The Ethical Stripper | Stacey Clare | TEDxCoventGardenWomen

Summary

Stacy, a stripper for nine years, shares her experiences working in high-profile clubs while highlighting the empowerment and challenges she faced. She discusses the industry's exploitative conditions and her journey to activism, leading to the formation of the East London Strippers Collective. The collective aims to improve working conditions, protect dancers' rights, and challenge negative stereotypes, advocating for the recognition of stripping as an art form and the importance of creating the right conditions for value in sex work.

Takeaways

• 💃 Stacy, the speaker, has been a stripper for nine years, working in various clubs and experiencing both the highs and lows of the industry.
• 🌍 She has traveled extensively and made significant money, forming friendships and enjoying her work despite some challenging moments.
• 🤔 Stacy acknowledges the discomfort some may feel watching her perform due to the sexual objectification inherent in her job, especially in a room full of feminists.
• 🔓 She introduces her alter ego, Claire, who is multifaceted, working in various roles and pursuing interests that give her a sense of fulfillment and purpose.
• 🎭 The speaker demonstrates compartmentalization, being able to switch between her stripper persona, Stacey, and her personal identity, Claire.
• 👚 Stacy discusses the unrealistic expectations and pressures women face due to sexual objectification in media and society, quoting Jean Kilbourne on the dangers of objectification.
• 🚫 She expresses her resentment towards the exploitation of women's bodies for profit and identifies as a feminist, raising the question of how she reconciles her job with her beliefs.
• 💪 Stacy shares her journey into stripping, starting at 19, and how she found empowerment and financial stability in an industry that also presented challenges and exploitative conditions.
• 🤝 She founded the East London Strippers Collective to advocate for better working conditions, legal protections, and recognition of the value of their work.
• 🎨 The speaker sees stripping as an art form, requiring a range of skills from athletic performance to emotional labor, and believes it should be recognized as such.
• 🤝 The collective aims to challenge negative stereotypes and stigma associated with stripping and sex work, advocating for a cooperative venue run by strippers to create better working conditions.
• 🌟 Stacy concludes by emphasizing the potential for value creation in stripping and sex work, provided the right conditions are established, and asks for recognition and understanding.

Q & A

How long has Stacy been working as a stripper?

Stacy has been working in the industry for about nine years.

What are some of the high-profile clubs Stacy has worked in?

Stacy has worked in clubs such as Spearmint Rhino and Stringfellow's.

What is Claire's daytime occupation when she is not performing as Stacy?

Claire is self-employed and works in various roles including as a bookkeeper in a gallery, an Events Manager, and for an academic at the London School of Economics.

How does Claire describe her experience of compartmentalizing her life as Stacy the stripper and her other identities?

Claire describes compartmentalizing her life by having a 'stripper persona' named Stacy that she can 'wheel out' when needed, separate from her other identities and roles.

What is the main issue Claire identifies with the portrayal of women in the media and society?

Claire identifies the issue of women being bombarded with images that pressure them to conform to unrealistic expectations and the objectification of women's bodies for capital gain.

How did Claire's first experience in a strip club at the age of 19 affect her?

Claire's first experience in a strip club led her to get a job as a charity fundraiser instead, which taught her about social justice and led her to activism.

What role did pole dancing play in Claire's life before she became a stripper?

Pole dancing was something Claire learned and carried a pole to house parties, which led people to ask her about her occupation, eventually helping her get a job as a stripper.

What is the East London Strippers Collective and what are their main goals?

The East London Strippers Collective is a group Claire formed with other strippers to improve working conditions, protect dancers' rights, and challenge negative stereotypes. They aim to review the law, improve working conditions, and possibly open a cooperative, worker-run strip club.

How does Claire view the stigma associated with being a stripper?

Claire views the stigma as a form of secondary objectification, where society labels strippers and sex workers as victims, which she sees as an unchosen and harmful stereotype.

What personal experience does Claire share regarding her childhood and how it relates to her work as a stripper?

Claire discloses that she is a survivor of childhood abuse and neglect, and she has used her 'stripper persona' as a coping mechanism to reclaim her identity during her recovery from breakdowns.

