
Originally Posted by
Cherry Valence
I wouldn't exactly call myself a subsistence stripper, but I definitely could have saved more in the last few years. I lived well, ate wherever I wanted, took vacations, and paid for school and other goals. It's definitely been a good thing in my life. I also did some occasional escorting through the internet, which wasn't a negative experience but definitely was something that I did not prefer to stripping. Lately, the decline in my income is making me want to either step up my game to super stripper, work 6 nights a week and save every penny...or just work as an escort. Hope I don't get flamed for this, but I'm really, really scared about the economy, and if I know I could make a guaranteed $1000 a day and mentally/physically handle the sex work, I'd rather just do that and leave stripping behind. I'm starting to think in survival mode, and I'm wondering if anyone else is feeling similarly. I know there are many super strippers on here who do great and are preparing for an economic downturn in their own way, and I'm not trying to imply that the economic woes are driving me to escorting or driving anyone else to escorting as if that was a negative. I'm just wondering if anyone else has considered these things.
For a while I liked stripping because I thought, "Wow, this is awesome because I don't have do [insert sexual action here] with the customer and I still get paid hundreds per night!" It's because I started out as an escort at 18 and didn't really understand that there were other options.
Stripping has lost its appeal because I feel like if I'm going to be working, why not make a guaranteed amount per hour. And if the US economy is really going down the toilet, I feel like if I'm comfortable escorting, dancing would just be a waste of my time. It's a numbers game, and as an escort, the money is guaranteed and the demand is super high. Why work more for less, if you're going to work a certain number of hours? Obviously an hour stripping is not an hour escorting, though...
I find that when I'm at the strip club, I'm unfocused and I have trouble "accepting" that what I there to do is actually sell lap dances. The whole routine is boring to me. Sure, it's great when I have one customer that spends a ton, but that's just happening rarely for me. It's pretty scary actually.
I seem to have already made up my mind, I guess. The idea of going back to escorting doesn't make me sad; rather, the guaranteed money, demand and freedom makes me feel relieved. However, I feel like escorting is very lonely and sort of hollow. I feel like I can't talk to anyone about it.
I'm going in to work at a club tonight after I get my hair colored and cut, and I'm hoping that I can give it my all. I am struggling with my decisions right now. On one hand, the state of the world and my life makes me want to buckle down and be a sex worker. Do the work, get the money, use the money for education and savings, and not mess around with $100 shifts at the strip club. On the other hand, the obvious risks and lack of sustainability in sex work concern me — and it makes me think that maybe I just need to buckle down as a stripper!
Any thoughts? Does anyone else worry so much about the state of things that they don't see any point in working at strip clubs anymore? Or do you think I'm just feeling that way because I'm paranoid the food will run out, the dollar will lose more value, oil will run out, etc. and I don't wanna be high and dry, in my forties and relying on a sex industry where people are even less willing to pay $20 for a dance?
I'm also considering that inflation doesn't really do much for us as strippers or sex workers.
I seriously don't even think I could pay state school tuition on my stripper income right now, and it's not just me.
Sorry this is so long.
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