Women in Strip Clubs
7.13.07
NEWSFLASH -- Okay, this is an easy one. There’s something this Onyx Cranium staffer has observed more than a few times and while it is not exactly a socially significant phenomenon, it’s fun to point it out. Every now and then a girlfriend and I will head to a male strip club. They’re plenty around and it’s something to do. I can count on one, okay maybe both hands, how many times I’ve spent an evening in one of these venues. Rarely have I had a bad time, even when the dancers are less than prepared to give the audience their money’s worth. Every time I’ve been to a club, I’ve noticed a certain woman. She’s dressed up in what is clearly her most serious attempt at a sexy outfit. Stiletto hills are usually the finishing touch and her hair (weaved, coifed or pressed) was clearly done just hours prior to her arrival.
It is important to note here that she is not going to a regular club later. This is her first and only public destination of the evening. She has prepared for this event all week, perhaps all month, and she is not there just to be entertained. She is there to be noticed – by male strippers. I’m not speaking of women who come to provide their male friends with support on his first night as an inexperienced dancer. I’m also not speaking of the wives who come to see their husband make the rent money. The woman to which I am referring is usually a fan of a particular stripper, occasionally two, and she is there because she wants to be with her man. The only problem is that her man is hired eye candy for every other woman in the room. Oh yeah, and he’s not her man.
This woman always comes with loads of $1 bills and she literally showers her dancer, I mean her date, of choice with them. She’s a regular at the club, so she honors and exceeds the standard two drink minimum and she is known and referred to by name. Of course she wouldn’t have it any other way. So here’s my observation, or rather, here is my question in response to this rather benign, yet odd occurrence.
What’s the purpose of dressing up?
I won’t go into the obvious perils and pitfalls of becoming emotionally attached to a man who employs himself in the fulfillment of women’s (and sometimes men’s) fantasies. That goes without saying. Why would you put on your Friday night best for someone who will be getting naked for dollars? It just doesn’t make sense! Bring dollars, spend a significant portion of your paycheck if you’d like, but do it in comfort! I must point out that usually by the end of the evening, this same woman is pulling on the elastic of her outfit and attempting to adjust her bra. She’s fanning herself and resisting the urge to wrap her hair in a ponytail. Since she’s been watching his every move or trying to get his attention if he comes off stage, her feet are in agony from standing. In short, she is miserable, while he walks around in some version of his birthday suit and comfortable shoes (or none at all). And for what? To provide him with a fantasy that he has no time to notice – for she is a customer first and foremost and should she decide to show up in her best with no money, she won’t be able to get near him. This seems lost on these women, some of whom have slept with a dancer or three. They think I’m a fool for coming in clothes I could have worn to the mall. They look at me and quickly move their eyes on to more threatening women in the crowd. (Yes, fights break out in the parking lot – usually in the male strippers’ absence.) I am dismissed for I’m chillin’ in jeans, a sleeveless shirt and flats. I’m no real threat to them and the special relationship they share with their man. That is, unless I feel like spending a dollar.
