The purpose of this paper is to investigate women's experiences in stripclubs and
to describe the activities in stripclubs from the women's point of view. The format
approach is collective story narrative with the author as part of the collective voice.
The research was inspired by the author’s experiences in stripping over the course
of thirteen years. The author’s intention is to examine the conditions of
stripclubs by describing the fundamental way stripclubs are organized. The description
features bar activities focused on stripper-customer interactions, survey data on sexual
violence in stripclubs, and women's thoughts on stripping.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

Stripclubs are popularly promoted as providing harmless entertainment and as
places where respectful men go to watch and talk to women (Reed 1997). Stripclub
customers are described as normal men who use stripclubs to avoid adultery and therefor
find a safe outlet for their sexual desires in balance with their marital commitments
(Reed 1997). In contrast, stripclubs are criticized for being environments where men
exercise their social, sexual, and economic authority over women who are dependent on
them and as places where women are treated as things to perform sex acts and take
commands from men (Ciriello 1993).

Stripclubs are organized according to gender and reflect gender power dynamics in
greater society. "Gendered spaces are social arenas in which a person’s gender
shapes the roles, statuses, and interpersonal dynamics and generates differential
political and economic outcomes and interaction expectations and practices" (Ronai,
Zsembik, and Feagin 1997:6). Stripclubs are more specifically organized according to
gender inequality, which is perpetuated by gendered spaces and consequently sexualized
(Ronai, et al 1997). The typical stripclub scenario displays young, nude or partially
nude women for fully clothed male customers (Thompson and Harred 1992).

The entire analysis of stripclubs is located within the context of men’s
domination over women. When organizations are produced in the context of the structural
relations of domination, control, and violence, they reproduce those relations (Hearn
1994). These organizations may also make explicit use of gendered forms of authority with
unaccountable and unjustifiable authority belonging to men (Hearn 1994). The stripclub
elicits and requires direct expressions of male domination and control over women
(Prewitt 1989).

In order to dominate or control and secure men’s domestic, emotional and
sexual service interests, male dominated institutions and individual men utilize violence
(Hanmer 1989). Furthermore, male dominated institutions and individual men "forge
alliances and strengthen the notion of group masculinity and power through forced access
to the female body" (Brownmiller 1976:211). Stripclubs turn acts of violence against
women into entertainment and enterprise for men. Men associated with stripclubs use force
and coercion to establish sexual contact with women in stripping and inflict harm upon
the women. Violence against women is identified as physical, sexual, emotional, verbal,
and representational, but all violence from men against women should be understood as
sexual violence (Hearn 1994). This definition and the concept of a continuum are useful
when discussing sexual violence, especially in stripclubs. Continuum is defined as a
basic characteristic underlying many different events and as a series of elements or
events that pass into one another (Kelly 1987). The common underlying element in
stripclubs is that male customers, managers, staff, and owners use diverse methods of
harassment, manipulation, exploitation, and abuse to control female strippers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Despite a substantial amount of research on the topic of strippers, stripping,
and stripclubs, none focuses on sexual violence in stripclubs perpetrated against
strippers. Instead the studies focus on sociological and psychological profiles of the
women and the women’s strategies for interaction with customers. Articles that
focus on the women investigate the cultural space of the female nude dancer, her
performance and auxiliary roles, test identity theory within the socially devalued role
of the exotic dancer, and explore the effect of self-discrepancy on stripteasers’
emotional stability (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Reid, Epstein, and Benson 1994; (Peretti
and O’ Connor 1989). Other articles about the women are concerned with
contingencies for women’s initiation and commitment to the deviance of striptease
and with techniques topless dancers use to manage the stigma of a deviant occupation
(Skipper and McCaghy 1970; Thompson and Harred 1992). Studies focused on stripper and
customer relationships analyze counterfeit intimacy utilized by strippers and customers
in interaction and performance and compare stripper and customer interactions with
mainstream negotiation and sales strategies (Boles and Garbin 1974; Enck and Preston
1988; Ronai 1989). Although most studies mention male sexual violence and exploitation,
the research regarding stripping fails to investigate and account for the problem of
sexual violence in establishments that feature female strippers. The gap is the rationale
for my study.

