Think about what you just asked.
I’ve noticed far fewer strip clubs are in business. Zoning laws have been changed to make them difficult to stay in business; there’s usually a rule that keeps them more than a certain distance from a school or church, forcing them to outlying areas. I suspect, too, that the people who went there to look at naked women now do it on the Internet.
Even in their prime, most men didn’t go to them frequently. Usually it was just on a lark. My wife and I have both been to them (not together), mostly to see what they were like, but there was nothing that made it worth going again (though I was amused to note the woman was dancing to the Cantina Song from Star Wars).
I’m also noting a decline in prostitution. It still exists, but it’s nothing like it was 60 years ago. In the 1930s, estimates said 80% of men visited a prostitute at some time. That number is ridiculously high today. The sexual revolution was part of it – good girls now would have sex before marriage, plus it’s not a terrible perversion to masturbate. AIDS probably finished it off. There are certainly prostitutes today, but compared to the 19th century, when there were literally tens of thousands of brothels in New York City, it’s far smaller and it’s been declining.
The reason it’s used in sitcoms is simple: it’s funny, mostly because the character is talking openly about something most men would be secretive about. For dramas, it’s used to titillate the audience.
Yes, things have changed that much. Up to the mid '80s there were a lot of so called “peep shows” and strip clubs in Germany. Most red-light districts had quite a few. Most have been replaced by sex shops.
I think one big factor has been the steady influx of prostitutes from Eastern Europe since the late 80’s. Probably, most potential “customers” now think: why go to a strip bar and spend a ton of money, when I can have sex with a good looking prostitute for 20 Euros. (about 27 bucks). And yes, that is the current going rate in Frankfurt.
That sounds about right, although as noted above (and as you would have seen in “The Wrestler”) strip clubs often have regular clients.
I can’t speak about Europe, but in North America it’s not uncommon for a group of young single guys to frequently go to a certain restaurant (or bar) for dinner (or drinks) because of the hot waitresses (or bartenders) that work there. So going to a certain strip club for drinks is just a couple of naughtiness steps above that. Instead of ogling your favourite waitress(es) or bartender(s), you ogle your favourite dancer(s).
Polar bear, it looks like you haven’t been comparison shopping enough.
They haven’t changed that much in the US since the 1960s – we still have plenty of strip clubs.
So, yeah, I did.
Actually it is 30 euros in the laufhauser, at least 50 in the (major clubs). There might be some girls/hauses where less is possible, but 30 is the standard.
I don’t need to go to Germany for those kind of prices; there is reason other places have a bit higher rate;).
Female here, and mrAru and I would go to the enlisted men’s club at Fort Story [army base in Virginia Beach VA] when we lived in Va back in the late 80s. They had stripper night on Wednesday night, with 25 cent wings. We went mainly for the wings, and to hang out with a bunch of guys from his boat division [he was a submariner, on the USS Spadefish SSN668 at the time]
Most of the times we would meet up with guys off the boat and hit strip clubs, it was mainly for the drinking, slight voyeurism and hanging out with seminaked scenery aspect. None of the guys were looking to get laid as a result of the strippers. I don’t mind watching skin, and tended to be along as the nondrinking driver. I got to have soft drinks free=)
I dated a stripper in the early 90’s and frequented stripclubs, usually having a couple of drinks waiting for her to get off work. (being the bf, I got in free)
Most of the clientele were men in their early 20’s, usually in small groups. Often they were frat boys. The solitary “regulars” were guys with more money than sense who had no idea how to have a real conversation with a woman. Sometimes they were creepy or sleazy, but not always.
Frankly, I never understood the appeal. It’s extremely expensive, at best frustrating(most of the women had bf’s or gf’s) and at worst boring. When I sat at the bar waiting for my gf, I was often working crossword puzzles.
It’s not all just innocent fun, nor is it a victimless operation in most cases. The proliferation of strip clubs is usually a symptom of an uptick in sex trade. Portland has a huge number of strip joints, and this corresponds with Portland being 2nd in the nation in sex trade, attracting hookers, junkies, dealers and pimps alike. Women strip for a variety of reasons, not all of which are to buy drugs, but to dismiss it as a harmless activity and nobody’s business but their own is to turn a blind eye to sexual predation and dehumanization of women.
I believe you’re over analyzing it. I’m 27 and virtually every man in my age range that I know has been to a strip club at least once and I don’t think any of them felt they were being cool or daring or rebellious. They go or went to see some titties.
It’s like speculating why people go to the grocery store to buy chicken. They do it to get some chicken.
For what it’s worth, in my peer group, I don’t know anyone who goes regularly, but most people would go for a special occasion like a bachelor party without a second thought.
