A fair amount of girls go home with guys from the clubs — I most certainly did not accuse all strippers of doing that. (Just like not all strippers will eat at Denny’s, though you do.) And, men with massive issues towards women go into strip clubs just to hurt women — I’m hardly the only victim of this. Every stripper I know has met these psycho guys in the clubs. Except you, of course.

Mostly, I’d like to know how you know what I wore in clubs 10yrs ago. Use your psychic powers to pick the winning lotto ticket instead.

I’m guessing you haven’t stripped very long. Wait a few years.

Michael — Thanks for the positive thoughts. Men can really make the difference in the stripping experience, though why most decide to make the difference in a negative way is beyond me. It’s unfortunate.

Most strippers don’t have the ego to come out of it unscathed. Not anything the world prepares us for because up until blogging came along, no one wrote honestly about the work. Plus, not everyone is cut out to be a cold-call salesperson. I sure wasn’t but it took me a while to figure that one out.

Ha! Like the quote!

Clubs today make their money off stage fees, so they’re generally happy to hire as many girls as they can. You pay your stage fee when you walk in the door, so they don’t care if they overpack the club with dancers — THEY’RE making money. Whether or not YOU actually make money is a different story.

After you find a club you can work in, you’ll have to deal with dancer craziness (dancer craziness is substance-fueled and/or fueled by the panic of not making money). You’ll have to deal with constant, often horrible rejection by customers and a lot of their bullshit. If you’re not making money on the floor, you will be very tempted by the opportunity to turn tricks outside of the club. You may well be tempted by the “cool” clique of people inside the club. These are the ones who party all the time and for whom stripping is a lifestyle, not a job. All I can say is that being “cool” doesn’t put money in the bank. Making money puts money in the bank.

There are a ton of stripper blogs who cover these pitfalls way better than I do right here. Basically, the question you should be asking yourself is if you have a steel will, a steel ego and a plan. You’re going into this to make money so focus on that. It’s tough right now.

Take care of your body. Stripping is physical work and can be hard work. If you have an accident at work, there is no workers’ comp. There is no health insurance either. Driving home after clubs close is also a great way to get into an accident, even if you haven’t been drinking.

I wouldn’t even be worrying about your post-stripping job. If you strip for only a few months or a year, you can just lie on a job application or leave that part of your history out. Unless you’re in a state that requires you to register as a dancer — who’s going to know differently? If you dance for several years, that’s a different issue. By that time, you’ll probably have an exit strategy in place anyway.

Best wishes!

XX