Weight Loss Extreme: The Nose Tube Diet Hits America

This article and video on Yahoo’s Shine answers the question—when will women go too far to lose weight? Brides’Extreme Wedding Preparations: The Nose Tube Diet.

Sarah B. Weir writes about what I seriously hope is not a coming trend.

Want to lose twenty pounds fast? Like in ten days fast? Just have a tube stuck down your nose and be fed through a bag and surprise, surprise! You’ll lose the weight.

Does this scare the living bajeezus out of anyone else? And it’s not cheap either—$1,500 for the ten-day program.

"People think I'm sick, I'm dying," Jessica Schnaider, 41, of Surfside Florida, told the Times referring to people's reaction to seeing her wearing a nasogastric feeding tube attached to a portable plastic bag of low-cal liquid nourishment. During the program, she skipped picking up her daughters at school because she didn't want to scare the other children.

But this does not deter her from her weight-loss plan.

What does she say to her children about why she has a tube down her nose? For vanity’s sake? Which is kind of humorous when you think about it; you have to look like you’re a seriously ill person to get to the desired end.

And, of course, as most people know by now, the weight loss will most likely be temporary and one might even gain back extra weight afterwards.

I was going to say—what will be next? Surgery to reduce body weight that is merely cosmetic? And then I was like, oh…yeah.

We’re already living in this beautiful new world.

NBC CT News Interview

I had a great interview Wednesday on NBC CT 11am news.

I was afraid I wouldn't make it that morning because I'd been so sick for days, but I somehow held it all together.

I have to admit, I really enjoyed being on camera again...

My Children Have More Troops

Happy Grilled Cheese Day!

I get so frustrated with myself when I lose my patience with my kids.

I remind myself that Cole is only three. Three. When I think about how short a time that is to be alive and to have soaked up the cultural mores of human beings I feel guilty.

He’s only trying to have fun and be with Mommy.

But, oh my goodness, when he just seems to have cotton balls in his ears and I have to repeat myself like twenty times, I want to run down the stairs, open the back door and run outside.

Then there’s Thomas screaming, I mean—SCREAMING—at the top of his lungs. 

And then Genny will turn and snap when I say no about something: Oh! Fine! What-EVER!

And I’m standing there asking myself, oh my goodness, why is this so tough? They are only three little children and I am one big, smart, strong adult.

And then there is my answer staring me in the face: they are a much larger army than I.

Stripper Baby Photo Seems Inevitable But Wrong

I opened this photo sent by a friend not knowing what I would find.


I’d like to say I was shocked, but rather I felt more of a sense of, yeah, I can see someone’s mind putting the pieces together and taking a photo of a baby on a lamp post as a stripper pole.

Perhaps the inevitability of this photo began back when stage mothers started dressing their young pageant daughters as strippers and fan dancers for the talent portion of beauty competitions.

The idea, the thought, of young girls dressed as strippers surrounds us in our culture. Until we then get a photo of a mother taking it just one step further. A mother completely sexualizing her baby in a stripper outfit with a pole to swing on.

Awkward moment to explain one day to this girl?

Is it funny? Cute? To me, no. To most mothers, I would think not.

Maybe some would say it’s no worse than dressing up one’s baby in a cheerleader outfit or a sports jersey with one’s favorite team. I mean, the baby doesn’t choose that either.

I’ll even admit I was guilty when my daughter was a baby when I dressed her in a pink bikini style bathing suit.

But for me, this photo just seems wrong on another level as it purposefully uses a child in a hyper-sexualized fashion.

I’m an ex-stripper and believe in the rights of women to make their own choices when it comes to their occupations. But I’m also a mother and just don’t see the humor in dressing a baby up as a stripper.

Were you surprised by this photo?

Guest Blog at Sassy Lapdancer

Check out my guest blog post about strippers uniting in their mission to tell their stories at Sassy Lapdancer.

Selling a Stripper Story

Most people assume that nowadays the way to make a splash with a memoir must be to have been a stripper.

But in my latest Huffington Post blog, Sarah Tressler: Marketing Genius or One Lucky Stripper? I discuss how difficult it actually is to be taken notice of if you were a stripper.

