Debbie Caswell
English Two
Strippers as Low Wage Workers

            She was standing there in nothing but a thong and high heels. All the boys were gathered around her, ogling at her naked body. I was completely shocked and disgusted. I had never seen a stripper before and I thought she did not deserve any respect. The majority of society would most likely have the same initial reaction that I did; that strippers are fallen women who don’t have any value in society, or they might feel that they are pure sex objects present for the pleasure of others. The majority of strippers are in fact abused and exploited low wage workers, and because of the prejudices that society makes about them, they have very little chance of improving their situations.
           

With no aid from society, strippers are very vulnerable to their bosses. The club owners generally pay them little, and fine them frequently. A stripper’s health is another issue that society is ignorant of. In addition strippers suffer from low self esteem, making them more susceptible to abuse. Staying in character for their customers every night can also be very emotionally draining. Many women who become strippers are desperate financially, alcoholics, or both, decreasing any chance they have of controlling their situations in the workplace. The media also worsens strippers’ situations, painting a glossy picture of a stripper’s situation with workout tapes and television shows, and at the other extreme religious leaders and organizations shun these working women portraying them as worthless whores. Although there are many obstacles preventing strippers from obtaining better rights many have tried unionizing, though most fail because they are discouraged by their bosses, and encouraged to compete with one another while working. One club in San Francisco has succeeded in being the only unionized club that is run by its workers in the nation, illustrating that it is possible for strippers to improve their situations in the job industry. Although society shuns and stereotypes these women as sexual toys or whores, they should be treated justly and fairly as workers. They should be allowed to organize and improve their situations and their workplace.
           

Economically, strippers are at the complete mercy of their employers. In general they are treated as independent contractors, meaning they have to "pay a stage fee of approximately twenty-five dollars" to dance at a club. 2 At the more expensive clubs, as in parts of San Francisco, some clubs require as much as, " $150 for the privilege of working in a topless bar and then [the dancers] have to tip out on top of that." 2 Tipping out means that the dancers have give a portion of their tips to the other workers in the club, like the "bartender, waitresses, bouncers, house mother [stage coordinator], and DJ." 2 Strippers also have to pay for all the supplies they need for dancing such as, "furnishing tools, in this case music, costumes and transportation."1 At the end of the night strippers can make as little as thirty-five to forty dollars for an eight hour shift.1 Employers can get away with this because up front, the dancers are getting more than the minimum wage, but after all the tip outs and charges from the club the dancers are left with very little. The concept that strippers have to pay their employers to work, and on top of that give a percentage of their tips to other employees seems absurd considering that without the dancers the clubs would cease to exist.
           

Employers also control their dancers through a system of fines and a lack of job security. These fines can deplete a strippers pay quite substantially, for example one DJ stated that at one club, the owner would, “find any excuse to take money off the girls. For instance a girl comes in five minutes late and that’s fifteen bucks off your pay." 1 This system keeps strippers struggling for money, essentially trapping them as strippers because they can never strive for something better.  Club owners also often fire their dancers preventing them from complaining about pay or their job environment. For example as one stripper says, "I’ve been fired for looking too young…Clubs just fire you! They are really sleazy. You’re on-schedule and on you second day, you have no recourse, you’ve worked for free." 1 The dispensability of dancers to their employers is a problem that many low wage workers face. It prevents them from improving their working conditions because if they attempt to fight for their rights they are fired. This form of abuse, in which club owners fine and fire their employees so easily, is totally unacceptable, and yet a stripper’s position at the fringe of society allows for this type of exploitation.
           

A stripper’s health is another issue that society is very unaware of, and is a problem that education and awareness might aid.  In most clubs strippers cannot remove their shoes during their eight hour shifts. This causes blisters, and strains the knees and back. Strippers also spend a lot of time on their knees and in squatting positions, depending on the shape and size of their customer during a lap dance. This again can be, "particularly taxing to their knees and lower back." 2 Strippers also suffer from “colds and chronic bronchitis induced by customers’ cigars and cigarettes and the clubs’ smoke machines.” 5 Improvements like venting the clubs, and getting rid of smoke machines could at least aid the dancers a little, yet in their weak position it would be very hard for dancers to obtain such benefits. Clubs are also not cleaned very often, and the repetitive use of the bar and stage without clothes leads to the spread of many ailments. For example one researcher stated that, “While many dancers take protective measures, the dressing rooms, washrooms, stage, pole and chairs are not necessarily well maintained or hygienic." 1 This is not an aspect of a dancer’s work that many want to acknowledge. It ruins the facade of sexuality that the dancers keep up constantly at work. Yet it is a very real problem that should be remedied through regulations that require clubs to keep up a standard of cleanliness for the health and safety of the dancers. Strippers should be able to remedy their unhealthy situation in the workplace, but without more control over their rights it is nearly impossible for them.
           

