Is it good or bad that for young men, going to a strip club is the new normal? I’d venture that it’s a good thing. It’s a place where they can step outside the anxiety-fraught dating scene and talk to a woman who, as long as he keeps tipping, will give him the time of day. It’s a world where women parade around nude or nearly so in which doing so doesn’t get anybody arrested or elicit gasps. It’s a private room wherein a lap dance is on the table and a man expressing his sexuality isn’t going to be met with a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Rather than criminalising male desire by banning strip clubs, as a city council in Portsmouth is debating whether or not to do, we would be better served by admitting that male sexual fantasies are complex and not infrequently politically incorrect. That these young men are able to explore their sexuality safely and consensually is progress, not the downfall of the 21st century male.

Strip clubs are the new normal – and that’s a good thing, says Susannah Breslin

Photograph: Alamy