This is not a story for the weak of heart and those who are easily offendedby frank words and candor. For many, stripping is a harmless activity that both men and women enjoy. After you read this story, which represents just a piece of two year's research, I hope women who do it find a way to respect themselves more and men find a little more respect in their hearts for women. Stripping is not a career path, it is a path to destruction--for women. Amun-Ra
Strippers: Fast and Lose . . .
In the darkness, dirt that stains the soul disappears and for a moment they are born again, untouched by lewd suggestion or lascivious insult. In that instant, before stepping into the garish lights they are any woman's equal. Locked in a moment of silence before stepping to the stage, the mirrors reflecting the brass pole, for just a nanosecond, once again they are young and innocent. In the next 30 seconds, their lives unravel like cheap sweaters leaving them exposed to carnivore gazes viewing the menu for the day. With wanton disregard, cold eyes devour them ripping tender meat from the bone and claiming ownership. That's reality for a stripper.
Glory Road
Movies and television paint stripping as glamorous, filled with fast money, easy work and a way to get ahead quick. Television helps popularize strip clubs and now features them as regular venues where the hip crowd goes for a few drinks and entertainment. From the original "CSI," where one of the characters is a former stripper, to "How I met Your Mother," strip club episodes are regular fare on the tube.
Today there are classes teaching women how to move like a stripper for aerobic exercise, including brass pole exercises. There are other classes showing women how to be more seductive by using stripping techniques. Of course, strip club owners, managers and pimps recruit dancers by playing on the popular image of stripping as a glamorous way to earn big money fast.
Unfortunately, the popular image of stripping is filled misperceptions about strip clubs and what goes on there. Because of the media, many in the public believe that no one touches the dancers and that the women enjoy it. Included in that popular notion is that men go there for harmless fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone at a strip club has an agenda and it usually involves money with the largest portion going to the men running the business.
Show Me the Money
Money guides most decisions in the industry and money is the motivation for strippers. It makes no difference if they are starving or just greedy, the promise of money is enough to take away a woman's will power especially if she is already on the edge. Not every woman is on the ropes. Instead, some see stripping as a chance to make easy money and are drawn to the business.
Depending upon a club's clientele, status and location some dancers can make serious cash if they are in demand, but those dancers are few. It is not unusual for a dancer to average $400 to $600 a day. Some even take home as much as $1200 or more. But as with all good things, they eventually come to an end and it is no different with the stripping industry. Strippers hit dry spots and are surprised when they find themselves pulling aside their pants down to reveal their vagina for a dollar bill.
So, why do they do it? As stated before, an average stripper can take home $400-$700 a day if she stays clean. However, the reality is that very few can do it. There are too many temptations and dangers. Nevertheless, when asked why they got into the world of exotic dancing every woman stated money as the main reason.
For most of the women working the strip circuit, it is a hand to mouth existence. They are always short of cash. In a cash business these same women are chronically late with rent, car payments and utilities. Most make just enough cash to spend it the next day and run out before the evening is over and have to do it again because they spend it faster than they make it.
Not surprisingly, most strippers measure their personal worth according to the amount of tips they earn and the approval of the customers. Even those women who use stripping as a way to make quick money, often find it is a lot harder to leave than it was to start.
What does it take to be a stripper? Most, women in stripping feel it doesn't take much, saying all it takes "is pu***, t*** and a**." Dancing can be a plus, but that is not what men come to see. According to many dancers, the hardest thing to do is develop an attitude that allows a woman to shut herself off and fake interest. Nevertheless, a stripper still needs a good head on her shoulders and some serious survival skills if she plans to last long enough to get paid.
Show Me the Money, Again!
Women must pay to dance at the clubs and that often includes tips for the waiters, bartenders and bouncers, as well as the club's "dancing" fee. Strip clubs for the most part pay the dancers minimum wage but most pay nothing at all. The women are considered private contractors and as such, they are required to pay the house anywhere from fifty to as much as two hundred dollars to dance onstage. Fees differ depending on the shift being worked.
Prime shifts, or those shifts where the dancer can make more money cost more. In many clubs, women are faced with a sales quota they must meet to continue working at the club. If they don't meet quota, they are in debt to the house and the charge is added to the next time the stripper dances.
