The Pleasure Boys are Back and More Censored Than Ever
By Chloe Jacob
The Pleasure Boys, the male strip tease performance group who swept the nation of Northern Ireland upon their controversial appearances last year have returned to the Belfast stage to celebrate International Women’s Day in style. Their appearance in the Devenish last year became cemented in Belfast folklore, with tales of Union Jack masturbation and simulated sexual acts being filmed for all to see. The impact of the event, which was harmless in nature became explosive, with multiple media outlets reporting on the events of the night. After the onslaught of outrage from Belfast citizens and the Belfast City Council, the Boys’ return to Belfast was anything but smooth!
Their return was met with a litany of pushback from the City Council, and the group were issued ultimatums for the show to be held. Here were the two main requests [1]:
- No more full-frontal nudity (to the dismay of the American Gigolo lovers)
- Each audience member would have to cover phone cameras with a sticker so no photographs of the event could be taken
The group has voiced their distaste at these rules, stating that the limitations ruin the integrity of the performance, however, all members of the team signed waivers to state that the rules would be enforced [1]. The show went ahead, with all tickets sold out.
There is a greater conversation to be had surrounding this performance – what is all the fuss about?
The performance, held for International Women’s Day was described by audience members as an empowering, immensely enjoyable, silly night out. People from 18 to 80 were in attendance, with some families toting 3 generations of women to the show, bashfully giggling and gasping at the outrageous performance. Why does the council feel such a strong desire to censor the event?
Belfast has a lively burlesque scene, with a multitude of near nude female performers, and a massive drag scene with Drag queens displaying overexaggerated female body forms in scantily clad outfits, with sexed up dance routines and sexual innuendos to bat. Why is this performance so scandalous?
I feel the outrage displays an inherent systemic problem, deep rooted within the fabric of Northern Irish society. Any display of female sexuality – particularly from an older demographic that are expected to be puritanical in nature, cannot be fathomed by the old, pen pushing diplomats of the city council. Wife’s, mothers, grandmothers – none of these titles are ever comfortably associated with a want to not only attend such a performance but to revel in it. Women all across the event were on stage dancing, squirming and laughing with a pleasure boys’ full-frontal inches away from their faces. The culture of religion and conservatism amongst the older population in Belfast does not allow for these women to express such desires, and it is important to question the ramifications this belief has within society.
It may seem that while the outrage was dramatised, it only holds relevance to this one performance, this one group. This could not be further from the truth. This group is only the first incident of censorship of this kind, because it is the first of its kind. Never before has the older generation of women been provided with such an outlet. It can be described as the merging of two different societal experiences: that of the traditional Irish nightlife experience and the scandalous, fabulous queer, hilariously sexual nightlife scene of the younger generation. This meeting, and the backlash it faces demonstrates one thing, and one thing only – how dare these women act this way?
Northern Ireland has the third highest femicide rate in all of Western Europe [2], with a staggering 41 femicides occurring in Northern Ireland since 2017 [3]. No one is safe, with girls from age 1 to women aged 81 all succumbing to the same fate [3]. The most horrendous revelation about these femicides is that near all of them occurred within the victims’ homes. Women are not safe in Belfast, and there is a crisis that has been brewing for years within the country. The question I pose is this: why are women demonised for their sexuality, but men are not demonised for their violence?
The council has implemented a myriad of initiatives to counteract the femicide crisis in Belfast, but a staggering reality of their plans is that each and every initiative centres around the same principle: what can women do to not be victimised. Personal safety classes, charitable safety initiatives, each one, while important, immediately shifts the responsibility on to women [4]. We are expected to oversee our own safety, while men are allowed to continue to fester a culture of misogyny with no measures taken by the council to halt this trajectory.
The truth is that every woman knows the personal safety rules taught in these classes. We understand that we must be perfect to avoid danger: we know not to walk alone at night, or we could be murdered, not to run with headphones, so we do not succumb the same fate as Ashling Murphy, to cover our drinks so that we are not drugged and raped. We also know that if something does happen, if we are hurt or assaulted, that we must be the perfect victims. If not, we will not be believed. It is easy to recall this reality when looking back on the infamous rape trial in Cork seven years ago. An admissible piece of evidence against the 17-year-old girl in said rape trial was the blue lacy thong she wore, that apparently meant that she was asking for it [5]. If true, this means that every teenager and woman purchasing the 3 for 3-pound thongs in Primark is also asking for it. There is no way for women to win. The performance in the Devenish was censored for the primary reason that the women in attendance were no longer the perfect victims. They were stepping out of line and were no longer controllable by societal expectations of their behaviour. It is pertinent to know; regardless of how perfect a victim you are, how well you know the rules of how to stay safe, that you are never safe. When the majority of femicides occur within the home, you know that the rules you have learned to live by are essentially meaningless. The one place you should feel safe is in your home, and that is far from the truth for more women than we would like to imagine. Do not take this censorship of female expression lightly. It is not just one event: it is a summation of the expectation placed on women to behave to avoid the violent behaviour of men.
Sources:
[1] Campbell, Niamh. 2025. The Belfast Telegraph https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/pleasure-boys-belfast-comeback-waivers-stickers-on-phones-and-return-of-porn-star/a1703275498.html.
[2] O’Carroll, Lisa. 2024. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/10/domestic-abuse-commissioner-needed-to-tackle-femicide-in-northern-ireland-charity-says.
[3] Morris, Allison. 2024. The Belfast Telegraph https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the-beltel/what-has-gone-wrong-allison-morris-on-northern-irelands-femicide-crisis/a1085963488.html.
[4] “Ending Violence against Women and Girls in Belfast.” Belfast City Council. 2025. https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/Community/Community-Safety-and-Advice/Community-Safety/Ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-in-Belfast.
[5] BBC. 2018. “Outcry over Teen’s Underwear in Rape Trial.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46207304.
