Striptease appeared with the strengthening of patriarchy and is rooted in antiquity. Striptease as a phenomenon was created by men with the aim of exploiting women and strengthening their own positions of power. The prototype of striptease as a dance is the ancient “dance of the wasp”: a woman wrapped in clothes moved to the music and undressed in front of men.
Striptease is part of the prostitution industry of women. Danceress are often forced to "sexual act" with "clients". Any striptease is associated with the objectification and sexualization of the female body and negatively affects the position of women in general.

Men visit strip bars in order to raise their self-esteem (due to the humiliation of women), to feel like gods (due to the humiliation of women), to get a discharge (due to the humiliation of women), to feel “macho” (due to the humiliation of women). A man feels like a man only when he has a really embodied and unpunished right to dominate a woman, or (and) humiliate a woman, or (and) torture a woman, or (and) kill a woman.

After the collapse of the USSR, the first striptease clubs began to appear in Russia, they quickly gained popularity among men. The opportunity to rape a danceress became a prerequisite for the operation of clubs, many of which eventually turned into brothels. At the moment, in some countries there are clubs where physical contact between a dancing woman and a man is prohibited, but this does not quite make strip clubs safe for women, both those who dance like everyone else. Any closed space for men where a man exploits a woman increases the sexual aggression of men towards women, increases the amount of violence and rape.

Women who perform striptease do so because of the violence and/or the difficult situation they find themselves in. In fact, women exchange the exploitation of the body for food, a roof over their heads, medicines, drugs, i.e. for the opportunity to survive or (and) for the sake of helping their children, relatives. Every woman has her own story that made her choose the sex industry (or there was no choice). Striptease bars are part of the sex industry and part of the institution of prostitution for women.

One of the victims of sexual exploitation says: “I know a woman who took up striptease to pay for chemotherapy. Another began to prostitute herself in order to buy medicine for her children. I know teenage girls who fell into the hands of pimps who pretended to be their boyfriends. I know a woman who, for fun, came with her friends to an amateur night in a strip club, thinking that it would be just an adventure. This impulsive decision led her to 10 years of striptease and escort experience and several convictions… Up to 90% of women in the sex industry have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Of course, not all survivors of such violence end up in strip clubs, but most women in this industry have such experiences”(1).

Another victim also spoke about her experience in the sex industry. She went there not just, because there was no money, but also because women are told that it is prestigious to dance a striptease. She says: “I thought something like this: okay, I'm already a sex object, I can be one on the table. I did not feel like I could do anything else. Everywhere I was told that my main power is the ability to cause sexual desire, that my body is the best that I can offer, so using it in work means gaining power. However, the power of sex appeal is not power at all. In the real world, she is of no use ... Men look at you as a thing, not as a person, they do not care that you do not experience any sexual desire. Gradually you learn to despise men because of the way they treat you. During a striptease, men are sure that they are doing you a huge favor. This is the whole point of the game - to give the client the illusion that he has power over you "(2).

Patriarchal standards prepare women for sexual exploitation from childhood. This well illustrates the experience of another victim. “I lived in an area where the main occupation of boys was to 'educate' girls about sex. The boys showed us how to use the parts of our body... Later, all I had to do was turn on the TV to find out what the role of women is. I saw that women serve men, live in the shadow of men, that they are always beautiful, always very thin, and that they love their share of life ... My first sexual experience was rape. The rapist was so close to my family that he called my mother "Mom". Now I knew exactly what I needed. I knew that my main property was my sexuality, and I knew how much it was desired. I also realized that I have practically no control over my sexuality; it can be taken away at someone else's whim ... "(3).
Men exploit women because they want it. They perfectly understand what they are doing. They deliberately buy and sell, torture and rape. Only in this way can they put themselves above women. The experience of being a woman in the sex industry is a slow death. The existence of places in which a man mocks a woman is also a slow death. But all women. And politicianess, and artistess, and scientistess, and ordinary kindergarten teacheress, and astronautess, and athletess, and readeress of this book.

If in any city another man raped another dancer from a strip bar, then this applies to all women. If somewhere in Africa a new brothel has been opened in which women are tortured, then this also applies to women from Russia. If another prostituted woman in Europe was brutally executed by another "client", then this applies to women from any part of the world. The fight against the sex industry must be powerful, revolutionary and collaborative, because it concerns even those who are as far as possible from the sex industry and even those women who have not yet been born.

Author: Shveia K
Translator: f.sumasbrodskiy


Links:
1. Three reasons why I became a stripper. https://netovar.org/2021/03/26/3-stripper/#more-1167
2. I was looked at as a thing, not as a person. https://netovar.org/2008/08/14/striptease/
3. Striptease: memoirs of a survivor. https://netovar.org/2019/05/21/strip-no-sale/