Strippers are also mentally abused through the constant criticisms of club owners over their bodies, and the draining task of acting for their customers every night, constantly trying to please them for eight hours straight. Like any other industry where beauty is the product, strippers can only sell themselves, and if their bodies are not selling it can be damaging to that woman's belief in her own self worth. Dancers who do not fit the stereotype, "compensate for their body size by taking more off and performing more graphic moves on the stage and on the floor." 2 These women cannot decide for themselves if they want to take more off, they must take more off to survive financially. Some dancers find that they must detach themselves from their work in order to make it through the night. For example one dancer states, "Sometimes it seemed that the only way I could tolerate the monotony was by focusing on numbers. As I methodically went from customer to customer, I slipped into a mental trance." 5 This type mental state is far from healthy, because it subconsciously encourages these women to be unaware of their surroundings and the choices they are making. Strippers should have more rights to choose how and who they dance with, yet the nature of a strippers work literally strips her of her rights and power, because she is shunned by society. A woman who has been a stripper is not respected in society and would most likely have a very hard time being hired in a higher paying job. This essentially traps these women in their careers as strippers, once a whore always a whore. This can be extremely mentally damaging for many girls leading to "emotional fatigue" and burnout. 5 Again, on the fringe of society, strippers have very little control over their choices in the career that could improve their self esteem.
           

Most women do not choose this physically and mentally damaging low wage job. They are generally desperate financially or intoxicated, and enticed by club owners who portray it as a liberating and exciting environment to work. One DJ stated that the club owner would, " chat you up and he’d send over a couple of drinks and the dancers would wander over to talk to you and between the girls and the drinking and whatever else was around" the women would most likely strip that night, and then simply continue because of few other job opportunities. 3 For example, one dancer stated that she became a stripper because, "I was broke and I needed a job and I got drunk." 3 This is not the best way to begin a career, considering that intoxication makes people very vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. Club owners also hire women as waitresses and then tell them that they are going to be fired unless they dance. This should not be allowed as it is a deliberate tactic to abuse female workers freedom of choice.  One woman says, "They told me, they got me real drunk one night, and they told me that they really didn’t need as many waitresses and they were going to have to cut back, so I needed to dance or find me a new job." 2 Strippers should be able to control their own careers and should not be forced to strip if they do not wish to, yet without proper respect and rights in society and in the workplace strippers will not be able to stop this type of abuse.
           

The media blinds society for the most part to the dark reality of the health issues, pay abuses, and desperate situations of strippers, portraying stripping as a healthy way to get fit, and be sexually liberated. Striptease classes are becoming more and more popular and mainstream. The participants in the class, of course, dance in bare feet, 8 not it stilettos that would illustrate the back problems that strippers really experience. The classes are also in air conditioned clean studios, 8 as opposed to smoke filled, unhygienic bars. Strippers also must dance and please their customers for an eight hour shift, whereas the participants in the strip classes are only dancing for an hour. 8 One participant in these classes said, “Most of the times, we just want to move our body into its own shape. It feels good to do that. The stripping is totally optional, and that’s the playful part.” 8 For this participant the stripping part of the class is totally optional. The stripping part of the routine for true strippers is the part that they must do, in order to earn their wages and compete with other dancers. Stripping is not optional for them. One aerobics instructor states, "You are becoming a stripper for an hour...its average people who want to do something that is not average." 8 Yet, in reality these women's experiences in strip classes, are far from the real experiences of strippers in everyday life. The glorification of stripping as a healthy, fun, and liberating experience will not help strippers to earn more wages, or gain rights as low wage workers. In fact this may even worsen stripper’s situations in society because now instead feeling disgust towards strippers, many women in society will see it as a completely fun and liberating career. They are blinded by the edited version they have been sold in there gyms and dance studios.
           

