My husband recently wrote an article about the current state of the clubs, sent it in to Exotic Dancer Bulletin, and it was published!
Seeing as he is (currently) a former SC manager, I thought it would be a pertinent read, for dancers and patrons here alike. It's an accurate portrayal of what's been going on in the New Orleans area.
It makes me happy (even as a retired dancer) to know there are managers out there like him who actually care about their girls. I am so proud of him.
Here's the actual article, instead of squinting at the scan:
"The gentleman's club industry as a whole is facing a new adversary in our constant battle to exist, but this time the enemy is us. In the past few years, I have watched the slow and steady decay of a business I once felt proud to say I represented, and the current state of affairs sickens me. I am just one man who feels compelled to speak up in defense of an industry I feel so passionately about and which has made an enormous impact on my life. Without this business, I would not have many of the friends I treasure, and wouldn't have met my wife, who is my life. This business has given me and so many others so much, I have decided it is time to give something back. This document is nothing less than a call to arms to save a dying industry from an extinction brought about by our own hands.
While I may be relatively young, I have been the manager, general manager, or the consultant called in to teach new owners and their staff how to run a gentleman's club and be a successful and respectable, but most of all, profitable business. I see how clubs operate now and most of the time I am amazed that they can even stay afloat, much less be profitable. The girls these days only remain at most clubs because no place else is any better, not because they are treated any better or make better money. I was taught that our dancers are the cornerstone of our business, because without them all we can offer our customers are expensive drinks. Once, managers knew everyone who worked for them; now girls are just a number and easily replaced. Once, a customer could not proposition a girl or make disrespectful comments without a warning from a floor host or manager and would be, if necessary, thrown out; now the girls are told to stop being so sensitive and to sit with someone else. Once, any dispute over money between a girl and a customer could be resolved through a fair hearing with the manager on duty; now the dancers are rarely even given a chance to speak, forced to give money back if a customer doesn't receive all he had hoped for during a private dance.
Everyone who worked in a club used to work as a team because everyone made more money doing so, and there was an almost familial relationship that made for a uniquely rewarding working environment. That is usually no longer the case. Clubs are often separated into warring factions based on position, with shifting alliances; loyalty and trust replaced with suspicion and disdain. Managers are more concerned about their bonuses than about protecting the girls and therefore allow them to be verbally and sexually abused, often setting policies which enable it. I have heard horror stories from girls about some clubs where the hosts refuse to help a girl if she doesn't tip at the beginning of her shift and ignore hearing screams and cries while a rape takes place only a few feet behind where he stands. Managers allow girls to schedule meetings with customers outside the club for bachelor parties or “dates” with no concern for the girls' safety, the law, or how it affects the club.
I came to an awful realization this morning when I was soothing a very upset distressed friend who was leaning on my shoulder and fighting tears, because when she told the manager of the upscale and “high-profile” club in which she works that a customer offensively disrespected her causing her to fear for her safety, she was told to just sit somewhere else, or when she complained about being groped she was told it wasn't a big deal implying that her morality and dignity were not a concern. I wondered if they would care if the same two guys did that to all of their girls. In my work, I now see many girls who walk through the clubs having been so abused or have become so accustomed to seeing unanswered abuses, that they have become desensitized and have the same “1000 yard stare” described by veteran soldiers. Young girls, new to the business, are trained not by management, as they should be, but by customers, who tell them a $40 dance includes “extra” and those whose job it is to train and protect them fail to say otherwise, even veteran dancers who know better, yet feel the same sense of hopeless abandonment. This lackadaisical attitude has become the norm and even once good managers have succumbed to this spreading rot. As more new girls flood the clubs with this pitiful lack of training, the experienced girls become outnumbered and often feel they have to conform or they won't make money. The new law of the land is that nothing matters as long as money is made, but at what cost?
Too often, people with no knowledge of this business think our industry is filthy, corrupt, unholy, a world based on lies and deceit. We in management are falsely equated with pimps who use and abuse women who were abused by their fathers, have substance abuse problems, lack dignity and self esteem. The public perception from the uninitiated is that we corrupt the naïve and turn good girls bad. Although that has been the consensus for decades, the reality for the most part, was the exact opposite. Girls from every walk of life were taught to be charming, entertaining, engaging, alluring, but always a lady. We all helped each other and above all, made sure any female in the building was never disrespected, inappropriately touched, or made to feel threatened. Customers rarely got out of hand and it was quickly handled if they did. It seems that public perception has become the reality as girls are now given no training or respect. The new reality is that the dancers have been thrown to the wolves. When they are insulted or assaulted by customers and complain, management only asks why it's a problem with a dismissiveness that was considered unacceptable in the not so distant past. If we continue on this path, I don't see a future for this industry. Unless we make things right again, our businesses will close because eventually, no girls will come in or we will all be brought to task by the legal system, whether it be civil or criminal. Take a stand! Don't let this happen. As much as you need your girls, they need you. Help keep them safe, happy, and never forget they are human beings, not numbers or dollar signs. When they go home, they are someone's mother, sister, aunt, daughter, or wife. At work, they are your family."



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