Archibald's
Oct. 27th, 2007 03:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackofallgeeksSo, I just got back from Trevor's Bachelor party. We went to dinner and then to a bar, and finished up early in the morning at a strip club. Full nudity. My first time.
I won't say I didn't like it, in a sense. I did. The girls were pretty and I can't say I don't like looking at pretty girls. We also had a few decent conversations with a couple of the girls -- we tried to emphasize that we were just young guys and not like some of the dirty old men who usually came.
At the same time, a big part of me wished the girls there weren't doing what they were doing. Weren't dancing naked in front of men to make money. It was obvious they got good tips, but some of the looks they got (from said dirty old men) made me feel uncomfortable. I wish they could be happy and successful without selling themselves like that.
I imagine most girls think very little of strippers. It's one step above whoring oneself, right? (And from stories I've heard, that one step can be very small indeed in some of the sleazier bars.) I think, though, that the girls -- or more specifically, the bars they work for -- are taking advantage of us guys, in a way, too. Men, I think, tend to very quickly develop a kind of attachment to a girl who draws his attention, and this whole market is built upon attracting a man's attention and then making him pay a few dollars her and a few dollars there to sate himself. They certainly aren't as attached to us as we are to them.
I don't like it, strictly speaking. I think I'm a worse person for participating. But it was fun, and we did treat the girls as real people (despite the flavor of entertainment they were providing). It was an experience.
I won't say I didn't like it, in a sense. I did. The girls were pretty and I can't say I don't like looking at pretty girls. We also had a few decent conversations with a couple of the girls -- we tried to emphasize that we were just young guys and not like some of the dirty old men who usually came.
At the same time, a big part of me wished the girls there weren't doing what they were doing. Weren't dancing naked in front of men to make money. It was obvious they got good tips, but some of the looks they got (from said dirty old men) made me feel uncomfortable. I wish they could be happy and successful without selling themselves like that.
I imagine most girls think very little of strippers. It's one step above whoring oneself, right? (And from stories I've heard, that one step can be very small indeed in some of the sleazier bars.) I think, though, that the girls -- or more specifically, the bars they work for -- are taking advantage of us guys, in a way, too. Men, I think, tend to very quickly develop a kind of attachment to a girl who draws his attention, and this whole market is built upon attracting a man's attention and then making him pay a few dollars her and a few dollars there to sate himself. They certainly aren't as attached to us as we are to them.
I don't like it, strictly speaking. I think I'm a worse person for participating. But it was fun, and we did treat the girls as real people (despite the flavor of entertainment they were providing). It was an experience.
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Date: 2007-11-21 03:58 am (UTC)Two things came to mind right away: the exhibitionistic thrill of it, or the fact that these girls know they're pretty so why not market that? The first may hold, but even just after thinking it I want to throw the second one out: I'm not convinced that any girl ever thinks of herself as pretty. I wish I didn't feel that way, because I imagine I'm pretty solidly wrong on that point.
I'd had something else to say. I can't remember what.
At one point toward the end of the night we were talking to this one girl, a pretty blond. And she was sitting back on her haunches while we stood around the stage and we were talking about how Trevor was getting married and we were all college buddies showing him a good time, and lamenting some of the creeps she had to deal with. She told us some horror stories which I won't repeat here -- nothing that put her in a dangerous spot or anything (I'm sure the club takes care of their girls) but definitely high on the creepy/weirdo scale. She said we were a nice respite. She also liked my laugh. :p It was all pretty cool and normal -- except that she was naked next to a dancing pole and in front of a full-wall mirror.