Looking to the Individual

A hospital in Italy that would not accept a stripper's blood donation illustrates how strongly the belief is embedded that strippers are prostitutes.

Martin Whitmore Image

Even after explaining her monogamous situation to the hospital, they refused her donation because they still believed she posed an STI risk.

“It is not clear in this case what risk the woman posed. She was in a formal and stable relationship," Agitalia was reported as saying in Corriere della Sera. "Even if her job could be seen as 'immoral' or 'unorthodox', it cannot be seen as an STI risk.” 

We are so quick to judge people based on the cultural beliefs about groups of people.

In no situation is it correct to stereotype people, whether it be because of race, gender, sexual preference, or occupation.

We need to base our opinions of people on the individual. On the person standing in front of us.

No one person is an ethnicity, color, job, or anything.

We are all individuals.

Let's start treating each other with the assumption of uniqueness and goodness.

Strippers' Rights

In her New York Times Op-Ed, Stop Stealing From Strippers, Antonia Crane explains well the injustices done to strippers and defends strippers' rights.

Lauren Kolesinskas via NYTimes.com

She’s one of the only other stripper/writers I’ve seen address the pay-discrepancy between what people think strippers make and what they actually do. Her main point for this essay is to point out how unfair it is for strippers to have to give away so much of their income.

Strip clubs have provided me and many other dancers with steady income for our entire adult lives. I’m thankful to have enjoyed decades as a paid entertainer. But we deserve the same protections and respect given to any employee in any other work force. We are night laborers who have found a way to offer fantasy, entertainment, intrigue and human contact in an impersonal culture. We want to see a safe and sexy dance floor in every strip club in America. And we deserve to keep our tips.

I’ve fallen prey to all of the pay-outs that Crane describes: the percentage of our earnings that have to be given to the club, to the manager on duty, to the DJ and even to the “house mom.”

That these payouts are accepted practice in clubs all across America is truly unfair and exploitive. While many may disagree with the stripping profession, exotic dancers still deserve to have workplace protections just like any other profession.

Stripper Displays Her Large...Bills

For all you wanna-be strippers out there who read the Huffington Post's piece, Stripper Posts Picture Of Night's Tips To Reddit; Internet Asks, 'Where Do We Sign Up?',don't get all excited by this stripper's take...read the fine print!

"Menagerii" clearly states she worked a double (15 hours in heels, folks!) and that she doesn't usually earn that much.

But if you're interested in learning what it takes to be successful, here is her advice:

"You have to be in good shape, quick witted, confident, and have a pretty face. Everything else follows," she wrote.

I find it interesting to read people's comments following the articles written about this story. It seems most responses fall into one of a few categories: the snarky--Damn! I should be a stripper!, or the superior moralistic--Strippers are nothing more than whores!

I sit and ponder and really wonder...don't we all do some form of work for money, for pay? Why is using one's brain inherently better than using one's body?

Arne Duncan Strips Down to Save Our Kids' Education!

It has come to this, World: Secretary Of Education Forced To Take Up Stripping To Put Nation Through School.

Even the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is Stripping Down now, but it’s in the name of paying for kids’ education, y’all!

Saying it was his only real option to earn much-needed cash, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters Tuesday he had been forced to start working as an erotic dancer at the local strip club Peaches in order to put the nation’s students through school.

Ok, yes…this article appears in The Onion. But they really got the stripper dialogue down!

“Taking off your clothes in front of strangers isn’t for everyone, but I’m confident in my body, and regardless, I need to get the money somehow,” said Duncan, who performs under the stage name Velvet. “I’m not planning on doing this forever, just until all 49.8 million kids in our public elementary and secondary schools can graduate. Then I can go back to my regular job.”

There really are strippers out there in the clubs saying this very thing with just a few slight differences.

As a former stripper I can sit here and say that yes, a lot of us strippers can justify our jobs even when we don’t especially like what we are doing. Hey! We’ve got to support the kids, right?

Of course, I would think that goes for most people who don’t like or don’t feel 100% great about their work.

This brings up a real issue when it comes to strippers and a great place for the rest of us to practice compassion—if we were to imagine strippers (or insert a person/worker who you think is doing something immoral) as moms trying to put their kids through school, feed the family and support the household, could we have more compassion and understanding for them?

Perhaps we all “Strip Down” in some way in our lives when we need to—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Why Strippers Become Trapped

My Fox Detroit has a piece, Why Some Exotic Dancers Become Trapped by Alexis Wiley, about how easily women can become trapped by the stripping life. A lot of the issues discussed are what I examine and offer help with in my book The Pole Position: Is Stripping for You?

“Kalisha Madden and Cherice Gordon have been missing for nearly three months. Both women are exotic dancers from Detroit. Many wonder if their lifestyle as strippers played a role in their disappearance. Often times, the lure of money puts these women in harm's way. FOX 2's Alexis Wiley takes a closer look at why it's so easy for some of these women to get trapped.”

