It wasn’t always this way.
Strip clubs used to possess the same amount of societal shunning as porn stores—with an unspoken veil draped over the industry, in the form of guarded entrances, minimal-to-no windows and a firm rule against not only cellphones, but internet use as a whole (the idea of opening a laptop in a strip club is one that was traditionally reserved for staff ). Bank statements—reflecting purchases made at the club—would list ambiguous D.B.A. names, such as "Smith Enterprises, LLC." It was even, at one time, commonplace for bouncers, bartenders and dancers to keep conversations with patrons limited, as an added effort to retain anonymity. During my first week as a DJ, a regular saw me at a store and I said, "Oh, hi, Mark," only to be ignored. He later told me, "Dude, that was my family with me. They can’t know I come to places like this."
Flash forward to the current year, and the DJ is making his hourly announcement, "Cellphones are not allowed at the stage, but if you want to follow your favorite dancer on social media, she has eleven accounts full of sexy photos." Swinging around the pole is a girl named Brittany, who dances under the name "Brittany" and is openly dating the bouncer, who moonlights as a YouTube star, filmed on location at the couple’s home, which was featured on the cover of Oregon Real Estate Monthly. A regular, "Bitcoin Joey," is greeted openly by bartenders, who then inform other patrons that Joey is an overnight millionaire, with a disposable income and no self-control. Then, the camera crew from Vice breaks down their shit, packs up the footage and uses it to produce a show featuring the club, as part of a three-episode Netflix series.
We’re not exactly the "dark underbelly" that we once were.
With this, comes a level of figurative—and literal—exposure and openness that is, oddly, not required (to the same degree) of politicians, comedians, actors, musicians or any other high-profile entertainer—if Miley Cyrus has a leaked nude, it ends up in a lawsuit against RawCelebFab.com or whoever put it out. But, if a president is even seen with a stripper, it takes up headlines for a term and a half. And, yes, politics is entertainment and nothing more—still, even the reality show host running the country considers interactions with a stripper to be private and of no concern to the public (even though said chapter of Trump Goes To Washington was one of the most entertaining).
While the stigma surrounding stripping—especially in Portland—is all but gone, attacks against sex workers as a whole are getting worse by the day. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even Craigslist ("Ten bikes for sale... still hot...each comes with two guns and a pile of copper wire...") are taking down sex worker accounts in droves. The #ThotAudit fiasco (see this month’s Erotic City for more info on that) has added to this problem for obvious reasons. And, with any high-pro- file claim of oppression, the hangers-on and self-identifiers (i.e. Twitch streamers) have aligned themselves as "part of the sex industry" (they’re not), creating even more room for non-representative dipshits to make our industry look bad in the eyes of larger society. While SESTA/FOSTA becomes law this month (which is a terribly bad thing wrapped in good intentions, Google it), social media accounts inhabited by bratty rich girls—who have never been naked outside of their bedroom (let alone worked at a club)—are the focus of any news article dealing with attacks on "sex workers."
Here’s why I’m worried about "mainstream" acceptance of stripping: the double-edged sword of the spotlight is a sharp one. With a magnifying glass comes not only amplification, but, well...you can roast bugs with one of those on a hot day. Societal scrutiny (and, yes, this includes both stigma and glorification) is not our friend. We are a self-policed environment that has, arguably, done a better job of protecting the safety of marginalized groups, reducing acts of sexual violence, promoting gender equality and generally being "progressive" in practice, than any columnist at Buzzfeed or barista with a Snapchat Premium could ever hope for. However, we are not "leftist" by definition—we don’t want taxes, we value self-expression (and, free speech) over anything else, we acknowledge that biological differences exist in the sexes (read: sexes, not genders), and most importantly, we are big fans of free-market capitalism— literally, "tips and tips alone," as the DJ says.
The mainstream has a hard time putting things in a box when they don’t come in easy-to-fit shapes. For instance, my YouTube suggested video feed is a fantastic dumpster fire—from far-left clickbait, to alt-right hatespeech. I agree with roughly 0% of what is fed to me via the algorithms, but it is still my job to keep tabs on what the rest of the world thinks of our industry, so I digest opinions from all sides. And, from this, I’ve learned that the general, mainstream attitudes toward our industry are fucked.
On one side, you have the standard, puritan bullshit, coming from alt-right traditionalists who think that women belong in the kitchen, churning out babies and sandwiches, while their husband does push-ups and argues about immigration with "libtards" on Facebook. Why, then, were members of Patriot Prayer spotted at more than one strip club, during their recent Portland visit? I mean, that seems a little odd...to be spouting about how Jesus hates sodomites, before watching a naked girl do a bondage set to a Marilyn Manson song. You’d be stunned at how many "keep ‘Murica white and Christian" types will shell out racks upon racks for a black girl (with a big rack), while listening to "Rack City"—as it should be. But, it’s not very "alt-right" of them, now is it?
On the other side, you have the "everything is a social construct" alt-left cult, (who, for some reason, is adamantly opposed to the idea of cultural appropriation, while at the same time adopting, co-opting, infiltrating and destroying things that were neither created by, nor catered to, them), who awaits a massive triggering upon entering a strip club. The progressive fetish for social constructs is the only kink that doesn’t grace the stage on a busy night. "You can be beautiful at any size, shape and age, according to this plus-sized pole dancer, who has been stripping for less than a week" is a fantastic tag line for an MTV Decoded segment. But, reality is gonna crash down hard, when that same 4’12’’, oval-shaped woman with a mustache, "FUKC THE FASH" face tattoos and green pubic hair attempts to woo a tipping audience comprised of Japanese businessmen and pornstar scouts. Again, I’m in no way attacking the idea of finding beauty in the non-traditional: I’m just saying that 95% of our customer base is drawn to the 5% of women who deserve to have money thrown at them for being naked. I can hear the keyboards clicking now, but rest assured, I’ve already received the 30-day Facebook ban for saying shit like this, but it still hasn’t made me want to sleep with someone who is typically described as "brave" while naked. Besides, you’ll never see me waving my six inches of average and Del Taco gut on stage at a male revue, so I’m speaking for the should-stay-clothed demographic— not against them.