"Stripper stories" have been told a few times already, so, you know...they must be all alike.

Sarah Tressler Chases Tornados

Well played, Stripper/Reporter Woman, well played.

Sarah Tressler, the stripper/journalist fired by her Texas paper last week for moonlighting as a stripper, may not have to worry about peeling off her clothes anymore.

She’s landed herself a gig with Good Morning America covering the tornados in Texas.

Yes, you read that right.

At the moment, most are still unsure of the connection of being a high society reporter and a weather reporter, but hey—we all switch careers numerous times in our lives.

Pastor Mike Scruggs Appeals to the Stripper Inside of You

The UK’s Daily Mail reports on Pastor Mike Scuggs of White Oak, Ohio, who has some controversial ideas when it comes to preaching, like installing a stripper pole at the altar.

Religious people from all times and places have used theatrical approaches to get people into service and that’s what this preacher seems to be trying.

He’s not asking anyone to come up and try out the pole, rather he’s making a statement about what some men’s fantasies look like and what some women’s look like, too (hence the bed with roses and romantic thingies sprinkled across on the other side of the stage).

Of course, there are some people who have problems with Scruggs approach, but he did have a packed room last Friday night.

Oh, and he’s asking his flock to have sex every night for a week, too.

I like his direct approach about real life:

“We push the envelope, that's true,” he told WLWT.com. “Don't take it out of context. Some people say, "He's going to hell. He's wrong." We want to talk about it. We don't want them to guess at it, assume it's wrong. It's right. We want to talk about it.”

“We talk about sex. We talk about drugs. We talk about faith. We talk about relationships… things that people are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.”

It seems like bringing real life problems into the context of one’s religion makes sense.

What do you think about Scruggs’ controversial theatrics?

Strippers and Sensationalism

I'm getting a kick out of the slant the media plays with my story.

And hey, as an author, you know, you just live for that first "I'd hit it" comment.

Here's the latest headline from the UK's Daily Mail: Anorexia, sex addiction and failed marriages: Mother-of-three who led double life as a stripper lifts lid on her troubled past.

And just for the record, I quit stripping when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, not when she died.

True Stripper Stories Wanted

The story of Texas journalist Sarah Tressler began when rival newspaper Houston Press’s writer Richard Connelly detailed Tressler’s two seemingly disparate careers—writing for the Houston Chronicle’s society pages about ladies who lunch and writing as the “Angry Stripper” about ladies who strip.

Tresslar allegedly “flaunted” her stripper money around the newsroom angering other journalists for risking the newspaper’s reputation if the truth came out.

Perhaps someone spilled her secret to end Tresslar’s display of wealth; unfortunately, the story breaking may have had an opposite effect than intended. Now Tresslar’s popularity has spread and you can be sure she’ll be penning the story she’s clearly wanted to write—but what is her story?

It seems the news has already written her story for her—Struggling journalist who was fired for stripping. But we should hesitate before we tie her life into a neat package for her.

I’ve lived my entire adult life having my story told for me, until I decided to write the real story.

I was a stripper for half-a-dozen years—from some run-down go-go bars in Connecticut to New York City’s top gentlemen’s clubs like Scores. And yes, I’m a writer, too. And after I quit stripping, I went on to graduate as my college’s valedictorian.

Just because a woman chooses at some point in her life to strip does not mean that is all she is. And while I agree the world doesn’t need just another “stripper story” as I had countless agents tell me, there’s often much more to the story that a stripper has to tell.

Part of the misconception about strippers who write is that often we are presented in just that one way; we become compartmentalized and shown to be only able to write about the stripping world and nothing else. Perhaps this is part of the surprise about Tresslar also writing about high society—she’s a stripper! How could she write about other issues not related to g-strings and lap dances?

Imagine people’s surprise when they discover I was a stripper and I had a 4.0 GPA! That’s some major cognitive dissonance going on there.

And while my memoir Stripping Down deals with memories of what made me the woman I am and the woman I had been through reflections on my past as a stripper, there was a larger intent in the writing. I revisited my topless past to discover and make sense of my relationship to my body and to challenge the meanings and definitions I created for myself.

