I've seen this coming for a long time. This is simply history repeating itself. Americans are not keen on prostitution, and the closer exotic dancing gets to prosution (and two way contact, combined with heavy grinding, it ain't far from it) the more likely the clubs will be shut down.
This happened to the burlesque shows of the 1920's and 1930's. There were theaters dedicated to burlesque shows on "the circuit". Slowly, cities started to crack down on those kind of places and making laws requireing that performers cover up and what was considered lewd behavior was brought into law at that time.
Read about it here.
It is funny, but the begining of the end of burlseque was in NYC. I think we've reached the limit of what the general public thinks is decent behavior and we are going to see a crack down of the kind of proportions that was the end of burlseque in the 1930's. Go-go picked up where burlesque left off (but not until the 1960's), and now we have what is modern gentlemen's clubs today.
It is funny, but burlesque is picking up where stripping abandonded the "show biz" aspect of stripping. The burlesque ladies are still topless, but they are untouchable by the audience. No lap dances for those ladies.
There is way too much porn and prostitution associated with stripping today. Both of those businesses are why there is so much money to be had in stripping. The incomes of modern exotic dnacers is greatly inflated because of the level of contact available (and this is in lieu of stage shows and flashy costumes, real feature performances).
I feel like such a granny in this business. I was "trained" how to stage dance by another dancer. I was given costume guidelines, music guidelines, I was required to change my costume with every stage set, and I was required to wear nice outfits when on the floor. No naked bits showing except on stage, preferablly a gown or a fancy silk robe was to be worn while socializing with the customers.
We did sell "private dances" but we were on a satelite stage, and it was all air. If the customer even tried to shake hands with us, we were told to back away until we were dressed. And this was only 9 years ago. Things are moving quickly into the realm of full service sex available in clubs. The guys delude themselves that strippers are not "required" to allow touching or grinding, so therefore they aren't purchasing sexual services from strippers. Hell, we're just good at our jobs, is all.
Is this going to be the end of stripping? No way. Things are changing, though. We'll have to come up with a new cool name for our strip shows. Exotic Revue, Burlesque dancing, Go-go girls, Neo-Burlesque, Pole dancers, or ???
Sure the dancers will be hurt by this change, but the club owners are going to be hurt worse. That's what happens when you get greedy and keep pushing the envelope.
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