# Why strippers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813 "2011-08-07T06:58:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/21 "2011-08-07T18:10:19Z")
I like looking at titties. Being that I’m married to a man, I don’t get to see them live and in person unless I’m at a strip club. That being said, I only go to strip clubs maybe once every couple years. Usually for a bachelorette party or some friend’s birthday or something. But when I do go, I enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/22 "2011-08-07T20:29:50Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Because if you don’t properly prepare the surface, the original paint will continue to separate from the surface and then take the new paint with it, leaving dull, ugly patches. \ > > … > > I just wanted to comment on the absurdity of **jamiemcgarry’s** statement “Plus, they don’t have to do any real work.” > > First, go walk around in dressy heels for eight hours. Not businesswoman’s shoes, but tall-assed things with sharp spikes. Sit down for a little bit here and there, but for the most part keep moving. > > No, wait, there’s more. Every fifteen to twenty minutes, don’t just walk around; _dance_. How do you feel? No, wait, not done yet. Between stage dances, walk around and work on selling yourself. Selling and ingratiating yourself harder than any used car salesman could dream of. Easy-seeming or not, you’re not the only one with tits in the place so you can’t just rely on your dental work. > > Oops, not done yet. After you make a ‘sale’, between your stage dances, now you get to shake your ass for a lap dance. Keep going, you only have to make it through eight hours of this. > > …and smiling the whole time. > > Not work? There may be enjoyable times, it may be fun for a night or a few, but _not work_? You plucked my statement out of it’s context. I didn’t suggest that being a stripper, as a profession, meant that they never had to work. If you had pasted my entire point, it would have said that I was talking about strippers who have the wealthy “regulars” who will pay them large sums of money to do not much more than sit at their tables all night and keep them company. And I said that this perk usually only goes to the “hottest of the hot” strippers. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/23 "2011-08-07T20:42:10Z")
I agree with the OP. I mean why look when you can’t touch? And maybe these girls, you might not want to, the ones you might be able to touch, likely everybody else has too. Never been to a strip club, never will. I have been to a strip mall. But that isn’t really the same thing, is it. My analogy to strip clubs - if you’re starving to death, would you want to watch a family eat a thanksgiving dinner? Or would it be better to keep your mind off your hunger - until point in time you can meet someone decent for some healthy eating? ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/24 "2011-08-07T21:39:42Z")
Male here 40’ish. I haven’t been to a strip club in years , maybe close to a decade. I was into it when I turned of age for awhile. But don’t really see the appeal in it anymore. There’s a strip bar near my place of work some times some of the guys will go there for lunch, no thanks. Don’t want any form of dingle berry near my food, no matter how hot she is. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/25 "2011-08-07T21:55:09Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s the whole **decedent** , bacchanalian, fall-of-Rome thing. What can be better than being around wine, women and song? I guess we know who watches zombie porn. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/26 "2011-08-07T22:03:29Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > It’s just a tease, isn’t it? I mean, sure it gets you hard. But if you can’t jerk off what’s the point? . So you jerk off every time you look at porn and get hard. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/27 "2011-08-07T22:04:37Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > And why are they still called “strippers?” As if it’s 1937 and onstage is a woman working her way down to pasties and a g-string. Isn’t it pretty much a WYSIWYG event nowadays? Butt floss and high heels from start to finish? When I was a stripper in the early 1990s I’d strip down from an evening gown some nights, or from some other multi-item outfit. Never just a bikini. To answer the question in the OP, a lot of the guys are lonely and want someone to talk to. Sure, they get a dance, and watch the girls on stage, but they also get girls to sit down and talk with them. And it’s not even generally about sex stuff. Most of the guys I’d talk to would just have normal conversations about work, family, travel, etc. They just wanted someone attractive to pay attention to them and talk to them and then show them their boobies. I’ve been to strip clubs where there was less sitting and talking. I’ve also worked (for a month, in Texas) at a club where while sitting with the guy you were expected to sit on his lap, which I found uncomfortable, but I did it anyway. You weren’t allowed to do it in a thong–you had to have your butt covered. Oh, just thought of some other stuff. Guys sometimes came in to get in the mood to go back home to their girlfriends/wives. Or sometimes they brought them in to get in the mood together. I’ve done plenty of table dances for women who were there with their boyfriends/husbands. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/28 "2011-08-07T22:10:17Z")
