Please Help Me With My Thesis! <3

[firegirl]

Hi y’all! I’m a rising college senior, writing my thesis next year on the portrayal of strippers in media/pop culture and as part of my research would love to get input from those of you who have worked as strippers, specifically in clubs but also just in general. If you could please fill out this *completely anonymous* survey, I would be endlessly appreciative. There's an optional part at the end to add an email address for me to follow up with you, but if you'd rather put your SW username for me to DM you that is also fine. (Or no contact info at all is also obviously okay.) Thank you so much for your help!!

https://goo.gl/forms/s5NOPD5TllI4IcAe2

[firegirl]

Additionally, if you could share this with other dancers who could fill this out, I would appreciate that as well!

[Selina M]

We don't want to be studied and have papers written about us. I'm sure it sounds like a cool, edgy topic but its not. The more taboo it remains to be a stripper, the better the money. Sorry, but I doubt you'll get many takers here.

[RyanXO]

We don't want to be studied and have papers written about us. I'm sure it sounds like a cool, edgy topic but its not. The more taboo it remains to be a stripper, the better the money. Sorry, but I doubt you'll get many takers here.

Adding onto this, it seems like any "studies" or "documentaries" always turns into how we are all really victims with self-esteem issues and bad childhoods. Even if some of us DO have self-esteem issues or bad childhoods, that is irrelevant. Stripping is just a job for me, my past has nothing to do with it. I get really offended when someone tries to somehow make my job choice about how I, for example have depression. They have nothing to do with each other. I hope I am making sense here. I don't know you, OP, and I am not saying you are necessarily going to do this, but this is what we see all the time, and that makes us cautious.

[firegirl]

I'm actually really glad you both brought this up, because I was worried people would be cautious, and I agree with that instinct. The thing is, this is exactly why I made a survey in the first place. Part of my thesis is writing a short film about a strip club, mostly highlighting the day-to-day goings on rather than turning the characters into sob stories. This is why I want to hear multiple people's perspectives about what they've seen onscreen that has worked and what hasn't, as well as what they would want to see, which is essentially what my survey is asking. I'm looking to compare and contrast fiction with reality and try to find an authentic compromise, which is why I'm looking for a plurality of opinions.

As for making strippers less taboo, this is an undergrad level thesis. At most, 20 or so people are going to see it, it's not going to affect anybody's income.

[Shy2]

It's more about having a whole bunch of students trying to get us to fill out surveys for their college work. We see what's in it for you, what's in it for us? We don't work for free

[PhatGirlDynomite!!!]

Id have more respect for these researchers if they actually went out and got a job in a club. If you want to know what its like then find out for yourself at no less than two clubs.

[lynn2009]

If you're not interested don't do the survey. There's no reason to get nasty at her. Surveys like this are not that uncommon it could just as easily be a questionnaire for women in tech and science.

[PhatGirlDynomite!!!]

If you're not interested don't do the survey. There's no reason to get nasty at her. Surveys like this are not that uncommon it could just as easily be a questionnaire for women in tech and science.

Who is this comment meant for?

[firegirl]

It's more about having a whole bunch of students trying to get us to fill out surveys for their college work. We see what's in it for you, what's in it for us? We don't work for free

Like Lynn said, from what I've seen it's standard practice to send out these types surveys when doing research. I have a friend who wrote a thesis about all-girls schools and surveyed students at all-girls schools. I have a friend who wrote a thesis on Latina representation in media and surveyed Latina women. I've seen and filled out so many surveys for people online who were working on various projects, whether professional or academic, and I don't see this as being different than that. As for what you get out of it, I don't know. Some people like talking about themselves. Some people have strong opinions they want to express. Everybody on this forum is somebody who's actively interested in discussing the business of stripping, so it's not like I'm asking you to do something you don't already spend your time doing. If I'd posted a thread called "What do you think of the representation of strippers in media & pop culture?" and got a discussion going, I would be essentially getting the same results, but I thought that would be misrepresentative of my goals and I wouldn't want to use that information without people knowing my intention behind asking the question.

Id have more respect for these researchers if they actually went out and got a job in a club. If you want to know what its like then find out for yourself at no less than two clubs.

