Response to Hanna's Post: 11/2/10

I was really struck by Hakim-Dyce's article about how she came dangerously close to becoming a go-go dancer because she had no other way of paying her mounting debt and bills. I know that some women turn to stripping to pay tuition and other expenses because it is so lucrative, but I never understood how they could do something that objectified them so readily and openly. I agreed with Dyce's sentiment that she believed that she was so close to putting herself through a traumatic ordeal because strip clubs and go-go dancing routinely demean the women dancing into lusted-after, sluttified, cash-producing objects. They ironically strip them of their personalities, ideas, and ultimately their humanity - they are reduced down to breasts, butts, and vaginas, just the body parts that men find particularly pleasurable and attractive. Even though strip clubs obviously objectify women, men are also objectified, or at least extremely stereotyped, by both the female dancers and people who do not frequent strip clubs. Men who visit strip clubs are immediately seen as sleazy, sex-obsessed jerks who don't respect women; Dyce herself said that all the go-go dancers she talked to were very cynical about men especially, probably due to their broad assumption that all men are the same - crotch-driven animals ready to have sex with anything on two legs. While some men are misogynistic, disrespecting people, I highly doubt that all men who go to strip clubs are, so their humanity is also lost once they walk in there. The really sad thing about these "professions" is that people's circumstances - dancers and customers - are completely ignored in there; everyone just assumes women go there because they're sluts and men go there because they're horny. Dyce demonstrates this disregard of personal circumstances and background in that she turned to go-go dancing to pay her bills, not because she wanted to; she emphatically did not want to even though she tried to deny her distaste or rationalize her decision. If she did become a go-go dancer, would people beside her friends who knew why wonder or ask why she did it? Probably not. Any type of activity that forgets the humanity of its participants is automatically traumatic and should be avoided, at least in my book. However, I know many other people - men and women - who find stripping and go-go dancing empowering for women because it lets them fully express their sexuality. How does it let them express their sexuality if they are catering to what men want? How is stripping rebelling against patriarchy if it is for the entertainment of men? Is stripping third-wave feminism or enlightened sexism?