Stripped Bare- Surviving the Industry: The Good, Bad and Downright Ugly Truth

Interview one: Adriana 1) How long have you been in the sex industry and what is your occupation?   A: I have been a stripper since I was 17. I had  a fake ID and  now I'm 32. Oh wow.. Fifteen years of this and I'm ashamed to admit that I am not doing well in this pandemic. I thought I had my life together. It scared me." 2) Elaborate further if you will. Why did you start stripping so young and still underage? If you don't mind my asking. What about all this is scaring you? Covid aside.   A: My parents weren't exactly the best so I left home at 16. I did some things I'm not proud of and I still feel shitty about it. For my own safety I got a fake ID so I could strip and not hate myself afterwards. I been to over 25 clubs in different states and they all scamming girls. I'm an hourly employee but they don't even give us tax forms half the time. The white strippers are treated better and get paid on time. He targets us and promoted us but we don...

THIS IS THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF STORIES, AS TOLD BY THOSE WHO LIVED THEM AND NOT THE AUTHOR'S VOICE! LISTEN TO THEIR WORDS, DON'T JUST READ THEM!  *"I think I was naïve like we all are as baby strippers. Armani and I (Chloe) have always been a package deal. We look like twins and we decided to capitalize on that. We're both part black & Filipina mixed, so we get pushed out by black people and Asians. Like, hey my blood is half like yours. WTF?! But it's like that everywhere you go, sometimes worse than others but in the stripper world I think that mix is what saved us! We look exotic to men and we stayed together. We did stage shows as a team. But over time it was like we stopped having control and the club capitalized on our shows more. I can't even say when that happened. Or maybe I never noticed until it got real hard to find work at a small club. I was over the "vegas" style clubs in Chicago and tried a DejaVu in Indiana. We used new names....

Recently a club owner in MA was accused of multiple violations, but those are only the pretty bows on an unwanted package. The real story came from a brave black woman {name omitted for now}, well call her "C", and she belongs to the most marginalized of even LGBTQ sex workers. The man in question is Nick and I've been granted permission by the necessary parties involved. Let's begin.  "He lured us in by kinda advertising his club as an LGBTQ friendly place. But then he also made a point to include that "women of color" [sic] had a safe space." - C Me: "So he lured you in by promising that he'd provide a safe haven for LGBTQ strippers, women of color especially?" C: "Yeah and his ex said he did this before with her heritage in particular." Me: "So we've established his pattern of behavior & "M.O" for targeting women he feels nobody will care for or even listen to, correct?" C: "Exac...

 * The sex industry is notoriously riddled with covert racism & it's time to bring to light a very ugly side of the industry that's largely left unseen or isn't taken seriously. All of us have been told that we have to "just deal" with men assaulting us or maybe it's not the right career for us. It's just part of the job. We have to "understand" men can't control themselves.. We know these facts already, for the most part. Assault inside clubs is seen to be as perfunctory as a phone call is to someone's assistant. But it's NOT normal and it's also really fucked up that this notion exists in nearly every club. The problem nobody wanted to talk about until now, but in hushed voices and only with some.  * Black sex workers and those within the LGBTQ community, which crossover, are statistically higher targets and 40% of black and multiracial transgender sex workers are a target of violence, assault or arrest. The stigma should...

 * "What are your plans for retirement? This career has an expiration date that's different for everyone. What if something happens and you can never dance again?"  * I've been asking this question for over fifteen years now and I always get the most perfunctory and redundant answers; misguided is an understatement.  *1) "That's still so far off, I'm not too worried about that now."  *2) "I'm in nursing school."  *3) "I'll have money saved by the time that happens."  * NONE OF THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ANSWER THE QUESTION!  * I asked,  WHAT IF YOUR CAREER COMES TO A SCREECHING HALT?   * I can answer the question for at least 50% of strippers right now. They're completely lost! Dancers in WA state told me, on the phone, they never want to reclassify as employees, but that they are and always will be contractors. Legally most of them are not independent contractors, they're mislabeled employees. Since two stri...