Maybe I’ve gone to too many strip clubs, maybe I’ve known too many strippers … but this is one thing that I am not in support of and don’t even get me started on “Go-Go Dancers” (you are not classier because you don’t call yourself a stripper—just be a stripper already)!
When I read that The Lusty Lady, the nation’s only employee-owned, unionized strip club, is in financial trouble and in danger of closing down I thought “so what.” I don’t care and I don’t think it’s “feminist” and I don’t think it matters that it’s owned by women or that they make an effort to employ “diverse body types and ethnically diverse dancers”. Not even you, Dolores:
“We’re a San Francisco institution,” said Dolores, a dancer since 2005 who named herself for Mission Dolores Park. “If you can walk into a place, pay a dollar, see a beautiful nude girl and give her a wave, there’s something to be said for that.”
No, Dolores, there isn’t. Nothing good has ever come from a strip club and nothing good has ever brought someone to work in one. A strip club is a strip club is a strip club!
Just because stripping has become “mainstream” with pole-dancing exercise classes does not make it less degrading. I’m sorry, but I think stripping on a stage for dollar bills is degrading. Crawling on a filthy stage, sliding down a germ-filled pole (not every club wipes them down I’ve only seen two that actually have people go on and Clorox those poles), so that men can make you “dance for them” is just awful to me. And again, that’s my opinion. I know plenty of women who feel that stripping for cash “empowers” them, but that’s a debate for … well, for the comments section.
Before everyone jumps down my throat, I have no problem with stripping for your boyfriend. I have no problem with dressing up, and I have no problem with feeling empowered through your sexuality. I do, however, have a problem with girls who clearly have some underlying issues, be it daddy issues, or self-worth issues, who feel that their worth is somehow measured by the amount of dollar bills waved at them.
Like I said, maybe I’ve been to too many clubs, or known too many “dancers”; heard too many horror stories, and see too many “lap dances” in the “V.I.P” room. I’ve written several times in support of porn, and in support of whatever women want to do with their bodies. I even started a new feminist movement where it’s “whatever as long as no one gets hurt,” but I have never heard of a strip club experience where someone doesn’t get hurt. Whenever I walk into a strip club, it’s never an overwhelming sense of “this is a fine place to be” it’s always “this is a seedy, dark place to be.” There’s just a bad energy … and I’ve been to high-roller strip clubs.
Me? I’m very sorry The Lust Lady, but I don’t care that you’re going under. In fact, I’m okay with the fact that in a down economy, strip clubs are taking a hit, too. I feel sorry that some people will be out of a job, but maybe they’ll wake up and realize that they are so much more than just “lusty ladies.”
