My Life In a G-String: A Round Up of Stripper Memoirs

This article (as well as

By: MissIngenue | Sat, 10/31/2009 - 10:26

This article (as well as views expressed by a number of the commenters) is irritating, smug and disappointing. Katie Roiphe is obviously using an examination of stripper memoirs solely as a vehicle for her own prejudice and insecurity. How sad that her brilliant mother would have to witness Katie consider these women as bland objects - "all the same" - how dare they consider their experience unique and groundbreaking? If I recall, Katie was regaling us with reflections on a newborn baby's eyelashes recently and informing us that she was making such a rare contribution to essays on motherhood? How unique, how ground-breaking.

Despite Roiphe's dismissal of strip clubs as something that something everybody already knows about (or "can imagine") reveals that she does not have a clue. Reading a handful of memoirs or watching Showgirls does not give you a backstage pass or an invitation to the dressing room, nor does it magically give you an experience of the wide spectrum of strip clubs, their employees and their patrons.

Katie seems to be missing the fact that, ultimately, strippers are women too - of course, when writing a memoir about taking on a strange job in a false world clouded by misconceptions, there are going to be commonalities. People not involved in the industry cannot fathom the 'bizarro world' that strip clubs are - logic, clarity, honesty and transparency simply do not seem to function the same way there as in normal life. However, I'm sure that if she rewrote the entire article to focus on 'mommy memoirs' or some other narrow memoir subgenre, she would find that a lot of the same would still apply. Just swap the stilettos for diaper bags, or the views on feminism for the views on vaccines.

I am a stripper - it is something I do two or three nights a week. It is paying my bills, allowing me to stay in college, helping build savings for my future and giving me time to study/write/volunteer that I would otherwise not have. Having struggled through two years of college in less than ideal circumstances (i.e. homelessness, domestic abuse, mental illness, etc), for me, the decision to start stripping was incredibly empowering. My boyfriend is supportive and my Mom is actually proud of me for finally refusing to put up with the hand I had been dealt. The idea of being a stripper and a feminist as mutually exclusive is rubbish. Being a stripper is an 'identity' I wear for a few short hours every week; it doesn't follow me into my 'real' life yet it does not override my values or boundaries, and it doesn't take away my dignity.

Despite Katie Roiphe's attempts to paint these women, and strippers in general, by the same brush - one of smug ignorance and prejudice.

Why Not Explore the Alcoholic Slut?

By: Windy Two Rivers | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 13:26

How about a stripper who is a slutty alchololic, playing into the exploitation in a very misguided attempt to outrun being sexually abused as a child? There are some interesting characters in the adult entertainment industry, and I find it disapointing that many of these characters complexities are not being explored.

Anyway, this story is anything but cliche, though it does explore some very genuine realities of the world of a stripper. I'd love to hear some thoughts on how I've dealt with them.

http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=2484

thanks

By: emechael | Thu, 06/25/2009 - 07:58

Amen.

Strippin'

By: Ellie___ | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 23:13

Why does everyone try to politicize stripping? I'm so glad that Roiphe wrote this article, because these memoirs drive me crazy. I haven't read them, except for part of Cody's, but just their existence kind of bugs me. I'm so tired of people trying to make stripping into something it's not, It seems like these women that write these memoirs have the means where they can make stripping into whatever they want it to be, for them. They sound kind of like tourists, and incredibly self-important.
Stripping is;
1) A way to make a lot more cash than other "unskilled" service jobs, whether you're a student, drug addict,
supporting a family, or are just tired of working for very little pay.
2) Incredibly degrading. I mean, you work for the money, but not in any way that's empowering.

I've never been a stripper, and I don't know any strippers, except a coworker who used to "dance" after a divorce left her a single mom. So I don't know. At the same time, the highly stylized way in which strippers are presented so often on tv, movies, and these memoirs is kind of hard to swallow. Whether it's as rebels bucking puritanical American norms, or feminists taking control of their sexuality, or old-fashioned hookers with a heart of gold, stripping is misrepresented in the culture. These memoirs are just another straw on an already over-burdened camel's back, except they're worse because they're memoirs, where'd you'd hope for a bit more honesty and humility.
Thank you, Ms. Roiphe, for calling these writers on their ridiculousness.

WHAT ABOUT THE MALE STRIPPERS???

By: Craig Seymour | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 13:11

http://craigspoplife.blogspot.com/2009/04/all-i-could-bare-101.html

Have you read these books?

By: MonicaShores | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 00:13

Marilyn, where are the quotes from these women that accuse their colleagues of all being drug addicted or abused?