What is Claire's perspective on the value of stripping and sex work under the right conditions?

Claire believes that stripping and sex work can create value in people's lives if the right conditions are created, and she sees her job as an opportunity to create such value.

Outlines

00:00

💃 The Dual Life of a Stripper and Feminist

Stacy, a stripper with nine years of experience, shares her journey through various clubs like Spearmint Rhino and Stringfellow's. She discusses the highs and lows of her career, emphasizing her enjoyment and the body positivity it brought. However, she acknowledges the discomfort her performance may cause, especially in a feminist setting. Stacy also introduces her alter ego, Claire, who has diverse interests and jobs, showcasing her ability to compartmentalize her life. She grapples with the ethical dilemma of being a stripper while being against the exploitation of women, and begins to explore how she can reconcile her profession with her feminist beliefs.

05:02

🌟 From Anarchist to Empowering Stripper

The narrative follows Stacy's transformation from a broke art student to a stripper, exploring her identity and sexuality. She found empowerment and financial stability in stripping, which also helped her regain control over her life. Despite the industry's competitive and exploitative nature, including having to pay to work and lack of legal protections, Stacy sees potential for empowerment. Her research into feminism aligns her with sex-positive feminism, advocating for agency over one's body. The story illustrates the conflict between the exploitative conditions of the stripping industry and the potential for personal empowerment, leading to her activism for better working conditions.

10:03

🗽 Advocacy for Strippers' Rights and Challenging Stereotypes

Stacy, now identifying as an activist within the stripping industry, discusses the formation of the East London Strippers Collective. The collective aims to improve working conditions, protect dancers' rights, and challenge negative stereotypes. They propose the idea of a cooperative strip club, emphasizing the artistic value of stripping. Stacy also addresses the stigma and misconceptions associated with her profession, including the assumption that strippers are victims of abuse or false consciousness. She shares her personal experience as a survivor of abuse, using her stripper persona as a coping mechanism. The talk concludes with a call for recognition of the value that stripping and sex work can create, provided the right conditions are established.

Keywords

💡Stripper

A stripper is an individual who performs acts of partial or complete disrobing as a form of entertainment, often for an audience. In the script, the speaker identifies as a stripper and discusses her experiences in the industry, highlighting the empowerment and challenges she's faced, such as the financial benefits and the negative stereotypes associated with the profession.

💡Sexual Objectification

Sexual objectification refers to the act of treating a person, especially a woman, as an object of sexual desire, ignoring their personality and treating them as a commodity. The speaker acknowledges the discomfort some may feel watching her perform due to the sexual objectification inherent in her job, and she discusses the broader societal implications of such objectification.

💡Feminism

Feminism is a social and political movement advocating for equal rights for women and the recognition of women's rights as human rights. The speaker identifies with feminist principles, particularly sex-positive feminism, which emphasizes the agency of women over their own bodies. She explores the tension between her profession and feminist ideals, aiming to reconcile the two.

💡Compartmentalization

Compartmentalization is the act of dividing something into separate parts or categories. The speaker uses this term to describe how she separates her identity as a stripper, 'Stacy,' from her other identities and roles in life, such as a bookkeeper, events manager, and community theater participant.

💡Agency

Agency refers to the capacity of an individual to act independently and make their own free choices. The speaker discusses how stripping has allowed her to regain a sense of agency, particularly in controlling the sexual attention she receives from men, which she contrasts with the objectification she experiences outside of work.

💡Stigma

Stigma is a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. The speaker addresses the stigma faced by strippers and sex workers, including the assumptions that they are victims or have been abused, and the pressure to conform to societal expectations or leave the industry.

💡Objectification

Objectification is the act of treating a person as an object, often in a dehumanizing manner. The speaker discusses the secondary objectification she experiences when society labels strippers and sex workers as victims, which is an unwanted and harmful stereotype that she did not choose.

💡Cooperative

A cooperative is a business or organization owned and operated by the people who use its services, often for mutual benefit. The speaker mentions the idea of opening a cooperative strip club, which would be run by the strippers themselves, aiming to create better working conditions and challenge negative stereotypes.

