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I'm in college now and a year away from graduating. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have gone to college to begin with... I would have waited. I've switched majors so many times and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Even if I get a regular job in the business field or build my own business, I will still dance. Private college has given me 70k in school loan debt that I've just started paying off this month. A regular job alone isn't going to cut it. I also hate structured 9-5 jobs, and I'm not sure that I could ever go back to that. :/
I'm one semester away from graduating and have been working on my resume every single day - networking my ass off and preparing myself for the big transition out of the club.
I definetly don't plan on coming back to the club ever again. All my hard work in earning the degree would just go to waste :/
I just wanna add - we live in such a horrible city to dance in that is probably the reason why I was able to finish. It motivated me and pushed me through cause I didn't wanna stay in these shithole dirty clubs forever
i started out as a 'stripping my way through college' girl. i have my degree (math) and i have research experience but what i have learned through traveling and college and dancing is that i really always want to be my own boss.
i dont think i will ever use my degree. to be honest, i think it amounts to expensive bragging rights, proof that i am book smart as well as street smart, and not dealing with the feeling of regret that many people who never attend college suffer from. I plan on saving 20,000$ a yr and in a few yrs have 100k in the bank, which will open up a plethora of other options for me.
but yea, going to a structured office job is unacceptable to me. and i live in New Orleans, so going about this plan of action is completely accepted in this city. In other cities people might raise an eyebrow as to why i decided to do this instead of doing something 'legitamate,' but a lot of people down here said fuck you to their office jobs to opt for service industry jobs.
i've known several who accomplished their goals but kept stripping on the side for the extra money.
i've also known girls who hated stripping, but did it to pay for school or whatever. the thing is, there's lots of ways to pay for school. like rich older boyfriends or sugar daddies. which are way preferable to these girls than stripping is. so when they find one, they stop dancing. so they stop dancing before they finish, and you don't really hear from them again, unless they come back to stripping after mr moneybags gets bored or cheap or abusive.
I stripped during college, finished an English degree, taught high school for three years. Then I returned to grad school and recently returned to dancing while completing my thesis work.
Truth be told, I am like Athena...I need to be my own boss. I may dance for a couple more years and start a business. I may never use my graduate degree...which makes me cringe to think about, but I am coming to terms with it. A lot has changed in my life in the two years since I decided to go to grad school. You just never know what life will throw at you ;)
I did so, but in a convoluted fashion. I originally obtained my degree in Respiratory Therapy via pretty substantial student loans, plus limited income from working an unskilled 'straight' job. After graduation, I spent several years working in my chosen field of Respiratory Therapy ... but discovered that the after-tax after expenses earnings potential available really wasn't allowing me to make much financial 'headway' after paying for normal costs of living plus monthly loan payments.
When my (ex) husband and I separated and divorced, I suddenly found myself burdened by a crushing amount of 'surprise' credit card debt that my (ex) husband had run up without my knowledge or consent. Knowing that my Respiratory Therapist income level was not going to allow me to make any real financial progress for many years as this debt was slowly paid down, and discovering that a new strip club had just opened up, I decided to give part time exotic dancing a try as a means of earning additional money.
However, once I saw how high the earnings potential was from dancing, I quickly came to the conclusion that I was 'wasting my time' working as a Respiratory Therapist. I then quit in order to start dancing on a full time basis. As a result, my student loan and my ex's credit card debt were paid off within my first year of full time dancing. I continued to dance for the next 12 years, upgrading my 'credentials' at every opportunity and saving / investing as much of my dancing earnings as I possibly could.
As a result I was able to fully retire two years ago, with the 'passive' earnings from the savings and investments I had made during my dancing career providing a more than adequate amount to cover all of my costs of living. Although, admittedly, in order for this to happen I also had to move to a country with zero taxes on investment income and comparatively low costs of living. It does have it's virtues though !
http://www.bestromanticinns.com/a/Be...s/Belize20.jpg
charlie did it! successfully quit dancing and holds down a job out of college. thats what i aspire to.
im in first year. lucky my line of work [fashion] pays very, very well once i get my foot in the door which is what im trying to do now so i dont have to later and struggle.
i def hope i will have a job no matter how small and insignificant, as long as its in that line of work so i can begin my career progression finally. im racking up 70k with this private college and i really hope i can quit dancing soon
Yes.
But I did change my career focus a few times. So do lots of non-strippers I know. Going to school to just do one exact career is an outdated notion IMO. The world changes and the enterpeneurial spirit can thrive!
I was with my ex wife for 16 years & through that time most of our friends were in this industry because she is. The women I saw do well after dancing were the ones that treated it like a job & not party time. The second thing I saw in the most of the women was either they had a partner with equal earning potential or single. The women that had addictions or supported their partners never were ahead of the game or have clear goals. I would talk to girls & their plan was to make enough money for their boyfriend to start something...lol which would never happen.