> [@OneMissedPost](#): > > I find strip clubs to be very sketchy at best, which is why they don’t really attract me. They are usually located in the seedy parts of the city, which is somewhere I would rather not be located. The girls are not even that attractive. Plus, I hate the stripper smell and strip clubs are far from clean. This varies heavily from place to place. Even within the same city, but some cities are known for better establishments in general than others. There are some I wouldn’t set foot in, and there are some that serve 4 star food on china with cloth napkins and are immaculate. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/29 "2011-08-07T23:19:20Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > It’s just a tease, isn’t it? I mean, sure it gets you hard. But if you can’t jerk off what’s the point? Getting turned on without a method of release is just torture. I wonder the same thing every time I hear about a guy getting in trouble for surfing porn at work. Sure, [some people masturbate at work](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=564152), but most people don’t… so you’d think with complaints about how much blue balls suck, work would be the last place you’d want to get yourself in a state. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/30 "2011-08-07T23:20:20Z")
Strippers are legal in most jurisdictions, hookers aren’t. Portland is sorta famous for their strip clubs. I went to some on my 21st birthday with my dad. I went to them a lot in my twenties. They helped me get through some very lonely times in my life. I’m not as keen on them as I used to be. I got dragged to one on my last birthday. I went to one about a month ago when I was with some friends. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/31 "2011-08-07T23:37:44Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Why strippers? I don’t get it. Yeah, novelty factor OK. Bachelor party fine. But to stay in the black they must need some repeat customers. What don’t you get about going to a place where you can drink and watch really hot girls dance topless/naked? > [@jackdavinci](#): > > It’s just a tease, isn’t it? I mean, sure it gets you hard. But if you can’t jerk off what’s the point? Getting turned on without a method of release is just torture. > > It’s cheaper than prostitutes, but with zero fulfillment. Ahhhhhh…not…always. At some places, the line between “stripper” and “prostitute” can be sort of blurry. And expensive. > [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > Alot of lonely but wealthy (ier) older men are exactly who make up the vast majority of these “regulars” that most strippers depend on for regular income. They will pay these girls hundreds of dollars just to sit with them for the entire evening. They may drink, get lap dances, talk or whatever but she is his for the night. It can be very lucrative for the girls. Plus, they don’t have to do any real work. The men are delighted to spend money on a tight, young girl to have this girl shower him with sexual attention. It’s just a fantasy world. In their real lives, they often have ZERO contact/intimacy with women at all. Unless you are talking about the weird 80 year old regular, I would disagree with this statement. For a group of my friends, it sort of became a regular hangout. But these aren’t slobbering geeks who repel women. (well…mostly). They are guys with incomes ranging from $150k to $400k or more who just like to party. Then again, these guys also sort of have a bit of what one might call a drinking problem and their attitudes towards women probably isn’t the healthiest. And consider this. It probably doesn’t work out to much more than the same group of guys throwing down for bottle service at a fancy club. The girls are professional so you don’t have to deal with any sort of drama (mostly). And they get naked (or topless) on command. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/32 "2011-08-08T00:08:10Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > What don’t you get about going to a place where you can drink and watch really hot girls dance topless/naked? > > Ahhhhhh…not…always. > > At some places, the line between “stripper” and “prostitute” can be sort of blurry. And expensive. > > Unless you are talking about the weird 80 year old regular, I would disagree with this statement. For a group of my friends, it sort of became a regular hangout. But these aren’t slobbering geeks who repel women. (well…mostly). They are guys with incomes ranging from $150k to $400k or more who just like to party. Then again, these guys also sort of have a bit of what one might call a drinking problem and their attitudes towards women probably isn’t the healthiest. > > And consider this. It probably doesn’t work out to much more than the same group of guys throwing down for bottle service at a fancy club. The girls are professional so you don’t have to deal with any sort of drama (mostly). And they get naked (or topless) on command. Yes, but are you and your friends the types that spend lots of money ON THE GIRLS? Do the strippers make a lot of money off of you and your friends? And does this money come at relative ease? If not, then you are NOT the clientele I was referring to in my post. Yes, you and your type make up a large percentage of the overall customer base in alot of strip clubs BUT it is the specific type of client that I previously described that make up a large part of many strippers regular income. These clients are mostly lonely, older men (married and unmarried) who have a fair amount of discretionary income (or at least flaunt it as if they do) who pay these girls A LOT of money to be their only interest for the entire night. That, many times, means nothing more than drinking with them, talking with them, flirting and touching and maybe giving a lap dance or two. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/33 "2011-08-08T02:36:30Z")
