Guardian chock full o' lap dancing articles today

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Guardian chock full o' lap dancing articles today

Postby sam » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:20 pm

On offer today are two substantial articles, excerpted below.

Should lap dancing be run out of town?
http://www.guardian .co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sex-industry-lap-dancing
by Rachel Cooke

The lap-dancing industry will tell you that its 10,000 (their estimate) female employees are all as happy as Larry: that its "performers" are decently paid and well looked after, and enjoy some of the most flexible working in Britain.

But I am not so sure. The first time I call Lucy, an ex-lap dancer, she says: "I think you must have the wrong number" and hangs up, fast. The second time - by now she has remembered who I am and why I want to talk to her - she tells me: "I'd rather not say what I am doing these days, for the same reason that I won't tell you my real name. These are people [the club owners] you don't want to mess with. I am genuinely afraid of them. Who knows exactly what goes on behind the scenes, but I'd still rather not mess with it."

Lucy began lap dancing when she lost her job as an office temp. It was quite simple: she needed to pay her rent. "It felt like a desperate decision," she says. "It was a case of: I can't do anything else. But also I'd fallen for the myth that lap dancing is a good way of making a lot of money very quickly." She applied for, and got, a job as a dancer in a supposedly upmarket club. At the end of her first night's work, however, she went home having earned nothing at all. More alarmingly, she now owed the club some £80. Like the vast majority of lap dancers in the UK, Lucy was self-employed. Not only was she required to pay the club a dance fee every time she wanted to work, a sum that could vary from £10 to £80 (Friday nights were most expensive, because they were most popular with customers), but she also had to give the club commission on every dance performed (nude dances cost punters £20, of which she kept £17.50; on slow nights, she might perform only once or twice, or not at all). And then there were the fines. "You got fined for everything, at £20 a time: if you were late, if you were wearing the wrong shoes or dress, if you failed to dance on the pole twice an hour. There was also a fine if you were caught breaking the 3ft rule [licensing laws require dancers to stay 3ft away from customers] - though strangely, that one they never seemed to enforce."

Lucy lasted for six months. "It was very hard to make money: it was like having a very competitive sales job. They'd filled the shop with loads of the same thing - us, the dancers - and then there'd be only five customers. It wasn't just that we cost them nothing; the more of us there were, the more they made, even if the place was empty. At the end of the night - 2am or whatever - you'd need to take a taxi home, of course. But you'd have to pay for that, too, so I often ended up walking. No one is looking out for you, whatever the clubs say. You're on your own."


The lies men told to see me dance naked

http://www.guardian .co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/08/women-lap-dancing-licensing
by Nadine Stavonina de Montagnac

In order to make money, I acted dim-witted. I had to dodge the gropes, pinching and slaps even though, officially, there was no touching allowed. I felt the stress. I constantly had to say "no" to propositions of sex. Once, as a "joke", a customer pinched my nipple and twisted so hard I nearly passed out. It bled, but the management's reaction was: "Well, stay out of his way then." I realised that if I wanted any money that night to pay the club rent, I had to just get on with it, so I took a large swig of vodka and went back to work.

Many of the men who turned up claimed they couldn't get women to like them, so they came to us. I was given to understand that my job was to provide a service, especially for those with disabilities, because otherwise they could not easily obtain female attention. I wondered about this. Wouldn't it do more harm to know that we don't care about them? Isn't a real emotional bond with women far more important?

And as I heard and read stories about women feeling empowered by performing in these clubs, I questioned just what part of this job was building me up as a woman. In the eyes of management, the women in these clubs are replaceable and worthless. While some of those I worked with were cruel, like the girls at my school, I also met other "outsiders". We had conversations about wanting a happy home with kids, loving partners and a job where more mattered than just the way we looked, where we could be respected. I learned not to trust men, and it took a long time before I could let one near me. This environment drives men and women apart, making us see one another in terms of the sex object versus the wallet.
"Your orgasm can no longer dictate my oppression"

Trisha Baptie
sam
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