In addition, strippers must pay 100% of their social security insurance, taxes, travel, hotel expenses and the costs for costumes. Although management may say a stripper needs to have some breast or buttock enhancement, the dancer pays out her own pocket. As independent contractors club owners often require women to sign a waiver of their right to sue the club for any reason. If they don't sign, they don't work.
Who Are They?
The line is not around the block with women waiting to become exotic dancers, but there are a few hoping for fast money and accommodating hours. Still, most women learn about stripping from a girlfriend or a male friend. Upscale strip clubs tend to have less direct sexual contact, but being a bit higher class venue guarantees absolutely nothing, as high class clients regularly beat and rape women. Those women who don't make into upscale "gentlemen's club's where a disputable better class of customer goes end up at smaller less attractive clubs, but aside from the glitter the business is the same.
Strippers come to the clubs from all walks of life, but most come from the edges of society. Many of the girls come from the lower class and are single mothers. Many have had multiple abortions and miscarriages. Some have several children, or have lost their children to Child Protective Services. Some are college students and many are eighteen year old high school graduates. Club management knows that for the majority of these women the easy money and fast lifestyle eventually become addicting factors.
Many are early victims of adult sexual abuse, rape and slave-like prostitution before they are even old enough to drive. For a few drinks, a good listener can hear crushing stories of cruelty and abandonment that cut to the bone, but the men who come to the clubs really don't want to know. They're just the t**s and a**. Not surprisingly, most of the dancers say they don't care for men at the clubs and it's not hard to understand why.
Nevertheless, some have boyfriends, but those relations seldom last, especially if it is a woman's first time stripping. Most of the men can't take the idea of other men seeing their woman naked and they also know what happens at the strip club because more than likely they've been a customer. On the other hand, many men feel betrayed when they find out that the woman with the perfect body and who is so friendly, has a girlfriend. Lesbians and bi-sexuals also find room in a trade that only ask for orifices and breasts.
A large portion of the women believe stripping inhibits their ability to be involved in a normal relationship, because it affects her feelings about men. Many of the traits that help a stripper survive such as controlling and manipulating can sabotage a regular relationship. Some of the dancers with boyfriends are actually supporting the man in a pimp-ho relationship.
It's Just Dancing
There is little dancing happening in a strip club. What passes for dancing comes closer to bump and grind with a generous portion of hump, hunch and bounce thrown in for spice. Some clubs feature topless dancing, all nude dancing, table dancing, couch dancing, wall dancing, shower dancing and bed dancing. Girls may be asked to work peep shows, saunas and private parties, which are notoriously dangerous.
Popular Myth
A popular myth surrounding exotic dancing is that many of the girls are paying their way through college with the money they make. There is a bit of truth in the statement, but it is only a bit. Some women strip to pay for school, but the large majority strip because they need or want the money. To be fair, women who strip at high-end, well regulated clubs may actually be able to pay for higher education without being roughed up by the customers, but that is the exception not the rule.
Any customer who asks a dancer why she is in the business will get some variation of the temporary job story that says she is just in the business until she can make enough money to pay for the next semester of college or to make it back to California or some other place, but the dancer and the client know it isn't true.
In the public eye, women in the exotic dancing business don't rank much if any higher on the social scale than prostitutes because the common thought is women who dance for money will also have sex for money. The truth of the matter is mixed. Some do and some don't, but it certainly happens and it doesn't matter if it's an upscale gentlemen's club or a sleazy joint.
In Too Deep
Despite the money some make, most strippers believe that women don't know what they are getting into when they first start dancing. It's only later when they find themselves fighting off men's hands, mouths and d***s and then end up fighting for every dollar they earn that a different view emerges.
For most women, the constant degradation of stripping starts to leek into their lives exacerbating even the tiniest problem. The long hours, fatigue and constant exposure to the sleaze element makes it difficult for some women to keep her personal and business lives separate. Strippers spend anywhere from 6-10 hours a day semi-nude or nude walking about on 6 inch heels. Many complain of knee and back problems, muscle pulls and strains. The entire culture of is stripping is one of eating disorders, drugs and alcohol problems, childhood trauma and abusive men. Eventually, the late nights and exposure to drugs and alcohol takes it toll as many women start to internalize the life style.