METHOD

Data for this research were obtained through interviews, a survey, and the
researcher’s participant observation while involved in stripping (Berg 1998; Babbie
1998; Lofland and Lofland 1984). Women in this study stripped in the local stripclubs in
the Midwest metropolitan area where the researcher lives, in local nightclubs in the same
area, in metropolitan and rural stripclubs and nightclubs across the United States, at
private parties, in peep shows, and in saunas. The stripclubs featured a variety of
attractions including topless dancing, nude dancing, table dancing, couch dancing, lap
dancing, wall dancing, shower dancing, and bed dancing. In addition, some clubs had
peepshows, female boxing and wrestling with customers, offered photographs of the
dancers, or hired pornography models and actresses as headliners.

The study was conducted in two phases. In 1994, I conducted free-flowing
qualitative interviews for one to four hours each with forty-one women while I was still
involved in stripping and compiled participant observer notes about the activities in
stripclubs. The women ranged in age from nineteen to forty years old and were involved in
stripping from three months to eighteen years. All of the women identified themselves as
Caucasian.

In 1996, I proceeded to design a twenty-six-question survey according to themes
derived from the interviews to investigate sexual violence in stripclubs. My long-time
involvement in the strip industry allowed an association with strippers that was
invaluable for administering in-depth surveys regarding sensitive issues. The surveys
were administered face-to-face to insure the information was indeed from the women in
stripping. Again, the surveys and consequent discussions lasted from one to four hours.
Many women explained that they had never talked about their experiences so extensively
because no one had ever asked them the right questions. Participants were asked to say
whether they had experienced different abusive and violent actions in stripclubs, to
estimate how often each action happened, and then to identify which men associated with
stripclubs perpetrated the action. The categories of men were defined as customer, owner,
staff, and manager. Since I exited stripping, snowball sampling was employed to recruit
the eighteen participants for the survey (Babbie 1998). Participants in the survey were
asked to pass on postcards to other women. The range of ages was eighteen to thirty-five
years old. The age of entry into stripping ranged from fifteen to twenty-three years old,
with a mean age of eighteen years and ten months. The length of time the women in this
study were involved in stripping ranged from three months to eighteen years with an
average length of six years and seven months. Women predominantly identified themselves
as Caucasian. Only one woman identified herself as Hispanic. Twelve of the women
described their sexual orientation as heterosexual, two as lesbian, and four as bisexual.
The survey data was analyzed on the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (Norusis
1988).

After the data was compiled, a focus group of 4 women currently in stripping and
with no prior association with the study positively evaluated the relevancy of the study
and approved the collective story (Berg 1998).

Statements in quotations throughout this paper are derived from the 41 interviews
and the interviews that often followed the administration of the 18 surveys.

PART 1: TYPICAL STRIPCLUB ACTIVITIES

Recruitment

Women find out about stripping from a variety of sources. Upscale stripclub
franchises recruit in new cities by having managers and imported dancers scout in
nightclubs. Most women find out about stripping from girlfriends already in stripping,
male associates, the media, and some from prior involvement in prostitution. One woman
told how she loitered in and around urban stripclubs to pick up customers when she was
fifteen and how her pimp eventually drove her to small town strip bars because those bars
admitted her and hired her. Someone else got involved in stripping through an escort
service for bachelor parties. Another young woman who went to a gentlemen’s club to
pick up her friend recounted her recruitment as an eighteen-year-old. She waited at the
bar, was served alcohol, and the owner asked to check her I.D. Instead of censuring her
for drinking, he told her she would make $1000 per week and pressured her to enter the
amateur contest that night. She won the contest, $300, and worked there three weeks
before being recruited into an escort service by a patron pimp.