I agree that it's not beneficial for sex workers to put other sex workers. But the pull quotes don't prove that all of these women are doing that. Point 1, for instance, doesn't mean these women think they're better than other strippers; they're pointing out a disconnect between reality and *stereotypes* about strippers that the public holds.

Point 3 is the same--there's no evidence of them elevating their own bodies at the expense of others. Fowler's line definitely has a snotty tone but I think Cody is just trying to give an accurate depiction (and if the scar is so red it's probably new, which means this woman may be compelled to dance recently after giving birth because of financial concerns.) And it's not followed up with "check out my flawless self." All types of women dance in clubs and all types make money--are they supposed to only describe coworkers with perfect bodies? But I bet for every unflattering description of a fellow stripper there's at least two of women who look glamorous and amazing.

And as for point 5, why is it wrong for these women to have boundaries? Diabo Cody is just making a passing comment as far as that quote indicates, not criticizing the other woman. (In the next quote, she refers to herself as a whore. So I'm unconvinced that she's somehow holier-than-thou.) Lacy Lane is definitely just being judgmental but when Fowler complains about the girls who allow more, I think she's probably pissed at the fact that more permissive coworkers encourage customers to take similar liberties with other dancers even when it's against the rules of the club. I don't buy that it's about some separate idea of sluttiness, but rather about the type of working conditions it fosters for her.

I think Rophie is misrepresenting the material. Lily Burana's book, for example, is adored by every sex worker I've ever met who has read it. She's incredibly kind and honest. And it may be just an "assertion" in Roiphe's eyes, but the woman has managed to get three books published--two that were actually not about stripping (!)--so I think she's on to something when she says she's a writer. And yes, very cute that Diablo Cody was pretending to be a writer while she was stripping. We all know how her writing career turned out...with an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Color me unimpressed.

Rolphe has a point

By: Marilynxoxo23 | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 21:30

I didn't see this article as picking on strippers in general but on women that write stripper lit. I think Katie Rolphe has a point and it is that this type of literature has a predictable formula. Strippers turned memoirists want to separate themselves from the "average" stripper- they aren't drug addicts or abused. Gee what a shock they were middle class girls that came from a nice family and maybe even went to college. Gosh their fall from purity is so impressive lol. Rolphe is just showing how ridiculous it is to divide themselves from their coworkers by calling them sluts or claiming to have witnessed all the dirty dirty extras of the VIP/ Champagne Room (which they of course did not participate in). These ex-strippers aren't doing anything for feminism or improving sex workers rights- they are capitalizing on it, as they squash the less literary of their trade with their lucite heels. Guess what these women that think or want the reader to think they are so special- they're not. Check out www.stripperweb.com - there're a million smart women there that just happen to be strippers. This genre isn't ground breaking or even original anymore; it's played out.
I also doubt the amount of non-fiction that exists inside these books. I'm a stripper and most of the women that I work with are pretty ordinary. A lot of strippers are in college or have children (some at the same time) - for every drug addict there are more that aren't. I've been the Champagne room and there isn't much to write about if I'm being truthful (I guy read my palm once after we talked about Coleridge lol ). If someone wants to write a stripper memoir that is honest and doesn't reflect the authors misguided superiority that would be cool.

WOW

By: CMV | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 16:20

Wow, Katie Roiphe, your en masse review of these books isn't *at all* catty, judgmental, or condescending. It *especially* doesn't belittle strippers by dividing the world into smart/original and non-smart/non-original, with yourself in the former category and all these... strippers soundly in the latter.

But then, you call it something "innate" that "females" do, so I guess in your view you're off the hook.

Dita Von Teese

By: Shana | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 14:17

I remember reading an interview with her where she described herself as a stripper and said that calling stripping burlesque was just being in denial of what they were doing. To me she had a healthy attitude about what she does for a living and seems to still be.

And to the assessment that any woman that chooses to be a stripper for the money is just lying to herself and will eventually start turning tricks and must have been abused at some point in her life, that is just silly. There was a documentary not too long ago about a very young twenty something raising her three siblings and her own son after her mother's suicide. She turned to stripping once in a while because it was quick money. This girl was not sexually assaulted and was not turning tricks. There was also the young ballerina that was murdered (by her boyfriend) her in New York that was working as a stripper so that she could pay for school. It is a disservice to these women to just lump them all into some category of must have been sexually now working as a prostitute on the down low thing. And hey, I know several straight women that love to go to strip clubs to watch women strip and find it very entertaining.

Marketing

By: edwine2009 | Mon, 06/22/2009 - 12:59

There is certainly a genre and there's a formula. Publishers like genres and they like formulas. There are certainly exceptions, often marketed as something else. For an example that was widely hyped a few years ago, see Lynn Snowden's book Nine Lives, and its comparison of stripping and cocktail waitressing.