The business is especially addicting for those without an education or other marketable skills. Instant cash and instant spending keeps most of them waiting to work at one club or another. Even the women in the business will warn others not to get started because it is difficult to leave. Work in the private sector isn't going to pay a woman without even a GED the kind of money she makes as a stripper. So, getting out is tough.
Club Owners: Glorified Pimps
Unsurprisingly, the women accuse strip club owners of stealing and call them "glorified pimps. In most cases, bar owners and management exploit the women and find ways to steal from them. The women also label managers as "power crazy" and "perverts," citing that owners regularly mistreat the women and make every attempt to take money from the women. Some strippers say been forced into sex as a condition of employment.
Strippers also pay out dubious fines for being late, not working certain days and not changing shifts at will. Also club owners often overbook dancers making them compete for tips. Usually this produces explicit sexual behavior with those willing to do more making more money. When a woman's income is dependant upon tips, customer demands often rules behavior.
Men associated with the strip clubs, usually friends of the owner, also use force and coercion to establish sexual contact with women in stripping, proposition women for prostitution and intentionally inflict bodily harm upon the women. Kickbacks are a regular part of the industry and most dancers are surprised at the number of people lined up with their hands out for money. Strippers often refer to DJs, bartenders, bouncers and valets as wannabe pimps because they all want to be tipped.
Rated R for Violence
Every dancer has a stage name to make them seem more erotic or sexy. It's a harmless enough practice, but the reasons behind it aren't. Dancers don't have a pimp around who at least wants to protect his investment. When a woman leaves a strip club at 3 o'clock in the morning, there's no one around to watch her back. Real names are guarded jealously and with good reason. Stalkers are real in the stripping business.
For strippers, enduring sexual violence is part of the job description. Sexual violence against women includes any unwanted physical, emotional, verbal and carnal representation. Women in stripping are expected to endure this abuse and humiliation without complaining. Reporting a troublesome customer's behavior is a good way for a stripper to get fired. The look don't touch rule is only for the city fathers and a convenient lie for the public to keep the clubs open.
The thought that it is all harmless entertainment masks verbal harassment, physical sexual abuse, and financial exploitation. Women in stripping are subject to actions that would be perceived as physical assault in any other setting. This perversion of "the customer's always right" businesses theorem helps normalize men's violence against women in just about every strip club.
Management encourages the dancers to mix with customers to get them to buy a drink, which is how the club makes its money. Smart dancers have their drinks watered or drink only fruit juice and never do they leave a drink unattended because patrons have been known to slip date-rape drugs into a drink. Still, many dancers drink their whiskey straight and for a reason. Most of them are bored to death and drinking helps the time pass. Unfortunately, drinking also makes them vulnerable.
Those Pesky Customers
For the women, working is easier when the men are tipping regularly and the strippers don't need to interact with men intimately. A large portion of strippers are disgusted by customers and describe them as pitiful and pathetic, stupid and ignorant, sick, controlling and abusive. A majority of the women do not like the way customers treat them nor do they like talking to them, asking them for money, and resent having to have to deal with them at all.
They find customers irritating because they are drunk and have negative attitudes towards women. Dancers characterize most customers as scum, psycho mama's boys, rapists and child molesters, perverts, idiots, a**holes, and pigs.
Many women didn't do much thinking before they joined the strip line. If they had, they might have wondered what kind of man has the money and the time to spend every evening at a strip club? Not every man can be a millionaire athlete or heir to a fortune. That being the case, it has to occur to the women the kind of man that has that much free time and money.
Knowing the violence that happens in every strip club, it would seem strippers would shy away from spending too much time with the wrong kind of men. Nevertheless, the women offer insightful evaluations of strip club customers that are on target. They say that the majority of men they see do not know how to communicate. Moreover, they perceive the men are out of control, have power and abuse problems, and will do anything to degrade women because they hate women.
The Sharks Aren't Always in the Water
Working the floor night after night, week after week can ruin a woman's self-esteem. Many find it difficult to view themselves for who they are rather than wondering how they look and if they are getting enough attention. A lot of head games confront the stripper, just as solid problems like drugs and alcohol wait around every table top.
She was perfect, young, black and, attractive. For a pimp, what made her even more attractive is that in addition to those attributes, she was uneducated and broke, just the kind of woman that worked out for a strip club. At 28 years old, she had already spent nearly half of her life working the brass pole. In the darkness, she seems even more attractive, but a closer look reveals the story of her life written across her body in birth stretch marks, shiny scar seams and discoloration from frequent bruising.
