COLUMN: Economic, um, pressure?
Well, I guess the economy has had even more dire impacts on the American people than we first thought. Bankers, investors, retirees, single parents and even strippers are feeling the pinch of the tight economic belt. (No pun intended.)
I am facing a dilemma in writing this. The first part is ethical, how do I discuss this without sounding judgmental? And two, how do I write it without innuendo?
For those who are particularly media-savvy, I’m sure you’ve heard about the strippers in San Francisco who have organized themselves into the first ever Union of Strippers. They call themselves the Exotic Dancers Union.
Wait, that isn’t the funny part.
This past week they have been walking the picket line wearing pink shirts that read “Bad girls like good contracts,” and chanting, “Two, four, six, eight. Pay me more to gyrate.”
Dancers of the Lusty Lady peep joint have taken their grievances to management. Grievances include a hiring cap, their pay to be raised back to $27 per hour from the current $24 per hour, which does not include their tips (no pun intended). Also, they want the schedule to allow them to work 20 hours a week instead of 12 and their single day of sick leave a year to be reinstated.
The Lusty Lady is using this to its advantage by coining the phrase, “San Francisco’s only peep show where you can be sure the dancers will be beautiful, smart and unionized.”
By now you think I’m making this up. I swear this is all true.
Perhaps the keystone on this whole drama is a beautiful quote by Vivian about management.
“They use the union to promote the club, yet they don’t support it,” Vivian said. “It feels like exploitation.”
First of all, my advice to Vivian and all other strippers regardless of gender and any others who work in classy establishments with names like The Lusty Lady is if you feel you are being exploited, perhaps it’s time to update your résumé and get a real job.
Kudos to Vivian for having the time, will power, talent and ingenuity of creating a union, but in all honesty, exotic dancing is the forefront of exploitation.
This is just further support of my theory and credo. This nation is WEIRD! These are strippers we’re talking about. Yes, they are people who do need to make a living, and I don’t doubt their intentions to support themselves are legitimate.
However, those who make the conscious choice to stand in front of others and accept money to get naked have little room to complain because their commodity isn’t making the money it used to.
After reviewing the facts for this story I see many parallels between strippers and journalists … No, wait, I don’t.
But I do just want to say this: No stripper in her right mind goes into the industry with delusions of improving the moral sinew of society.
D’Artagnon Wells is a junior majoring in public relations. Comments can be sent to rhdartagnonw@yahoo.com.