Strip Clubs: Sexual Exploitation or a Meaningful Career?

Warning: This topic can be triggering for some people and there is exclusive content in this discussion. Read at your own expense because I will be covering some sensitive areas and many people may disagree with me. If you disagree with me then that it is your own opinion but it is important to be open minded and realize hard truths.

What is stripping?

The definition of stripping is when someone is either removing all of their coverings and/or clothes or the coverings are being removed for the person, animal, or object. This definition does not accurately explain the stripping organization or what it means to be a stripper. This definition is Google's definition of stripping.

What is a stripper?

A stripper is often someone that performs different forms of exotic dance in front of woman and men in a closed off space such as a club. There are not many props used in stripping aside from a metal pole unless it is in a kink related setting. However, the kink related topic is a completely different subject matter and area of conversation. There are a couple of different ways to look at the definition of what a stripper is. A stripper often participates in other sexual and sensual acts to/for someone else. Strippers often remove some or almost all of their clothing. Strippers can be woman as young as 18 in the legal age but can be younger in human trafficking situations. Strippers can be male too. Strippers can be hired for other occasions outside of the club setting. They can be hired for bachelor parties and multiple other occasions that I am not going to dive into with this discussion. The goal of a stripper is to give pleasure or some form of sensual pleasure to the customer. Strippers often get paid hundreds of dollars per shift or per customer. It depends on the amount of customers and how generous they are with their money. I will dive into this area of topic in more detail later.

There will always be people that are "for" stripping, sexual pleasure, physical pleasure, and so on but there will also be people that are against all of those interests. There should be a healthy balance between emotional and physical connection between two people.

Who is to blame for these organizations?

The blame falls on the consumers, customers, strippers for allowing themselves to become objectified, the employers, and business owners of the organizations. The fact that we even have a prostitution law is crazy to me. I realize more and more how popular the industry is because most of the population crave sexual pleasure, attention, or sensual pleasure and the way they can get that is through attending a stripping club. Obviously there are other forms of entertainment in the sexual industry such as porn, reading graphic novels, or erotic novels, and reading magazines. The line does not end there. Once someone starts consuming constant sexual pleasures, they start to look for it more and more. It becomes an unhealthy addiction for many people.

Biological Effects/Functions of Pleasure

Sexual pleasure causes the dopamine and serotonin receptors in your brain to fire and the levels of the neurotransmitters become irregular in your brain the more you view and participate in sexual pleasure. What I mean by this is that when you view porn, or you are involved with anything pleasurable (Eating and dancing can be pleasurable too. It counts for anything that causes the dopamine receptors and serotonin levels to rise) your brain starts to get used to the content you view or the activity that you participate in. Your brain becomes used to a higher level of neurotransmitters (dopamine and serotonin). The reason it is bad for your brain to have constant levels of dopamine and serotonin is because the more you view or feel pleasure the more you want it. It is almost like an addiction. Your body needs a balance of the chemicals in your brain. If it does not have a balance you could view and think differently about pleasurable feelings. It allows people to think only about the pleasurable feeling.

Let me be clear by saying that not all who view porn or become involved in sex, other pleasures, can become addicted to those activities. However, it is highly likely and common for individuals to become addicted especially when watching porn.

Again, there will always be people promoting stripping. Strippers themselves write articles about how good their experience was at a strip club. Some report how badly it affected them. Everyone in the industry claims different opinions. Business owners will 100% promote their club because they want the money and they want customers.

Let us dive into this topic but first, we will identify the pros and cons of working in the strip club organizations. After I have listed pros and cons I will explain my reasoning for some of them and dive into the details further.

Pros:

-Getting paid hundreds of dollars per shift. Ranging from $700-1,500 weekly. Possibly more depending on the customers, business owners cut, and location of the club.

-Showing off talented dancing skills

-Showing that the girls/males have a lot of strength to perform certain dances. (Regarding pole dancing)

-You will have a healthy physique because of the activeness

-You get to sleep in. (Shifts are often at night but can be during the day).

-Independence

-Sensual pleasure/touch

-Environment is calming and relaxing for some

-Some say they feel empowerment on stage

Cons:

-Surrounding yourself with bad influences and even dangerous influences

-Getting involved in drugs, alcohol, or other addictive substances

-Selling your body for male/female attention.

-Having extremely low self-esteem

-Lacking spiritual connection with God and in general not taking care of your soul.

-Seeking validation from others through physical pleasures/physical attention.

-Being involved in human trafficking or allowing of human trafficking in the business

-Smelling like other peoples body fluids

-Being sexually assaulted

-You do not get to choose your customers. You get what you get.