Like most of the women in the club she's easy to smile because she knows it helps generate money, but a closer look reveals the flash in her eyes is fueled by something other than joy. It's a common look among drug and alcohol abusers. The darkness is her friend because it hides the affects of the alcohol that keeps the smile on her face. She is drunk everyday. She has no driver's license, it was suspended long ago, but she is on the highway every night aiming her car toward home. Unfortunately, she is just one of hundreds, maybe even thousands of women in the strip trade that are addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Name Your Poison
From the high class gentlemen's club to the side alley skin joint, illegal drugs are always available. Drugs from ecstasy and methamphetamine to crack and heroin are there for those seeking it and for those who strip, drinking or getting high is almost a necessity. Many of the dancers are already alcoholics while others are on their way to becoming one. Some bring drug addiction with them or pick it up in the clubs as a way to numb themselves to unwanted advances, but the money keeps them coming to work. It's not hard to understand why so many have drug or alcohol problems, especially, considering the working conditions and clientele.
Gentlemen's Clubs
Gentlemen's clubs are considered to be the upper echelon of nude dancing establishments; these clubs are quite different from the majority of strip clubs in that they are in better locales, offer better amenities and the best looking women. Some gentlemen's clubs offer gyms, tanning and hair salons. They often have conference rooms for business meetings and come equipped with multifunction printers, telephones and computers.
Some even say the gentleman's club will help make stripping less of a deviant activity. The question is, for whom? All it does is put tuxedos on regular smut dealers. It is a way legitimatizing the owners, not the profession. Despite that gentlemen's clubs provide more elegant surroundings in trying to attract more professional clientele, they've done nothing but put a pig in a dress. The same deviants, dealers, rapists, thugs and addicts show up there, the only difference is they wear more expensive suits.
American businesses unknowingly help support the stripping industry. Strip clubs are popular venues with many of their best clients and businesses either don't know it, or, turn a blind eye to the practice of taking clients there to lunch. Knowing the stigma attached to strip clubs, corporate credit cards charges come back well disguised by the actual name of the business that runs the establishment and instead of the "The Brass Rail" the receipts say ABC Enterprises and it all seems legitimate.
Again, the high end strip club is not about cleaning up a business that desperately needs it; they are about cleaning up the men who profit from it. Meanwhile, the women who strip at these high class cat houses remain a step ahead of prostitutes in terms of the stigma attached to strippers. To be fair, some women expressed fascination with stripping and look at it as a job, work day shifts and work a straight job at the same time, but that is not the case for 90% of the women in the business. There are only a few high-end strip clubs in any given city and the stink of the business makes sure it stays that way.
Equal Opportunity Employers
Most clubs offer women of varying ethnicity, not because they are concerned about discrimination, but because they are all about money. Clubs offering such variety tend to fair well, but a stable of blondes is an industry must. Turnover is notoriously high in some establishments because the tipping patterns of its clientele—cheap.
For a dollar tip, many men expect a lot from a dancer, often more than the dancer is willing to offer which often leads to trouble. A dancer's bread and butter comes from lap dances, but some men are notorious for wanting to bargain. Needless to say, dancers at these venues leave as soon as they find another place to dance.
Working the Circuit
There are thousands of strip clubs across the country ranging from faux upscale to downright sleazy, but if a patron could afford to go to the same establishment everyday, he'd notice something—all the women seem to show up back at the same club sooner or later. The women make a regular rotation from club to club and for a variety of reasons. They are hired and fired often for everything ranging from drug use and drunkenness to theft and prostitution. Recently in Dallas, an upscale gentlemen's club closed its doors for prostitution.
Getting Out
About 30% of the women will get out of the business, especially the younger and more educated ones, but the remainder will stay until physically they can no longer compete.
On the surface, community marketing makes stripping look like a victimless crime, but women who believe that soon find that stripping is sexual violence against women disguised as entertainment for men. Despite the festive skimpy costumes and laughter in the air, the darkness and heavy make up used in the clubs are there for a reason, it helps hide the pain of a dead-end job. No matter how much makeup Hollywood and Wall Street put on it, the business is still a pig. There is not a steady path of innocent young girls beating their ways to the doors of local strip clubs to become famous. Instead, it's a steady rotation of emotionally scarred women, horny men and a few dark corner dwelling perverts.
