


What?? What did you used to do?
Nickel & Dimed was great and a big influence on my "future life" when I read it.
I wish I could feel that satisfied going to FT school like you guys. I tried it this time, was my first semester, and I won't be finishing, I feel like a loser. But FT stripping is satisfying to me right now, and I don't feel like anyone's bitch, that's why I do this job.
I mean, the obvious has already been said in this thread, but DylanAngel I don't know what thread you are referring to, but the majority of posters on here are young and don't have the job experience, life experience, and qualifications that you do at your age, and ppl, especially young ppl, have a tendancy to view their own world as fact. And I'd say advertising is a most unusual field, (being a huge Augesten Burroughs fan) and I think you know that lots of jobs aren't as cool as yours. Most jobs are not.
I definetely don't think anyone is somebody's bitch just because they work a 'straight' job. I'll agree that it is about how YOU feel about yourself and your job, and what you are doing to change or make it better if you don't like it, that makes you a bitch. I think the point of the 'bitch' comment was just that many dancers are sick of people telling us that were "better than this" or that stripping is somehow degrading. As if people who don't strip have never felt or degraded themselves on some other kind of level. I like dancing more than any other job I've had, and definetely felt degraded when I was a secretary, worked at Arby's, and god awful Mcdonalds. I can't say I never felt like shit dancing (usually when I'm up onstage dancing for cheapos who don't tip, or when I just can't make any money and most of the other girls are) but the management at my club never makes me feel like a 'bitch.' I have a very lax work environment/rules and enjoy the people I work with however. At the clubs where it is a more nazi environment with a zillion rules, I would feel differently however. The club closest to me has mandatory weekends and you must work 3 days on top of that. You don't have as much choice for music selection, go onstage whenever called without any real notice, all call offs are 50 dollars no excetptions, and you must remain on the floor at all times, and you give up a good portion of your earnings. Not for me!





I know this, but at the same time I've been in the Marketing field since I left HS, starting out as an assistant. I've only been in pure Advertising for a little while. I was in management by the time I was in my early 20's, so being young really has nothing to do with it. It's commitment and ambition that gets you what you want in life, not age. And that was without a degree (I didn't get that until I was in my 30's).
And Advertising is unusual, isn't it? From the admins to the top brass; it's hectic and fast paced and sometimes you feel like you have no life, but the energy is amazing and the perks are wonderful.
I still don't regret taking the years away from full time to strip though, because it allowed me to raise my girls myself, which was nice. So, I totally understand the flexibility aspect of stripping.
Another topic as well, but really sad the limited options young people have today. I know you are not old and wayyyyyy way older than us, but 15-20 years is like huge in terms of what people could do with a hs degree, or just ambition alone. There's so much competition and unfortunately too many rich kids that have the connections for the jobs and the financial support from their parents to withstand year long unpaid internships and entry-level wages. I know you know that tho, just saying why ppl here might be ignorant--they don't know about this other world where you get a sense of a bright future shortly after hs or college. People think I'm crazy for leaving NJ---it was the smartest thing ever! It's a hard knock life for a Kinko's employee %100 on their own at 17.. (waitress, customer service, whatever) That's why I should have started stripping at 18!
I'm just poking fun honestly. Call cenrters are where I work when I'm pregnant. They let me put my feet up, there's no heavy lifting and I still get to work bar hours. That and I can tell them I'll only be there for six months and they don't mind. I enjoy the job (they let me read magazines) but I couldn't imagine managing.
"Thankyou for calling Sportsmans Guide may I take your credit card order please..."



Sigh, you are correct when it comes to other jobs where you make your own schedule. Please understand something, programming and deadlines are
mentally taxing.. and I mean hard core the last thing I want to do is drain
my brain problem solving all day long and to me this is being strapped to a
cubicle or my computer, I guess maybe I should say I have been dancing
for 5 years not my whole life and find it a refreshing change. I can go to
work, leave work and I leave work at work; grab some take out and go
home to sit on my computer for 2 to 6 hours then go to bed, get up
go to class come home take a nap if I am too tired or have an exam
coming up I then spend the rest of that day studying. I like to use
the kiss philosophy if you don't know it nothing personal but
Keep it simple stupid, it is universal in the IT/CS world.
Dancing and College == KISS.





stripping is mentally taxing, as far as that goes.
but since there is plenty of work out there that isn't mentally taxing, isn't computer nerdery (of which programming is just one part of many) and is as lucrative as stripping, one can let it rest at that.
if stripping hasn't played hob with your sexuality, then you are among the lucky ones, because that's a form of 'work going home with you', too. and that happens to plenty of dancers...
i do like health insurance that pays for everything at a cost of less than 1k per year. and that's not something stripping can compete with, especially given my array of preexisting conditions. so there's a data point for stripping vs 'regular' jobs.
i just think that stripping as a money-option is losing all the worthwhileness (3-4 figure amounts of cash on a nightly basis, wide range of people telling you you're hot and giving you moneys, ability to work 3 hours or 30 each week or month, getting to run around naked/topless without getting arrested) while still retaining just enough stigma to make it even more stressful and taxing psychologically and physically.



