Mr. Pinup

Iceland is fast becoming a world-leader in feminism. A country with a tiny population of 320,000, it is on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry.

While activists in Britain battle on in an attempt to regulate lapdance clubs – the number of which has been growing at an alarming rate during the last decade – Iceland has passed a law that will result in every strip club in the country being shut down. And forget hiring a topless waitress in an attempt to get around the bar: the law, which was passed with no votes against and only two abstentions, will make it illegal for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

Even more impressive: the Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday: “It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold.” When I asked her if she thinks Iceland has become the greatest feminist country in the world, she replied: “It is certainly up there. Mainly as a result of the feminist groups putting pressure on parliamentarians. These women work 24 hours a day, seven days a week with their campaigns and it eventually filters down to all of society.”

via Iceland: the world’s most feminist country | Life and style | The Guardian.

By Mike Smith

Move over, Angelina Jolie. There’s a new Lara Croft in town, and she’s a 23-year-old gymnast from South London, Tomb Raider publisher Eidos announced this week.

Ever since actress Rhonda Mitra first took on the role of Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft in 1997, Eidos has sought real-life counterparts for its acrobatic archaeologist heroine, and they’ve helped propel the video game series to worldwide sales topping 32 million. Up until now the British publisher’s picks have tended to be models or, like Jolie, movie stars, but Alison Carroll might just be the first Croft to have the physical abilities to do her famously acrobatic opposite number justice.

Carroll boasts 12 years of gymnastics training and numerous honors representing Great Britain in sporting displays. Although her Lara role won’t involve any movie work, she’ll still be kept sufficiently busy traveling the world promoting the latest Tomb Raider game, Underworld, to allow her to quit her day job — as a receptionist.

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