Think about it this way women make 75 to 85 cent for every dollar men make in the same industries.
Then take into consideration that some women are mothers. If you don't think discrimination exist please think again.
I know many, many corporate types that said screw it and went back to or started dancing.
Seriously what is the point of having a job or career if you don't love it or you're being discriminated against?
Most men get paid salary. Most women get paid hourly! That means that a man can do less work and get paid more while a women gets paid less for doing more work.
Can you blame women for joining the industry?
My ATF quit dancing after getting her bachelor's degree. She's currently almost done with her Master's degree and is already working in her field of study. She left the club and never went back.
One of our top earners is a nurse. She comes in every day in scrubs. At 38, she dances because as a nurse she makes under two hundred a shift dealing with dirty old men's shit. At the club it isn't literal fecal matter and she gets at least twice as much!
I plan on going to college someday although the longer I work the less I can think of having a regular job. It just seems silly to take everything I'm learning and throw it away so I can fit in with the boring normal folk.
I recently took a year long break from dancing and it was terrible. Even with a excellent resume (part real, part expertly fabricated), fabulous people skills and perfect presentation I struggled to find a decent job and fell into a deep depression. I ate through half of my savings before finally landing a role, only to be made redundant 6 months later.
After that experience I decided that I never wanted to be in that position again so 2011/12 is all about investment (personal and monetary) for me. I'm going to college full time so that I have something to 'fall back on' if need be and am saving 80% of my earnings from dancing part time.
I'm not exactly sure what my career goals are right now but putting my medium-term plans into motion is a very satisfying feeling. When I finally do figure out what I want I'll hopefully have the resources on hand to pursue it. And, if all else fails, I'll at least have a qualification to add to that resume.
I did it for year. Go tmy degree, went to work teaching ESL in the 6th grade, and then for various reasons, went back to dancing.
Lots of women do sex work--and specifically stripping--while successfully earning not only B.A.s but M.A.s and even Ph.D.s. Check out books by R. Danielle Egan, Katherine Frank, & Lily Burana
I did it. I make less now, work 50-60 hrs a week, and am stressed all the time. And this is in an area I care deeply about and in a job that required an MS. I miss dancing sometimes, and I'm thinking about traveling on weekends so I can save enough to retire someday.
I knew a few, but that's to be expected in Boston.
Many good points in all the prior postings. Kudos to all the ladies completing or who have completed their degrees and while at it, more power always to those who have chosen their direction and made it stick.
One thing that has been mentioned, is that a degree is not a guarantee of employment (and even less of satisfactory employment), BUT it's a huge help to have it in the toolkit. Millions of both women and men end up at least making satisfactory life work out of something wholly unrelated to their formal course of study, and it's the "education" part of Higher Ed - the development of thinking and communicating skills, the familiarization with ideas, the nurturing of habits of learning, plus the experience at setting a goal and achieving it, that makes having that under the belt most valuable for us.
I'm set to graduate with a degree with three concentrations next spring, but I think it's pretty much useless standing by itself. I doubt I'll ever use my degree to get a 'real' job, but just in case I feel like I should do the internships for experience and resume building anyway. Just so I change my mind and I have it there in case.
I have a degree in finance and worked on Wall Street (I was at Lehman when they went bankrupt). Due to the extremely specialized (and over-paid) position I had I couldn't land another job making even close to the amount of money I was making before or could live on. I decided to take control of my future and stop looking for a "job" so I'm stripping while I start my own business.
Interestingly, my investment industry background has helped me as the white-collar guys LOVVVVE it when I refer to stripping as "raising capital". lol! ;) :P
This was recently debunked. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...504707048.html
Women make 8% more doing the same work as men. Men tend to work more hours, on salary, not fewer, as well.
Plus it is well established that women have much more trouble asking for more money than men do. Even in this industry girls routinely are like 'oh i can't possibly ask for $$$, i'm not worth it/i'm scared/etc!'
Women and men make different choices, and that explains any 'pay gap'.
Without dancing I would have been a settler, but now I know it's possible to be financially stable and independent; doing something you can tolerate on your own time. In a nutshell, I'm spoiled and it's about damn time.
I have several degrees and a sh$$load of college debt and I'm still in confusion about what I want to do for a living. I, also, know many other girls who are singing the same tune. However, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't trade a thing. I am a phenomenal woman because of my life experience and triumph and when I'm good and ready I'll find something else to do...
I graduated from college a few months ago, I'm still stripping, and I'm going back to college this fall for a second degree. I'm really torn on whether I *want* to get out of the industry... being totally honest, I know I'll never be happy in a job where I'm beneath someone and earning less money. I'd at least have to own my own business or be on an amazing salary with a lot of freedom.
There's a reason stripping is so hard to leave. It's a damn good job.