go 'OK, unless your bum looks like that, don't show it on film.'"
Knightley also refused to do any lap-dancing scenes in the film.

Pop puppet, arse icon and media darling Kylie Minogue is currently on a sellout tour of UK arenas with her Showgirl spectacular, which - according to the PR blurb - takes influences "from the Moulin Rouge to the Folies Bergere, from the Doris Girls of the Paris Lido to the entertainment palaces of Las Vegas, from the underground burlesque bars of Soho to the Busby Berkeley musicals of the thirties". Or, for the more cynical amongst us, is a case of using a stage spectacular to cover up the fact that the music is generally pretty insipid.
Still, 700,000 will be seeing the shows - 300,000 of them in the UK, where bland pop rules the musical roost. Much media fuss has been made of the stage costumes, which include a John Galliano effort which has a 16 inch waist. Good to see Kylie sending out those positive messages about weight and body image to young girls..

Proving that it's not just British Student Unions that are run by idiots, the two editors of Calgary student newspaper The Gauntlet have been suspended for printing a photograph of a bikini-clad stripper.
The photo was taken during the University of Calgary Students' Union Sexual Health Awareness show. According to reports, the dancers who took part in the fashion shows were asked to model "extreme lifestyle" attire. During the first shows, the dancers dressed in chain-mail bikinis. The Student Union subsequently ensured that more appropriate items were worn for subsequent performances (so much for "extreme lifestyle" then). However, the Gauntlet printed a photograph of the offending costumes.
Bizarrely, even the stripper in question - one Honey Huston - has demanded the paper be closed down. But that's not the most ridiculous aspect of this story. No, that has to be the reporting of the case by student magazine The Gateway, where it was stated that "the photograph depicted the full-frontal nudity of a woman wearing a chain-mail bikini."
Now, am I the only person to see the anomaly here? Namely that the photographer in question has apparently managed the seemingly impossible feat of taking a fully nude photograph of a woman wearing clothes...

Those of you in London over Easter might care to pop along to Stringfellows, where the Cabaret of Angels show are offering free admission before midnight on Tuesday 29th of March. With free drinks and canapés, and nude dancing from 8pm, it ought to be worth a look, as long as the owner himself keeps his trousers on (having seen the recent tabloid images of him in an arse-slicing thong, I'm currently undergoing trauma therapy).
You'll need your invitation, which appears in a pop up window when you visit the Stringfellows site and follow the club link.

The Striporama discussion forum is now up and running. At the moment, it's something of a ghost town - unsurprising as the site itself only launched two days ago. But if you are so inclined, take a look and post comments. Hopefully we can build a vibrant community for fans of striptease, burlesque, glamour and sexploitation.

When Anti Social Behaviour Orders were introduced, we were assured that they would be used to stop vandalism, drug dealing and violent, noisy neighbours. In reality, these problems go largely unchecked while ASBO's are instead used to enforce middle class values and sensibilities on the rest of us. Case in point: 27 year old Caroline Shepherd of East Kilbride, who has been banned from answering her door in her bra and knickers.
According to the Daily Record, Shepherd has also been banned from walking past her window or entering her garden in similar states of undress. Violation of this pathetic order could lead to six months in jail.
Shepherd commented that the whole thing was ridiculous. "It was a hot day and I had been out doing some gardening. 'It was just a skimpy bikini I bought at Ann Summers. OK, so it gave me a bit of a cleavage. But I don't think I was doing anything wrong."
Us neither, but presumably it provoked jealously from hatchet-faced hags whose husbands were enjoying this treat. Any ladies reading this who might have been considering the previously harmless act of sunbathing in their own gardens over the summer might care to take note and restrict their dress to an Islamic burkha to ensure that no neighbours are unduly distressed. However, if Caroline is keen to continue semi-nude gardening, the Striporama jungle is in need of severe attention...
Meanwhile, proving that there is some justice in the world, Sheriff Hugh Neilson - responsible for the ASBO in question - has been forced to resign after being found at a Glasgow 'sauna' by police carrying out a vice raid. His excuse for being there wearing only a towel: "to have a shave".