I stripped down to what really mattered—health, time, and family. I wrote as I took on the new roles of mother, caregiver and wife. While helping my baby daughter take her first steps, I nursed my mother through the final stages of breast cancer, which triggered an exploration of female identity and body image.

I propose that every thinking stripper out there get to writing and start representing the stories that lie beneath the surface of strip bars and stilettos. And not just strippers. Any woman who has ever felt her story was already written for her should explore the truth of what it is to be a woman and the different roles we play.

Let’s share our stories with the world. Show that we are not all alike and cannot be so easily categorized and blamed.

ABC News Interview

Check out the interview with me on ABC News!

Sarah Tressler's Story Spreads

It’s so interesting to watch a news story in its infancy and watch its roots spread everywhere.


Sarah Tressler, the journalist/stripper story has been picked up by all the news sites and she’ll even be appearing on Good Moring America tomorrow.

What I’m finding the most interesting are the comments left by readers on sites.

There are a large number of male respondents making all the typical stripper/whore jokes and then there are a large number of women saying—Umm...who cares?

And then there’s both sexes making comments like—Oh my God, a stripper who has taught at a college? My professors were all old fuddy-duddies! I would have shown up for HER class!

I don’t know what I was expecting. Strippers are easy targets. And hot news.

I can only hope when Tressler is interviewed they ask her more than just about Jeremy Piven’s bland oral sex job.

Sarah Tressler: Reporter by Day; Stripper by Night

The big stripper news today is Sarah Tressler, the 29-year-old society news reporter during the day who strips by night.

The reason anyone is taking notice is because she writes for a conservative Houston paper and then, you know, does something not-so-conservative at night.

According to The Job Mouse: “Richard Connelly, writing on behalf of the Houston Press, exposed the double life of Miss Tressler, reported the Daily Mail.

Connelly wrote that Miss Tressler keeps a Facebook, Twitter profile and blog using the pseudonym ‘Angry Stripper’.”

Perhaps the biggest issue being raised with this story is that Tressler didn’t do a good enough job of leading a double-life. Or, if it was her intent to be found out to create some media attention, then she did a perfect job.

My biggest question for her though is--Aren't you exhausted?!

Dance Moms' Burlesque Fan Dance...Fail!

So there’s this show called Dance Moms on Lifetime, which Gawker points out is the TV network that "celebrates, entertains, and supports women.”

Well, they just had their “Topless Showgirls” episode taken off the air.

Yup, for a dance routine, these 8- to 13-year-old girls pretended to be topless and do a burlesque performance.

Can anybody say ewww?

The show has already aired once, but after a less-than-stellar response, Lifetime has decided to make this episode unavailable—although you can see a clip at Gawker.

In "Topless Showgirls," Pittsburgh dance instructor Abby Lee Miller teaches her students a "classic" burlesque fan dance, which they are to perform in flesh-toned bras to create the "illusion of nudity." The dance must convey that the children are "hot," "mean," and that men "can't afford" them.

Though the girls wince at the prospect of appearing naked onstage and their mothers cringe at the skimpy costumes, the show goes on, and the girls perform at a children's dance competition. "I like to push the envelope," Miller says. "And this is taking it right to the limit."

I guess the idea of sexualizing little girls and the harm it can cause has not crossed the radar of these mothers or producers.

The worst part that can be seen in even this small video clip is that the girls themselves seem very uncomfortable with the whole idea. And even though their own mothers are cringing the whole time, they still send their daughters out on the stage.

At what price do we dress up our little girls and make them enter a grown-up world before they even have a need to wear a bra?

Israel Bans Underweight Models

Israel has made a bold statement to the world by banning underweight models.

Hopefully, this will be the start of more awareness being brought to the destructive world of modeling--not only for the models themselves, but for the young girls who wish to emulate them.

I think Israel has taken an amazing step in the right direction for all women.

Please check out my Huffington Post blog to read more!

Book Promotion and Marketing

My days are so full right now.

