THE SNAKE EATING HIS OWN TAIL: The Vicious Cycle Nobody Wants to Talk About

  The snake who ate his own tail is an obvious euphemism or metaphor for "vicious cycle". Many career strippers are in denial or not ready to admit that they're caught in a nasty cycle. I, myself, have experienced the aforementioned cycle; but hindsight is 20/20 and I can see most of my sisters are still in it. Even girls like me who've danced for the better part of the last decade don't always see it. This cycle is hard to break and may be slightly confusing unless you think like I do. Quit dancing. It isn't just "quitting my job", it's breaking a cycle and I will, as always, explain myself.

  When I first quit dancing, I wasn't just leaving behind a job, I walked away from a lifestyle to which I had grown accustomed and in my case, the only "home" club I was at since moving to the town it was in. I danced there off and on, mostly "on", from  2011 to 2018. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't walk away from what most would call an abusive environment, meaning abuse from managers and coworkers and less so from actual customers. I told myself that my boss was a good guy, but the fact is, he enforced all the bullshit and would bend rules for his top girls, myself being at the top for a while. Despite the "special treatment", he was still being petty harsh with other girls. Some of the staff were only nice to girls based on how attractive they thought we were, so if they didn't find a girl attractive, often times they'd let her know it; but they were always rude to her. Here are some "truths" that are actually false..

  1) The job is easy money..

      FALSE

      In a nutshell, it was the most physically, mentally and emotionally taxing job I have ever had; and I have done everything from drywall to pharmaceutical specialist. Hands down the HARDEST WORK I have ever endured. It is all BUT easy..

  2) We make $1,000 a night..

      FALSE

      Sometimes we're lucky if we pull in $1,000 in a week! We pay to work and leave owing the clubs money; some weeks you leave with $25 or $50 every shift and may or may not have one day to make up for it. However, most do NOT make $1,000 a night, many don't even make that in a week. Don't be presumptuous, tip the girls on stage, even if they're not your favorite. It's not a free show. DON'T BE A DICK! 

   3) All strippers are either drunk or high on something.

       FALSE

       I don't drink often and being drunk doesn't sound fun, or sexy, but to each their own. Every December, on the 4th, I celebrate another year of being CLEAN! 12/04/2020 was my 13 year mark off drugs. Sober strippers do exist!

  4) All strippers suck dick in the VIP room.

      FALSE

      I'm leaving that one alone as it is taboo both in and out of the industry.. Moving on

  5)  If I were a girl, I'd be a stripper.

       FUCK OFF!!

  

   At the end of the day we are not all drug addicted millionaires with zero responsibility. Every dollar goes into bills, kids, school etc. Preconceived notions must be squashed, we are still human, in case you forgot.

   Back to my original point. Some of us are actually in an abusive relationship with the people who run our clubs, in fact, most of us were. Because of DOL-IRS laws, most clubs can legally only put their own sales revenue on the books, meaning entry fees, alcohol sales, etc. Neither dances nor stage tips are club revenue, but we give them over 60% of our hard earned cash anyway. God forbid you miss a shift because your kid is sick or you catch COVID. If you're on the schedule, you better be there or they fine you $150 for missing the slowest Tuesday ever. We're told that we should put up with sexual abuse. "If you can't handle it, get a different job/you'll never make it as a stripper", is pretty much what we're all told the first time we complain about someone trying to molest or solicit us. 

     When a man pulls his dick out and begins to rub it all over a stripper and she defends herself, he is kicked out and she is arrested for battery when she was assaulted and the guy broke about 4 laws with that one action. 

     IF THAT HAPPENED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, EXCEPT IN CLUBS, THE GUY WOULD BE CUFFED AND CHARGED WITH INDECENT EXPOSURE, LEWD BEHAVIOR AND AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT!

     If that isn't abusive, I don't know what is. It's fucked up and most strippers don't see it. Some laugh and others have their own bizarre take on the situation; but it's assault and our "awesome" managers allow it to happen. That's one of the uglier sides of stripping and it gets worse. Every time we want to quit, a ridiculously great shift sucks us right back in. If you manage to leave the industry, most of us relapse and we miss it forever. Like some fucked up type of Stockholm Syndrome. I quit dancing in the summer of 2018 and I never went back. With COVID having plagued us for almost one year (Jan 20th, of all days) I have definitely seen what I had hoped wouldn't be the case. 

     I used to ask girls what they'd do if their careers came to a screeching halt and they had the same 3 standard retorts, none of which included a real plan. My assessment was correct, 99% were not ready. I remember the panic and influx of OnlyFans users. Almost all of us have an expiration date. If you haven't planned for life after sex work, you better marry rich!