Amun-Ra
Strippers: Fast and Lose . . .
In the darkness, dirt that stains the soul disappears and for a moment they are born again, untouched by lewd suggestion or lascivious insult. In that instant, before stepping into the garish lights they are any woman's equal. Locked in a moment of silence before stepping to the stage, the mirrors reflecting the brass pole, for just a nanosecond, once again they are young and innocent. In the next 30 seconds, their lives unravel like cheap sweaters leaving them exposed to carnivore gazes viewing the menu for the day. With wanton disregard, cold eyes devour them ripping tender meat from the bone and claiming ownership. That's reality for a stripper.
Glory Road
Movies and television paint stripping as glamorous, filled with fast money, easy work and a way to get ahead quick. Television helps popularize strip clubs and now features them as regular venues where the hip crowd goes for a few drinks and entertainment. From the original "CSI," where one of the characters is a former stripper, to "How I met Your Mother," strip club episodes are regular fare on the tube.
Today there are classes teaching women how to move like a stripper for aerobic exercise, including brass pole exercises. There are other classes showing women how to be more seductive by using stripping techniques. Of course, strip club owners, managers and pimps recruit dancers by playing on the popular image of stripping as a glamorous way to earn big money fast.
Unfortunately, the popular image of stripping is filled misperceptions about strip clubs and what goes on there. Because of the media, many in the public believe that no one touches the dancers and that the women enjoy it. Included in that popular notion is that men go there for harmless fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone at a strip club has an agenda and it usually involves money with the largest portion going to the men running the business.
Show Me the Money
Money guides most decisions in the industry and money is the motivation for strippers. It makes no difference if they are starving or just greedy, the promise of money is enough to take away a woman's will power especially if she is already on the edge. Not every woman is on the ropes. Instead, some see stripping as a chance to make easy money and are drawn to the business.
Depending upon a club's clientele, status and location some dancers can make serious cash if they are in demand, but those dancers are few. It is not unusual for a dancer to average $400 to $600 a day. Some even take home as much as $1200 or more. But as with all good things, they eventually come to an end and it is no different with the stripping industry. Strippers hit dry spots and are surprised when they find themselves pulling aside their pants down to reveal their vagina for a dollar bill.
So, why do they do it? As stated before, an average stripper can take home $400-$700 a day if she stays clean. However, the reality is that very few can do it. There are too many temptations and dangers. Nevertheless, when asked why they got into the world of exotic dancing every woman stated money as the main reason.
For most of the women working the strip circuit, it is a hand to mouth existence. They are always short of cash. In a cash business these same women are chronically late with rent, car payments and utilities. Most make just enough cash to spend it the next day and run out before the evening is over and have to do it again because they spend it faster than they make it.
Not surprisingly, most strippers measure their personal worth according to the amount of tips they earn and the approval of the customers. Even those women who use stripping as a way to make quick money, often find it is a lot harder to leave than it was to start.
What does it take to be a stripper? Most, women in stripping feel it doesn't take much, saying all it takes "is pu***, t*** and a**." Dancing can be a plus, but that is not what men come to see. According to many dancers, the hardest thing to do is develop an attitude that allows a woman to shut herself off and fake interest. Nevertheless, a stripper still needs a good head on her shoulders and some serious survival skills if she plans to last long enough to get paid.
Show Me the Money, Again!
Women must pay to dance at the clubs and that often includes tips for the waiters, bartenders and bouncers, as well as the club's "dancing" fee. Strip clubs for the most part pay the dancers minimum wage but most pay nothing at all. The women are considered private contractors and as such, they are required to pay the house anywhere from fifty to as much as two hundred dollars to dance onstage. Fees differ depending on the shift being worked.
Prime shifts, or those shifts where the dancer can make more money cost more. In many clubs, women are faced with a sales quota they must meet to continue working at the club. If they don't meet quota, they are in debt to the house and the charge is added to the next time the stripper dances.
In addition, strippers must pay 100% of their social security insurance, taxes, travel, hotel expenses and the costs for costumes. Although management may say a stripper needs to have some breast or buttock enhancement, the dancer pays out her own pocket. As independent contractors club owners often require women to sign a waiver of their right to sue the club for any reason. If they don't sign, they don't work.