Wiley interviews a few women who are dancers, but who had their glamorous expectations dashed by the true stripping world.

The message we see coming through is that regardless of the great money they are making, it really might not be worth it because it’s too easy to get distracted by the vices that go along with fast money.

I hear my own story in their words: "My first job was at Chuck E. Cheese, so I was like that looks a lot better than Chuck E," said Laura.

I thought the same about working at Dunkin’ Donuts and J.C. Penney.

The women discuss the dangers involved even if you’re playing by the rules, but even knowing this, they are not ready to leave the strip world.

"Once you're in, you're kind of stuck in because you start accumulating all these things that you didn't have before," said Laura. "You're kind of forced to keep going to work and paying these bills for this stuff that you didn't really need in the first place and it's just a trap."

The reporter also interviewed Anny Donewald, an ex-dancer.

"I did amateur night and I won $200, and when you're a 19-year-old college student, $200, that's a lot of ramen noodles."

But after six years, she knew she had to leave the world because she was feeling “dead.”

She went on to create Eve's Angels, which consists of women who go to clubs to offer support without judgment to strippers when they are ready to quit.

Happy Birthday, Tempest Storm

David Moye reports on The Huffington Post about burlesque dancer Tempest Storm’s leap year birthday celebration.

What I find most fascinating is that she was dancing up to a few years ago.

“Tempest Storm's career trajectory was even longer than her contemporaries. Although she officially retired in 1995 at the age of 67, she occasionally danced on stage until June 2010, when she broke her hip at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Sun.”

Watching this video of her really made me realize there is such a lovely vulnerability, sensuality, and openness to well-done stripteases that has so little to do with outright nudity.

Watching her dance brings me back to my days stripping and how much fun I had when I was allowed (and I allowed myself) to strip as performance and not just as body part showing.

Stripper Cousin Makes Me Think About Nudity

From stripper mom to stripper cousin!

Alexis Tereszcuk reports on Radar about Kate Middleton’s twenty-one year old stripper cousin Katrina Darling.

“(She) is the second cousin once removed of Kate and Pippa Middleton. Katrina’s grandmother and the Middleton sisters’ great-grandmother, Lily, were sisters.

She calls herself the “Royal Family’s closest brush with soft porn,” and Katrina will be stripping on March 13 at her X-rated God Save the Queen show at WIP in SoHo.”

I guess it really is all about nudity and publicity, isn’t it?

A nude hat fashion show gets publicity. A nude semi-royal gets publicity.

It’s official. The world likes nudeness!

“I take my clothes off, but I don’t give away anything that should be kept for someone else,” she told the New York Post.

Well, I would think that’s subjective, isn’t it? Some people would think even showing a little leg to someone you’re not married to is sacrilegious.

I mean, is there an accepted amount of nudity anymore?

Can a stripper be modest?

Can a bikini model be prudish?

Is it okay to be topless on a beach but not in a magazine?

Does it matter what the nudity’s intent is?

How nude is too nude?

Human Trafficking at a Strip Club?

An interesting story from Cape Times on iol News, “Mavericks dancers: We’re free to come and go.”

There have been allegations of human trafficking at Mavericks strip club in South Africa. A reporter interviewed three dancers and checked out their accommodations and the club.

Apparently women come to Mavericks from other countries for the good money.

“The spotlight has fallen on the behind-the-scenes activities of Mavericks strip club, with Western Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai asking the Human Rights Commission to investigate the working conditions of exotic dancers at the club, saying they could constitute human trafficking.

This was after corporate permits for 200 foreign dancers were revoked by the Department of Home Affairs. Mavericks owner Shane Harrison invited the Cape Times to visit the dancers’ residential premises, where Zara NICHOLSON spoke to three women.”

The owner provides the dancers with their own room in a nice building with a pool; they do have to pay the club a monthly fee to work at Mavericks, which includes the boarding if they so choose.

Two of the three women interviewed are mothers. One is caring for severely handicapped boys and now can afford three nannies. Another one is putting herself through school to have a better life.

I suppose as long as exotic dancing offers women the opportunity to make quick cash when there are no other jobs available, we’re going to have women willing to strip.

I am pretty astonished at how much money these women must be making though to afford the lifestyles they refer to.

One dancer said, “I would not be able to afford the help I need for my kids in any other way. I am giving them a good life, we have a beautiful house with a garden and a pool,” she said.

These three dancers were picked to be interviewed by the owner of the club. Hmm...

Breastfeeding Mother Compared to a Stripper

Cole Nursing

WSAV reports on the latest breastfeeding kerfuffle.

A Georgia mother was compared to a stripper for breastfeeding her baby during church service.

Nirvana Jennette said, “I was told to go nurse in the bathroom and was told to cover up and go away. I knew the bond and importance of breastfeeding and that’s what I decided to do for my baby.”

