The explosive growth of the exotic dancing industry appears to have caused quite a commotion. Law suits, super taxes, corporate crack downs, accusations of racketeering and organised prostitution - small wonder that the politicians are starting to take a (professional) interest. However, there is little doubt that gentlemen’s night clubs, or strip clubs as they are more popularly known, have been given a bad name. Despite becoming focal points for attacks by conservatives and feminists alike, strip clubs have nonetheless continued to multiply, becoming a global economic phenomenon. They have become both an expression of the new liberalism and a manifestation of the expanding corporate culture, with strip club chains emerging across the world as the legitimate face of the sex industry. Fuelled by changing social and commercial attitudes towards sex and pornography, and by the movement away from the economics of heavy industry towards information technology and services, strip clubs have expanded at such a rate that even the conservative elements of society have found themselves on the back foot.
A tide of wealth and new found respectability has allowed the traditional strip clubs to move from the city’s back streets into well-heeled neighbourhoods and main commercial highways. With Wall Street financing and well researched marketing, the glowing logos of strip club franchises have become an integral feature of the nocturnal cityscape across America, Asia and Europe. Despite the massive growth of the adult film and Internet industries over the past twenty years, demand for live sexual entertainment has continued to increase. It is suggested that there may be as many as 5,000 strip clubs currently operating across the continental United States, each earning annual profits of between five hundred thousand and five million dollars as part of a $10 billion industry. Such ‘guess-timations’ abound in an industry which tends to advertise only the figures of its product. Accordingly there are no reliable financial reports, although such a surge in supply could never be realised without a massive increase in demand. So what do the exotic dancers themselves think of their industry, and do they view themselves as being objects of exploitation, or as prospectors within a 21st Century gold rush?
Despite their colourful reputations, strip clubs draw hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy of Southern Nevada, and famous clubs such as the Olympic Garden even pay insurance and benefits to their employees. The introduction of the live entertainment tax, or NRS 368, in 2003 was undoubtedly engineered with the strip clubs of Las Vegas in mind. A tax which siphons hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from the City’s top clubs was always going to be unpopular in a City which derives much of its wealth from the adult industry. In Clark County of Las Vegas alone there are an estimated thirty strip clubs, within a city that has over a hundred thousand registered dancers, of whom between two and four thousand are performing on any given day. New Orleans is another city which has relied heavily in the past upon revenues from the strip club industry, until that is unfortunate recent events flattened business. Fortunately, the higher ground of the French Quarter survived relatively unscathed, and it may be that newly re-elected Mayor Nagin will need a resurgent Bourbon Street to help to repair the city’s shattered tourist economy.
May saw the advent of the first publicly-owned, Nasdaq-listed strip club chain, Rick's Cabaret International (RCI). RCI has successfully enticed corporate cash, despite a recent crack down on after-hours Wall Street entertainment expenses. In response Rick's Cabaret International (RCI) hosted a ‘Due Diligence’ Ball, which appeared to be ‘in the face’ of recent Wall Street edicts after the recent firing of four top Morgan Stanley analysts for ‘entertaining’ corporate clients at a Phoenix strip club last November. RCI currently operates ten clubs within five states after a market capitalization of some $30 million, and is further stimulating the financial markets by reporting higher profits than expected, notably from its new 10,000-square-foot Manhattan Club which lies in the shadow of the Empire State Building. Here strip club chic combines exotic dancing with fine cuisine and expensive champagne. Although it is no longer universally acceptable to use company credit cards to entertain at such clubs, exotic dancing is nonetheless becoming more widely acceptable as a profession and as a form of entertainment. Perhaps this new found acceptability was most aptly demonstrated by the recent revelation that Prince Harry recently celebrated the completion of his military training with a visit to a Spearmint Rhino nightclub, the UK’s leading strip club chain.
