Solidarity under red lights as lap-dancers throw off their chains

[emad]

The Independent
By John Hiscock in Los Angeles
21 December 2004


In the city synonymous with sexual freedom, San Francisco's strippers are using labour laws to combat exploitative club owners they claim are driving more and more girls to prostitution.

Business is booming in the back rooms and private booths of the city's sex trade, but a district attorney's decision this year not to prosecute lap-dancers for soliciting in strip clubs has prompted girls to turn for support to the same city and police officials they have previously hidden from.

About 200 strippers have complained to the California Labour Commission that the fees the clubs charge strippers are exorbitant. Some say these fees, coupled with the growing popularity of private booths, have compelled strippers to turn to prostitution, with encouragement - tacit or direct - from management. They also say the secluded booths provide cover for sexual assaults.

Daisy Anarchy, who has formed a union-backed organisation, Sex Workers Organised for Labour, Human and Civil Rights, says many dancers must prostitute themselves to make the $150 (£70) to $500 in fees they have to pay the club owners each shift.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=595108

[amazona]

1. stripping is prostitution these days

As I said in the other thread (was it in the lounge?) the days of "look don't touch" have been over for quite awhile. People who remember strip clubs from earlier decades don't have a real idea of what is involved. What gets me is the wives who tolerate their husbands going to strip clubs "for business." Would they tolerate a woman masturbating their husband with her rear end if he was getting it for free? So why is it better if he (or his company) is paying for it?

The strippers who have anything left after they "tip out" all the greedy hands are indeed the ones who give private performances. The ones who just want to dance don't last long. That is not the job description any longer. The features who are also porn stars and willing to be private "escorts" are the ones who make the money. Women who get into this thinking they can profit while still holding the creeps at a distance are naive in my humble view.

[truthisfreedom]

2. is there a US publication covering this? why do we have to learn this

from British rags?

i think this article is pretty remarkable. the "pay-to-play" rules have been around for a long time for musicians... many of them have to deal drugs to cover their gig costs. i'm not surprised that it's part of the stripping trade too. these club owners need to be exposed for what they are. extortionists.

[Canuckistanian]

3. "Daisy Anarchy"

There's a woman you don't want to anger......

[theboss]

4. Just raise the prices on the mini bottles of champagne

Everyone wins!!!

You know, San Francisco is a very odd place.