In a typical hiring scenario women respond in person to a newspaper ad promising
big money, flexible hours, no experience necessary. As an audition the club manager asks
the applicants to perform on amateur night or bikini night, both of which are
particularly popular with customers who hope to see girl-next-door types rather than
seasoned strippers. The manager will make a job offer based on physical attributes and
number of women already on the schedule. Clubs portray the job requirements as very
flexible. Women are told that they will not be forced to do anything they do not want to
do, but clubs overbook women so they are forced to compete with each other, often
gradually engaging in more explicit activities in order to earn tips (Cooke
1987).

Working Conditions

Women in stripping are denied legal protection relating to the terms and
conditions under which they earn their livings (Fischer 523). Most strippers are hired to
work as independent contractors rather than employees. Most strippers are not paid a wage
(Mattson 1995), therefor their income is totally dependent on their compliance with
customer demands in order to earn tips. More often than not, the strippers have to pay
for the privilege of working at a club (Cooke 1987; Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Prewitt
1989). The majority of clubs demand that women turn over 40 to 50 percent of their income
for stage or couch rental and enforce a mandatory tip out to bouncers and disc jockeys
(Enck and Preston 1988; Forsyth and Deshotels 1997). Usually a minimum shift quota is set
and the women must turn over at least that quota amount. If a woman does not earn the
quota and wants to continue working at the establishment, she owes the club and must pay
off that shift’s quota by adding it to the quota for the next shift she will work.
The stripclubs may also derive income from promotional novelty items, kickbacks, door
cover charges, beverage sales, prostitution, and capricious fines imposed on the women.
As independent contractors, strippers are not entitled to file discrimination claims,
receive workers’ compensation, or unemployment benefits (Fischer 1996; Mattson
1995). Club owners are free from tax obligations and tort liability. Owners pay no Social
Security, no health insurance, and no sick pay. Some club owners require strippers to
sign agreements indicating that they are working as independent contractors and many
clubs require women to sign a waiver of their right to sue the club for any
reason.

Although strippers are classified as independent contractors, the reality of
their relationship to their supervisors is an employee-employer relationship. Regardless
of the agreements claiming independent contractor status, clubs maintain enormous control
over the women. The club controls the schedule and hours, requires strippers to pay
rental fees, tip support staff large amounts, and even sets the price of table dances and
private dances. Clubs have specific rules about costuming and even dictate the sequence
of stripping and nudity. For example, by the middle of the first song the woman must
remove her top, she must be entirely nude by the end of the second song, and must perform
a nude floorshow. All this regardless of whether customers are tipping her or not. A club
may further influence dancers’ appearances by pressuring them to shave off all
their pubic hair, maintain a year-long tan, or undergo surgery for breast augmentation.
At nude clubs, it is common for the performers to be shaved clean, giving them an
adolescent and even childlike appearance.

Clubs also exert significant control over the strippers’ behavior during
their shifts by regulating when women may use the bathroom and how many of them can be in
the dressing room at one time. Some clubs do not provide seating in the dressing room and
forbid smoking in that room, thus preventing strippers from taking a break. When a woman
wants to sit down or smoke a cigarette, she must do so on the main floor with a customer.
Clubs enforce these rules through fines (Cooke 1987; Enck and Preston 1988; Ronai 1992).
Women are fined heavily by club management: $1 per minute for being late, as much as $100
for calling in sick, and other arbitrary amounts for "talking back" to customers or
staff, using the telephone without permission, and touching stage mirrors. Women are
fined for flashing, prostitution (Enck and Preston 1988), taking off their shoes,
fighting with a customer, being late on stage, leaving the main floor before the DJ calls
her off, not cashing in one dollar bills, profanity in music, being sick, not cleaning
the dressing room, using baby oil on stage, dancing with her back to a customer (Enck and
Preston 1988) and being touched by a customer.

