Nudie Bars and Women

Strip joints, nudie bars, girl shows. The names are many, but we all know what it is. It is the 'evil commercialization of women', the 'appreciation of female beauty', the dancing of topless women in thongs. Ultimately, it is where men and women come watch these brave women put on a show. Is it wrong? Is it necessarily evil? I don't know where I stand on this issue. I have a lot of friends in the business, I've been to many of them, and I still don't know. But what I can tell you is why I don't know what to think of these 'bars' and maybe you can have an opinion either way. At least, maybe you can have more information on the subject than what you know already; to dispel the prejudice, you must educate and inform yourselves...

First of all, many girls actually do enjoy themselves. They are not simple victims of the trade. Yes, the bosses are usually annoying and the men are often rude without respect for the girls. But hey, bad bosses and mean clients are a part of most 'clean' jobs as well. The competition between the girls may get overwhelming, especially for the newcomers, but again, most jobs also contain elements of competition among the workers. The only difference is in what is sold; the girls have their bodies and only their bodies as a marketing item. They must be fit, sexy, and maintained. The erotica of the female body must be carefully staged and played off at all times of the night.

One of the major drawbacks to the job is the massive disillusion the girls most often acquire through the job. The girls, especially in lap-dancing, create this facade of closeness and of sensual and almost loving moments. Imagine doing that, making believe that love exists for that few minutes, twenty times a night with twenty different men. By the end of the night, you'll probably be out of energy to believe in love. You see men after men after women after men coming to you for some entertainment; you sell love and erotica as a part of your job. After a while, you start to wonder if love and entertainment are synonymous. Or at least that's what many of my friends who started taking part in the business early in their lives say.

Dancers aren't prostitutes. They will make-believe sex for you, but they will not touch you. You cannot touch them. That's a whole different story; and this is why I can't say stripping is an evil thing. It's a radical form of entertainment, because it toys with love and with erotica. But are there true victims in this case? Yes, the disillusioned girls, but they are not in physical danger as the prostitutes are. Their damage is mental and as much as I understand that mental damage is painful and is saddening, it can be cured.

I know of a girl who couldn't believe in the existence of love after she worked in a teenage strip joint for a few years. She'd seen men in their worst, wacking it for girls young enough to be their daughters. And so, when she dated, she dated for entertainment. She never got close to anyone beyond a certain point. She never really trusted anyone with her secrets and fears, because after all, love was just for fun. She hadn't understood the notion of love very well. And then, she met this boy. He was a relatively normal guy - grew up in the suburbs with a nice loving family. I don't know if he ever knew how she'd played games before, but his genuine attitude melted a lot of her disillusioned visions. She wanted to believe in him and she wanted to believe in love. His sweet innocence allowed her to let go of the junk she had collected from all the clients of the strip joint.

Yes, strip joints do commercialize women. They are paid for maintaining beauty and sexiness. But is it wrong to appreciate beauty? Is it wrong to be entertained by sex? Maybe, maybe not. And yes, women are mentally abused by these men into refusing to believe in love; and this is wrong. But it is possible to make it through. It is possible to believe in love again and therefore, I don't know whether we can call a strip joint an evil establishment...