Exotic lingerie queen Janet Reger died yesterday at the age of 69.
Her business began in the late 1960's and rapidly became successful with its range of entirely impractical, overtly sexy underwear and boudoir attire, a world away from the staid and practical bras and knickers available from other high street stockists. Shamelessly expensive, these garments were all about seduction and sensuality, and were therefore loved by men and women alike.
In more recent years, her reputation had been overtaken by young turks like Agent Provocateur, but her clothes were still a popular choice from suppliers such as and high street chains like Ann Summers.
Reger had been suffering from cancer but remained actively involved in her business, which is now run by her daughter.

As reported by Melon Farmers: Birmingham's Broad Street could see plans for a second lap dancing club being given the go ahead next week - 18 months after the plan was first blocked by city councillors. An application for The Merchant Stores to stage lap dancing under extended opening hours is to be heard by licensing magistrates next week.
The pub's owner, Metin Yusuf, who is also owner of lap dancing club Legs 11, on Ladywell Walk, hopes the hearing will be a successful conclusion to an 18-month licensing wrangle with the city council. In November 2003, Yusuf had applied for a variation in the pub's existing public entertainments license which involved extending the opening hours. However, his application was blocked due to opposition from local traders that another lap dancing club on Broad Street would be "inappropriate" for the area.
The council does not have the power to ban lap dancing, but imposing a 12am opening time limit on the bar effectively removes its ability to compete with existing venues that have late night licences.
However, Yusuf said he is confident that the magistrates will back his application at the appeal: "I thought it was very unfortunate what happened with the application at the city council, but I have always been dealt with fairly by licensing magistrates. There are more and more clubs opening up at the moment, so I am confident that my application will be accepted."

As the official Striporama launch date looms, we've added a special treat to the site in the form of a few vintage 3D burlesque images. Check out our Gypsy Rose Lee and Sally Rand galleries to try them - you'll need blue and red viewing glasses to appreciate the effect.
These images were originally produced in the 1940's for use in the Tru-Vue system, which was a forerunner of the Viewmaster, and later appeared in the 1982 book Amazing 3D.

Canadian troupe The Fluffgirl Burlesque Society return to the UK for a tour starting tomorrow. They play Cambridge Cafe Africa (10th), Oxford Zodiac (12th), Manchester Satan's Hollow (13th), Coventry Jailhouse (15th) and London Madame Jo Jo's (16th). A bit too short notice for your Striporama team to attend, so if anyone cares to let us know what they shows are like, feel free.

Martin Denny, the father of exotic easy listening music, has died aged 93.
In the late 1950's, Denny created a musical sound which combined Hawaiian, Asian and South American rhythms with elements of American jazz - spiced up with bird calls and other mysterious sound effects to create a unique sound which became known as 'exotica'. Little known in the UK, Denny's records had an upsurge in popularity during the loungecore boom of the mid-Nineties, and despite illness, he was still performing as late as 2003.
Quoted in The Honolulu Advertiser, Denny commented "You know, I'm happy the music's back, because I'm frankly tired of hearing the same old thing. Rap music. High-voltage rock 'n' roll - what will kids today remember 20 years from now? There's hardly anything romantic or melodic. I think a whole lot of good music has been lost."
As, sadly, has one of its greatest creators.
Martin Denny: April 5th 1911 - March 3rd 2005.