I'm learning the ropes on the whole book promotion and marketing scene. I'm really enjoying the experience, but wow--it takes up a lot of time!

And the big news in my youngest's life is that he is all about climbing up the stairs by putting his feet down instead of his knees onto the steps. Major achievement!

The middle child saw a super hero comic in a cereal box and is now addicted to everything super hero. When he puts on his jammies at night he magically transforms into the super hero of the moment--Flash, Iron Man, or Spider Man.

And my oldest's teacher has been telling me how well she's been doing in school: taking charge, looking for extra work, and showing amazing self-confidence.

And life marches forward for me!

So, if you haven't had a chance to read Stripping Down yet, you can read a preview on Amazon.

Also, you can read reviews on Amazon and Goodreads!

Here's a link to a blog by Adrian Magnuson with a review of Stripping Down.

Jennifer Aniston's Beauty Regimen

I’m not sure I’m totally buying into Jennifer Aniston actually spending this much money on her beauty regimen.

According to Nicole Fabian-Weber on Cafe Mom, Jennifer Aniston’s monthly beauty bill is roughly $8,000.

Here’s the alleged beauty breakdown:

•Euoko neck cream made with crystals from the planet Mars, $450

•Tracie Martyn Spa Red Carpet Facials, $50.

•Tracie Martyn goodie bag of products, $390

•Mila Moursi Rejuvinating Serum, $350

•Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar, $2.50

•Dr. Hauschka Rose Day Cream, $40

•Private yoga sessions with Mandy Ingber, $$3,500

•Dietitian Carrie Watt's delivery service, $2,700

Well, this list of expenses does include some food, too, so I’m not sure that’s really fair to include in a list of beauty expenses since, you know, a girl’s got to eat.

I would also think that a lot of these products are probably gifted to her, so she may well use all these things, but is she really spending the money for them?

I suppose the issue that I could see really being serious is—how are other women supposed to compete with that?

The truth is—we aren’t. Just because superstars spend that much attention to their looks doesn’t mean we have to.

It’s easier for us grown women who have realized as well as we can that looks are not what matter to say, who cares? But what about younger, impressionable women who may look to these exemplars of beauty and think they need to look that way, too?

I was going to say, why can’t more stars just be more au naturel in the world? But then they get their photos taken at their worst moments and plastered across a magazine cover.

Who or what will break the cycle?

Lady Gaga Still Struggles with Feelings of Low Self-Worth

I’ll admit I was never the biggest Lady Gaga fan, although I did like a lot of the songs off her first album.

This feature on MSNBC by Courtney Garcia made me like what she represents more.

I’d kind of fallen into the camp who felt she’d been overplayed and that she was just all about being over-the-top to get noticed, but i really hadn’t ever read any interviews with her.

To learn that she experienced bullying as a youth and is open to talk about it gave me newfound respect for her.

Appearing Sunday night on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on Winfrey's OWN network, the singer discussed being bullied as a kid and the impact it’s had on her self-esteem and personal call-to-action as a celebrity activist. The singer says schoolmates threw trash at her and called her a “slut,” and those memories inspire her to promote empowerment through her music and to further anti-bullying initiatives.

“All the praise you receive, something inside of you is scarred by those experiences,” said the 25-year-old singer. “Sometimes I feel worthless.”

The fact that a success like Lady Gaga can still experience feelings of low self-worth even after all she has achieved tells me a lot about how important our early experiences are in making us who we are.

There is something so cathartic about looking at the stories of our lives from the place where we are today. Some artists do their digging through memoir or songwriting and singing or visual arts or dance.

It doesn’t matter what venue or genre we choose to examine our lives—it just seems to matter that we open ourselves to all our stories, both positive and negative—to really come to peace with ourselves, even as we may still struggle with less than perfect feelings about ourselves at times.

Can't a Strip Club Help a Kid Out?

It’s the story about the strip club with a heart of gold, or something like that.

So, a Los Angeles-area little league needed $1,200 to keep their team up and running and a friendly donor came forward with the donation.

Only problem? The aforementioned philanthropist was Jet Strip gentleman's club and now the team is rejecting the generous offer.

