Strippers: Five Truths

There are many misconceptions, ideas, fantasies and judgments about strippers. And while I really can't speak for anyone but me, I wanted to shed some general light on five topics that always come up when I speak about my nine-year career on the pole.Strippers Don't Hate MenMost men in a stripper's world are customers, and honestly, we don't really feel much about them. Like any business relationship, there is a separation of emotion from the deal. Every customer is a business deal; every tip is a sale.Occasionally there are men who cross the invisible friendship line, but that's rare. If a male friend came in the club to hang out with us and he didn't have money, there wouldn't be much hanging out.Seeing a good amount of wedding rings in the crowd did taint my view on men, but there was never any hate. A lot of therapy, but never hate.So fellas, you can knock the chip off your shoulders when it comes to strippers. We don't really hate you - we just hate when you don't tip.It’s Dirtier Than You ThinkEveryone knows porn is dirty, so for the sake of this post, the dirty I speak of is literal. You Germaphobes may want to bust out the hand sanitizer for this part (Howie Mandel is logging off as we speak).Think about money for a second. Think about how many fingers touch money and how many places a dollar bill has been. Now multiply that money in to hundreds of bills stuffed in a garter on your thigh. Add a little sweat in to the mix and, viola! you have a germ orgy. It's common for tiny red bumps (I called them Cash Rash) to appear on any given thigh. It's not pretty, but it's real. Nothing a little soap and water wouldn't cure in between sets.After painting a picture for you about how dirty money is, do I really need to get in to the stage and pole? Stripping is dirty, people. We Are Not "Just stripping to pay for College" This is a delicate subject, because I don't mean to imply strippers aren't smart, educated or have professional goals outside of grabbing their ankles for a buck. I'm simply tell you that most of the bitches I worked with in the 90's were as far away from a campus as Chaka Khan was to a flat iron.College takes time, energy and an enormous amount of focus. How could we engage in such a demanding world when we're up until four in the morning and sleeping until noon?In all my years on the pole, I met only one woman who was in school. There's always the exception to the rule. I marvel at those.We Have Issues Like any person who takes a different path than most in life, strippers have their reasons. Those reasons can be hard to face and some may never dig deep enough to hit the ocean floor, so they tread in a sea of sharks.My personal story will unfold in the safety of these words, but for now I'll say that nothing for me was so lost that couldn't be found. Even if I didn't know what I was missing at the time.I pass no judgment saying strippers have issues. I'm the first to say I had (and still have) a bucket load. One of the beautiful things about life is realizing that we're human.We Are Not Prostitutes There will be more on this later, but I wanted to dispel the myth that all strippers are prostitutes. If you look up prostitution in the dictionary you'll read:"Prostitution: The act or practice of engaging in promiscuous sexual relations especially for money". I'm not debating the act of sexual entertainment. I danced naked for money, for fucks' sake. That said, I want to bring to your attention a line in the sand where this topic is concerned.There are many types of strippers, so it's impossible to say there were none who crossed the line from performing on stage to performing a hand job under the table. But from my personal experience, I can say the majority of us really were just dancers who dropped trou for a buck.