In the City of London, wining & dining clients and taking them to strip clubs has become an integral part of the high pressure culture of the financial markets. Within a competitive market culture where clients often expect to be treated lavishly to secure business, he who frowns loses. Naturally, the recent lawsuit in which it was successfully alleged that the male strip club bonding culture of corporate hospitality effectively discriminated against women within business has caused shock waves to reverberate from Wall Street to London. Although the exotic dancing industry is entirely legitimate, many dancers are suspected by authorities of earning additional revenues outside of existing legal boundaries. In some instances, such as the notorious case of the Gold Club of Atlanta and the current police raids on the Spearmint Rhino in London, the clubs themselves are believed to condone and orchestrate such activities, whilst in other clubs it is thought to be the initiative of the dancers. This prejudice naturally stigmatises the dancers, many of whom are married, and fuels the widespread belief that strip clubs are merely fronts for organised prostitution, a notion which is vehemently denied by dancers and club owners alike.
Such a lucrative industry appears to attract many young ladies who are eager to pay their college tuition fees, find a husband or to get a foothold on the property ladder. So how competitive is it to become an exotic dancer? Few of our professional dancers thought that it was either easy or straightforward, with almost a third of respondents feeling that it was challenging or very difficult to get into. Over half said that it depended, although whether this reflects other unspoken preconditions for entry can only be left to the imagination. Opinions on this issue were highly variable, although one or two dancers were more vocal in their opinions:
When asked whether their industry was enjoyable, almost half the dancers felt that it was highly variable from night to night, although around 40% enjoyed their work as opposed to a quarter who found it to be hard work or stressful. Naturally this will vary with the personality and venue, although most appeared to enjoy their profession.
Not everyone shared this view point on the profession, however, with one top model advising, ‘Find another line of work. Females do not get respect at all from customers or club owners. You will lose your self worth real fast and go through pain and heartache and maybe even get hooked on drugs and alcohol.’
When asked whether they saw their profession as a slick, corporate industry, as essentially legitimate, or as more of a shady activity or outright underworld, the consensus shifted dramatically. None of the respondents saw their industry as being run as a slick, corporate enterprise. Whilst a third of the dancers felt that their industry was legitimate, almost two-thirds saw the strip club industry at best as shady or at worst as an underworld.
So we come to the central issue - money. We asked the dancers how much money it was possible to make in a year as an exotic dancer, and their estimates exceeded our expectations. Over three-quarters of dancers felt that it was possible to make well in excess of $50,000 a year, with 42% claiming that six figure incomes were achievable.
Opinions on this issue were passionate. As one dancer related, ‘Strip Club Dancers do not get paid any money for the time that they work in strip clubs in most states in the USA. There is no hourly wage. Most times they have to kick back as much as 60% of their tips back to the clubs. You basically have to beg guys for degrading lap dances. You work around 200+ girls all trying to do the same thing. Women have to resort to selling dope or turning tricks on the side to make good money. This has been my experience in Las Vegas, Arizona and NYC.’
Many young women view exotic dancing as a portal to wealth or as an opportunity to be noticed by other lucrative entertainment industries. So what other professions do experienced dancers believe that exotic dancing serves as an introduction to? Around half the dancers felt that exotic dancing served as a springboard into modeling or escort work, although only a third believed that it provided an opening into acting or show business. However two-thirds of respondents said that strip clubs were a gateway into the adult film industry, although their opinions on these professions were not solicited.
So is the strip club industry viewed as safe by its employees? We asked the dancers if assaults were commonplace in and around the clubs where they worked. The vast majority of respondents claimed that assaults were rare, occasional or infrequent, and only 18% felt that assaults upon dancers were commonplace or frequent, despite a club culture where, in some venues ‘Fist fights happen almost every night’.
So whilst most dancers feel that there is a degree of risk within their ‘shadowy’ industry, they also generally feel that it is both lucrative and rewarding, even if it is perceived that it is the clubs rather than the dancers who are making most of the money. What was clear from the survey is that, whilst most dancers found their line of work to be gainful and rewarding, the majority suggested that the exotic dancing industry is a prolific hunting ground for other more explicit elements of the adult industry, and that the entry requirements for an exotic dancer were not always ‘straightforward’. However, where there is a demand there is a supply, and as the taste for exotic entertainment continues to grow so will the number of strip clubs and dancers seeking their fortunes and a taste of the good life.