So this is actually something I am planning on doing! Trying to put together the resources to start, but I literally just started working on this thesis and I have a different full time job, so I haven't had the time yet, but soon. Again, though, the intent behind my survey is to get a plurality of opinions. Sure, I could draw exclusively from my own experiences, but I am white, and I am straight, and I only have my one body type, and I would be working in only one locale, and my entire perspective would be skewed by the fact that I'm partly there for research, and I'd be worried about a confirmation bias in only looking for or noticing things that align with my current thoughts, and the point is that I want to hear voices that are different from mine. Besides, I've read the other threads about people who wrote articles or papers about stripping who only spent a limited amount of time working at clubs, and people rightfully complain about how one person's experience does not reflect on an entire industry, as well as that it's disrespectful to the other women in the club that they didn't know they were being "observed". I'm trying to avoid this generalization, as well as be transparent about my goals.


But yeah, both valid points, and if anybody else has any concerns, please let me know and I will do my best to address them. I really do have nothing but good intentions here, y'all, I swear.

[Girl Anachronism]

I’ve had people come into the club for their class/thesis/whatever who always seemed rather uncomfortable but I respected that they made the effort to come in and I sat and talked to them either for free or a small tip. One of them I even bought a drink. Go out and make the effort. Every city with a college has at least one strip club.

[Selina M]

I have 2 issues with the "researchers".

1) I'm really not understanding WHAT is so fascinating about strippers that all these college kids want to do papers on us. The reality is so unglamorous and often mundane. The answer to "why", 9/10 times, is money. The angle some take about finding girls who are bootstrapping out of poverty... there's plenty of people doing the same thing with jobs at McDonalds. Etc etc, for all the various reasons people give for finding it a good topic.

2) We get tons of asinine questions from customers & people in our real lives that are often identical to what's in these surveys. It results in feeling like a zoo animal sometimes, when to us it's literally just a job. THAT is why some girls get snippy about not wanting to answer them, yet again, for free.

Please don't get snotty with me about "only 200 people are going to see it". Info disseminates via word of mouth. You change 200 people's views & they'll start passing it on to their friends. Mainly though it's just that there's been this huge surge of documentaries and articles on strippers/cam girls/escorts, which is overall not good for our business.

[firegirl]

I’ve had people come into the club for their class/thesis/whatever who always seemed rather uncomfortable but I respected that they made the effort to come in and I sat and talked to them either for free or a small tip. One of them I even bought a drink. Go out and make the effort. Every city with a college has at least one strip club.

Yes! Also on my list! But like I said, I just started working on this and I figured I should start with an online survey because it’s a quicker way to cast a wider net. I also, to be honest, wanted to test the waters. I knew I would probably be met with opposition, and, please correct me if I have the wrong impression, I thought people might be more receptive to filling out an optional short survey in their free time than to having a discussion in the middle of their shift for “a small tip”. It’s wonderful that you sat down and talked to them, but I’m a little nervous other people wouldn’t be as generous with their time.

I have 2 issues with the "researchers".

1) I'm really not understanding WHAT is so fascinating about strippers that all these college kids want to do papers on us. The reality is so unglamorous and often mundane. The answer to "why", 9/10 times, is money. The angle some take about finding girls who are bootstrapping out of poverty... there's plenty of people doing the same thing with jobs at McDonalds. Etc etc, for all the various reasons people give for finding it a good topic.

2) We get tons of asinine questions from customers & people in our real lives that are often identical to what's in these surveys. It results in feeling like a zoo animal sometimes, when to us it's literally just a job. THAT is why some girls get snippy about not wanting to answer them, yet again, for free.

Please don't get snotty with me about "only 200 people are going to see it". Info disseminates via word of mouth. You change 200 people's views & they'll start passing it on to their friends. Mainly though it's just that there's been this huge surge of documentaries and articles on strippers/cam girls/escorts, which is overall not good for our business.

So to add a little more context, I’m a pole dancer myself, I’ve been doing it for around 4 years, it’s not like I randomly decided “Oh! Strippers! What a concept!” I also personally don’t think any of the questions on my survey come anywhere near “Why?”. It’s a media studies thesis, not a sociology or psychology or gender studies thesis, or any of the other fields I think you might be thinking of. My goal is more to take a look at the discrepancies between what’s portrayed onscreen and what the day-to-day of the job actually looks like. That’s why I think it would be more interesting than writing about food service workers.

And I’m sorry if you thought that was snotty! I meant it as more of a lighthearted joke, like, “I’m flattered you think I have that much sway over people’s opinions,” but I get that it didn’t come off that way.