I’m not sure how this fits into the discussion, but it’s an interesting observation. In Ontario, lap dancing was legalized some time ago. A lot of strippers adn strip clubs weren’t happy about it because, they said, it would inevitably force all clubs to become lap dancing clubs. Well, they were right. All strip clubs are lap dancing clubs now, and in Ontario “lap dance” usually means you can touch every part of the woman except her pussy while she’s rubbing yourself all over you. And to be quite honest with you - I have not availed myself of the service but it’s been offered, and it’s a rather poorly kept open secret - most strip clubs are now outright whorehouses; once in the lap dancing area, the dancer will begin negotiating the price of various sex acts. As to why men like strippers who DON’T offer blowjobs, I think to be honest that men will take pretty much anything from women that they can get. But if they start talking about making full contact lap dancing available in your jurisdiction, and strippers complain that they’ll be forced to d it or leave the job, just remember, they’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/34 "2011-08-08T03:03:09Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m not sure how this fits into the discussion, but it’s an interesting observation. > > In Ontario, lap dancing was legalized some time ago. A lot of strippers adn strip clubs weren’t happy about it because, they said, it would inevitably force all clubs to become lap dancing clubs. > > Well, they were right. All strip clubs are lap dancing clubs now, and in Ontario “lap dance” usually means you can touch every part of the woman except her pussy while she’s rubbing yourself all over you. > > And to be quite honest with you - I have not availed myself of the service but it’s been offered, and it’s a rather poorly kept open secret - most strip clubs are now outright whorehouses; once in the lap dancing area, the dancer will begin negotiating the price of various sex acts. > > As to why men like strippers who DON’T offer blowjobs, I think to be honest that men will take pretty much anything from women that they can get. But if they start talking about making full contact lap dancing available in your jurisdiction, and strippers complain that they’ll be forced to d it or leave the job, just remember, they’re right. Yeppers. And this trend can compel some otherwise legitimate strippers to begin to offer “extras” in order to compete and make money amidst a club full of prostitutes. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/35 "2011-08-08T03:06:24Z")
Because the worst day with boobies is better than the best day with no boobies. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/36 "2011-08-08T04:57:02Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > My analogy to strip clubs - if you’re starving to death, would you want to watch a family eat a thanksgiving dinner? Bad analogy… what if you aren’t starving to death (seeing boobs is rarely life or death) but you just like food… seems like the food network is pretty popular. Or if you like fine art but can’t afford to have it in your own home… is it wrong to go to a museum? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/37 "2011-08-08T05:47:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And to be quite honest with you - I have not availed myself of the service but it’s been offered, and it’s a rather poorly kept open secret - most strip clubs are now outright whorehouses; once in the lap dancing area, the dancer will begin negotiating the price of various sex acts. This has been my experience as well. If you are lonely and desperate, you can get laid by a hot chick from $200-$500. If you think that price is outrageous, then you can get laid by the crack whore selling herself on the street corner. Like you, I never got to the point where I needed to engage in those services, but after a few minutes of chitchat and a drink or two, they would always start offering. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/38 "2011-08-08T05:58:58Z")
When I first went to see them in the 70s (with me in my 20s), for me it was the sexual thrill of seeing women willingly performing for your viewing pleasure. There was little chance that you were going to actually get off there, aside from jerking off in the mens, which certainly happened - the exception being the lucky guys who were invited onstage to participate … remember that this was before there was any STD that penicillin wouldn’t cure. The women I interacted with in that milieu had an actual connection with the audience, these days it is so pro-forma that (as the OP intimates) there is little point. You did actually feel that they were getting some reward for the rapt male attention other than the money. We used to get them moving around the audience, allowing pretty much any degree of touch; common though it may have been to them I still value a moment when one of them looked me in the eye from a few inches away and say how nice what I was doing to her felt. Even from this distance in time I believe that some of them got some validation of themselves as women from being so obviously lusted over. Stripping in this town has more or less become drug-addled stick-thin prostitutes touting for business, and is just Not Fun Any More. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > Do you have any idea how much they charge for a beer in a strip joint? And the girls will often need to have a drink bought for them while they mingle between their sets. They get very expensive fruit juice or soda. > Strippers exist to seperate young men from their money for the bar owners. You have answered the question “what is the economics behind stripping” rather than the OP’s actual question “why do men bother to go see strippers”. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/39 "2011-08-08T06:59:13Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > I guess we know who watches zombie porn. > > 😉 Hey, don’t knock it 'till you’ve _BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS!_ ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813/40 "2011-08-08T10:45:59Z")
In my 20’s I had more cash than I knew what to do with. My friends and I used to go quite a bit. This resulted in me dating dancers almost exclusively. Lot’s of fun but also lots of drama. But anyway, I’d say one draw is not so much the sex but rather, hot girls making you think you’re the funniest, good looking man on the planet. We men certainly have our egos. And what man doesn’t like being treated like a rock star once in a while? I tried going to one a couple years back but soon left as I felt like I had officially become that “old creepy dude”. Eh, you can never go home again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-strippers/591813.md?page=3)