Religious leaders and organizations also play a detrimental role in the way that strippers are viewed in society. For the most part strippers are seen as, “sexual sinners.” 9 In one recent case in Sacramento, California a child was threatened to be expelled from her school because her mother was earning money as a stripper. 9 Yet as the author of the article points out, there is no distinction between the so called sin of the stripper and the sin of, "unmarried mothers [who] are living with a boyfriend or who have a succession of boyfriends staying overnight? And what about a child whose married mother or father is having an affair?" 9 The only difference is that the stripper is earning her money while publicly displaying herself sexually, while the other sexual sinners are acting in privacy. The church in a way endorsing that it is more acceptable to privately sin, and that public sexuality is not acceptable. If this school were to expel the child for the so called sins of her mother, then they would be sending a message to all the children in the school that strippers are not acceptable people, and anyone associated with them, like a daughter, is a sinner too. This message destroys any chance of strippers gaining rights as workers in society. If religious organizations view them as unacceptable sinners, then a large majority of the population probably does too. As, Prager says in his article, "as far as sins go, strippers do considerably less harm to our society than many trial lawyers and television producers...there is a hypocritical bias against strippers." 9 This bias towards strippers in society must be corrected before the majority of strippers will be able to gain more rights as workers.
           

Strippers find it extremely difficult to fight against such clichés that religious organizations and the media portrays. Some do attempt to organize but most fail because they are purposefully separated and encouraged to compete against each other in clubs. As one researcher states, like other low wage workers, strippers, "are not only moved in and out of the business, they [are] physically separated from one another." 7 Separating workers is a strategy that is commonly used by employers to prevent unions from organizing. 7 This is a manipulative and unjust way of keeping rights from workers. Although strippers are discouraged from organizing some still do, although the majority is shunned by society, and the union quickly disintegrates. For example in one case, "three fully clothed topless dancers’ staged a two-night- long picket at the Shanghai Junk in the city’s East End, near Chinatown…demanded higher wages, staff privileges, discounts on food, and a dressing room with a heater." 7 These all seem like reasonable demands, yet in the end the dancers, "settled for cheaper meals, a heater, and the same wages." 7 The dancers most likely gave up quickly because of the isolation and discrimination they probably felt while picketing. Most unions are respected in society, but strippers are shunned by many people, decreasing the possibility that people would want to aid their cause. Strippers should be able to organize just as easily as other workers, and they should be respected by society. They deserve reasonable pay just like any other worker, yet the sexuality of a dancers work cripples the stripper’s chances of gaining support and increasing their wages and rights.           

Although most strippers unions disintegrate quickly there is one unionized stripper owned and run strip club in San Francisco, California. This strip club, the Lusty Lady, illustrates that in the right environment strippers can gain respect and justice in the workplace. They were the, "first strip club in the country to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union several years ago." 6  Unionizing allowed the strippers to take control of their careers; they were less likely to be fired, and more likely to get better wages once they organized. Yet after management cut their wages and the dancers demanded several years later that they were restored the management threatened to close the Lusty Lady down. 6 Apparently this is when the dancers came up with the idea of buying and managing the place for themselves. 6 The Lusty Lady is now making history as the, "the first employee-owned strip joint in the nation." 6 This may have only been possible because of the liberal environment of San Francisco, in which the club is located, yet these women still fought for their rights, increasing their pay and their control over their careers. The strippers at the Lusty Lady demonstrate that women can be sexual and professional at the same time.
           

The biggest problem for strippers is the dichotomy between the sexuality that a stripper must portray at all times while working, and the unjust and unhealthy situation behind this sexual façade that society is not aware of. As one author states, "A woman working in a strip club as a stripper has, first and foremost, to act like a stripper, whether she is on stage or not, she is always performing." 2 This performance subtracts from a strippers power as a worker, in society. She is categorized as a whore or as a pleasure toy by much of society, and this makes it difficult for these dancers to gain respect and justice.
           

Stripper’s situations in the workplace could be improved immensely if they were given more rights and therefore more control over their careers. From the beginning of their careers they are at the mercy of their employers, through such weaknesses as financial desperation or intoxication. They are shunned by most of society, and society is further blinded by the portrayals of religion and the media. The only way that strippers may improve their situations is through awareness and education of the fact that strippers are for the large part abused and exploited low wage workers that need help, so they can depending on their wishes move on to another career, or at least have a better workplace environment. Society should no longer be blinded by the sexuality of strippers that is so taboo in mainstream society, no matter how sexual, strippers are workers and so deserve an equal opportunity to work in a just and healthy environment.