Who Are They?
The line is not around the block with women waiting to become exotic dancers, but there are a few hoping for fast money and accommodating hours. Still, most women learn about stripping from a girlfriend or a male friend. Upscale strip clubs tend to have less direct sexual contact, but being a bit higher class venue guarantees absolutely nothing, as high class clients regularly beat and rape women. Those women who don't make into upscale "gentlemen's club's where a disputable better class of customer goes end up at smaller less attractive clubs, but aside from the glitter the business is the same.
Strippers come to the clubs from all walks of life, but most come from the edges of society. Many of the girls come from the lower class and are single mothers. Many have had multiple abortions and miscarriages. Some have several children, or have lost their children to Child Protective Services. Some are college students and many are eighteen year old high school graduates. Club management knows that for the majority of these women the easy money and fast lifestyle eventually become addicting factors.
Many are early victims of adult sexual abuse, rape and slave-like prostitution before they are even old enough to drive. For a few drinks, a good listener can hear crushing stories of cruelty and abandonment that cut to the bone, but the men who come to the clubs really don't want to know. They're just the t**s and a**. Not surprisingly, most of the dancers say they don't care for men at the clubs and it's not hard to understand why.
Nevertheless, some have boyfriends, but those relations seldom last, especially if it is a woman's first time stripping. Most of the men can't take the idea of other men seeing their woman naked and they also know what happens at the strip club because more than likely they've been a customer. On the other hand, many men feel betrayed when they find out that the woman with the perfect body and who is so friendly, has a girlfriend. Lesbians and bi-sexuals also find room in a trade that only ask for orifices and breasts.
A large portion of the women believe stripping inhibits their ability to be involved in a normal relationship, because it affects her feelings about men. Many of the traits that help a stripper survive such as controlling and manipulating can sabotage a regular relationship. Some of the dancers with boyfriends are actually supporting the man in a pimp-ho relationship.
It's Just Dancing
There is little dancing happening in a strip club. What passes for dancing comes closer to bump and grind with a generous portion of hump, hunch and bounce thrown in for spice. Some clubs feature topless dancing, all nude dancing, table dancing, couch dancing, wall dancing, shower dancing and bed dancing. Girls may be asked to work peep shows, saunas and private parties, which are notoriously dangerous.
Popular Myth
A popular myth surrounding exotic dancing is that many of the girls are paying their way through college with the money they make. There is a bit of truth in the statement, but it is only a bit. Some women strip to pay for school, but the large majority strip because they need or want the money. To be fair, women who strip at high-end, well regulated clubs may actually be able to pay for higher education without being roughed up by the customers, but that is the exception not the rule.
Any customer who asks a dancer why she is in the business will get some variation of the temporary job story that says she is just in the business until she can make enough money to pay for the next semester of college or to make it back to California or some other place, but the dancer and the client know it isn't true.
In the public eye, women in the exotic dancing business don't rank much if any higher on the social scale than prostitutes because the common thought is women who dance for money will also have sex for money. The truth of the matter is mixed. Some do and some don't, but it certainly happens and it doesn't matter if it's an upscale gentlemen's club or a sleazy joint.
In Too Deep
Despite the money some make, most strippers believe that women don't know what they are getting into when they first start dancing. It's only later when they find themselves fighting off men's hands, mouths and d***s and then end up fighting for every dollar they earn that a different view emerges.
For most women, the constant degradation of stripping starts to leek into their lives exacerbating even the tiniest problem. The long hours, fatigue and constant exposure to the sleaze element makes it difficult for some women to keep her personal and business lives separate. Strippers spend anywhere from 6-10 hours a day semi-nude or nude walking about on 6 inch heels. Many complain of knee and back problems, muscle pulls and strains. The entire culture of is stripping is one of eating disorders, drugs and alcohol problems, childhood trauma and abusive men. Eventually, the late nights and exposure to drugs and alcohol takes it toll as many women start to internalize the life style.
The business is especially addicting for those without an education or other marketable skills. Instant cash and instant spending keeps most of them waiting to work at one club or another. Even the women in the business will warn others not to get started because it is difficult to leave. Work in the private sector isn't going to pay a woman without even a GED the kind of money she makes as a stripper. So, getting out is tough.
