A new London club has sparked outrage by offering punters sex shows of the most extreme nature. “The live sex experience has to compete with the stuff available nowadays on the web,” says Peter Heckheimer, the man behind ‘Club Sex’, which has just opened in Soho. “In age when people can watch just about any form of depravity in the comfort of their own homes, we have to be able to offer them something they just can’t get anywhere else, something taboo that taps into the darkest sexual fantasies of our customers.” His club’s ‘signature act’, however, has drawn the ire of numerous women’s rights groups and moral campaigners. “It is an utter disgrace that, in this day and age, we have an establishment offering rape as entertainment,” top feminist writer Henrietta Fronk told the Sunday Bystander. “Against a background of increasing sexual violence against women, a culture where women don’t feel safe walking the streets after dark for fear of being raped and murdered, this isn’t just tasteless, but utterly perverse. Is it any wonder that a rape culture still seems to exist amongst British men?” Heckheimer has been quick to defend ‘Club Sex’, pointing out that no women are actually raped in his establishment. “Look, it’s all simulated rape – no different to the simulated sex you see on TV and in films these days,” he explained to tabloid The Shite. “Obviously, we make it all look as realistic as possible for the punters, but nobody gets hurt and all the female performers are fully consenting!”
Heckheimer even argues that by offering audiences the live rape experience, he is actually contributing to women’s safety. “Let’s be frank here – all men have rape fantasies but most confine them to be being masturbatory fantasies. A minority, unfortunately, want to see them played out for real,” he told The Shite. “Well, by allowing them to see it all enacted, live before their eyes, it will undoubtedly assuage their urge to rape for real. You see, we’re trying to head off the potential rapists before they ever actually rape anyone.” Not surprisingly, Fronk has been left aghast at this explanation. “Rape isn’t about sexual gratification, for God’s sake,” she points out. “It is about using sex to project male power over women! Being able to watch men pretend to rape women live is likely to encourage potential rapists rather than discourage them. For one thing, by presenting it as entertainment, as a show, it both normalises and validates the violation of women!” But Heckheimer feels that Fronk and her fellow protestors against his club are simplifying the issue too much. “As I’ve indicated previously, we’re focusing on the fantasy element of it, offering an artistic interpretation through which to try and fully understand the act of rape,” he mused to The Shite. “We don’t focus on showing the sort of brutal sexual power play our critics characterise as rape. Our performances dramatise all manner of rape fantasies, from simulated gang rape to simulated date rape, they take in every technique from oral to anal and every kink including bondage. We’re offering audiences the chance to safely explore every manifestation of the phenomena in order to try and understand the motivation of those who rape and, perhaps, even gain an insight into their own dark fantasies.”
Fronk’s reaction Heckheimer was characteristically curt. “Absolute cobblers,” she opined in the pages of the Sunday Bystander. “This is just another attempt to justify and normalise the depiction of violence against women – no matter how they try to dress it up, ‘Club Sex’ is a disgrace, exploiting sexual violence against women by offering rape as entertainment!” Heckheimer is dismayed by the continuous criticism of his club. “Do these people think we’re naive?” he demands. “What they don’t seem to grasp is the amount of research we’ve put into creating this experience, the hours spent poring over rape reports and victim statements, the hours spent talking to convicted sex offenders, trying to get into their heads so that we can present a realistic, yet balanced interpretation.” He denies again that the shows will encourage violence against women. “We’re trying to take the violence out of rape – our performances considerably tone down the beatings and slappings we heard about in our research,” he maintains. “God knows, we’re not condoning rape, but we are trying to show men that, at the very least, it doesn’t have to be so violent!” Warming to his theme, Heckheimer further claimed that his club was trying to hark back to the ‘good old days’ of ‘old fashioned rape’. “Everyone knows what I’m talking about,” he told The Shite. “We’ve all seen it in old magazines and movies – the days when rape was about giving a woman what she didn’t know she wanted. Sure, it was a bit of a shock for them, a bit rough, but they enjoyed it really – rape then wasn’t just about male gratification!”
These latest remarks have, understandably, enraged Fronk and her allies, with the writer threatening to organise a mob to burn down ‘Club Sex’ before it can open unless the authorities take action against Heckheimer. But while many, like Fronk, might think that ‘Club Sex’ is symbolic of a catastrophic decline in morality in the UK and an unacceptable promotion of misogyny, let alone an objectification of women and a cultural endorsement of sexual violence, others see it as an innovative force and welcome its arrival in Soho. “The fact is that ‘Club Sex’ represents a welcome renewal of Soho, which has suffered through gentrification over the past few decades,” declares Tory local councillor Horace Frotheringham-Soames, who points out that nothing Heckheimer is proposing is actually illegal. “It is taking it back to its seedy past – many of us miss the days when you could check out a sex club, visit the ‘Spank-o-Rama’ and get propositioned by a prostitute during your lunch hour. I’m sure that the presence of ‘Club Sex’ will help bring the tourist trade back to Soho.”
Unfortunately for Fronk and other campaigners against the club, regulatory authorities in London agree with Fotheringham-Soames that, legally, there is little that they can do. “While it might be tasteless, even grossly offensive, as long as nobody actually is being raped or otherwise sexually assaulted on the premises, ‘Club Sex’ isn’t committing any offence,” a spokesperson for the Mayor’s office told the Sunday Bystander. “The fact is that it is a private, members only club, albeit with membership available at the door, catering exclusively to adults.” There might, nevertheless, be some hope for those opposed to ‘Club Sex’ in the fate of Heckheimer’s previous venture: ‘Cafe Sex’. A restaurant which had featured topless waitresses serving soup by pouring it over their breasts into customers’ bowls and performing lewd sex acts with fruit and vegetables before serving them, it was eventually shut down for food hygiene violations.