Philip Caulfield of the New York Daily News reports that when the league’s chief learned where the money came from, he balked at the offer, which kind of goes against earlier reports that he knew where the money came from. But then the media picked up on the story and, you know, made it into a story, and then how was a little kids’ baseball team really going to be able to take the money without loads of controversy.

Supposedly, Jet Strip has been generous in the past and not wanted any recognition, but only to help. Some of these charities have turned down the club’s help, too.

I do find one mother’s comment about why it doesn’t matter where the money comes from quite sweet.

"Whoever is willing to get behind the kids in a positive way, you know, we have to be willing to support those people as well," local mom Tanya Dempsey told KTLA.”

And while I think that’s great in theory, I’m not quite sure how a bunch of baseball moms and kids would really be able to help support the Jet Strip.

What do you think? Should the team just take the donation and hope the media dies down, or is too late for that?

Another Bad Rap for Strippers by Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins thinks that a lot of artists today are willing to do anything to be noticed.

I would agree. In this culture where if you aren’t a part of the social-media-marketing-tweeting phenomenon, no one may even know you exist.

Trust me, I think most artists, be they musicians, or writers, or visual artists, wish it weren’t that way. But you have to let people know you have something to offer.

The problem, Corgan thinks, has to do with what the goal is. He thinks a lot of artists today have no larger goal with their work other than being famous.

Andrew Martin at Prefix Magazine writes, Billy Corgan Calls New Artists "Strippers," Rants About "Posers" and quotes Corgan:

"[Artists that break through now] have grown up thinking that being famous is the goal," he said. "Not to be respected - not to be dangerous." He compared breakthrough artists to prostitutes, saying, "[once you make that deal] you're just the fresh stripper."

"Don't call it rock and roll," Corgan said. "I was part of a generation that changed the world - and it was taken over by posers.

This really is an important topic. But I think Corgan misses the metaphor by describing these wannabes as “strippers.”

Yes, strippers expose themselves for money’s sake with perhaps no thought of a bigger goal in mind, but that is not always the case.

Poor strippers are being given another bad rap by being the much-maligned group that is only about money and selling one’s soul.

Why not compare these wannabes as Wall Street traders instead? Aren’t they all about selling their souls for money, too? What is their bigger mankind-saving mission?

Oh, wait—or that would just be a generalization and Corgan wouldn’t do that, would he? I mean, he’s all about changing the world and all; I’m sure he doesn’t stereotype people, right?

Women's Image in the Media

Most of the world by now understands that the way women are represented across media does not represent “real” women, but that has not stopped the trend to oversexualize women in the marketplace to sell products.

And although women make up more than 50% of America, they are only “17% of seats in the House of Representatives. They're 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 7% of directors in the top 250 grossing films” according to CNN.

CNN concludes: “We live in a sexualized society where the gap between fantasy and reality is vast and harmful.”

Isn’t this what women have been saying all along?

Perhaps some of the latest documentaries being played across the country will help bring the problem to the surface in a new way and for a new generation.

“Siebel-Newsom's documentary, Miss Representation, is the latest cinematic foray in the movement to challenge portrayals of beauty in "the media," a term used to describe all forms of mass communication, from the internet, TV, film, magazines, radio and advertising...While Miss Representation connects the media's impact to leadership, another documentary examines its influence on perceptions of health and body image. As with beauty, they're not always accurate, says Darryl Roberts, the director behind the America the Beautiful series.”

What do you think it will take to really change the way women are represented in our society?

Do you think the way women are represented in the media will change anytime soon?

You Can Strip, But Not You

This article by Jan Moir for the Daily Mail got me thinking—Stripping off for gold: How our super-fit Olympic hopefuls just can't keep their kit on.

As do so many American athletes, there seems to be a trend in stripping down for the cameras for publicity’s sake.

We expect and accept it from celebrities like actresses and models, but how does the public feel about elite athletes doing the same?

Do athletes posing nude denigrate the sport?

I’m not sure I really see the difference between popular athletes and celebrities. I mean, why should it be acceptable for only some people to make some extra bucks with their bodies and not others? Don’t stars and athletes already make a living off their “bodies”?