Going to a stripclub is sort of like going to a bar. If you go to one occasionally as a social event with friends, it’s not seen as a big deal. If you spend forty hours a week there by yourself, you’re going to be seen as a loser.
I’ve been to a strip club once but every other guy who was there was a sad loser.
Seriously though, I’m really just there with my buddies to have some drinks and see some titties. Mostly because I like drinking and watching titties.
Most guys don’t go to strip clubs as a stand-in for going to a prostitute. Occassionally you read about a shadier club getting busted for prostitution and I have met guys who have paid for sex at some of the higher end Manhattan clubs (but the price is pretty astronomical). But for the most part, it is mostly frat guys and groups of businessmen blowing off steam having some harmless fun.
Again thanks for the opinions (now that we’re in IMHO;)). So it seems it is mostly a group thing, and maybe a small step ‘up’ from places like Hooters (which are also pretty rare around here, as far as I know). So what about lapdances an private dances? Is getting one of these only common for the regular customers throwing away their money (as some here described it)? Does getting a lapdance turn you into a perv immediately, or is it also the norm during these group outings (aside from the obligatory lapdance for the groom)?
The Dutch guys in this thread paint an accurate picture; there are hardly any stripclubs catering to Dutch guys in the Netherlands.
As has been discussed in this old thread, nudity doesn’t mean the same in the Netherlands as it does in mainstream USA. Nudity in itself isn’t taboo, isn’t sexual to the Dutch. That works both ways; the Dutch are more comfortable when normal people are naked. We aren’t freaked out by accidentally being exposed to women breastfeeding, nude beaches, daddy taking pictures of his naked soapy kid in the tub; naked kids playing around, people of all ages baring most of themselves on a hot day in the park.
On the other hand, nudity in beautiful models isn’t as tintillating as it is in the USA. Sure, Duchmen like to see a naked woman; but it is less of a big deal for them to have a woman unclothing herself to them. It’s just more “meh” , not something a Dutch guy would pay good money for.
Sex we do consider sexual though, so we do have prostitutes. Just no stripclubs.
“Some friends of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a strip club, and I didn’t…want to go. But I ended up going, 'cause—back me up on this, fellas—once you’ve seen one woman naked, you…pretty much wanna see the rest of 'em naked.” -comedian Ron White
At my suggestion, my dad took me to some strip clubs on my 21st birthday. In my mid-twenties I frequented a strip club, going about every other month for about a year. I went less frequently later, but I still went fairly often. I’ve been twice with friends in the last year or so and I didn’t really want to go either time. I’ve matured and outgrown them. I don’t find them fun anymore.
I found that, too. Weird.
The only time I’ve been to one was on a stag weekend in Brussels. It was pretty low-rent, in fact a lapdance cost less than a Snickers bar in my hotel minibar :rolleyes:
(5 euros versus 5.50 euros, as I recall)
+1. Plus there’s an element of you’d feel fairly pathetic if the only way you could get an atractive girl to talk to you was to pay her, which is the case in many instances when one finds himself paying for dances. (What a fair number of people may not realize is that the strippers make as much of their money from just talking to the guy, sharing details of their life, their likes and dislikes, as though they were your girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong, the nekkidness and (with a lapdance) contact are also part of the package). But having a stripper serve as your girlfriend proxy is pretty sad stuff if you’ve got any introspection.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-think-that-stripper-really-liked-me,10883/
To the OP: most American guys have visited a strip club a handful of times. Usually for bachelor parties (even when the bachelor insists no stripclubs, by the end of the night someone will inevitably force the issue). Most women would roll their eyes at it in the context of a bachelor party.
In some contexts, more regular visits might be deemed in the mainstream. In my little college town, strip clubs were everywhere and served as sort of hybrid sports bars/nekkid emporia. They had really good food that was free with the (fairly hefty) cover. Some guys would just go to lunch there like no big deal. Then in business, it was far from unheard of to take clients to such clubs and then expense it. But this was a very jockish redneck culture of work. I’d not in a million years consider that in my current job and locale.
Nor want to. It’s expensive, sterile (well, not microbially), fake. and in addition to the girls being faux-friendly to con tips out of you, you will routinely read about how they push you to order more and more special dances, drinks for the girls, bottle of Cristal, so some drunk businessman ends up with a $25,000 tab for 20 bottles of vodka or Champagne that may or may not have even been poured.
So – it (visiting strip clubs)happens, it’s not super shameful, it happens more among, well, the Charlie Sheen demographic, but it’s not a regular occurrence for the great majority of American guys.