💡Activism

Activism is the policy of taking direct vigorous action to bring about political or social change. The speaker's involvement in activism, particularly around social justice and workers' rights, informs her approach to her work as a stripper and her efforts to improve conditions in the industry.

💡Self-Worth

Self-worth refers to the intrinsic value and self-esteem perceived by an individual. The speaker mentions that her work as a stripper has positively impacted her self-worth, as it provided financial stability, allowing her to focus on her education and reduce unhealthy behaviors.

💡Care Work

Care work involves providing assistance and support to those in need, often in a compassionate and nurturing manner. The speaker draws parallels between care work and stripping, noting that both involve emotional labor and providing relief to others, challenging the perception that stripping is solely about physical appearance.

Highlights

Stacy, a stripper with nine years of experience, has worked in various high-profile clubs and has a diverse range of experiences in the industry.

Stacy's alter ego, Claire, is a self-employed freelancer with a wide array of jobs, including bookkeeping, event management, and pole dance instruction.

Claire demonstrates compartmentalization of her life by presenting her stripper persona, Stacey, when necessary.

The speaker acknowledges the discomfort caused by the sexual objectification of women and the unrealistic expectations it creates.

A quote from Jean Kilbourne emphasizes the dangers of turning humans into objects, which can justify violence against them.

The speaker's journey from an art student to a stripper involved exploring identity, activism, and eventually finding empowerment in the industry.

Stripping provided the speaker with financial stability, self-worth, and the ability to control the sexual attention she received.

The speaker discusses the exploitative business practices within the strip club industry, including dancers having to pay to work.

Feminist literature influenced the speaker's perspective, aligning her with sex-positive feminism and the belief in agency over one's own body.

The UK's Women's Rights Lobby called for the eradication of the strip club industry, leading to a law that gave local authorities power to shut down clubs.

The East London Strippers Collective was formed to address the lack of recognition for strippers' worth and to improve working conditions.

The collective advocates for the review of laws, protection of workers' rights, and the opportunity for dancers to take legal action against exploitative businesses.

The idea of opening a cooperative, worker-run strip club in Europe is discussed as a means to create better working conditions and recognize stripping as an art form.

The speaker challenges negative stereotypes about strippers and sex workers, arguing that they are harmful and contribute to secondary objectification.

The stigma faced by the speaker in her work is explored, including the assumption that she must be a victim of abuse or have a damaged psyche.

The speaker discloses her experience as a survivor of abuse and how her stripper persona served as a coping mechanism during her recovery.

The talk concludes with the message that stripping and sex work can create value if the right conditions are established, and the importance of being seen as the speaker chooses to be seen.

