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I’m a stripper in San Francisco I’m
a stripper in San Francisco; I’ve had many jobs in my life but none
that pay so well. It’s great because I get to work with women, many
are mothers and women of color. These women are superwomen, they are
able to be sexy and come off stage and call their kids to check up on
them. They can also leave in emergencies to pick them up from school
whenever they want because of the freedom of hours.
A draw back to stripping is the dance fees. The club has a punishment system where they give you tickets when you are late or don’t work more than three days a week. I work one day a week for six hours during the day, because I have another job. So I receive two tickets punishment every time I work. This means that the first two dances I have to pay the club $20 a dance, so I have to pay $40 to the club every time I work. On the third dance, I get half of the $20 and the club gets the other half which is $10. Strippers are also the only workers who don’t get paid a wage at the club. The bouncers, DJs and all the managers get an hourly wage. We get to keep our tips when we dance on stage – tips can be anything from zero to $3 to $20 or $30 Some clubs treat their girls like they are their pimps, by not letting them work at other clubs or associate with other clubs. Girls get fired left and right but because management is very shady and or changing all the time, they get hired right back. But you feel very unstable because you can get fired on a whim. Many of the Black women have to work twice as hard to get tips because of racism from the men who come in. Some of the clubs don’t hire Black women at all. A woman has a lot of power in the club though. I can refuse to do a lap dance if I feel uncomfortable about a client. We can kick out a client for not tipping; we don’t have to take off our clothes when no one is tipping and we don’t have to do private dances nude. Private
dances take place in private booths with curtains upstairs. When I was
hired one of the rules was that I could not solicit or have sex with the
clients. Some strippers do have sex to make more money but they aren’t
forced to by any means. Bouncers keep tabs on computers when a girl
gives a private dance. We pay taxes like every one else and are asked
for social security numbers. Sometimes the job is very hard on us women. When there are no clients and no money, all of us suffer. Many of us want to get stable jobs but the pay is laughable and we can’t live on it.
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