I have a daughter who is 1 in 150,000,000 and I don't mean she is unique
and I think she is more special than 150,000,000 other little girls. I mean
that is how rare her medical condition is. Now on that note do you know
what a tissue expander is? how about frontal facial or nasal dysplasia..
I could go on and on but no dancing doesn't fsck with me I thank god
that it is an option for me because my life is far from perfect but I am
still in forward motion I do not want to dance for the rest of my life.
Do you know what drives me to be a Doctor?
So other people including yourself or your children never ever have
to experience the pain and suffering my daughter and family have
been through for over 5 years. I do not do drugs, drink my worst
habit is nicotine and that comes in patches and gum. I am at this
very moment waiting until 9:30 am tomorrow when I send my
daughter yet again under the knife for over 5 hours. Every time
I send her under the knife and this is not by my choice I risk
the chance of losing something I love more than myself.
Maybe that is the reason that dancing doesn't mess with
me because I don't do it for me I do it so I can make a better
life for myself, my family and maybe even yours someday.
I have a goal.. and when I want something I get it and this
is my life and I accept what has happened in my life and
I make the best out of it so now it is pre-surgery party party
time which means my daughter gets to eat whatever she wants
as much as she wants from wherever her heart desires it because
it could be her last fscking meal.
Enjoy your dreams, I congratulate anyone who makes them come
true but do not fsck with mine or me because I have made the
choice to dance and not program or make it work anymore,
I made it work for a long time I don't care anymore to have
it be feast or famine I live day to day and am happy every
day my daughter is above ground so please until you have
walked a mile in my shoes do not judge me.
pinupgurl, I really don't think these comments are direct attacks at you. I fel you may be getting very deffensive over what is a simple debate over stripping. Or am I reading this wrong.



racist myth.. I am perpetuating? I wrote something that was based on racist myth.. laugh you know I don't care it's her opinion what is even
funnier is the fact my friend Dev read this, and others and it comes across the
same way I took it but I suggest you be good and not biased.
I don't have to be right I am more mature than that, I have too much on my
plate right now to be upset that someone implied that I am racist or am
regurgitating racist propaganda. Just because the word myth was in front
of it makes no difference in the sentence as a whole.
Silly Object Oriented Programmer quit reading things so literal (note to self)
Smile no worries
Yeah, you seem to take everything so personally. I don't see how you could have thought that (once again) that was directed to you at all.



if it is quoted to me then it is directed at me, and I do take it personally when
someone comes across in this way to me which I could of read it wrong this
conversations has gone a little something like this.
I'll make it simple.
I don't want to work in computers anymore and find dancing to be freedom
from the daily grind of deadlines, contract work and competition with other
people who can underbid me when I am already underbidding others.
If I am so smart I could work it out and work in the computer world and make
more money and not dance plus make my own schedule.
Obviously your not that smart because you can't do that.
Hmmmm what else oh yes. I am propagating a racist myth..
fabulous.





it's fine that you don't wanna do computer nerdery. i mean, it's hardly the only other thing in the world to do than stripping.
but you tried to claim that computer work is
--only programming and
--impossible to make money in 'because all the jobs are outsourced to india'.
those things aren't true. and as for the outsourcing thing, a LOT of people make very hateful comments about 'those people' working 'too cheap' and 'taking jobs away'. so when someone says that computer work period is 'all outsourced to india for 500 bucks', i'm inclined to think that is a racist kinda statement.
now, it doesn't make you stupid to not wanna do computer nerdery while you get through medical school. but stripping is not the only flexible high-earning potential work option out there, either. for example, i know someone who makes dentures and gets 200 per hour for it. now there's some outside the box work...
ok, you know how a lot of dancers are like 'my only work options are stripping or mcdonald's'?
you were doing that re:computer stuffs vs stripping.
we've had very different experiences. there was a lot of competition and underbidding going on in the stripclubs i worked in, so it was massively stressful to do that work. for you this apparently does not happen. lucky you, to work in a stress-free stripping environment. it is increasingly rare.
to me, all the stuff you said only happens outside of stripping happens inside of stripping too. ironically, it just looked like you were making arguments for how similar stripping can be to other jobs rather than how it's different.
the computer thing is just a touchy thing for me (no, i don't even work in computer nerdery at present, but in a different industry) because i've seen dancers post about how they did so poorly in it when i've seen people routinely start at like 80k with no degree in the field. and i feel like the industry gets a bad rap as an industry where you top out at 40k per year and are constantly ill-treated and made to work 55 hour weeks for it.
again with the stripping similarities, i feel that particular industry gets a bad rap the way that stripping often gets a bad rap...