Despite the stripclub’s representation of a dancing job as flexible,
strippers attest that their relationship with the club becomes all consuming and
everything associated with being a stripper interferes with living a normal life. And
despite the common perception that a woman can dance her way through school, many
strippers report that their jobs take over their lives. Long and late hours, fatigue,
drug and alcohol problems, and out of town bookings make it difficult to switch gears.
Not only do the women spend a significant amount of their time in stripclubs, the
activities and influences from the club environment permeate their personal lives and
detrimentally effect their well being. Although stripclubs are considered legal forms of
entertainment, people unassociated with the industry are unaware of the emotional
(Peretti and O’Connor 1989; Ronai 1992), verbal (Mattson 1995; Ronai 1992),
physical (Boles and Garbin 1974), and sexual abuse (Ciriello 1993; Ronai 1992) inherent
in the industry. Despite claims from management that customers are prohibited from
touching the women, this rule is consistently violated (Enck and Preston 1988; Forsyth
and Deshotels 1997; Ronai and Ellis 1989; Thompson and Harred 1992). Furthermore,
stripping usually involves prostitution (Boles and Garbin 1974; Forsyth and Deshotels
1997; Prewitt 1989; Ronai and Ellis 1989; Thompson and Harrod 1992).

Stripper-Customer Interactions

Main Floor

Stripclub activities are offered in public spaces or private rooms or other
isolated parts of clubs (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997). The typical stripclub scenario
presents young, nude or partially nude women mingling with fully clothed male customers.
They circulate through the crowd, encouraging men to buy liquor, drinking and talking
with men, and soliciting and performing a variety of private dances (Prewitt 1989; Ronai
and Ellis 1989). Women describe their role in the stripclub as hostess, object,
prostitute, therapist, and temporary girlfriend and say they are there to entertain and
attract men and business for the owners.

Women who work at small strip joints say they can hang out, order in food, and
play pool during their shifts. On the other hand, women who work at gentlemen’s
clubs have to hustle photographs and drinks and are required to sell promotional
T-shirts, calendars, and videos. They can be mandated to sell the items with private
dances. For example, the dancers buy T-shirts from the house mom for $8 and sell them for
$15. So for $15, the customer receives a T-shirt and 2 $10 table dances. Strippers at
gentlemen’s clubs are further informed by management that they are not allowed to
buy their own drinks, that they have to be sitting with customers, and can never turn
down a drink, even when their drinks are full.

Stage

Women report dancing on stages as cheaply constructed by laying plywood on the
benches of restaurant booths to stages covered with kitchen linoleum to wood parquet or
marble stages in a few upscale clubs. Some stages are elevated runways so narrow that
strippers say that cannot get away from customers on each side touching them, especially
when they are kneeling down to accept a tip in the side of their g-strings/t-bars or when
they have their backs turned. Stages can also be sunken pits with a rail around it and a
bar for the customers’ beverages. During a set, a stripper may do striptease,
acrobatics, dance, walk, or squat to display her genitals. Generally the progression for
striptease begins during the first song with the woman wearing a dress or costume
covering her breasts and buttocks. Over the course of a set of 2 or 3 songs she will
remove her bra and in nude clubs, her g-string/t-bar. Some clubs feature floorshows in
which women crawl or move around on the floor posing in sexual positions and spread their
legs at the customers’ eye level. During a floorshow, a dancer changes her
movements from upright to positions on her knees and squatting in a crabwalk in order to
‘flash’ tipping customers. "Flashing" is pulling the g-string/t-bar aside,
revealing the pubic area and/or the genitals. Dancers describe this as "doing a show" for
paying customers. Ordinarily, a dancer only positions herself in front of tipping patrons
(Prewitt 145). Customers who fail to tip are ignored. Audience response can be expressed
by clapping, hooting, barking, whistling, amount of money tipped, or complete silence
depending upon time of day, state of inebriation, excitement over the musical selection,
or the appearance and abilities of the stripper.

On stage, some women’s thoughts wander, while others’ focus on angry
desperation. "I daydream about nothing in particular to pass the time of 12
minutes." "I’m thinking about how good I look in the mirrors and how good I
feel in dance movements." "I tell myself to smile." "I think about getting
high and that I am making money to get high." "I am giving these guys every chance
to be decent, so that I don’t have to be afraid of them." "I am filled with
disdain for the customers who do not tip, but sit and watch and direct you to do things
for no money." "I think of how cheap these fuckers are, what bills I need to
pay."

