Those who know me here probably remember that I have a pretty long history as a stripper, I’m a “lifer” if you will. It’s not all that often I wanna take on morons when they say stupid crap about us, but this was just beyond the pale. My comments are under Andygirl, and, well, I’ll just copy/paste because I really am that proud of myself, lol.
This gave way to a 50 comment thread on FB and some pretty solid discussions this weekend, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t share it with my Dopers. I don’t think any of us would ever deny there’s a darkside to sex work, but we don’t need a guy like Bill to make us into victims, or speak for us. I do think his heart is in the right place, which is why I didn’t just rip him a new one, but I don’t think I’m done schooling him.
he probably also has a mountain of “cites” and “reports” to prove his point. Don’t you know that 150 million American women are at risk of being victimized while stripping? The time to act is now! Think of the strippers :eek:
Well, I follow a sexual abuse survivor group on Facebook, and normally keep my mouth shut because I’m not an abuse survivor, but I’m there to be supportive and shit. Then this got posted the other night and I knew I couldn’t or shouldn’t say everything on my nasty mind right there, so I just sort of thought about it. Then I posted it for my strippers to read, then I couldn’t stop formulating a response and got out of bed and went to town.
If I took the time to respond to every person who “got it wrong,” that’s all I’d ever do. But something about this guy calling himself a feminist, getting it all wrong, and framing us as victims just trying to feed all of our illegitimate babys and drug habits, and abusive baby daddies… It just got my brain going and my writer’s imagination workin’, which hasn’t happened in awhile so I figured I better roll with it.
And I really want to share the thread that came when I shared this with my girls, but I need to figure a way to do that so a few thousand people don’t all get their names and shit, haha. That would not be ok.
Let me also add that even though I’ve made some statements here, I don’t speak for all strippers, nor do I deny there are dirty clubs, and negative aspects to sex work. But I’ve known 15 years worth of real life strippers, and over 10 years of online ones, from two different sites that are both pretty big. So it’s not an overstatement to say I’ve got some pretty solid data, however informal.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with women being strippers nor do I think they are inherently “exploited” as some people seem to think. It’s a job. Whatever. It does take some nerve to do it, I think, because many people in our society do look down on it.
Did you see The Wrestler and did you think it was a good or bad portrayal of a stripper (Marisa Tomei’s character)?
I thought it was ok, until the scene where the fratboy is rude to her and she starts kissing his ass. Everything up to that, his words, rang true, but I’ve never seen a stripper beg and plead and make nice like that. It made me want to shake her and say “snap out of it!”
Could you refresh my memory on exactly what was said in that scene? I can’t remember. Didn’t she get mad because the guy said she was too old, or something like that?
He said something about her age, trying to dismiss her or something and she pretty much groveled and kissed his ass so he’s “let” her dance for him. In a packed club, looking like Marisa fucking Tomei.
Loved everything except that 10 secs of The Wrestler, it really pulled me out of it for a minute.
Honorable mention goes to Jessica Biel in Powder Blue for two or three of the sexiest on screen stripper dances of all time. Realistic? Not entirely, but I liked it. I liked it a lot.
It’s not all that often I wanna take on morons when they say stupid crap about us, but this was just beyond the pale. My comments are under Andygirl, and, well, I’ll just copy/paste because I really am that proud of myself, lol.