Transcripts

hi my name is Stacy and I'm a stripper

I've been working in the industry now

for about nine years and I've worked in

a range of places danced in some of the

higher and corporate clubs you might

have heard of Spearmint Rhino

Stringfellow's and I've seen a lot in my

time as a stripper I've traveled a lot

I've made a lot of money I've met

thousands of people I've made some

amazing friends and had a lot of fun and

then it hasn't all been great you know

there's been some low points as well but

in general the work suits me suits my

personality I enjoy it I've got the body

for it

and I'm guessing from looking around at

some of the expressions on your faces

that watching me strut around performing

a sexually objectified gender stereotype

is producing some uncomfortable feelings

for some of me

we are in a room full of feminists don't

me okay

so just let me just take a second right

hi my name is Claire and when I'm not

being Stacy I'm me I am self-employed

and I work freelance I've always had a

lot of different jobs and I what do I do

so I work in a gallery in central London

as a bookkeeper I'm an Events Manager I

work for an academic at the London

School of Economics I've done care work

in the past I've done modelling I've

been a pole dance instructor I practice

Buddhism I do community theater I pretty

much do lots of things that give me a

sense of fulfillment and purpose in my

life and the reason I gave you that

floor show there was to demonstrate to

you how I compartmentalize my life how

I've got this stripper persona Stacey

and I can sort of wheel her out whenever

I need her and I know we're not everyone

like Stacey and I know this whole talk

comes with a caveat because I know that

women and feminists all over the world

resent the notion that a woman's worth

is measured by her hotness I know that

when we are bombarded with images like

this that women feel uncomfortable and

they feel under pressure to conform and

men can feel confused and even resentful

when reality doesn't match up with these

unrealistic expectations and this is a

quote from one of my favorite feminists

Jean Kilbourne she's a total legend

turning a human into a thing is almost

always the first step towards justifying

violence against that

well I couldn't agree more with all of

this

I also relent resent this relentless

poor notification of women's bodies for

capital gain so what I'm saying

basically is that I don't like to see

women exploited and I guess that makes

me a feminist but I how can I possibly

go to work and do a job that involves

being objectified more or less all the

time how can I be an ethical stripper

well I believe that I can and I'm going

to explain how by sharing some of my

insights with you so when I was 19 I was

and when I first did a audition in a

strip club I was 19 and I was very

precocious and I had these terrible

white person dreadlocks and I refused to

shave my legs and I just finished the

first year of an art degree and I was so

broke that I played my guitar in the

street for money anyway they wanted to

give me the job and as a stripper but

they were very cagey about how much

money I was going to earn and they they

wanted me to change my whole appearance

which I wasn't comfortable with so I

went got a job as a charity fundraiser

instead which taught me about social

justice and I got involved in activism

and I became this anarchist this

political anti-capitalist rebel and I

went to anti-war marches and I hung out

in squats and teepees and met anarchists

and anarchists let me be whoever I

wanted to because back then I used to

dress up a lot I used to really you know

explore my identity and I got very good

at performing this way and I was very

confident

I knew men found me attractive and that

was part of myself that I enjoyed

because the summer I did summer I

discovered sex I sort of transformed

from this and awkward androgynous kid

into this and like woman who is free to

explore sexualized roles when I was

fighting for social justice I was kind

of drinking a lot partying hard nearly

dropped out of art school because I was

kind of losing control of my life and

among the

things I was trying at the time I

learned to pole dance and I used to

carry a pole around with me to house

parties and people just ask me where I

worked and then I found of friends who

helped me get as a job job as a stripper

by this time I was 22 and I was my

identity was more in flux so shaking my

legs and conforming to the stereotype

wasn't such a sacrifice it was kind of a

fun experiment and I found that it was

generally empowering to be in control of

my the sexual attention that I got from

men you know at sexual harassments kind

of part of my life but when I discovered

stripping I could regain some agency or

something that I had didn't have control

over otherwise and the regular money was

a big benefit my sense of self-worth

actually shot up and I could afford to

pay my rent I cut down my drinking and

partying because I didn't need to do it

anymore it was my job and I went I was

able to concentrate on my degree it

wasn't all a bed of roses far from it

and the work is not easy it's not fun

being surrounded by drunk people all the

time and try not to absorb their

negative energy and when I first joined

the the industry it was at the beginning

of the financial crisis so that there

was a very unhealthy competitive

environment for those of you who don't

know strippers have to pay to work so we

have to pay a house fee and or a

percentage of our income to the clubs

and even though we're technically

self-employed we are always treated as

employees and we have to submit to some

very exploitive business practices

because we are drugs are not protected

we can't take an illegal action so these

are these experiences kind of set the

scene for me and I could see clearly how

the job had the potential to be

empowering but because of the working

conditions inevitably wasn't so when

