STRIP CLUBS ACCORDING TO STRIPPERS PART 3

[seabeyond]

Money

Women in stripping are overwhelmingly motivated by the promise of wealth or a will to survive (Skipper and McCaghy 1970; Ronai 1992; Thompson and Harred 1992). Stripclub owners, managers, pimps and the media portray stripping as a glamorous way to earn big money fast and use this strategy to lure young women into stripping. Women in this study report the best part of stripping to be the money. "The only part that keeps me there is the money". At the same time, women are trapped and disappointed by the money. "I hated it…but glad I had it at the time for the income." "Women are reduced to exposing genitals for $1 bills." "It pays the bills… if we could pay bills another way we would." "The bar owners and management are exploitative, they steal money." "It’s hard to get out because of the money." With respect to the money strippers seek to earn, they in turn must pay out fines, kickbacks, 100% of their social security insurance and taxes, travel and hotel expenses, and the costs for costumes, tanning, and plastic surgery. Women report that they have to have the right attitude to make money (Ronai 1992). This ordinarily was described as being drunk, high or numb (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997). Others feel it required tolerance. "The ability to ignore customers for just being there." Most women say it is easier when the men are tipping regularly and when they do not have to interact with men intimately. Women acknowledge that strippers measure their worth according to the amount of tips they earn and that they want attention, acceptance, and approval from the customers because it brings money (Futterman 1992).

Skills

Women in stripping feel it doesn’t take much skill to be a stripper (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Skipper and McCaghy 1970). "It would be nice to say women need dance talent but it’s not true." "Tits, pussy, and blonde hair is all it takes." Instead they referred to dissociation to abuse. "It takes a willingness to do it…anybody can do it." "It takes somebody who can shut themselves off and be really fake." "…the ability to take a lot of abuse." They state a stripper needs a good head on her shoulders, an open mind, guts, strength, and survival skills. They believe they need abuse counseling, a lifeline from the "outside world", and education about what’s really going on. "Need to know they have options, that they aren’t always going to be a ‘ho’." Women in stripping want a union to protect strippers, decent working conditions, fair treatment, and an end to cruelty by management. Lastly, strippers think that women and girls don’t know what they are getting into when they first start dancing. "It’s really harmful because it is so benign, so accepted." "Girls think they will have fun dancing and get paid, they have no idea they have to fight men’s hands, and dicks, and tongues, and then fight for every fucking dollar bill you earn." "It was a lot different than I originally thought."

Men

The women in this study condemn the men associated with stripping and the impact stripping has on them as the worst parts of stripping. Women do not like the way customers treat them (Thompson and Harred 1992). Furthermore they say they do not like talking to customers, asking men 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. Women characterize customers as scum, psycho mama’s boys, rapists and child molesters, old perverted men, idiots, assholes, and pigs. Strippers are largely disgusted by customers and describe them as pitiful and pathetic, stupid and ignorant, sick, controlling and abusive. "They smell so sour, they breathe very heavy and kind of wheeze when women are near." "They are weak abusers who have to subordinate women and girls to feel like a man." "I see my dad. They’re old enough to be my father." "Yuck. I am repulsed by the sight, sound, smell, and touch of them." "I’m embarrassed for them." The women offer insightful evaluations of stripclub customers. They say that these men do not know how to communicate. Moreover, they perceive that customers are out of control, have power and abuse problems, and will do anything to degrade women because they hate women. Strippers also state that customers want a free show and think women are cheap. In contrast, a few women positively perceived some customers as nice and added they are thankful to those who tip well.

*

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Men associated with stripclubs use force and coercion to establish sexual contact with women in stripping, proposition women for prostitution, intentionally inflict bodily harm upon the women, and expose themselves to the women. These actions are prohibited by law, yet when these crimes are committed against women in stripclubs, the general attitude that strippers deserve what they get prevails. Women’s complaints of abuse are met with contempt and are dismissed by owners, managers, and staff. Women are customarily told to ignore abuse and have been rebuffed with "Go bend over and do your job" and "You have to expect a certain amount of that." In the case of women in stripping, enduring sexual violence is part of her job description. Women in stripping are expected to endure these abuses, degradations, and humiliations with a smile and a "Thank You".


http://www.shelleylubben.com/strip-clubs-according-strippers-part-3

[redqueen]

1. There's a kickstarter page for a new documentary on this subject.

The filmmaker presents a very balanced view, from what it sounds like.

http://thefeministwire.com/2012/07/license-to-pimp/


When there is talk of workers’ rights and labor laws, most of us have already formed a specific image of the workers in question, and some, even if vague, idea of possible legislative inequities. In her upcoming documentary, License to Pimp, filmmaker Hima B. challenges mainstream perceptions of labor rights revealing the gender discrimination and misogyny at the root of work practices in strip clubs. The three women at the center of License to Pimp tell stories that situate the workplace dynamics in clubs and the decisions made by dancers in the context of the global devaluation of women’s work. Hima B. courageously documents protest in a historically contentious site for gender politics, the strip joint, and raises important questions about what happens at the intersection of sexual expression, female bodies, work and capital.

