Practice of Stripping as a Confidence Game - Essay Example

Naked power: The Practice of Stripping as a Confidence Game Sex work, as derived from the popular saying, “the oldest profession” can be also applied to the professions of strippers. Yes, they do not actually indulge in sexual intercourse for money, but the mere performance of sexual acts categorizes them into the infamous names society had coined for women who lend sexual gratifications in exchange for money. Prostitutes, in a very defined way are very much different from strippers. A prostitute offers the ultimate service – which is the gratification of a man’s lust through sexual intercourse with her; but a stripper has an entirely different persona – what she sells is not her body, not her whole self, but the mere pleasure experienced in taking a peek at it, seeing it in a gradual, teasing way. A prostitute usually leaves her customer’s thirst for lust quenched, wherein a stripper only adds thirst to the lust of a customer. The study conducted by Miss Lisa Pasko (2002) have shown the sides of the relationship between the strippers and the customers. Yes, nightclubs and strip clubs are the precisely the place for men to realize their most repressed sexual fantasies and carnal desires, but there is more to that than what we actually see. Strip clubs are also the place for the strippers to assess the power they wield over their customers and the power of their charm. Ironically, the customers also perceive the strip clubs as a place for them to show their domination over a woman, as demonstrated by their capacity to make a woman undress, not realizing that is not them who exercise the power, but the power of their money, the tips that are to be given to the stripper, and the counterfeit trust that the strippers bestow upon them. On either sides, no one has an advantage, and both sides are exploited. The basic ground of the study is that the men use strippers to unleash the lust inside of them by paying, whilst the strippers use the men as their source of income, gaining money but losing their bodily dignities by showing it to the customers. Miss Pasko had conducted 13 interviews of which she extracted 3 respondents. The age groups of the 3 strippers were not that conspicuous, considering that the two white strippers were in their late 20’s and the other stripes, who is Hawaiian-Japanese is in her early 30’s. The good point that Miss Pasko attested was that the civil statuses of the 3 strippers, with the two white strippers being single and the Hawaiian-Japanese being a divorced mother of two. Apparently, their status differences can produce different observations and conditions, for the two single strippers are not that pressured because of the unmentioned responsibilities, which is the direct contrast of the Hawaiian-Japanese stripper, for she has a burden of a responsibility for being a single mother, having to raise her two kids by her own. But “they both have the same reasons why they chose such a profession – financial desperation. Their similar financial problems prompted them to perform their first exotic dance experience.” (Pasko, 2002: 51). Out of such reason it is very easy to conclude that all 3 of the respondents did not have much of a choice. Although they know that the job they had indulged themselves into was not a decent job, it still is a means for them to help themselves and their families to avert further financial woes. Not only does stripping provide a source of income, but exotic dancing gives them an income that provides them a lot of money in such quick time. Moreover, in another similar way, after tasting the perks of quick and easy money, they could not find any other opportunities or jobs that will give them the sense of freedom with their time. In spite of the degradation the job inflicts on them, the money and the time freedom that it gives them a sense of control over their lives. Miss Pasko needed not to evaluate and elaborate the reasons why the three girls have entered the uncertain and stark world of the strip dancing profession, for it is because of scarcity. Had the three dancers lived a life of easiness and financial stability, they would not have chosen the same route. On the other hand, a bad point that Miss Pasko’s study possessed was she did not dig deeper into the lives of strippers, but stayed on the ground that the three strippers share, which is financial difficulty. The study would have been much better had Miss Pasko peeked at the lives of strippers who stay on the job not for financial reasons but because of more complex reasons. Another is Miss Pasko’s lack of emphasis on the personal lives of the strippers. She did incorporate the psychological and emotional maladies that they encounter, “(Their) boyfriends hate it and whine about why ‘you can’t give them a show’”. (Pasko, 2002: 62). The slight lack of profoundness and depth of the topic clearly are the loopholes of Miss Pasko’s research. On a lighter note, the daily lives of the strippers were tackled, their vulnerability outside the club, their utter powerlessness when they come down the dance stage, the public’s perception of them as perpetual sex objects, and the cautious fear that outside the strip club, frustrated and narrow-minded men will force them to do things against their will. Indeed, the ins and outs of the relationship between the stripper and the customer were discussed very efficiently. The elements which abound in the topic of gender inequality was very keenly aroused, by the mere fact that strippers are predominantly women and the customers are primarily men. Miss Pasko did a great job by exploring an absolutely overlooked aspect, that there are also female customers who frequent strip clubs and pay tips like men do. The research perceived stripping as a confidence game, a con art, where the stripper is the primary con artist and the customer the likely victim of the fraud. In addition, stripping according to Miss Pasko is a method the con artists (strippers) use to emotionally and sexually manipulate their customers into them splurging out their money for the sake of worldly pleasure. The one dimension of this relationship that was overlooked was the side of the customer. Yes, lots of money will surely be extracted from him, for it is the primary aim of the strippers and the strip club, but the emotional scars, the numbness that is inflicted by the customers can never be discounted. For it can be looked upon like this: the stripper amassing lots of money from the customer and the customer satisfies his lust; but the degradation, the inhumane degradation that damages the emotions of the strippers is the main point in this aspect. For no woman in her right mind would opt to choose a lifetime of exposing herself to lucratively-paying strangers. Through this comes the difficulties that the strippers experience in their personal lives. In other words, strippers had to lead two identities, their professional selves and their real selves. They have to dissociate their professions from their personal and intimate affairs. The discussion on the relationship of strippers with their husbands (if they have any) and their self-assessments apparently were not put into emphasis. These dancers, without a doubt experience emotional strains and their femininity is sure to be scarred. They are not just sex objects for lustful men to desire, to fantasize or sometime to violate, but rather, deep inside them, they are wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, friends and beloved people. Concluding this, the con game played by the stripper and the customer is not a one sided game at all, wherein the customer plays on the losing side. The game is neither fair, too. The popular belief of the strippers is that they are con artists who swindles the money out of lustful customers is an absolute farce. The con game of stripping is played the other way around. The customer may lose money, but the amount swindled from him can not justify the guilt that haunts the stripper everytime she assesses herself physically and emotionally. In the ultimate end, the customer is the winner of this game. References: Pasko, Lisa (2002).Naked Power: The Practice of Stripping as a Confidence Game. Sexualities. 5, 49-66. Read More