back to art school and I researched

feminism and I devoured text after text

of feminist literature and I have found

myself aligning with sex-positive or

pro-choice feminism just the idea that

we are agents of our own bodies and

as such sour right my body my choice

what to do there now

in my final year there was a big fight

going on about the strip club industry

in the UK the women's rights Lobby were

calling for my industry to be eradicated

as an integral harm against women and

the people who were representing the

industry in Parliament in the media were

the bosses and the managers not the

dancers themselves and this was

infuriating because what I saw going on

above my head was this circus of opinion

and but no one asking current strippers

what could be done to improve things and

he dances who did speak out were

dismissed his victims by the opposition

and the law was passed

so now local authorities have the power

to shut down clubs and limit the number

of licenses but nothing has been done

about the exploitive conditions so we

have some licensing conditions that put

the onus on us like in some clubs I have

to dance one metre away so I can't make

any contact can't me any lap dancing but

legally it's perfectly okay for a

manager to find me for wearing the wrong

dress or for chewing gum so I started to

speak to other dancers about this and

you know found that plenty of them are

just as intelligent and felt just as

strongly as me I took what I'd learned

from the activist world and I applied it

to my choice of work which fit perfectly

because workers rights is a cornerstone

of social justice so in true activist

style

I decided something's got to be done so

a year ago I invited all the strippers

that I know to form a collective and we

are called the East London strippers

collective we feel our industry doesn't

recognize us our worth because we are

continue to be financially exploited

nearly everywhere we work and secondly

we feel very let down by a law that

promised to help women but inevitably

less left us more vulnerable which we've

got less choices as workers so what do

we want the law needs to be reviewed our

cops need to be protected dancers need

the right to take legal action against

exploitive businesses if that's what

they want to do we want our working

conditions to improve we want to be

consulted ideally we'd like to create

our own working conditions there's very

exciting talk at the moment of opening a

cooperative venue which would be

Europe's first and only stripper worker

run strip club we believe what we do is

an art form this is a picture of a

colleague of mine Miss cheeky love and

if this is not an art form I don't know

what is this skills of a stripper range

from athletic performance to emotional

labour and what we do is we relieve

people of their and we relieve adults of

their stress boredom frustration

loneliness and we do this primarily by

talking not necessarily dance of taking

our clothes off speaking of someone

who's done both jobs I can see the

parallels between being a carer and

being a stripper what we actually do is

work and it deserves to be recognized to

search and we also want to challenge

negative stereotypes because we believe

they are harmful and when I go to work

as a stripper I conform to a sexually

objectified gender stereotype that's my

choice as part of my job and I'm

comfortable with that

but when wider society creates and

proliferate this an unhealthy negative

stereotype that strippers and sex

workers are victims this is a type

another type of secondary

objectification one that I haven't

chosen and where it's the same for

buyers and customers when we demonize

them as abusers or as sad and pathetic

these negative stereotypes are just as

and helpful as the media sexism that I

spoke about at the beginning of this

talk now finally I want to talk to you

about stigma specifically the stigma

that I face in my work and a good

example of the stigma I know

everyone here is going to be a stripper

or a sex worker but everyone can relate

to stigma a good example is the question

if it's that bad why don't you just

leave or the question what's a nice girl

like you doing in a place like this and

for me the subtext of these questions is

what is so wrong with you that you can't

escape conditions like this and to be

asked questions like this that imply

there is something inherently wrong with

me

but why should be honest beyond me the

worker instead of the people in the

industry doing the exploiting why should

I leave an industry that I've spent

leave a job that I spent years getting

good at and that I love and I believe a

lot of the negative stereo like the

negative stigma around our work is this

widely held belief that strippers and

sex workers are victims of childhood

abuse historic childhood abuse and that

we are acting out of false consciousness

we don't our own minds so I want to

reveal something to you now I'm going to

do some disclosure if that's ok all

right and I am a survivor of abuse when

I was a kid my childhood was really

unstable and I was really badly

neglected and so when I was growing up

as an adult my my adulthood has been

loaded up with trauma and I've had lots

of breakdowns but one thing if anyone if

anyone here has had a breakdown you'll

know that part of the recovery process

is to reclaim your identity we build

your identity from in my experience

having a stripper persona having this

pre rehearsed identity to fall back on

when all else failed when I didn't know

who I was anymore was an extremely good

coping mechanism and I believe that

value can be created anywhere especially

where they're suffering I believe I

regard my job as an opportunity to

create value in my life and in others

and the idea I want to leave you with is

that stripping and sex work can create

value but we need to create the right

conditions for that to happen and the

best way that you can help with that is

by seeing me as I choose to be seen

thank you very much