Club Owners: Glorified Pimps
Unsurprisingly, the women accuse strip club owners of stealing and call them "glorified pimps. In most cases, bar owners and management exploit the women and find ways to steal from them. The women also label managers as "power crazy" and "perverts," citing that owners regularly mistreat the women and make every attempt to take money from the women. Some strippers say been forced into sex as a condition of employment.
Strippers also pay out dubious fines for being late, not working certain days and not changing shifts at will. Also club owners often overbook dancers making them compete for tips. Usually this produces explicit sexual behavior with those willing to do more making more money. When a woman's income is dependant upon tips, customer demands often rules behavior.
Men associated with the strip clubs, usually friends of the owner, also use force and coercion to establish sexual contact with women in stripping, proposition women for prostitution and intentionally inflict bodily harm upon the women. Kickbacks are a regular part of the industry and most dancers are surprised at the number of people lined up with their hands out for money. Strippers often refer to DJs, bartenders, bouncers and valets as wannabe pimps because they all want to be tipped.
Rated R for Violence
Every dancer has a stage name to make them seem more erotic or sexy. It's a harmless enough practice, but the reasons behind it aren't. Dancers don't have a pimp around who at least wants to protect his investment. When a woman leaves a strip club at 3 o'clock in the morning, there's no one around to watch her back. Real names are guarded jealously and with good reason. Stalkers are real in the stripping business.
For strippers, enduring sexual violence is part of the job description. Sexual violence against women includes any unwanted physical, emotional, verbal and carnal representation. Women in stripping are expected to endure this abuse and humiliation without complaining. Reporting a troublesome customer's behavior is a good way for a stripper to get fired. The look don't touch rule is only for the city fathers and a convenient lie for the public to keep the clubs open.
The thought that it is all harmless entertainment masks verbal harassment, physical sexual abuse, and financial exploitation. Women in stripping are subject to actions that would be perceived as physical assault in any other setting. This perversion of "the customer's always right" businesses theorem helps normalize men's violence against women in just about every strip club.
Management encourages the dancers to mix with customers to get them to buy a drink, which is how the club makes its money. Smart dancers have their drinks watered or drink only fruit juice and never do they leave a drink unattended because patrons have been known to slip date-rape drugs into a drink. Still, many dancers drink their whiskey straight and for a reason. Most of them are bored to death and drinking helps the time pass. Unfortunately, drinking also makes them vulnerable.
Those Pesky Customers
For the women, working is easier when the men are tipping regularly and the strippers don't need to interact with men intimately. A large portion of strippers are disgusted by customers and describe them as pitiful and pathetic, stupid and ignorant, sick, controlling and abusive. A majority of the women do not like the way customers treat them nor do they like talking to them, asking them for money, and resent having to have to deal with them at all.
They find customers irritating because they are drunk and have negative attitudes towards women. Dancers characterize most customers as scum, psycho mama's boys, rapists and child molesters, perverts, idiots, a**holes, and pigs.
Many women didn't do much thinking before they joined the strip line. If they had, they might have wondered what kind of man has the money and the time to spend every evening at a strip club? Not every man can be a millionaire athlete or heir to a fortune. That being the case, it has to occur to the women the kind of man that has that much free time and money.
Knowing the violence that happens in every strip club, it would seem strippers would shy away from spending too much time with the wrong kind of men. Nevertheless, the women offer insightful evaluations of strip club customers that are on target. They say that the majority of men they see do not know how to communicate. Moreover, they perceive the men are out of control, have power and abuse problems, and will do anything to degrade women because they hate women.
The Sharks Aren't Always in the Water
Working the floor night after night, week after week can ruin a woman's self-esteem. Many find it difficult to view themselves for who they are rather than wondering how they look and if they are getting enough attention. A lot of head games confront the stripper, just as solid problems like drugs and alcohol wait around every table top.
She was perfect, young, black and, attractive. For a pimp, what made her even more attractive is that in addition to those attributes, she was uneducated and broke, just the kind of woman that worked out for a strip club. At 28 years old, she had already spent nearly half of her life working the brass pole. In the darkness, she seems even more attractive, but a closer look reveals the story of her life written across her body in birth stretch marks, shiny scar seams and discoloration from frequent bruising.