And then she was asked not to return to the church.

I find it amazing that people will get so riled up by a woman nursing her baby, but will be okay with Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue that displays a woman almost nude on magazine racks where children of all pages pass by.

A nursing mother is nourishing her child; a sports magazine is basically calling looking at pretty naked women a “sport.”

I would much rather explain to a small child what a nursing mother is doing than what a swimsuit model is doing.

But the funny thing is that children never seem upset or confused at all if they see me nursing in public; it’s always only been adults.

A statewide nurse-in will be held in protest to raise awareness of breastfeeding Monday, March 5 from 10 AM to 2 PM.

For more information, visit the State Nurse-in Page on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/YOURSTATENURSEIN/ or sign the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/establish-better-protection-for-breastfeeding-mothers.

Congrats to Redbook Magazine for Honoring All Mothers

Why CAN'T stripping be right for some moms?

An opinion piece on Fox news, Not your mother’s magazine: Redbook supports stripping, by Penny Young Nance, does not pay tribute to a hard-working stripper mom.

The writer is quite offended by Redbook Magazine’s two-page feature in the March issue on a mother who strips to afford to send her four-year-old daughter to a private school.

“Is Redbook seriously suggesting that stripping is a legitimate answer to an American family’s economic hardships?” Nance asks.

In these economic times, why shouldn’t this be a career choice for a mother if she feels good about it? It most definitely isn’t the right career decision for many, but for the few who want to give it a try, why should we belittle them?

Nance goes on to say: “Had the staff at Redbook done their research, they would know that the strip club industry has painful ramifications on society and leads to pornography addiction, gangs, drug use and sex trafficking — just to name a few.”

Well, I would be interested in knowing what research shows that stripping specifically leads to these societal ills. Where is the direct cause and effect link?

Why are we out to condemn women who choose to work as strippers?

Nance believes: “Instead of irresponsibly promoting the acceptance of stripping, Redbook should highlight the work of strong, compassionate women who counsel, support, and shelter strippers trapped in that dangerous life. It is these inspirational women who deserve two-page tributes in major magazines.”

While it would also be splendid to honor these women Nance mentions, she is speaking of the women who are “trapped.” What is so wrong about honoring the women who take their own decisions into their own hands and choose to be strippers and do not feel trapped but rather empowered?

Not every stripper feels trapped. Not every woman has the same feelings about sexuality, sensuality and their expression.

Can we support women, especially mothers, as we all make our own difficult choices?

Strip Clubs Should Support a Proposed Pole Tax

Pantagraph reports that a strip club tax has been proposed by a state senator in Illinois.

“Under legislation pending in the Illinois Senate, operators of adult entertainment facilities would pay a $5 fee to the state for each person who enters their establishments, with the proceeds going to fund rape crisis centers and other sexual assault assistance organizations.”

I applaud State Sen. Toi Hutchinson’s idea. She adds up that since topless clubs are supplying “sex and alcohol,” which can sometimes be triggering factors to abuse that they should be willing to aid the plight of abused women.

Of course, I also understand the Illinois Club Owners Association’s opposition to this legislation.

"What do the clubs have to do with abused women?" Ronan said. "I don't want to make light of it, but we just don't get the connection."

Other states have tried similar legislation, but have never succeeded in their implementation.

I mean, if we’re going to tax things that might be dangerous and put that money toward helping groups that might be affected by similar things, we can actually probably help a lot of people.

Cigarette taxes to go toward aiding youth without health insurance or on cleaning up our environment?

Junk food taxes to help battle the problem of childhood obesity?

The question then becomes—where does the taxing end?

From the strip clubs viewpoint though I would think there’s a positive way to view the legislation. Instead of fighting it, why not champion it? Show the world that strip clubs aren’t all bad? That although there is alcohol and the fantasy of sex sold, there are also decent people who want to do good in the world in existence in that same environment.

Federal Job Agency Offers Stripper Position

The Local, France’s News in English, reports “A 53-year-old former teacher was less than thrilled to receive an email from Pôle Emploi, the French government-run jobs agency, proposing a position stripping in a local nightclub.”

Uh, yeah, I would be upset, too, if I were her.

Danièle Casadamont said, "If Pôle Emploi is suggesting we go naked for money, where's it going to end?"

The job agency felt it had nothing to apologize for because it was a machine that sent the email.

"There's no problem," said Pascal Blain to regional newspaper Midi Libre. "The offer is completely legal and there's nothing discriminatory. This lady received it because she has subscribed to job offers proposed in her region."

It does seem kind of odd that a federal job agency would be sending out notices about stripping jobs.

The former teacher summed it up pretty well: "The image of women is so mistreated today," Casadamont said. "It's time to stop asking us to drop our pants."

What do you think? Would you feel offended if your country’s job agency sent you a stripper job posting?