Private Dance Activities

Private dances are usually performed in areas shielded from the larger club view
(Forsyth and Deshotels 1997, Prewitt 1989). As a rule, the private dance involves one
female dancer and one male customer. Private dances are situations where women are often
forced into acts of prostitution in order to earn tips (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997;
Prewitt 1989; Ronai and Ellis 1989). Men masturbate openly (Peretti and O’Connor
1989), get hand jobs (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997), and stick their fingers inside women
(Ronai and Ellis 1989). Men with foot fetishes have been known to suck on dancers’
toes.

A variety of private dances are promoted in strip clubs. Table dancing is
performed on a low coffee table or on a small portable platform near the customer’s
seat. The woman’s breasts and genitals are eye level to the customer. Couch dancing
for a customer entails the dancer standing over him on the couch, dangling her breasts or
bopping him in the face with her pubic area. Lap dancing requires the woman to straddle
the man’s lap and grind against him until he ejaculates in his pants. A variation
involves the woman dancing between his legs while he slides down in his chair so that the
dancer’s thighs are rubbing his crotch as she moves. Bed dancing is offered in a
private room and requires a woman to lay on top of a fully clothed man and simulate
sexual intercourse until he ejaculates. Shower dancing is offered in upscale clubs and
allows a clothed patron to get into a shower stall with one or more women and massage
their bodies with soap. Wall dancing requires a stripper to carry alcohol swabs to wash
the customer’s fingers before he inserts them into her vagina. His back is
stationary against the wall and she is pressed against him with one leg lifted. Peep
shows feature simulated or actual acts directed by openly masturbating customers.
Customers sit in a private booth and view the women through a glass window. Live sex
shows involve 2 or more individuals engaging in simulated or sexual activity performed
behind glass or on a stage. Customers openly masturbate while watching the show from the
audience or through an opening in a private booth.

During private dances women are conscientious about their boundaries and safety.
"I don’t want him to touch me, but I am afraid he will say something violent if
I tell him ‘no’." "I was thinking about doing prostitution because
that’s when customers would proposition me." "I could only think about how
bad these guys smell and try to hold my breath." "I spent the dance hyper vigilant
to avoiding their hands, mouths, and crotches." "We were allowed to place towels
on the guys’ laps, so it wasn’t so bad." "I don’t remember
because it was so embarrassing."

Dressing Room

Women describe a range of types and qualities of dressing rooms. Strippers are
expected to change clothing in beer coolers, broom closets, and public restrooms. Some
stripclub dressing rooms are nice with lights, mirrors, vanities, and chairs, and are
equipped with lockers, and tanning beds. Other clubs have make-up mirrors but no chairs
or ashtrays to prevent dancers from lingering. Women complain that too many dressing
rooms are down isolated halls or in the basements of establishments and that they have to
scream for help when customers intrude. Some are so damp or filthy that the women cannot
take their shoes off. Other dressing rooms are so frigid that dancers carry small space
heaters to and from work. The dressing rooms are used to change costumes, drink, do
drugs, do hair and make-up, iron costumes, do homework, bitch about customers, avoid
customers, talk about problems, hang out. In strip joints and rural bars, women lay on
blankets or inside sleeping bags between sets and nap and read.

The greatest response to questions regarding preparation for work was "drink".
Women drink while getting ready to go to work and they drink while doing their hair and
make-up once in the dressing room. Women who work at nude juice bars that do not serve
alcohol or at bars that do not allow women to buy their own drinks report that they stop
at another bar on their way in and "get loaded". Between stage sets and private dances,
women drink some more, clean themselves with washcloths or babywipes after performing on
a dirty stage or being touched by a lot of men, apply deodorant, and perfume their
breasts and genitals. PART 2: SURVEY DATA