Look at Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue. If we’re really going to get upset about something, why not question that age old practice of saying looking at beautiful half-naked women is a sport.

Interview at My Wild Skies

My editor at Pink Fish Press, Sarah Martinez, interviewed me for her Blog, My Wild Skies.

Check out her interview and please leave comments if you are so inclined!

Thank you for your support!

Mila Kunis Talks About the Wrong Way to Lose Weight

Diane Mapes writes Mila Kunis, 'Black Swan' and how extreme diets warp your body for Today health on MSNBC.

Mapes addresses an important issue that I’ve often stressed to my yoga clients—it’s not good to lose weight too fast!

I’ve had female clients who wanted weight loss NOW! I always try to encourage women that rapid weight loss is not only not healthy for you, but can actually cause the exact opposite result of what you are trying to achieve.

“Already lean, Kunis dropped 20 pounds in order to play Natalie Portman's ballerina frenemy in "Black Swan." At 95 pounds, Kunis says "I was muscles, like a little brick house, but skin and bones."

Unfortunately, when she gained the weight back, Kunis says it ended up in completely different places.”

Isn’t this what every mother experiences?

We gain weight rapidly; our poor bodies stretch and moan. Then as quickly as the weight was gained, a vast majority of it is dropped out quite quickly (Well, if you consider ten hours of labor “quick”).

“Andrea N. Giancoli, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says redistributed weight isn't uncommon after drastic weight loss (and weight gain).

"What often happens with extreme weight loss and when you lose weight very quickly is that you lose muscle tissue," she says. "Unfortunately, when we gain the weight back, it comes back as fat."”

This phenomenon has a lot to do with why we see so much yo-yo dieting—ups and downs in weight loss and gain.

“If you're dieting, Giancoli advises you shoot for losing 1-2 pounds a week, which gives your body opportunity to adapt to the weight loss and minimizes the loss of lean tissue and muscle.”

Perhaps some women may not be happy that they won’t see the immediate results they desire, but in the long run (I know it’s sometimes hard to consider that), you’ll be much healthier and happier!

But I'm Going to Be a Doctor One Day!

Gawker explains Stripping To Pay Your Way Through Med School Definitively A Real Thing.

“ABC News points us to an editorial that claims nearly 10% of medical students in the UK, up from 6% in 2006, know someone who has participated in sex work in an effort to pay off the rising cost of medical school...

Past surveys have noted that pole and lap dancing are the most popular type of sex work of which students participate. Stripping is second and prostitution came third, according to the report.”

So where do people really stand on this issue?

Do you think it’s more permissible to be a stripper if a woman is using the money for a greater good?

I mean, if a woman is using her dollar bills to become a doctor, does that make it more acceptable than if she is just partying away her bills?

Stripping Down is Free Today for Kindle!

My memoir Stripping Down is available for free today and tomorrow for Kindle!

Please download a copy and enjoy!

I'd appreciate any reviews you could leave at Amazon or GoodReads!

Stripping as a Feminst Act

Please check out Great Debates, which is a new platform, where Huffington Post pits two expert bloggers against one another to tackle some of today's most pressing issues.

In their first Great Debate, Can Stripping Ever Be Feminist?, stripper-turned-author Sheila Hageman blogs that you can take your clothes off for men and still be a feminist, whilst women's rights campaigner Navprit Rai insists stripping can never be a feminist statement.

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.

Should Breastfeeding Photos Be Kept Private?

Cafe Mom’s April Peveteaux asks: Why Are You Posting Breastfeeding Photos on Facebook, Anyway?

Her feelings are that while breastfeeding is wonderful and all, it should be all about baby and not about mom and her needs.

“Breastfeeding is an intimate act, so why are you sharing it online? I get it if you're a website dedicated to showing women the positive aspects of breastfeeding, and promoting the normalcy so we can all get over our hang-ups. But as an everyday mom just trying to feed your baby, why would you want to take your picture and post it? Breastfeeding is very personal, between you and your baby. Not you and your 3,000 Facebook friends. You don't post pictures of you and your partner in an intimate embrace, do you? And if you do, why in the world would you do that?