I also don't like it when people are quick to say stripping is "degrading," when other mainstream jobs can be degrading as well.
Working as a telemarketer was one of the worst jobs ever for me. I've had people tell me on the phone that I'm trash, that I should crawl under rock, that I will never amount to anything, etc. I was young back then, so it did hurt me a bit haha. Now I laugh it off.![]()
Working in retail, I also had to smile even when a customer was acting disrespectful. How is all of that not degrading, yet a stripper job is seen as more degrading than dealing with the stuff you got to deal with working in retail, telemarketing, etc.
I think every job has their pros and cons. That's just how life balances itself out.![]()





Most people think of work from the bottom up. This means that you work at a place because of your salary requirements, plain needing a job, driving, etc. No matter what the job, you'll be less happy than if you think from top down. When I look at getting work, I look at things from top down. What's that mean? I look for the best possible way to generate my values and what I love. For me, that primarily means generating freedom and acceptance, for myself and others. If your job isn't serving your core values, then you need to look at another job. Can stripping generate freedom and acceptance? Absolutely. Take a look at Audrey Leigh. She's going back to school, has time in her life for the people she loves, generates acceptance like you wouldn't believe... You see my point. Now, someone who has different values might not be as well served by stripping. If you have values like reverence and chastity and routine, then you're not being served by your job. /end rant (Zippety doo dah.)
"She held me close and whispered in my ear how wonderful I was. Since I'm not wonderful. I was pretty sure this was a trap. So I figured I'd better grope her as much as I could before they sprung the trap. You've got to take what you can get in this life. I read that in a magazine. So I started smearing kisses on her and pawing the front of her dress, trying to get my money's worth before somebody bashed my head in." John Swartzwelder





still disagree that stripping's the only 'non-routine' kinda work out there that 'generates freedom and acceptance'.
in its own way, it's as big a 'stripping myth' as the ones that 'all strippers make 5k a night' or 'all strippers are drug addicted bimbos with 5 kids by 4 guys' and so forth. also, lots of strippers pick stripping based on their "salary requirements, plain needing a job, driving, etc"...
the idea that you should be fulfilled first and work second is very modern. the older idea that you used whatever work you did to find fulfillment in doing well is at least more attainable a goal and still ends up leaving people feeling fulfilled and content with the work they do, whatever it may be...
i'm not sure picking a job based on 'will it please me endlessly to do it' is necessarily the most coherent long-term approach.
but what do i know, i would be a semi-professional pole dancer and an entirely professional maritime lawyer.......
clearly i have no idea what either 'stripping' or 'regular jobs' are.
That's the wonder of life! There are a million different things available, and you/I/everyone are free to try them all!
You're 100% correct. LOTS of strippers, probably a majority, take the job from a bottom up perspective! I choose not to live my life that way.in its own way, it's as big a 'stripping myth' as the ones that 'all strippers make 5k a night' or 'all strippers are drug addicted bimbos with 5 kids by 4 guys' and so forth. also, lots of strippers pick stripping based on their "salary requirements, plain needing a job, driving, etc"...
Is it? The ancient Greeks/Romans would disagree with you!the idea that you should be fulfilled first and work second is very modern. the older idea that you used whatever work you did to find fulfillment in doing well is at least more attainable a goal and still ends up leaving people feeling fulfilled and content with the work they do, whatever it may be...
I choose to live a life I love. It works for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying ANY job will never have a downside, but living life boldly, exactly as you want to, is empowering. Living a life you love is an amazing, powerful way to live. (Why do you think I'm such a pip?)
I tend to gauge things by my internal navigation. If I feel like I am generating what I need to and I feel content, I have learned I more than likely am!i'm not sure picking a job based on 'will it please me endlessly to do it' is necessarily the most coherent long-term approach.
This just sounded painful to me. I'm sorry if you're angry, but I don't understand.but what do i know, i would be a semi-professional pole dancer and an entirely professional maritime lawyer.......
clearly i have no idea what either 'stripping' or 'regular jobs' are.
"She held me close and whispered in my ear how wonderful I was. Since I'm not wonderful. I was pretty sure this was a trap. So I figured I'd better grope her as much as I could before they sprung the trap. You've got to take what you can get in this life. I read that in a magazine. So I started smearing kisses on her and pawing the front of her dress, trying to get my money's worth before somebody bashed my head in." John Swartzwelder






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