“Students who strip” Special to the Toronto Star, Feb. 24, 2004, C1

 

The brainy babe: By now, you've heard the myth of the sexy student who dances for fun and titillation and manages to pay for law school at the same time.

But in reality, after talking with student strippers around the GTA, it appears few students who begin stripping to pay for tuition are able to keep from becoming addicted to the underworld lifestyle.

The women we talked to for this story estimate that about 20 to 30 per cent of strippers are students. And the women also consistently agree that stripping nudges studying off students' timetables as they fall prey to the fast money, easy drugs, flexible hours and endless attention.

Toronto-born and raised "Andrea," 27, stopped stripping only after a minivan struck her and she injured her leg last October. She asks that her real and stage names are not used because she has stripped illegally in San Francisco and Miami.

She started when she was 19, at the suggestion of a friend. At first, Andrea, a blue-eyed blonde rejected the idea because it seemed "seedy and taboo."

But when she saw someone make $400 in two hours, she decided to strip temporarily - just until she was accepted into theatre school. But temporary turned into seven years, off and on. During that stretch Andrea entered three different post-secondary programs and each time she left after a few months and went back to stripping.

"Paul," a Toronto strip club DJ who has been in the business for 15 years, e-mails that he has known many students who began stripping to pay for tuition but "very few were serious about it. ... most do it because it's the non-stop party for girls with low self-esteem and the large amounts of money they can make. Out of 15 years doing this and watching over these girls, maybe a dozen of them made it and never looked back."

Andrea fits the description - at least the first part.

For the first time in her life, the money was pouring in when she started stripping, she remembers.

For a 19-year-old who had made not much more than minimum wage at a coffee shop during high school, the money was a draw.

"I didn't have to wait until Tuesday to go see a movie," she explains.

But more importantly, she could buy as much straight vodka as she could guzzle in order to numb her fear and insecurities before every shift.

Eventually Andrea became an alcoholic. But she lived the life of a jetsetter, working in San Francisco and partying in New York. She even lived in Vancouver and flew to San Fran to work. There were nights she made over $1,000 U.S.

By the time she turned 20 and began studying in Vancouver, she hated it. She lasted only four months at school.

Fast-forward to age 23 and Andrea was regularly drinking and doing a variety of drugs, including crystal, speed, ephedra, ecstasy and cocaine.

She began doing drugs heavily around the same time that lap dancing became legal, she recalls. She hated being touched and she sought solace by numbing herself.

Eventually, she became addicted to cocaine. By then, she couldn't quit stripping even though she wanted to - she needed the money to feed her habit.

Andrea has since decided to sober up and she works as a temp receptionist in downtown Toronto.

After she was hit by the minivan, she says she "realized my life sucks."

But she is hopeful. She still wants to enter university. She ticks off possible careers: psychiatrist, therapist, radio broadcaster, journalist or teacher.

Students may start off focused to make money for tuition, says Andrea, but "they can lose that focus quickly."

But there are those who argue it is possible to study and strip. Stripping can be an ideal job for students because the hours are flexible, says Mary Taylor, an exotic dancer who left the business in 1997 after having stripped for 21 years.

"How much fun is (it) grinding on all these guys' laps all day long? (Exotic dancers) must certainly be doing it for the money," she says.

But even Taylor warns that students can be easily "suckered in by the money and the freedom that the job offers."

"What happens is you go in with good intentions," she explains. Then students start missing classes because they are too tired from a late night's work and it's easy to drop out.

Ryerson journalism student June Morrow says she had a love hate relationship with stripping.

She was 22 when she finished her college diploma in business administration in Ottawa.

She had broken up with her boyfriend and lost a lot of weight. She noticed a job ad for young women without experience, so she headed out to a strip club and tried it one night when her parents were away.

And she loved it.

"Being on stage was really liberating ... I never got it out of my mind," says Morrow.

A few years and one divorce later, she was looking for a change and quick money to do some travelling.

She came to Toronto and danced on and off for six years at joints like Zanzibar, Charlie T's, the Brass Rail, Filmore's and Caddy's.

She also finished a bachelor's degree in arts through distance education from the University of Waterloo.

But for Morrow, "tuition became an excuse ... I loved the attention, I'm a natural performer so that was awesome." So she didn't stop when she finished her degree.

A cash-in-hand income where you make your own hours can be addictive, she says. On a bad day, she made $20, on a good day up to $400 dollars.

But, like the other strippers, Morrow, now 33, warns: "You are at a real risk of losing yourself to this industry, it has a way of sucking you in."

She says her ego craved the constant attention from men who fawned, "You're so pretty, you're so smart, you're not like the other girls."

But, she says, "If you start taking it too seriously you're going to get screwed up." She realized this when she quit stripping two years ago, before she started her journalism degree. She saved enough to pay for tuition and living expenses and hasn't been in a strip club since.

But for every woman who decides to quit, another takes her place. "Dakota," a slim woman with tattoos and strawberry-red bra and panties is at work one winter afternoon. She has long dark hair, fair skin and a sweet smile. Dakota is her stage name.

She looks about 25 tops. But at 32, she is an artist who graduated from the Sheridan College illustration program a few years ago, just missing the digital revolution.

She is currently enrolled at George Brown and has been dancing for about four years. Dakota recently put on a show of 24 paintings with the Come as You Are sex store. They are meant to illustrate the dynamics, sexual politics and tensions between clients and dancers.

She works the downtown club circuit. One of the clubs, which she asks not to be revealed, has both medicine and law students. Most students don't work the clubs near their schools, she says. On a good day she makes up to $500 cash. But the pay is unstable and tips and clients dwindle in the winter.

It's dark inside the downtown Toronto strip club. The large room is lit up with rotating disco lights and a pulsating red glow. At 3: 30 p.m., there are only about five men hanging around.

A sign in the ladies' washroom reminds dancers to keep away from drugs or face dismissal. But the air freshener doesn't mask the scent of a recently smoked joint.

Dakota began working as an art therapist when she finished school, among other jobs, but, "I have a hard time conforming to social norms," she says, "particularly the Christian model of performing in the workplace."

If strip clubs weren't stigmatized, perhaps Dakota wouldn't need to keep her work from her religious parents. And she wouldn't have gaps in her resume because she would be able to list her dancing experience instead of deleting it.

Mary Taylor says exotic dancers "have a lot of talent in different areas, marketing, sales people, customer relations" but unfortunately many do not include their dancing experience on their resumes.

"(The job) takes a great deal of courage," says Dakota. "It can be pretty terrifying and deserves a bit more respect."

Katzman Enterprises, which operates a chain of strip clubs in Windsor and Detroit, has been recruiting strippers for about 10 years now by offering to pay a portion of their tuition, according to a CNN report. It recently placed ads in the Lance, the University of Windsor newspaper, promising to pay tuition. Adult club owner Robert Katzman told CNN that, "A girl who wants to better herself, who wants to progress, makes for a higher level entertainer,"

As of September, about 20 women were taking advantage of the deal.

Dakota says Katzman Enterprises' offer seems generous. "I am only here out of financial necessity," she says, "If I had a choice I would be pursuing my real career."