One hundred percent of the eighteen women in the survey report being physically
abused in the stripclub. The physical abuse ranged from three to fifteen times with a
mean of 7.7 occurrences over the course of their involvement in stripping. One hundred
percent of the eighteen women in this study report sexual abuse in the stripclub. The
sexual abuse ranged from two to nine occurrences with a mean of 4.4 occurrences over the
course of their involvement in stripping. One hundred percent of the women report verbal
harassment in the stripclub. The verbal abuse ranged from one to seven occurrences with a
mean of 4.8 occurrences over the course of their involvement in stripping. One hundred
percent of the women report being propositioned for prostitution. Seventy eight percent
of the women were stalked by someone associated with the stripclub with a range of one to
seven incidents. Sixty one percent of the women report that someone associated with the
stripclub has attempted to sexually assault her with a range of one to eleven attempts.
Not only do women suffer the abuse they experience, all of women in the survey witnessed
these things happen to other strippers in the clubs. The overwhelming trend for violence
against women in stripclubs was committed by customers of the establishments. Stripclub
owners, managers, assistant managers, and the staff of bartenders, music programmers or
disc jockeys, bouncers, security guards, floorwalkers, doormen, and valet were
significantly less involved in violence against the women. According to the women in this
study, almost all of the perpetrators suffered no consequence whatsoever for their
actions.

Physical Abuse

Customers spit on women, spray beer, and flick cigarettes at them. Strippers are
pelted with ice, coins, trash, condoms, room keys, pornography, and golf balls. Men
pitched a live guinea pig and a dead squirrel at two women in the survey. Some women have
been hit with cans and bottles thrown from the audience. Customers pull women’s
hair, yank them by the arm or ankle, rip their costumes, and try to pull their costumes
off. Women are commonly bitten, licked, slapped, punched, and pinched. See Table 1
Frequency of Physical Abuse.

Table 1 - Frequency of Physical Abuse

 

Abusive Action	Ever (by men in stripclub) (%)	At Least Once Every Day (%)	At Least Once Every Week (%)	At Least Once Every Month (%)	At Least Once Every Year (%)
Grabbed by arm	78	44 C 6 M 11 S	17 C 6 O 6 M 11 S	11 C 6 O 6 M	6 M
Grabbed by ankle	56	28 C		6 C 6 M	11 C
Grabbed by waist	94	50 C 6 M 11 S	33 C 11 M 11 S	6 M	11 C
Bitten	56	6 C	11 C		11 C
Licked	78	28 C	17 C	11 C 6 O 6 M 11 S	22 C
Slapped	39	6 C	11 C		17 C
Hair pulled	39	6 C	6 C	11 C
Punched	72	6 C
Pinched	72	17 C	17 C	6 C 6 M 6 S	22 C 6 S
Kicked	11	6 C
Spit on	61	6 C			28 C
Pulled costume off	83	22 C		6 C 6 O 6 M	22 C 6 S
Ripped costume	44	6 C		6 C	17 C
Flicked cigarette	33	6 C	6 C		11 C
Sprayed beer	39	6 C	6 C	6 C	6 C
Threw ice	61	6 C	11 C	6 C	6 C
Threw coins	83	17 C	11 C	11 C 6 S	28 C
Threw cans/glasses	22	6 C
Threw garbage	39	17 C	11 C
Threw other	28	11 C

N = 18 Key: C = customers, O = owners, M =
managers, S = staff

Sexual Abuse

Stripclub customers frequently grab women’s breasts, buttocks, and
genitals. Customers often attempt and succeed at penetrating strippers vaginally and
anally with their fingers, dollar bills, and bottles. Customers expose their penises,
rub their penises on women, and masturbate in front of the women. Women in this study
consistently connected lap dances to the sexual abuse they suffered in the club.
"That’s the first thing men try to do when they get close to you and always in
a lap dance." Stripclub owners, managers, and staff also expect women to masturbate
them and some have forced intercourse on strippers. See Table 2 Frequency of Sexual
Abuse and Table 3 Attempted and Completed Sexual Abuse.

