Alysabeth's Feminist Stripper Site: From the Peanut Gallery: Strippers and Social Responsibility

I get a little mail from time to time. Some of it is supportive, some is thoughtful, some hostile and a certain percentage of it is just pointless. I am often asked why someone as intelligent and politically and socially aware as I seem to them to be (as if it were impossible for strippers to be any of those things!) 'wastes' my time and energy on the issues surrounding sex work and erotic recreation.

Falling into the 'thoughtful' category is J, one of the people who wonders that very thing:

Dear Alysabeth: As a feminist, I can't perceive any good coming from your line of work. As a woman, I don't care either way about the liberation or empowerment aspect of dancing nude. Like Wendy McElroy said, "The bottom line is that every woman has the right to define what is degrading and liberating for herself." Do you really think you're helping someone by spending so much time on these issues?

Don't you ever feel like you are taking the easy way out? Obviously you're intelligent. Anybody with an ass can shake it. You seem like the kind of person that could do anything you set your mind to, and you choose to take your clothes off.

Our society needs more women with an activist's mentality, dedication to a cause and the savvy to pull it all together. We don't need strippers.

- J

Dear J -

I believe that the sum of our lives is not what we get for ourselves, but what we leave with others. I can assure you without a doubt that my job, like anyone else's, doesn't preclude a strong sense of social responsibility.

If you mean that what I represent and advocate doesn't resemble any part of your feminine identity or feminist agenda, then I can respect that. Our respective right to our identities and to the ideas we each embrace is the essence of feminism.

I'm not arrogant enough to presume to 'help' anyone, at least not with my arguments about sex work and feminism. I address issues that I feel are important, and try to offer a different perspective when I can. My 'cause' is to get people to see other human beings deserving of respect where once they only saw issues and ideas. I pursue understanding, in myself and in others, because I believe that the moment it is achieved is the closest thing we mortals ever get to the Divine.

When an issue or an idea makes us feel strongly and negatively, we have to ask ourselves whether we want a way to stop feeling like that or want to make the anger and our reaction to it part of our identity. When I hear from someone like you, I think to myself how pleasantly surprised you would be if only I could convey to you what I know to be true. We all feel that way from time to time, especially when we care deeply about something. Discourse is the way to bridge that gap, or to meet somewhere in the middle. Are understanding and civility not preferable to discord and separation? Is that not what humane, thinking people strive to achieve? I help myself when I seek that end.

Let me address a few of your points:

As a feminist, I can't perceive any good coming from your line of work. As a woman, I don't care either way about the liberation or empowerment aspect of dancing nude. Like Wendy McElroy said, "The bottom line is that every woman has the right to define what is degrading and liberating for herself."

It's not uncommon for us not to care about things that don't directly affect us. Humans are selfish creatures. Just because something doesn't matter to me, though, doesn't mean that it isn't a serious issue to someone else, or that there aren't far-reaching ramifications that I am unable to see. You have the right not to care, while I see much in this issue that stirs my passions and sensibilities. I care, therefore I react. You, I imagine, put effort into another worthy cause (or many) that may not mean so much to me.

Anybody with an ass can shake it.

That's right. And for the people who think of sexual recreation as a valuable and joyful part of their lives, it's lucky that someone is willing to do it. I'm glad someone empties those outhouses we use on the Fourth of July, too. Must we make assumptions about why they choose to do it, or what that person isn't doing in their community? Can't we just be thankful that they're cleaning up after us?

Like any other form of dance, any other well-honed craft, any well-executed and personable customer service, the stripper's work is much more than the description of its actions. At its peak, striptease is an exquisite art form, and is often incredibly gymnastic as well.

We don't need strippers.

It depends on whether you use 'need' in an absolute sense, in which case we don't need movie actors or radio DJs, car detailers, rodeo clowns, poets or tattoo artists, cable TV technicians or ballet dancers or hot dog vendors, either.

If you can argue a fundamental spiritual or intellectual need for any of these things, if you can reason that they make life better, or richer, or more interesting, diverse or enjoyable, if you believe that each or any of these things can be integral to an individual's pursuit of happiness, I can apply that same reasoning to my profession and find countless people who will fervently agree.

It is my belief that sexual release and recreation are basic human needs, and that seeking creative and diverse outlets for this release and recreation enriches our existence. In this sense, then, I believe that we do, in fact, need strippers.

Further, I believe that our society isn't particularly healthy in our attitudes about women or about sex, or, most especially, about women's sex. I believe that our collective hostility toward sex workers is a reflection of many much deeper issues surrounding sexuality and gender that affect all of us as a culture; it is in exposing and addressing these issues that I seek to do good, for myself and my society.

For Private Dancer Monthly
August 2002