Being a female identifying college student, I hear the phrase "Ugh, I'm just going to drop out and be a stripper" more times than you would think. Sometimes I simply nod and roll my eyes in assent, and sometimes I wait for the conversation to go on long enough for that one person to say "Ew, I would never sink that low!" then I tell them, "I used to be a stripper!"

This is my favorite part.

They either awkwardly laugh, not sure if I'm trying to make a really bad joke, or they stare at me for a beat too long before speaking, a range of emotions flitting behind their eyes (shock, embarrassment, judgement, and intrigue), before they can compose themselves enough to say "Really? What was it like?"

I'm never quite sure how to answer that question.

It was a job.

I am completely independent financially and have been since age 18. It paid my tuition when nothing else would. It's great money as long as you don't mind getting very little sleep and wearing heels for eight hours at a time.

"But aren't you a feminist?"

I am!

Believe it or not, the idea that stripping is anything other than a feminist action in itself is, in my opinion, completely bogus.

Let's break it down-

As a stripper you are paid (mostly by men) to remove certain articles of clothing or get closer to them wearing little clothing. You do NOT have to let them touch you if you aren't comfortable with it. You do NOT have sex with them for money (in fact that is illegal). You ARE an independent contractor in the sense that you come in when you want and leave when you want. You'll make more money coming in for the long weekend shift so most strippers do, but it is not required.

The profession of stripping wouldn't even exist if a patriarchal society has not deemed certain body parts of women "sexual". We strippers would not get paid if men did not see the female nipple (for some reason) as sexual. The club I danced at was a topless only club. You had to wear a dancer regulation thong (meaning it just had to be solid fabric, not see-through). Which means the only money-maker was the nipple. The very body part men have dubbed as sexual they now pay hundreds of dollars to see.

So for all the men reading this, imagine if every time you took your shirt off at the gym women threw a dollar, twenty dollars, even $100 at you. That is essentially what is happening at a strip club.

Some of the women I danced with were the strongest individuals I have ever encountered. The stripping scene does tend to attract a motley crew of people, and the stories these women told me were almost unbelievable.

Some were in their thirties, most in the mid to early twenties, I was 18. One woman was a single mom working two jobs to support her children. One was a newly-wed who had just moved to NC from Vegas. Her husband had just gotten a job in the area and she wanted to continue her stripping to help pay for the move. One was a former addict in recovery. One was just trying to make enough to get by on. And I was paying for college.

Being a stripper is simply a profession, but it does require some extra gall. That is another reason I believe it to be a feminist profession. Not only do you have to be assertive in establishing boundaries for customers that get too handsy, but you have to do so in a way that is polite and makes them still want to pay you as their dancer.

Sixty percent of the job is simply talking to the customers. Sometimes I would feel more like a therapist (if therapists dressed in nothing but lingerie and heels) than a stripper. Many prominent businessmen would come in and pay me just to sit and talk about their life with them. It takes a special degree of humanity to work in that environment.

There is also the inevitable occurrence of your family and friends finding out about your profession and the stigma that accompanies that. My family was upset, to speak lightly, of my job choice. They refused to speak to me when I refused to agree that I had done something wrong. There is this dominant belief in society that to be a stripper you lack certain morals.

As a feminist stripper it is my belief that you must drop the antiquated and societally imposed belief that there is something inherently wrong or dirty with sexuality, especially in regard to the female body.

Change is uncomfortable but to progress we must stop reaching towards outdated ideas with arthritic hands and embrace the fact that, sometimes, it's the more difficult truth that is the correct one.