In one of the most outrageous decisions in recent history (and that's saying a lot!), Slough's Flags pub has been forced to stop programming strippers at the weekend. This despite the fact that the pub had been providing this entertainment for eight years, unaware that a special license was required.
The police raised no objections to owner Dawn Groom's license application, but Labour ward councillor (and, it seems, religious extremist) Raja Zarait said residents were seriously concerned about its impact on the neighbourhood. "There is already a lot of noise when people leave the pub using immoral language (Immoral language?? What century are we in again?). Two ladies said men leaving the pub made sexual gestures towards them, and they said they now do not feel safe leaving the house", he added.
Groom will be appealing the decision. We wish her luck.
Meanwhile, now that striptease has been stopped, we fully expect that customers of Flags will show the same decorum, politeness and social awareness that patrons of Slough's other pubs are famed for on a Friday night.

Loaded magazine this month comes complete with a 33 minute striptease DVD, featuring performances by ten girls from pole dancing clubs up and down the country.
The magazine itself also features a notably impressive strip club-themed photospread/interview with Carmen Electra, Pussycat Dolls dancer Staci Flood and photography from Striporama fave Emma Delves-Broughton.
If you want to know what we think of the DVD, check out our review.

Harrogate Today reports that the local Council has approved plans for 18 "self-contained" private booths to be added to a town-centre lap-dancing club.
The new owners of Spearmint Rhino, Wakefield-based Provocative Group Ltd, applied for the booths as part of a change to their entertainment licence, which they required to start a £250,000 overhaul of the venue. They also plan to add a new glass VIP area, double the amount of girls working at weekends and build a cocktail bar.
Councillor Bob Nash (Conservative), who chaired the licensing meeting which discussed the changes, said the council was satisfied that the company had met their stringent conditions. He said: "We'd never had any problems with the previous operator and really this was almost a replica business. There is no legal reason why we should refuse the application. There will be very strict enforcement on the no touching rule and all the booths will have panic switches fitted."
The club, to be renamed Wildcats, will shut on Monday and re-open in six weeks. The new owners have stressed that the club will uphold the high standards of safety set by Spearmint Rhino.

You can't make this stuff up - topless dancer Tawny Peaks is selling one of her 'infamous' 69-HH implants on eBay. Why infamous? Well, Peaks was sued in 1998, along with her employer the Diamond Dolls nightclub of Clearwater, Florida after a man claimed to have suffered whiplash when she swung her breasts in his face during a bachelor party. Claiming that her "big, crazy breasts" were "like two cement blocks", the case made it all the way to TV's People's Court, where Peaks' boobs were examined and found to be "soft" by a female bailiff. They were also revealed to weigh about 2lbs (0.9 kg) each. Peaks was cleared of battery.
Now, the implants are out, and the happily married mother of three Peaks is cashing on on their notoriety.
"Somebody might bid on it. It's like the first boob to be sued over in a lawsuit," she said. The winning bidder gets the implant autographed and a copy of the court document. And if you're wondering why anyone would want to spend good money on something like that, prepare to be aghast: bidding ended at a staggering $16,766.

The Sun reports that Sin City star Jessica Alba was helped in her role as a stripper in the new movie by watching Beyonce videos on TV.
She's quoted as saying "I was so nervous during Sin City because I play a stripper. I wore chaps and little underwear. My butt cheeks were hanging out! It was so embarrassing. I remember being in my underwear in my hotel room, trying to get comfortable with my Sin City role.
"Beyonce's Baby Boy video kept coming on MTV, and all she had on was a short little thing, and she's grooving around and she has this gorgeous womanly body.
"I was like, 'All right, if she can do it, I can do it'."
Striporama regrets that Alba didn't instead catch sight of porn icon Belladonna doing her thing - imagine the inspiration she'd take from that...

The first batch of the long-awaited Russ Meyer collection from Arrow Films will finally see release on March 28th. The series includes Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!, Mondo Topless, Vixen, Supervixens, Up! and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens. All films include extra material such as documentaries and commentaries, and are uncut for the first time. Up! and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens include a video interview with Kitten Natividad, shot by your very own Striporama editor during her 2003 UK burlesque tour.

BUY RUSS MEYER DVD'S HERE