That's called over-sharing, people, and it's no wonder your friends get annoyed. Just like you don't want to see a picture of your FB friend in her bikini, maybe she feels weird about seeing your naked breast. (Note, if either of these scenarios is popping up because you're somewhere in public and a group photo is being taken -- all bets are off. I'm talking about posed, on purpose, intimate photos. There's a huge difference.)”

Hmm...I get what the writer is saying, but I think I kind of disagree.

Yes, breastfeeding is about providing the best for one’s baby, but there are obviously a lot of other emotions and issues attached to it for the mother.

And while nursing is an “intimate” act in one sense, it’s also just about eating. Why wouldn’t I post a photo of my child eating?

A lot of mothers may feel the need to also make a stand for the mothers who feel shamed about nursing and posting pics in a public forum can be a show of support, a way of saying—Hey! Look! I’m nursing and there’s nothing wrong about it!

And the thing I just don’t get is that people seem to think that when moms nurse that they’re sitting there with their shirt off giving a show. I’ve never seen a mother just letting it all hang out in public. When a baby is nursing, most of the breast is hidden.

All this controversy over nursing though, with moms being accused of being like strippers for nursing in public though...it’s making me want to show the difference to the world!

Do a little striptease in public and then nurse my baby. The world would see the difference!

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.

Move Over Postpartum Depression

The Huffington Post has an interesting article on a newly studied depression in mothers—not your regular old postpartum, but weaning depression.

“One major contributing factor may be actual physiological changes taking place in the body. Breastfeeding stimulates the production of hormones such as oxytocin, known colloquially as "the love hormone." Mothers' moods may plummet in its absence.

In addition, many women may experience a profound sense of grief and loss when they wean.”

Reading this piece brings me a new sense of relief around some of the mood issues I’ve been dealing with of late. I’ve been sick for over a month now and have dealt with an exhaustion that bewilders me.

I’ve also been weaning my youngest, but very slowly, letting him take the lead.

Perhaps some of what I’ve been experiencing could relate to this weaning process, not only on an emotional level of sadness, but in fluctuations of certain hormones.

“As long as research looking at the "what" and "why" behind depression and weaning remains relatively scant, then, the best mothers may be able to hope for is that awareness of the potential connection spreads.”

Whenever I become aware of a possible connection to some aspect of my depression I feel a new sense of being able to make it through.

I hope this story will resonate with other women experiencing these shifts in mood during weaning and perhaps spark a new wave of research.

SInead O'Connor Wants to Pose for Playboy?

Leave it to Sinead O'Connor to cause a headline by claiming she'd like to pose for Playboy.

Regardless of why she would want to pose for this magazine, I find it more interesting what it brings up for me.

Judgments. Questions.

Wonderings of what it means to be a feminst in this day and age.

Check out my blog on The Huffington Post...

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?

Nude Pregnant Model Wears a Hat

Thank you Daily Mail for this story—Hat's on! But everything else is off... Pregnant glamour model walks the runway naked at London Fashion Week—by Maysa Rawi.

To sum it all up for you, there’s this hat designer who is an unknown and, well, she really wanted some publicity, so, you know, she had a fashion show and she had her models wear hats and nothing else, and oh yeah, one of the models was eight-months pregnant.

And she’s the first one to say the nudity has no artistic meaning or value other than, getting people’s attention.

“Coles, 31, from Pontypool, South Wales, said she wanted to include Cahill, who is a friend from home, because it is rare to see pregnant women on the catwalk.”

Well, I suppose this is good in the sense that an artist is taking a cue from advertisers and doing what it takes to get people to take notice of her wares.

Hmm, should I call her an artist if she herself admitted just doing it for publicity’s sake?

And I don’t see anything too spectacular about the hats, so I imagine the initial burst of publicity will not result in anything momentous, but she did get the free publicity she was looking for.

As for the pregnant model? Cool for her. I bet she felt beautiful walking nude in all her Mama glory. I know whenever I’m pregnant, I feel very secure in my body image because I know people aren’t judging me for my weight gain.

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...