There are a few articles on strip clubs recently that annoy me. First we have investigators in San Francisco going around visiting strip clubs and checking into whether club owners are taking more than they should from the strippers.
Sacramento Bee (via SoCalLawBlog)
State labor authorities are planning to audit the strip industry's financial practices, and one city supervisor is reviewing the safety of private rooms in the clubs and the steep fees clubs charge strippers.
Over the last decade, about 200 strip club workers have complained to the state labor commission about the large cut the clubs take from tips customers pay for private lap dances. Some strippers have also complained that club managers encourage them to engage in prostitution in the clubs' private booths.
So they get an average of 20 complaints a year from someone who is not forced to work somewhere and they open an investigation? 20 complaints out of the probably tens of thousands of strippers in the state of California. That seems like an average for any type of job if you ask me. There's probably that many complaints made by secretaries trying to claim their company's forced them to get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It continues.
Daisy Anarchy of Sex Workers Organized for Labor, Human and Civil Rights say many dancers must prostitute themselves to make the $120 to $430 in fees they are forced to give to the clubs each shift.
Yes, they are
forced to work there and
forced to pay for the patrons and facilities that the club owner provides. If they want to keep all the profits themselves they need to go get licensed, open a building and advertise themselves. Then finally a ray of hope appears in the article.
Thanks to private booths, Nancy Banks says she earns as much as $400,000 a year and owns a Bay Area home, three cars and two horses. She compares the $120 fee she must pay her club manager to a barbershop's charge for the freelance use of a chair.
Eliminating the private rooms, Banks said, would destroy strippers' ability to make a good living in San Francisco.
"We would not be able to make money just with lap dancing. That's not what (customers) come for," Banks said. "They come for a one-on-one experience with a beautiful showgirl."
OK, so I think she went a little far with the showgirl bit, but she hits the nail on the head with the comment that you are basically renting a place of business in order to make tip money. The main argument in all of this is that they are not being paid a minimum wage, but when it gets down to it they shouldn't be. In my opinion they are independent contractors that are renting the facilities that provide their customers in order to make their revenue.
A kind of wonky comparison would be a flea market, which provides facilities, utilities, advertising and customers for someone who has to pay a "session fee" in order to use the space. They aren't paid a minimum wage in order to sell to an existing customer base.
The second article has to do with a new law that is going into effect on January 1, 2005 in city of San Antonio requiring dancers to wear a license at all times.
LA Times (via Captain's Quarters)
Strippers in this city will soon have to put on something they can't take off — a business license.
The City Council on Friday approved a measure requiring exotic dancers to apply for permits and wear them while performing.
Law enforcement authorities said the rule, which was unanimously approved by the 11-member council and goes into effect in 10 days, will allow them to quickly identify dancers who are breaking nudity ordinances. (Among other things, full nudity and contact with customers are not allowed in San Antonio strip clubs.)
...
"I really don't know where we're supposed to place it," complained a dancer who called herself Tempest. "It's definitely going to get in the way of our performing, and it might just look a little bit tacky."
I'm not against this one as much as the first story. I'm sure some innovative person will devise a method of wearing this while nude. The permit is about half the size of a credit card. My first thinking is that it could be concealed in some sort of neck collar or maybe an ankle bracelet sort of thing.
I'm not really sure how this is going to cut down on prostitution. Are they going to grab the girl off stage and that's why she needs to have her permit with her? There's already no contact while nude, so why they require this is beyond me. From a business standpoint it sounds fine to me as any businessperson in a tip earning field should be required to have some sort of permit in my opinion.
What really pissed me off over this story is the comments made by Captain Ed when he reported this on Captain's Quarters.
Thanks to a series of rather stupid Supreme Court rulings, cities are unable to protect themselves from the deleterious effects of strip clubs on their communities after having ruled nude dancing a form of speech. In fact, nude dancing currently enjoys more legal protections than political speech after McCain-Feingold, a development that must have Thomas Jefferson spinning faster than a disco ball in his grave. Instead of outlawing the practice to protect themselves, cities have to use silly laws like ID badges to annoy the dancers while doing little to stop prostitution.
I wonder if Captain Ed has even been in a fucking strip club after reading his asinine statements above. He seems to equate strip clubs to brothels. First of all strip clubs are
legal just as bars are
legal. You may morally object to them, but calling for communities to outright ban them because
you don't agree with them is the biggest annoyance I have with Conservatives and nothing pisses me off more. What makes you holier than thou? What makes you know what's best for me? Sure if we were talking a damaging substance that kills on contact I could see your point, but you have the choice to not go to the strip club. No one is forcing you to go there, just as no one is forcing you to watch a porn movie or to drink alcohol or listen to Howard Stern or go gambling. If you don't like something then don't do it, but don't prejudge everyone else because you have some sort of moral superiority complex.
I've read Captain's Quarters for quite awhile and link to it religiously, but that was simply the most ignorant thing I've read in ages and I almost fell off my chair when I read it.
Conservatives, the political party of less government unless it has to do with something *WE* consider immoral
Actually-for the "Musician"- You are totally overestimating the factuality of a proposition inside of a strip club. Dancer's will talk, and flirt with you in order to keep the fantasy alive, and dances coming. Just because she talks about sex doesn't mean that she's actually going to meet you in your hotel room.Is talking about sex illegal now, because I didn't get that memo? I mean how simple-minded can you be. My father owns many strip clubs, and I feel your comments come from someone who knows very little about what actually goes on or how things operate.
Many people actually believe dancers are in fact prostitutes, and the club owners are pimps (seriously people, I feel sorry for you), when the oppisite is true. Dancers are providing a fantasy, one that, if they are doing their job right, should never become a reality. Prostitutes are those who perform sex acts. Is dancing a for a man, having sex with him? And club owners simply allow the dancers to do their job in a protected enviroment, and expect a little compensation (such as a beauty salon owner renting her space). Whereas pimps toss the girl on the track, and take all their money. Is there even a questionable difference here; I think not. There is a prevelant need/desire for strip clubs, for their customers and dancers, as there is casinos or dance clubs.
Some people need release from their everyday lives in a fantasy world. Strip-clubs provide fantasy, THAT IS ALL.
I've seen more provacative dancing in some Vegas & Milan nightclubs.
I mean if you are going to assume all dancers are prostitutes, and club owners are pimps, I'm sorry but you live in a dream-world. I mean if you actually think that walking the track (selling your body on the street), and dancing with your top off is the same you have a lot to learn and see.
Strip-clubs offer a way for girls to make money legally, and people to fulfill their fantasies without getting hurt or thrown in jail. Some conservative thinkers feel that the world must still be controled by Purtain beliefs/values. Obviously a woman is a "prostitute"or a "whore" if she is dancing naked, right? Wrong, people need to stop being so frigid, and self-righteous. Whatever happened to the First Amendment, and self-expression. I mean if you don't like strip-clubs--here's an idea--move to a town where there aren't any. Stop bothering us with your suto-Christain morals--and face reality--were not going anywhere. If were not directly harming you in any way, proven by factual evidence, why do you care. IM SO SICK OF PEOPLE BITCHING, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO than worry about the people that make more money than them! Please if you have a brain, use it! The US is in a war--do strip-clubs really matter at this point.
-M.D.G
Posted by: on December 31, 2005 04:56 AM
