I Explained To My 10-Year-Old Son Why It’s Important To Respect Strippers
Saturday night was just an average, happy evening, hanging out and talking to my 10- year-old and my teenager about strippers. Or exotic dancers. Or adult entertainers. Or whatever term you prefer. My son was in a particularly chatty mood, and if you have a kid around this age you know what a rare occurrence that can be, when they put down the Nintendo (NO-FRIEND-O) 3DS and decide they have roughly 80 million questions for mom and dad. And these questions had to do with strippers.
Now, first things first, being the fantastic mom I am I asked him what brought this conversation on.
The radio station I listen to has commercials for strip clubs.
Note to self: find a new radio station.
He wanted to know what happens at a strip club.
I explained that people go to strip clubs and they sometimes pay a hefty cover charge to walk in the door and an even heftier charge to enjoy a soda or adult beverage to watch women remove their clothing. Usually until they are topless.
And of course we couldn’t just leave it at that, because he wanted to know WHY.
Because people like looking at naked women, I explained. And sometimes men.
NO MOM WHY DO WOMEN TAKE OFF THEIR CLOTHING FOR MONEY?
And this is where it got kinda tricky. Because even though the idea of women taking off their clothing for money doesn’t bother me, it’s so much more than that. So I explained to him that some strippers can make a lot of money. More than they can make working other jobs. Sometimes more than what they can make even after earning a college degree. I told him that some women choose this line of work because they don’t think they are qualified to do anything else. That some women strip because they have a child to support. Some do it because they are going to school and dancing lets them work nights. That some are paying off college loans. That some are interested in dancing in other places but haven’t gotten their big break yet. I think I was basically basing everything off what I learned from Showgirls.
But this explanation wasn’t enough for my kid, and then his older brother came into the room, because:
YOUR SEX TALK WOKE ME UP.
My son, now with his older brother in attendance, wanted to know WHY women thought it was okay to take off their clothes for strangers.
Shouldn’t they just do that for people they are in love with?
I then explained how some adult dancers are able to separate their personal lives from their work. That some of them don’t like stripping, but because for whatever reason they think it’s the best job for them. That some of them find the work they do creepy, and don’t really enjoy being leered at night after night.
But that some people don’t mind it at all, and they consider what they do to be an artistic form of expression. I basically told him that every job has its pros and cons and it would be nice if we lived in a perfect world and the only people who became adult entertainers are those who wanted to become adult entertainers. I also told him that when he is older, if he should ever visit a strip club, that he should be nice and polite and realize that even though women may be removing their clothes, they are still human people with human people feelings and he has to treat them with care and respect.
He is still a bit young to be told there is no sex in the champagne room, but I think I did OK for a mom trying to explain the exotic dancer industry on a Saturday night.
(Image: Johnny Voodoo)