-Being treated badly by other staff or the employer depending on how "professional" they are and fair they are.

-Lack of genuine intimacy

-Transactional relationship between the stripper and customer.

-Promotes money corruption (I will explain later what I mean by this).

-Often a negative environment for men and women but also positive for those that are for the organization. (That's just common sense).

-Degrades the manly image and the womanly image.

-Morally it is wrong

-Increases the chances of males and females sexualizing one another outside of the strip organization. This leads to meaningless relationships, only involved with sex and sexual pleasure. Nothing beyond that physical connection.

-Unfair to other people in society who work hard for their minimum wage job. It does not benefit anyone else except those that are willing to show off their body and skin. Strippers do not work hard like other people need do to survive. They get paid hundreds of dollars just for showing their skin. Anyone can strip if they learned to dance and do everything a stripper does. If someone was confident enough they could do it and even if they weren't they can still be a stripper whether that be in a "professional" legalized business or a non-professional illegalized club. (This gets into human trafficking). It is actually sad how we pay people hundreds of dollars just for their body. This includes porn, magazines, and only fans accounts, model industries, and so on. Sexualization, sexual pleasure, and physical attraction is all that people endure in. Temporary little fixes. I wonder what would happen if we actually loved each other for who we were as people? Our minds and soul. Not our bodies.

-Physical and mental strain/mental health issues.

-Some organizations hire young girls that have to cater to older men. Age does not matter unless they are a legalized business.

-Losing trust in men and other women or losing trust in both sexes in general

-Overstimulation (starts to affect the way the brain functions)

-Losing drive for anything else in life.

-Feeling objectified outside of the club and inside the club

-Judgement of others but that happens to anyone for any reason

-Social anxiety

-You are only motivated by money and nothing else

-Bad outlook on life, thinking that life starts to become boring.

-Comparing yourself to others

-Stopping people from working for their relationships. Laziness when it comes to a relationship. Not trying to put any effort into something long-lasting because it is too hard. *Rolls eyes* "Stop being lazy! Build something meaningful!" -Me

-Not being able to love someone for any other reason.

-Lack of self-respect

Unpopular opinion but.......you cannot have a professional business if you are doing dirty business. Pun included. Stripping overall is a dirty business if you even want to call it a "business."

One of my ex guy friends argues that I am a shallow person because I do not support strip clubs or women who sell themselves. Let me tell you something, it is NOT shallow to disagree with something you are not on the same page with as the rest of society. He argues that I should be supporting women and I argue that I do support women but only when they are doing something right. I do not support women or men sexualizing themselves for money, temporary attention, temporary pleasure, or that dress half naked for male and female gaze.

The second argument he makes is that I disagree with stripping because of my religious point of view. I argue that while it is believed in the Bible we should not sexualize ourselves and so on. It is common sense not to agree with something that is morally corrupt in more ways than one. Money! Money! Greed! Sex! Corruption! Temporary fixes! Someone does not have to believe in a specific religion to think stripping is wrong. The corruption and exploitation is right in front of our faces but we choose to look past it as if we are blind, no? Is that not what society does today? We see something that is wrong but we pretend it is right. We have become blind to the truth and that is why I have to write about it. We are obsessed with sexual pleasure. We want anything that can make us escape reality or give us a kind of high. Here is the catch. IT. IS. TEMPORARY. There are way more important things than just receiving pleasure and sexual pleasure all the time. It is a temporary feeling but because it is temporary we want more and more and more until we turn into sick people. We take and take, never returning anything good.

The third argument he made was that I cannot disagree with something if I have not experienced it or been in the environment and I say to that, that I can absolutely disagree without being involved. I do not have to be involved to know that stripping is wrong. Anyone with good morals and values can understand that stripping is not okay.

If you want to connect with someone put the work into a relationship, marry that person, and then do all the things you want to do, within reason of course. I am not saying take advantage. I am saying that you must respect your partner. Temporary pleasure is not going to last and money is not going to the grave with you. You will not be keeping it. Yes, we need money to survive on earth but it is meaningless when we die. We are not taking anything with us. The only thing we are taking to heaven is our soul and you better pray and hope that yours is ready when it is your time to go (This is my "religious" point of view ;P ).

To be continued.....

Here are some links for a reference on what I will be discussing the next time I work on this post. I wanted to post what I have and then later when I can dive into this topic more, I will add more details.

Psychological Effects of Stripping — bohemian writings

How Much Do Stripper Jobs Pay per Hour in 2024? (ziprecruiter.com)