‘Kiss my ass’: Stripper in viral vid defends egg-pelting stag party despite controversy

A woman stripper whose filmed pelting with hundreds of eggs during a stag party went viral, has insisted she had given consent and was not made to do anything she refused.

Known by her soubriquet ‘l-Amerikana’, the woman told Xarabank she was aware of the services she offers and that she did not offer her services up to anyone.

Now somewhat of a Maltese meme for her performances, the overweight stripper’s events appear regularly on social media.

But she thrust into the limelight this week after a video of her wearing a bikini while being pelted with eggs by a group of men went viral on WhatsApp.

The men’s behaviour was condemned by various equality and women’s rights groups as well as Malta’s equality minister, over what has been described as reprehensible. “This is not a matter of what is legal or not, but of what is acceptable or not. Such behaviour, filmed and then publicly circulated, against a human being is totally reprehensible,” minister Edward Zammit Lewis said in a tweet.

The men who organised the bachelor’s party have insisted they obtained the woman’s consent before the event.

“I can tell you one thing,” she told Xarabank during a filmed interview. “People can say what they want, and quite frankly they can kiss [my ass].”

She argued that her actions harmed nobody and that she should be left in peace. “I thank the Virgin May that nothing has ever happened to me… they never did anything to me. I am over 18 years, I am old enough; it is normal that, as in every country in the world, by law I can whatever I want. I am doing nothing wrong, I’m not performing sexual acts with them. We have fun, we laugh, we chat.”

She insisted she was never made to do anything she hadn’t given her consent to, and that the men pelting her with eggs were “friends”.

She also denied ever feeling abused, insisting that those who were speaking out against what had happened were not doing so to defend her. “I don’t need any lawyers,” she insisted.

Human dignity and people's right to choose for themselves

Amid the condemnations of the stag party, the woman’s insistence that she gave consent to the men’s actions has raised questions about whether there should be any limit to people’s right to choose for themselves.  

A report in the Times of Malta cited sources saying the woman was vulnerable and had fallen through the cracks of Malta’s social welfare system, despite the fact that this isn’t apparent from the filmed interview. The same sources said Malta’s social welfare services could not impose a social worker on a private citizen if their help was not requested.

Going beyond the woman’s choice to subject herself to the treatment, many, including the dean of the Faculty of Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta, Prof. Andrew Azzopardi, have also pointed out that the video says more about the men throwing the eggs than the woman who was on the receiving end.

Interviewed by Xarabank, Azzopardi rightly pointed out that people should have every right to choose for themselves. “I think point of all this goes beyond that. The point is that there is an issue of dignity and respect and it’s not about the person who was on the receiving end but first and foremost it should come from those people who decided that, in order for them to have fun, they needed to use this method,” Azzopardi said.

Azzopardi claimed it was contradictory for some to advocate for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, but to then refuse this woman’s agency in choosing to be pelted with eggs.

“The incident again shows how women were still viewed by a large portion of society as a commodity that can be used as seen fit.”