Back to the lecture at hand. There is no political lean to our industry—we are one of the outliers, similar to Green Party folks or Libertarians, but with fewer guns, more weed and an actual understanding of what we believe in. We are not "leftist," because, well, capitalism, toxic masculinity, rape culture, cultural appropriation, alcohol, consent, "that song is about sexual assault," etc. And, we’re definitely not "right-wing," because, well, naked tits and married, Pagan, lesbian mothers. If anything, we’re capitalists, inventors and advocates for the free market—Portland, especially, could open the most bizarrely specific club, say, one that only serves kale and is shaped like a sphere, and it would fill up at noon on a Tuesday, if the target demographic knew about it. But, could you imagine how well a socialist strip club, one that "challenges traditional standards of beauty, the patriarchy and capitalism," would fly? "Okay, dancers. Inshapia Centerfoldite made $500 and the rest of you each made $60. So, you’re all going home with $104! Yay!!!" And, with that, Inshapia decided to stop stripping at Comrade’s Castle and seek employment elsewhere.
What am I getting at? Well, I’m worried that our industry—a niche segment of the larger "sex industry" umbrella—will soon go the way of video games, science fiction, music and anything else that the mainstream can get its hands on: it will become politicized, labeled, boxed up and repackaged. In other words, it will be destroyed. Whether this happens at the hands of the alt-right or radical left is irrelevant.
So, how do we stop this? Let’s make strip clubs shady again. No, I don’t mean "shady" as in, drug deals, constant loops of Puddle Of Mudd on the jukebox, sticky floors and an "employees chain smoke after we close" smell. What I mean, is classy, upscale, safe clubs...that appear to be dark corners of the inaccessible underground. There is a fine line between "Strip clubs are gutters for pornographers and scum" and "Hey, see if Grandma has a favorite dancer and we’ll take the whole pottery class with us." An influx of new customers is not always a good thing—ask any dancer or DJ who has to constantly remind customers to tip, put away their phones and, well, act like they’re in a strip club. The last five or six times I’ve hosted at a strip club (as in, emceed), I’ve received an audience complaint from a first-timer, who wasn’t listening or didn’t get the dancer’s set. Last month, I had to inform a PSU student that "Caucasians" were not a type of Asian, and that I was not making fun of the Japanese, by drawing attention to my own white lack of style. The following week, an audience member at the Miss Exotic Oregon finals informed me that a dancer was "appropriating brown people culture." Yes, before you guess...the dancer was brown, just not "brown enough," I guess? I can promise you that none of these folks has ever been to a strip club before last year, nor will they likely return. But, as is protocol, they make the biggest stink and leave the biggest dent on Yelp.
Most controversy these days has one thing in common: the violation of boundaries. And, ironically, this is where most sides of the political shitstorm can agree. #MeToo is about women who were afraid to speak up about their boundaries being violated, due to social pressure (boundaries). Then, the subsequent backlash brought up the boundaries of those who were doxxed or harassed, immediately upon being accused. #GamerGate arose due to the boundaries of female game developers and fans being disrespected with sexism via online (no boundaries) harassment, while the gamers themselves felt as if their own subculture (i.e. their boundaries) were being violated, by an influx of opportunistic, "lifetime gamers" (quotes emphasized) with Patreon accounts. The pattern continues with every hashtag: one group feels violated, so they violate another group in return—one that is often the target of misdirected anger. Then, the target group responds with backlash, and the circle of boundary-violation and outrage continues.
What does this have to do with stripping? Well, in any industry where a fully naked human being is performing sexually suggestive dances, mere inches away from an intoxicated and aroused person, you’re gonna need some tight (but, thin) boundaries. And, speaking of "tight (but, thin)," if we keep letting outsiders in, that phrase will soon become some sort of "shaming line" used against [insert Orwellian substitute for "unattractive" here], to keep [insert marginalized group here] down. That, or some neo-nazis disguised as historians will insist that Portland keep an "Old Portland" (i.e. white) vibe. Clubs will respond, by hiring "non-traditional body types" and/or girls who danced at Mary’s in the ‘70s and the customer base will slowly dwindle away, leaving only the outraged fringe and their five bucks to fuel the clubs. Once this outrage fringe moves on to their next target, the clubs will become ghost towns. If you don’t think this is a real possibility, give it time. This article will either age like Nostradamus or Madonna, but it’s gonna be one of the two. This happens from all sides, with the left and the right both agreeing that it is more important to destroy something they don’t understand, than it is to accept diversity and tradition. Oh, what a bittersweet pill that is.
So, the solution is simple: we need to build a wall. Okay, wait...let me rephrase that. We need to build a fence or two—around the smoking patios, the entryways, journalists from the weekly paper, Reed College transfer students, angry, religious bigots from out of state, bitter fauxmenist bloggers from the internet, "I think I wanna try stripping" strippers, "Yo, check out my sick skills" DJs, pole dance instructors who have never been naked and anyone whose dietary needs determine their identity. Like, just ball up everyone in your Facebook feed that makes you pissed off and ban them from our industry.
I used to think that strip clubs and politics went together. Then, I went to the State Capitol building in an attempt to do something about the broken windows and rusty nails. In return, we were given new taxes. The system is fucked. Let’s remain outside of it. We will go quietly into the night, as is our duty.
