Someone who knows

Since last April when this website began, I have encouraged people of faith to be in prayer for the women who have become caught up in stripping and other forms of sexual entertainment. Many of you have been faithful to do so and I truly appreciate it.

From time to time, I have received e-mails from women who work at area strip clubs. They often express feelings of disgrace and despair. Many of them do not have strong families to lean on for support when they need it. Many of them feel stuck and are looking for a way out.

The other day, I received an e-mail from a woman who dances in a topless club in Southeast PA. I appreciated her insight and asked her permission to post the text of her e-mail, with the assurance that I would not reveal her name or location.

The full text of her e-mail is included below. Please be in prayer for her that things begin to turn around and she finds a job she can be proud of. I believe she would appreciate that.

I know there are other women who read this blog who can identify with her struggle. Please know that we are in prayer for you as well.

Mr Family

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Mr. Family,

I have never been to any of the clubs in Wilkes Barre, but I am a stripper in a topless club in ______. I started earlier this year at 30 years old. I have a BS in Business Management and was an Internal Auditor for several years. I worked very hard for my education, working the night shift at the front desk at a local resort full time and going to college during the day. For a while I was doing ok. last year at this time I was doing very well in my professional career. Then due to market and other conditions, I was laid off in April. In the last couple years because of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation internal auditors were in high demand, so I wasn't too worried, and I did get a severance package when I was laid off so I thought everything would be fine.

Of course, by then the spike in demand for auditors was dropping. By now pretty much everyone has the hang of the Sarbanes reequirements and the bulk of the work is done. The doucmentation has to be updated every year, but it is no where near as much work as it was doing it for the first time. It is now January and I still don't have a job. I am starting to get some interest in my resume so I can hope for things to get better, but I am afraid to get my hopes up too, and I no longer have the confidence I used to have so I am afraid maybe I won't interview as well as I did before.

Either way, I live alone, have never been married and there is no safety net for me, and no other source of income to rely on. I have to survive one way or another. I feel as though my identity as a person is falling apart. I have become little more than a sex object and although most of the customers are polite and I am lucky enough to work for a club that does not promote "turning tricks" and is very strict about the rule I still am in the business of selling sex even though I worked hard to have a "real" career that I could be proud of.

I am depressed and cry a lot, I am much older than most of the other girls I work with and unfortunately much smarter. I am not taken in by the excuses they make and know full well how degrading it is to me and women in general to take my top off for money. I would love to stop, but I know of no other way to make enough money to cover my bills and living expenses. Minimum wage at Walmart simply would not cut it for me. Before I was laid off I was making 45k a year and I even have savings, which have long since disappered.

Lately, theree ar more girls than ever dancing and often there are more girls than customers so it is even more difficult to make money, forcing me to work more hours doing something I detest.

I don't think clubs are to blame though. I think society is to blame. If there were no demand, there would not be any clubs. The patrons are the ones that make clubs profitable and it is pathetic that a woman's sexual assets are more valuble than her brains, education, or work ethic. It is a male dominated society that causes these problems, not just club owners.

The whole thing makes me sick and I am tired of it. None of my male colleages have had the trouble getting a new job that I have. I always dressed very conservatively at the office, didn't wear much makeup and always wore my hair up. I was never looked at a sex object, however the women who showed a lot of cleavage and tight pants seemed to be treated better even in a professional setting. It just seems that whether the compensation is monetary or not women that flaunt themselves are compensated better.

Anyway, thanks for reading this rant even though there is nothing anyone can do to make it better. I hope you guys are able to make a difference for someone somehow because as long as women are treated this way and it is accepted in our society things will not get better.

Frustrated and hopeless,
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