The STOPLight

Through a survivor's eyes

As a survivor of the strip industry, I have been subjected to numerous challenges to my claim that I am a survivor of sexual exploitation and abuse. Non-survivors typically ask me for an extensive and persuasive explanation for how I could possibly have been harmed by a job that is legal, liberating, lucrative and most of all, harmless. "After all," they explain, "it's not like anyone touches you." These questions and assertions demonstrate the thinly veiled perpetuation of my and others' abuse in this culturally- and legally-sanctioned system of oppression that is the commercial sex industry.

The claim that women who are used in the strip industry are not touched is, first of all, false. Secondly, the tendency to feel increased or alleviated sympathy for a victim of a particular "class" of survivors in the commercial sex industry is evidence of media, pimp, and perpetrator propaganda. This stratification needs to be rejected. The purported differentiation of these abuses is constructed by the pimps and the perpetrators (consumers) of the industry. It must be recognized that every form of commercial sexual exploitation is dangerous for women. Within this context, the strata of this system can be examined and exposed.

Stripping is nothing more and nothing less than euphemistic prostitution and legally sanctioned sexual harassment. The pimping strategy inherent in the strip industry is the marketing of stripping as something other than prostitution. The most recent manifestation of this tactic is the entrepreneurial trend of "gentlemen's entertainment" centers. Clubs like Solid Gold, Dream Girls and Deja Vu benefit from the perception that they are different from other forms of pimping women and children for the sexual desires and abuse by and for men. They are allowed to advertise in main stream newspapers and magazines.

They are featured in restaurant and night life reviews. They are included in tourist guides for convention visitors and other travelers. They have been permitted to come out of the dark to do their dirty work and the public has welcomed them with open arms. In spite of this reception, the strip industry is as abusive as it always was. They've cleaned up the decor and the dress code, increased the cover charge and the price of drinks, but the song remains the same.

In a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice O'Connor wrote that "the law as applied to sexual harassment was violated when for any of a variety of reasons the environment would reasonably be perceived and is perceived as hostile or abusive." Justice O'Connor writes that the reasonable woman standard must be applied. The reasonable woman standard allows a woman to determine which actions are offensive as opposed to the reasonable person standard which allows society-at-large to determine which actions a woman should find offensive. One theoretical question used in finding sexual harassment is, "Would this or these acts be offensive to a hypothetical reasonable woman?" This question can be applied to actions and events which occur in strip clubs.

Imagine a "reasonable" woman. She is in a large room filled with fully clothed men yet she is stark naked. There is loud music playing and most of the men around her have been consuming great amounts of alcoholic beverages. With stiletto heels she climbs atop a four foot high, very small, round table filled with cocktails. She begins to gyrate her hips to the beat of the music. A man from a neighboring table slips over to watch her dance, this way avoiding the table dance fee. The original patrons at the table begin shouting instructions at the woman, "Bend over," "Shake your tits," "Squeeze your nipples," or maybe just a simple, "You should smile more." The woman obliges them the best she can and as the song ends she carefully makes her way down to the floor via a bar stool. As she steps to the floor, an unidentified hand firmly pinches her buttocks and she cries out in shock and pain. When she asks for the standard table top fee the men are amused by not paying her. After a lengthy discussion she eventually seeks the assistance of a "floor man." After all, she pays his salary out of her tips. He first questions her procedure to find out what she did to cause this trouble. Eventually he approaches the gentlemen and resolves the situation. The woman then moves on to the next table. This scenario continues throughout the evening with a few variations.

Would the hypothetical "reasonable" woman find this environment and these events hostile and abusive? Definitely.

There are many people who believe that victims of the sex industry like what they are doing. People believe that's why women get into it and that's why they don't get out. Like every other form of prostitution, women get recruited into stripping in a variety of ways. Potential victims are presented a picture of the benefits of stripping—big money, great cars, popularity, and flexible hours. Procurers do not approach potential victims and inform them that they are recruiting girls and women to perform degrading, humiliating and graphic sex acts to be enjoyed vicariously by a number of men ranging from one to three hundred. They do not tell her that the big bucks go in his pocket, not hers. Women are fed the myth but wind up with the reality.

The reality is that in our culture young girls are taught lies about what girls and women are for and what they are worth. Media show women what they are supposed to look like. Fashion magazines highlight physical attributes which are currently in style and proclaim how big or how small they should be each season. Many women, especially those in the strip industry, are coerced into undergoing major surgery so that their breasts will be more appealing to men. Many of these women are now finding out that they are slowly being poisoned to death as the silicone seeps through their bodies.

The permeation of these lies is so pervasive that many people believe that the commercial sex industry is harmless. These same people believe that the victims who are trapped in it like it. I have to wonder why it is so easy to believe that there are women who enjoy being exploited this way and why is it so hard to believe that women are getting abused in yet another arena?

By Pattie Norum who is currently an advocate in the PRIDE Program of Family & Children's Service in Minneapolis, Minnesota. PRIDE is a program for women and girls who have been used in the commercial sex industry. PRIDE provides services to help women get out and stay out. For more information or to refer please call (612) 728-2065 or use the PRIDE 24 hour crisis line (612) 728-2062. (Collect calls accepted from those in crisis.)