Filmed in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, License to Pimp chronicles the battles strippers face as their places of work transition from strip clubs to, essentially, brothels. The primary cause for this shift is the stage fees strippers are charged in order to even be able to dance in clubs in the first place. Dancers must, in effect, pay for the right to work. Stage fees can cost a stripper a minimum of $100 or more per shift, and are derived from workers’ tips. This fee is compounded by the fact that strippers are not paid a minimum wage. Both of these acts are, by the way, illegal. As it is extraordinarily difficult to meet the stage fee requirement and leave a shift with any earnings of their own from just stripping or lap dancing, License to Pimp shows how women struggle with the alternatives. In the film, Lola quickly realizes that her co-workers are making up the financial shortfall by prostituting in the clubs – a decision that although not always verbally mandated by male club owners, is endorsed in other ways beyond the leveling of stage fees. For example, when Hima speaks to a strip club manager about the cameras in private rooms, he tells her they are less a means of security and more a tool used by the club to demand additional payouts based on the prostitution they observe occurring between strippers and customers in these rooms. Women who choose not to engage in prostitution are often ultimately pushed out of employment in clubs because they are generally unable to make the cost of the stage fee, and/or feel increasingly uncomfortable with the brothel-like atmosphere prevalent in the club. The choices women working in strip clubs must negotiate can seem foreign to anyone unfamiliar with the adult entertainment industry and the contradictory priorities that can emerge in the lives of working women.

Daisy Anarchy, Lola and Mariko, the characters animating the central narrative threads in License to Pimp, reflect three very different responses to the illegal labor practices in San Francisco strip clubs. Each respectively fights, adapts to, and quits the clubs. Part of the brilliance of Hima B.’s documentary lies in her non-judgmental approach to each woman’s strategic response, and the longitudinal lens through which we are able to fully comprehend the complexity of their circumstances. The documentary covers 8 years in the course of the rising tension between strippers, club owners, state legislators, law enforcement officers and the general public. Daisy Anarchy decides to formally fight the system by demanding that local and state agencies protect strippers’ rights as employees. Lola is an underage Latina immigrant who feels forced to cross the line she has established between exotic dancer and prostitute when her mother needs ongoing cancer treatment and her income becomes critical to supporting her family. Lola’s story is innovatively and provocatively brought to life through animation to conceal her identity. Because she was previously retaliated against by the club, she wants to prevent further backlash against herself and her family for coming forward with her full story. The documentary also follows Mariko, a UC Berkeley educated Asian American woman, as she maneuvers through the sex work industry on her own, working for herself, as she is determined to maintain as much control as possible over her clientele and the retention of 100% of her earnings. In addition to Daisy, Lola and Mariko, Hima B., inserts her own experience as a former stripper faced with the same illegal, intimidating and dangerous labor practices that challenge her protagonists.

What is made abundantly clear in License to Pimp, however, is that the stories do not end and begin with these four vastly different and uniquely brave women. It is the honesty in Daisy, Lola, Mariko and Hima’s stories that expose the thousands of other women who, whether silent or vocal, must contend with a type of gender-based workplace discrimination that, in many ways, goes unnoticed by the rest of society. The social meanings and social values attributed to women who work as exotic dancers prevent them from being seen as engaged in legitimate work in the first place, let alone worthy of employment rights. But, License to Pimp, in telling full and richly textured stories does not allow the viewer to make loose assumptions about the underlying intentions of the strippers who demand labor equity, nor does the film make it easy for us to draw lines between these so called conscious or progressive strippers and those strippers who supposedly contribute to workplace violations. The tangle of labor laws and the ability of club owners to define “rights” through methods that further exploit women is shown in License to Pimp in ways that demonstrate why some strippers resist the push to be classified as employees and instead opt to be misclassified as independent contractors. These women would rather find space to move within the shift from strip club to brothel rather than fight from within the legal system. Savvy and greedy club owners soon realize that when strippers win the legislative battle to become newly classified employees, they can simply alter the terms of their power over strippers by demanding, as their employers, that they meet lap dance quotas and fulfill other minimum shift requirements that simply take the place of the stage fees and non-existent minimum wage.

...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/himab/license-to-pimp-documentary

[ismnotwasm]

2. Yeah I did my share many years ago

It sounds as though hasn't changed much. Back then, I figured I'd hold on to more self esteem by selling drugs, so that's what I did, not being a big fan of excessive male attention. Stripping for a living was bullshit for me, I don't care how much money you can make. It's also dangerous as hell. Which is why protection, both physical and economical should be in place.

[seabeyond]

4. it seems like so many of us,

had to make these decisions at a young age. i, too, was in a position at just 18, deciding whether i could step into this world or not. not. seemed to be a deciding factor in the course i walked life, in this area.

[seabeyond]

3. discrimination and misogyny at the root of work practices in strip clubs

why would it be anything else. why would people pretend or even consider it to be anything else.

their places of work transition from strip clubs to, essentially, brothels.

i have been reading this. i have heard this from strippers. and for exactly the reasons. pay to work.


interesting. thanks.

[redqueen]

5. She reached her fundraising goal!