 

Table 2 - Frequency of Sexual
Abuse

Abusive Action	Ever (by men in stripclub) (%)	At Least Once Every Day (%)	At Least Once Every Week (%)	At Least Once Every Month (%)	At Least Once Every Year (%)
Grabbed breasts	94	28 C 6 M	17 C	17 C 6 M	17 C 6 O
Grabbed buttocks	89	39 C	11 C	39 C 6 M 6 S	6 O 6 S
Grabbed genitals	67	17 C		11 C 6 M	17 C
Exposed penis to her	67	11 C	6 C	6 C 6 O 6 M	33 C
Rubbed penis on her	78	39 C 6 M	22 C 6 O 6 M 6 S	6 C	22 C 6 O
Masturbated in front of her	78	33 C 6 M	11 C	28 C	6 C

N = 18 Key: C = customers, O = owners, M =
managers, S = staff

 

Table 3 - Attempted and
Completed Sexual Abuse

Abusive Action	Experienced Attempted Abuse (%)	Experienced Successfully Completed Abuse (%)
Penetrate her vaginally with fingers	61 C 6 M	39
Penetrate her anally with fingers	33 C	17
Penetrate her with object	33 C 6 O	11
Force her to masturbate him	28 C 6 O 6 M	17
Force intercourse on her	17 C 6 O 6 M	11

N = 18 Key: C = customers, O = owners, M = managers, S = staff

 

Verbal Abuse

Customers, owners, managers, and staff alike engage in harassing namecalling.
Women are continually called "cunt, "whore", "pussy", "slut", and "bitch". Women in
this study charge that men in the stripclub called them other demeaning or degrading
names like ugly, looser, fat, pregnant, boy, stupid, crack, slash, snatch, beaver,
dog, dyke, lezzie, brown eye, hooters, junkie, crackhead, and shit. See Table 4
Frequency of Namecalling Verbal Abuse.

 

Table 4 Frequency of Namecalling - Verbal
Abuse

Abusive Action	Ever (by men in stripclub) (%)	At Least Once Every Day (%)	At Least Once Every Week  (%)	At Least Once Every Month (%)	At Least Once Every Year (%)
Called "cunt"	61	28 C 6 M	6 C	17 C	11 C 6 M
Called "slut"	61	28 C 6 S	6 C	17 C 6 O 6 M 6 S	11 C
Called "whore"	78	28 C 6 S	6 C	17 C 6 O 6 M 6 S	22 C
Called "pussy"	72	39 C 6 S	11 C	11 C	11 C
Called "bitch"	89	39 C 6 S	11 C 6 O 6 M 6 S	6 C	22 C 6 M
Called other	56	17 C	6 C	17 C 6 M	6 C

N = 18 Key: C = customers, O = owners, M = managers, S =
staff

 

Forty four percent of the women report that men associated with the stripclub
have threatened to hurt them physically. These women report from three to 150 threats
during their involvement in stripping. Threats range from verbal threats of slaps,
ass whippings, and rapes to physical postures of punching and back hand slapping.
"When I wouldn’t let a customer grab on me, he would call me a bitch and
threaten to kick my ass or rape me." "When a customer grabs and the woman and
the girl takes action, they threaten".

 

Stalking

Men associated with stripclubs repeatedly attempt to contact the women
against their wishes. Strippers are followed home and stalked by stripclub customers.
Customers telephone, write letters, send gifts, and follow the women around against
their wishes. Women recount stories of catching customers following them to fitness
clubs, parks and lakes, day care centers, and even lesbian bars. They describe times
when customers have broken into their homes and taken underwear, hairbrushes, and
family photographs. Women say that other customers have used their jobs at the
telephone company or within the criminal justice system to target the women. The
women complain that customers also have followed them home masturbating while driving
in the next lane. Women who travel the strip circuit to rural areas report that
customers and stripclub owners, managers, and staff alike follow women from city to
city and state to state. Furthermore, local men in small towns harass the visiting
women by calling and knocking on the doors of the motel rooms and have been caught
peeping in the windows of strippers’ motel rooms. See Table 5 Stalking
Occurrences.

