Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Culture of Lust

It doesn't just foster misogyny but misandry as well.



I remember listening to some interviews with working strippers at Scores in NYC some years ago and what struck me at the time was the disdain these gals had for the men who couldn’t give away their money fast enough. As part of their nightly ritual, the girls would get together after the club closed and rag on the guys who were the most pathetic or who had given them the most money. Most of the gals in the interview didn’t even like men!

So here you have all these guys in North Dakota, and in every other strip club in the world, thinking these girls are dancing just for them, have eyes only for them, and these girls are probably thinking about when their next pedicure is scheduled or laughing on the inside about how ridiculous this guy looks. And let’s not forget how many of these gals are either hooked on drugs or alcohol. I recall a mother in one of my cases years ago who was a stripper and also an alcoholic who told an evaluator, “Do you think I could take off my clothes the way I do if I were sober?”

Personally, I’ve never bought into the mantra so many “dancers” chant, “I’m saving for college.” I would really like to hear from any stripper who actually saved for college, earned a degree and is a success. The other response I easily dismiss is “why should I work for minimum wage when I can make this kind of money?” Uh, lady, did you ever hear of the concept “self-respect?”

The sad thing is that there lots of people in the world who don't understand what self-respect is. And that's why they do this kind of thing. They don't understand you're supposed to value yourself, your body, your image, your own honour. They don't understand what that respect entails. They think it's something you make up, that you define for yourself, as if self-respect had no rules of its own.