Aug 26
My husband bought me Strip City by Lily Burana to read while traveling to Chicago. The 13 year old boy sitting in the window seat next to me kept trying to read over my shoulder…(or was he trying to look down my tank top?)
It was an entertaining read that chronicles her cross country stripping tour before she gets married. She writes about her experiences at various clubs and comments on a lot of the same things I have explored.
The passage on page 121 struck me:
Stripping takes out of me things that I didn’t even realize I had. The near nudity isn’t the prblem, or the physical vulnerablitity, or working well outside the margins of acceptable feamaile behavior. It’s the damn neediness: Angry men scowling at me like they can buy me for a dollar, lonely men professing love after a ten minute chat with the specter of feminimity that wafts before them, and confused and desperate men convinced that if only they could get a girl to do what they ask, however outlandish; things would be better somehow. These men don’t just hunger for a glimpse of skin, because they could stay home and look at Miss August if that were the case. They want some kind of connection, to tap into the life of a live, nude girl. And no amount of professional distance on my part can keep that leeching feeling at bay. I’ve nothing left but exhausted tears, choked out silently, running fat rills to my chin. I drive home crying and mopping my face with wadded up Burger King napkins.”
I can honestly say that I have NEVER felt this way. This is a perfect example of being reactive instead of proctive. Making connections with people is what this industry is all about. Just because I have to deal with depressed, angry, or hateful people doesn’t mean that it’s normal for me to walk away feeling depressed, angry or hateful.
Maybe it’s my psychology background, or my teaching experience. Or my “help everyone become a better person” mantra I adopted from my Methodist minister stepfather. I LIKE when people open up to me. I LIKE helping them solve problems. I LIKE helping people realize their potential.
Lost potential. What a waste….and there’s so much of it out there.
Tags: authors, books, strip city, strippers, stripping