A Brazilian woman, Adriely Fatal, is currently campaigning for a parliamentary seat in the state of Ceara on the rather unusual (and, in my opinion, highly misplaced) platform of a "strip club in every town", the Guardian reports.
Fatal, who describes herself as a stripper and "erotic actress", says she wants to rock the political establishment by forming a powerful "sex lobby" within the government. She also promises to focus on hospitals and education, so I guess that's something to be grateful for.
Latest opinion polls show that she has around 10,000 votes. If she can increase that to 12,000, her campaign manager (who was inspired by La Cicciolina, a Hungarian porn star elected to Italy's parliament in 1987) believes she has a good chance of winning the seat.
As if one woman campaigning for strip clubs wasn't bad enough, Fatal is joined on the campaign trail by Maria Adelina Nascimento. She is also known as Katia Heffner, after the Playboy founder, although she has an extra "f" in her name. I don't know if that has any significance.
Another adult entertainer, nicknamed Deborah Soft, is running for office on the slogan "Vote with pleasure".
What a depressing story, not least because so many anti-feminists will pounce on it as evidence that the porn industry benefits women as well as men.
Obviously women have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies but when it impacts so directly on the objectification of other women's bodies, then that's where we have to draw the line.
While we continue to have an industry that has, as its core, the denigration of women then I will continue to speak out against it no matter who's campaigning in favour of it.
