trees with bubbling trunks. A Barry White song fades, transitioning into a popular radio single. Jada wipes down the pole at the center of the stage, her gold heart necklace glitters underneath the glow of black lights. At 7 p.m. on a Saturday, the Babylon has just opened. Only one man sits at the bar. As Jada swings around the pole, his eyes never glance in her direction. The only eyes that follow Jada are the seductive ones engraved on a plaque near the front entrance. Under the engraved eyes reads, “Please do not touch the entertainers.” Jada moves up to the lip of the stage as another song comes on. At other gentlemen’s clubs like the Babylon in Austintown, women strip for profit. The impact of cultural taboos about sex has caused a number of stereotypes to surface. Some may think these women are oversexed.
Some may think they are addicted to drugs. But Sarah, a former cocktail waitress at the Diamond Lodge says, “It’s not like it is on television. We’re not all drug addicts. We’re just everyday people trying to make ends meet.” While there is a high risk involved in working at a gentlemen’s club, many of these women are willing to take the risk to put bread on the table, or to pay for college. Somewhere lurking beneath the stereotypes are everyday people trying to survive. Under the Black Lights The décor of a gentlemen’s club may vary, but, in general, people know what to expect. As Kirissa, who has worked at the Babylon for six years, explains, “People come here for boobs and cheap beer.” Beyond the boobs and cheap beer is a working environment where the bottom line is making enough money to pay the bills. Sarah says that
since the environment is so competitive, there can be problems. “The industry is shady. You don’t know who you can trust. If you upset someone you work with, they gang up against you. It is like high school intensified a million times,” she says. She adds that this competitive drive affects the attitudes of the club workers. “All of the workers are very defensive. You are always waiting for someone to try something they shouldn’t try.” And sometimes the customers will. Sarah says she was once stalked at the club. A man around her age would sit in her section, buy nothing and write notes. When the bouncers asked him what he was doing, the man said he was only writing poetry. A bouncer noticed Sarah’s name on the paper. Once, the man was waiting in the parking lot for Sarah. Luckily, the bouncers
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walk the women to their cars every night. After three weeks, the man disappeared. No one dismissed him. His actions were not against club policy. Bouncers are on the floors to take care of customers who try to go against the policies. Most clubs have policies that prohibit the clients from touching the dancers or propositioning them for sex. Ed Hill, the operations manager at the Babylon, says that he eliminated bouncers two months ago. This may be a security concern to some, but Hill says, “I run the club, not the customers. And they know that.” Angel, who has been working at the Babylon for two weeks, says she feels safe. “There are cameras everywhere. Our manager walks us to our cars at night and waits for us to get in and start the car.” Despite club policies and how safe women feel, some clients will try things they aren’t supposed to. “They think licking isn’t a form of touching. ‘But I’m not using my hands,’ they say,” Kirissa says. “Sometimes you will hear them shouting things like, ‘I want to fuck you.’ There is all this other sneaky shit they try to pull.” While some may think that men are just looking for some touch, Sarah says she understands why some men really come to the clubs. “Many of the guys that go there are lonely, looking for companionship,” Sarah says. “You could go to a bar and it doesn’t always guarantee that a female is going to talk to you. If you go to a strip club you are guaranteed to have a girl come up and have a conversation with you.”
Beyond looking for some companionship, Mel Thompson, a health education instructor at Kent State, says our society expects men to enjoy gentlemen’s clubs. “Part of being masculine is being oversexed. If a man isn’t interested in sex, something about his masculinity isn’t right. It’s the same reason people in this society have trouble with homosexuality. If someone said, ‘Let’s go to a strip club.’ And you said no, they can say ,’Why not? Aren’t you a man?” Thompson says. These expectations can have detrimental side effects. Thompson explains sometimes men who objectify the dancers can become fixated on them. She adds that this obsession can lead them to place unrealistic standards on other women they are in relationships with in. “You have to have someone distinguish between reality and fantasy. Sometimes that only takes reminding a man that his mother is a woman, or that his daughter is a woman. A man probably wouldn’t want his mother or daughter doing this,” Thompson says. “These women are still human beings. Everybody is somebody’s daughter.” “These people can’t see this anywhere else. They actually believe that the girls are interested in them. Actually, the girls are interested in their
wallets,” Sarah says. Some men will spend a large amount of money at the clubs; this makes some dancers feel like they are in control. “I can see how the money is very empowering. You can be an honest woman and work at McDonald’s and make a couple hundred in two weeks. Or you can be a stripper and make hundreds of dollars in one night,” Thompson says. “Men come and spend all their money on me. It’s like, ‘Here I am. You know you like it, but you can’t have it,’” Kirissa says. Despite the fact that dancers can make a lot of money in one night, Raven says that women who want to be dancers may not consider all the consequences. “Don’t do it,” Raven laughs, making it difficult to know if she is being sarcastic or sincere. She immediately adds, “There are no benefits, no workman’s comp., no health insurance. If you work here all of your life and you don’t save money, you just fucked yourself over. It’s like someone who never even had a job.” Outside of the Club A popular stereotype about dancers is that they have a difficult time forming intimate relationships. Sarah was dating someone when she first worked at the Diamond Lodge.
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photo: Pat Jarrett
photo: Pat Jarrett
ARTEMIS winter 05