Like most of the women in the club she's easy to smile because she knows it helps generate money, but a closer look reveals the flash in her eyes is fueled by something other than joy. It's a common look among drug and alcohol abusers. The darkness is her friend because it hides the affects of the alcohol that keeps the smile on her face. She is drunk everyday. She has no driver's license, it was suspended long ago, but she is on the highway every night aiming her car toward home. Unfortunately, she is just one of hundreds, maybe even thousands of women in the strip trade that are addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Name Your Poison
From the high class gentlemen's club to the side alley skin joint, illegal drugs are always available. Drugs from ecstasy and methamphetamine to crack and heroin are there for those seeking it and for those who strip, drinking or getting high is almost a necessity. Many of the dancers are already alcoholics while others are on their way to becoming one. Some bring drug addiction with them or pick it up in the clubs as a way to numb themselves to unwanted advances, but the money keeps them coming to work. It's not hard to understand why so many have drug or alcohol problems, especially, considering the working conditions and clientele.
Gentlemen's Clubs
Gentlemen's clubs are considered to be the upper echelon of nude dancing establishments; these clubs are quite different from the majority of strip clubs in that they are in better locales, offer better amenities and the best looking women. Some gentlemen's clubs offer gyms, tanning and hair salons. They often have conference rooms for business meetings and come equipped with multifunction printers, telephones and computers.
Some even say the gentleman's club will help make stripping less of a deviant activity. The question is, for whom? All it does is put tuxedos on regular smut dealers. It is a way legitimatizing the owners, not the profession. Despite that gentlemen's clubs provide more elegant surroundings in trying to attract more professional clientele, they've done nothing but put a pig in a dress. The same deviants, dealers, rapists, thugs and addicts show up there, the only difference is they wear more expensive suits.
American businesses unknowingly help support the stripping industry. Strip clubs are popular venues with many of their best clients and businesses either don't know it, or, turn a blind eye to the practice of taking clients there to lunch. Knowing the stigma attached to strip clubs, corporate credit cards charges come back well disguised by the actual name of the business that runs the establishment and instead of the "The Brass Rail" the receipts say ABC Enterprises and it all seems legitimate.
Again, the high end strip club is not about cleaning up a business that desperately needs it; they are about cleaning up the men who profit from it. Meanwhile, the women who strip at these high class cat houses remain a step ahead of prostitutes in terms of the stigma attached to strippers. To be fair, some women expressed fascination with stripping and look at it as a job, work day shifts and work a straight job at the same time, but that is not the case for 90% of the women in the business. There are only a few high-end strip clubs in any given city and the stink of the business makes sure it stays that way.
Equal Opportunity Employers
Most clubs offer women of varying ethnicity, not because they are concerned about discrimination, but because they are all about money. Clubs offering such variety tend to fair well, but a stable of blondes is an industry must. Turnover is notoriously high in some establishments because the tipping patterns of its clientele—cheap.
For a dollar tip, many men expect a lot from a dancer, often more than the dancer is willing to offer which often leads to trouble. A dancer's bread and butter comes from lap dances, but some men are notorious for wanting to bargain. Needless to say, dancers at these venues leave as soon as they find another place to dance.
Working the Circuit
There are thousands of strip clubs across the country ranging from faux upscale to downright sleazy, but if a patron could afford to go to the same establishment everyday, he'd notice something—all the women seem to show up back at the same club sooner or later. The women make a regular rotation from club to club and for a variety of reasons. They are hired and fired often for everything ranging from drug use and drunkenness to theft and prostitution. Recently in Dallas, an upscale gentlemen's club closed its doors for prostitution.
Getting Out
About 30% of the women will get out of the business, especially the younger and more educated ones, but the remainder will stay until physically they can no longer compete.
On the surface, community marketing makes stripping look like a victimless crime, but women who believe that soon find that stripping is sexual violence against women disguised as entertainment for men. Despite the festive skimpy costumes and laughter in the air, the darkness and heavy make up used in the clubs are there for a reason, it helps hide the pain of a dead-end job. No matter how much makeup Hollywood and Wall Street put on it, the business is still a pig. There is not a steady path of innocent young girls beating their ways to the doors of local strip clubs to become famous. Instead, it's a steady rotation of emotionally scarred women, horny men and a few dark corner dwelling perverts.
Amun-Ra