 

Table 5 - Stalking
Occurences

Abusive Action	Ever (by men in stripclub) (%)	Range of occurrences
Sent her letters against her wishes	28	3-100 times
Sent her gifts against her wishes	22	2-100 times
Called her home against her wishes	39	2-360 times
Followed her home against her wishes	56	2-500 times
Followed her to her car against her wishes	67	12-500 times
Followed her around on her private time	28	1-150 times
Followed her from club to club, city, and state	28	6-360 times
Other	28	1-360 times

N = 18

 

Twelve percent of the women who reported being followed to their cars further
reported that they were robbed (5.6 %), beaten (11.1%), threatened with a weapon
(5.6%), verbally sexually harassed (66.7%), and sexually assaulted (16.7%) by
customers. A customer who claimed he was in love with the woman followed her to her
car, called her a "fucking cunt" and strangled her hard enough to cause blood to
squirt from her neck.

 

Sexual Exploitation

Only a minority of women report that they were asked to perform sexual acts
on men associated with the stripclub in order to return to work (11% by owners); as a
condition of being hired (11% by managers, 11% by owners); in order to continue
working there (17% by owners); in order to get a better schedule (6% by owners); or
for drugs (17% by customers, 11% by managers, 22% by owners, 11% by staff).

A majority of the women, however, report they were asked to perform sexual
acts on men associated with the stripclub for money (100% by customers, 6% by
managers, 17% by owners, 11% by staff). Customers and pimps constantly proposition
women (Boles and Garbin 1974; Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Ronai 1992; Ronai and Ellis
1989). Fourteen (78%) women from the survey report they are propositioned for
prostitution every day by customers, three (17%) every week, one (6 %) every year.
Women comment that customers ask them "Do you date?" all night long.
"Infinite…too many too count." Women say that prostitution is
influenced and suggested by management. One woman new to stripping was dumbfounded at
how little money she was making taking her clothes off, so she asked the manager for
his advice on increasing tips. He suggested turning tricks and said he could help her
set up dates. Management sets up tricks, says it is good for business, and obligates
women to turn over money from prostitution to the club. Women say prostitution is
promoted even though owners tell women they would be punished if they turn tricks.
Some stripclubs are notorious for promoting prostitution. "You have to be a
‘ho to work there".

Women disclosed that they were recruited into prostitution through stripping.
Although the strip industry markets stripping as something other than prostitution,
some women consider prostitution an extension of stripping and stripping a form of
prostitution. Pimps season women first with stripping and then turn them out into
brothels or escort services for more money. Tricks, sugar daddies, pimps, and drug
dealers in the stripclub seek to engage women in prostitution. Another young woman
said that soon after she became involved in stripping, a pimp who posed as a customer
in the stripclub manipulated her into an escort service by promising that she could
make more money in less time simply by accompanying businessmen to dinner. She agreed
in order to feed her crack addiction and as her addiction increased she slid down
from gentlemen’s clubs to escort service to brothel to street and crack house
prostitution.

Not only are women in stripping pressured by customers to perform sexual acts
on them, owners, managers, and staff pressure the women to perform sexual acts on
them, their relatives and associates, on vice officers and police officers. Women
explain the pressure could range from being coerced into dancing for the intended
with an expectation to put on a real good show with special treatment, extra time,
and sexual contact, to engaging in prostitution. Strippers, like other subordinates
in worker-management relationships, respond with obedience to directives from
management and others with authority (McMahon 1989). See Table 6
Percentage of Women Pressured for Sexual Exploitation.

 

Table 6 - Percentage of Women Pressured for
Sexual Exploitation

Recipient	Pressured by customer (%)	Pressured by owner (%)	Pressured by manager (%)	Pressured by staff  (%)	Pressured by vice  officer (%)	Pressured by police officer (%)
Owner’s friend		39
Owner’s relative		11
Owner’s business associate		33
Manager’s friend			17
Manager’s relative			6
Manager’s business associate			11		Tags: strippers, sexual-violence, See Other Society Articles...