Posted on 07/16/2008 5:14:26 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
ToughTimes, Tough Decisions (MATURE CONTENT)
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - During these tough economic times, many people are struggling to make ends meet. The city's housing market is in a slump, gas and food prices are rising, and some say it's either sink or swim. Now, some women are going to great lengths to make some extra cash right in Baton Rouge.
It's a fantasy, an escape for some attempting to close off the outside world. However, for the women inside who are barely clothed and strapped into high heels, exotic dancing can be a way to survive. "All of my bills were getting to be too much, especially when gas started going up," says one woman, who'll be referred to as Amber throughout the report to protect her identity.
With the average price of gasoline in these parts at an all-time high of $4.00 per gallon, and food costs rising, some women are entering the world of adult entertainment. This world of quick cash is nothing new to Amber. She stripped for three years in local clubs, but took a break after finding out she was pregnant. She then got back into the profession shortly after gas prices started rising and feeding her child got difficult. "Honestly, there are some days where I just don't eat because I can't afford to go buy food. Especially when it comes to diapers or milk, oh my God."
Amber says she's heard stories of men attempting to rape dancers in the VIP room of some clubs and women being drugged. She admits that climbing the stripper poles can be rough, but in these trying times, some women feel that for them, exotic dancing is the way to go. "It's harder. Someone looking up to you. But you know you're doing it for a better cause."
Amber says she is currently in school. She says she knows quite a few women who have recently turned to exotic dancing in order to either pay their bills, get through school, or take care of their children.
No words.
Say what you want about the work, but at least she’s not on welfare.
GIVE ME A BREAK !!!
That was awesome! (I probably got a virus now)
guess it beats working for a living...
awesome pole dancer! she sure has a strong grip LOL
bump for a later read
In my younger says, I put many of these girls through “college”. I think I still love those girls.
More sex workers.
I doubt there's much of a market for pregnant strippers. I'm assuming she just recently "got her body back" and can make money.
Pole dancing—as in the mazurka, the warszawianka, and the Polish polka?
My US Postal carrier had a side job a few years ago. She worked as a stripper for three years and paid off a $350K home up the street from us. I ain’t knocking her. Her husband worked all day and babysat in the evenings while she was at her other job.
They’ll probably retire when they’re 45.
You know 'the stripper myth.' The stripper myth is: 'I'm stripping to pay my tuition.' No you're not! There's no strippers in college! There's no clear heels in biology! S***, I didn't know they had a college that only took one-dollar bills. If they've got so many strippers in college, how come I never got a smart lap dance? I never got a girl that sat on my lap and said 'if I was you, I would diversify my portfolio. You know, ever since the end of the Cold War, I find NATO obsolete.' I haven't met her yet. If I do, she's gonna get a big tip.
Let me get this right. These women are entering into the adult entertainment industry because the economy is so bad that they can’t make ends meet. Is that correct?
Ok, then, but what about their customers? If the economy is so bad where are they getting the money to buy the overpriced drinks one finds in these kinds of joints; the money to stick into the dancer’s bikini bottoms; the lap dances and such. (Or at least that is what I understand goes on in these bars, after listening to people who go to them. Which doesn’t include me. Heck no).
Seriously, though, if these women are having such a struggle in this economy, where are their customers coming from?
I’m considering taking up pole dancing.
Excellent point!
North or South?
Its strange how rap music on the radio get paid for saying it. Whitey can’t even say black hole without an... Excuse Me?
I hear its good exercise.
Capitalism Rocks!
It is short of prostitution, but the studies are in. Increasing prostitution is a sign of a failing economy. Where men can’t be sufficient providers, more women turn to stuff like this. It’s not a good sign.
It is short of prostitution, but the studies are in. Increasing prostitution is a sign of a failing economy. Where men can’t be sufficient providers, more women turn to stuff like this. It’s not a good sign.
Well, I’ve gone a little south since I hit 50 so I guess south pole it is. I’d rather dance with Penguins than Polar Bears anyway. Now how is it I get paid all that money for this again? I missed that part.
The lady in the article is working on her PhD. She’s probably done the math. She can make over 1K/week in tips stripping, and probably not near that in an entry-level waitress job. She’s old enough to make the choice for herself, and knows what the job entails. What’s the big problem? No one’s coercing her.
And, on the post further down, about where’s the money coming from for the dollar bills in her garter? Same place cigarette money/beer money/lotto money comes from, even in tough times. Jobs like this will be around as long as the men with the dollars are.
BS... where do the men paying them get the money from??? there's plenty of work, it just doesn't pay as well for so little output.
This thread needs more pictures.
We got by. All our kids lived. (Hers OR mine, not hers AND mine, no offspring there in the AND column).
/johnny
Here in Dallas I swear every “dancer” says she’s a student at UT Arlington. I am going to have to start taking some classes.
You sure it isn’t a sign of men with more disposable income?
I'm not sure, but I believe the "vice" economy is a constant. In other words, vodka moves off the shelves in good times and bad. Prostitution would be similar, wouldn't it? I certainly wouldn't think it would increase. The increased embedded risk for the purchaser (scarcer dollars plus the omnipresent opportunity for criminal conviction) would lead me to believe it would decline, if anything.
Agree, but the angle of the article IMO is she is so desperate she had to do this to make ends meet. Perhaps I read it wrong.
I don’t think economy is so bad that women have to strip to get by, forced into it. If she chooses, so be it, but I am sick of the media telling us how bad off everyone is.
I am still trying to find someone I know who has lost their home in the mortgage crisis, yet to find anyone who has.
Find a market, feed the need. Count the cash.
/johnny
LOL
Oh, I do agree with you on the spin of the article. That’s the fault of the reporter, not of the woman in the story. She needed to make some money, and she made a choice of how to do it. The reporter decided she could get some airtime from it. That’s how reporters’ careers are made, after all.
It’s bullcrap since this woman was doing this before times got “tough”.
One of the best scenes in on of the alltime great movies.
/johnny
It’s purely anecdotal. Amber used to strip and she just went back to it. And she tells us people she knows are stripping now. Q: Who does a stripper know? A: Strippers!
Furthermore, this is just another case of the Leftist Medjia “creating news” with anecdotal stories to show that everything in society is in crisis, and of course, whether they mention it specifically in the story or not, the solution as always, is more and bigger goobermint.
A wed wose; how womantic.
One of the great movies.
Of course it’s her choice. Just as it is mine to comment on her choice. What’s the problem?
Yes, jobs like this will always be around. Yes, there is earned money going into her garter. Do you think people should be spending money on the lotto in hard times? If people indulge in a beer once in awhile, that’s fine. But responsibilities come first. And don’t tell me she’s being responsible. Would you advocate prostitution as responsible for a mother?
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