It is no secret that women in the male entertainment industry are often subject to harsh conditions, violence, lack of pay and sometimes murdered. But I think the abuses faced by women that have recently immigrated are harsher, especially when they may not have networks developed yet, they may not understand the legal system or aren't sure who they can turn to or if they are still waiting on papers, oftentimes fear will keep them silent.
Most of the time the women are paid next to nothing, $2 for a dance, $10 for a set and $40 for an hour.
via AP.
The scene plays out in immigrant neighborhoods across New York, providing a key source of employment for immigrant women and a haven for men seeking to stave off the loneliness of being far from home. It is a perfectly legal form of entertainment -- there is no stripping, but plenty of hand-holding.But some of the women say the clubs have a darker side. They complain about exploitative management, sexual advances from clients and even violence. A dancer was recently shot and killed in Queens, and one of the city's largest dollar-dance venues is now the target of a federal lawsuit.
They have yet to find a gunman for the young woman that was killed. They didn't mention her name in the article. Ultimately, the dancers have been coerced to put up signs saying they are treated fairly, but frankly they don't have much of a choice.
Furthermore, the article discusses how this is an old form of entertainment for lonely men and became popular during the depression. Since the economy is tanking, I wonder if there has been an increase in violence faced by women working in all facets of the male entertainment industry. Finally, suggesting that this is the old form of work, one wonders why dancers aren't treated better, even with benefits and stock options. Sometimes the obvious seems ridiculous because sexism is so ingrained in how we look at exotic dancing.
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It is horrible what 'exotic dancers' are exposed to... but $40 an hour is not next to nothing. I was expecting something less than minimum wage to be described when you said "next to nothing", not making what some people have to work 15 minutes or more for by just doing a dance, over the hourly wage for some people for doing a set, and 40 bucks for working an hour. That's a damn good wage.
I thought the same thing. If it is true that they make $40 per hour, they are clearing being adequately compensated for the risks described. Assuming a 40 hour work-week, that is more than we pay SEAL officers.
Hi everybody,
it's my first time to comment on feministing, but I have been following this blog for quite a while already.
I was just wondering: the 40 $ an hour are certainly not for a 40 hour work week, as they are only paid for this one hour with this guy, but not for the hours before and after. So to have an accurate hourly wage based on a 40 hour week (NOT the price for 1 hour service) we would need to know how many services are delivered every day.
Saludos from Spain.
In male entertainment industry, $40 dollars for an hour IS next to nothing. Considering the difficulty and risks involved with the work, they should be compensated properly.
There is work far less dangerous that pays much more. Sall I'm saying.
There is work far less dangerous that pays much more. Sall I'm saying.
Uh, yeah, but it often requires a college degree. I mean, *I* make $40 an hour.
Now ValeDeOro has a point, that if it's $40 for one hour spent with a client but not for other time spent "on the clock", it might not really be $40 an hour. And there are far fewer protections in such work than there are in most other jobs, and it's very dependent on your physical appearance, and it's stigmatized.
But goddamn, it's about four times as much as a grunt getting shot at in Iraq makes. That's not nothing. If the $40/hour is for all hours worked and not on a "you work six hours but we only pay you for two" model, it is more than I make as a professional in IT with a college degree (though I also get benefits, so it works out to be the same amount.) And if it's $40/hour but you only get to work about six hours a week... well, then it's a low paycheck, but with all the extra time you have you would get to do other things, which might bring in more money.
If this is *low* for adult entertainment, then my opinion of strippers has just gone up considerably. A woman who can make more than $40 an hour with no college education is doing well for herself. I understand that the job is dangerous, but there is *no* job more dangerous than the army in wartime, and I would argue that that job can also be much more psychologically damaging than stripping, and active duty military with no college education, grunts on their first tour of duty, make somewhere like $22-$25K a year, or $11-12.50 an hour (if it were a 40 hour week, which, in wartime, it's not.)
What you fail to recognize is the effects beyond the immediate raise in pay that some of these women would experience if their wages were forced up. I say some women because pricing a product, such as labor, above the market price always leads to a surplus, which in the case of labor means unemployment. What you propose would immediately put women out of a job who would be fully willing to work at the present rates, but must now do something even worse. How do I know it would be worse? Because the fact that they work as dancers now means that they must see it as their best option, so taking that away from them by artificially inflating their wage necessarily harms them.
And if what they have now is in fact "next to nothing," one wonders how much less their alternatives must be.
Alara - So nice to know that your "opinion of strippers" is based on how much money they make.
For more on women as a commodity, you might be interested in an article I wrote on how the US media and advertising may play a role in our viewing of women as commodities (and, as such, objects to be freely mistreated).
"Media and the Sex Slave Industry"
You might be interested to read an article I wrote on the media's possible role in America's sex slave trade, and its representation of women as commodities (which, of course, are not people but objects we're free to abuse and/or misuse).
Media and the Sex Slave Industry
Or, if links don't work here, go to
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/10/02/airtime/doc48dbb5dae8457240505031.txt
I was recently chatting with a friend who was educated at Johns Hopkins about her stripper days, post-BA. Apparently in some clubs the dancers have to pay the club up front a certain amount of money if they want to work there for the night. In her case, she was made to pay $400 a night at a club in NYC. She also commented that not every dancer made that much a night, and would have to resort to "other things" (she did not elaborate) to make up the difference or any more money.
Dancers in general, no matter if they are in their own country or not, are treated like crap. Yes you can make a lot of money, but at what cost to you?
Alara - So nice to know that your "opinion of strippers" is based on how much money they make.
Well, yeah. If you take a job that pays beaucoup cash, I'm going to think "Hey, maybe that was actually a smart choice", not "Wasn't there some better job that woman could have gotten?"
If strippers are doing dangerous work that all of society looks down on them for, and they're not being paid very much, I'll feel sorry for them and wonder what happened in their lives that they couldn't get better work. If they're doing dangerous work that all of society looks down on them for and they're being paid BETTER THAN ME, I'll think they're savvy businesswomen, and while I'll continue to feel that they should unionize or something to try to get better working conditions, I won't feel sorry for them having such a horrible job.
When someone is doing shit work you would despise and getting paid very little, you feel sorry for them. When someone is doing shit work you would despise and getting paid a whole lot, you feel like, well, it's shit work you wouldn't want to do, but it was a smart choice if they can stand the work, because it pays well.
So yeah, my opinion of pretty much anyone who voluntarily chose a career is going to depend on the factors of how much that career benefits humanity (teachers and social workers get paid very little, but do very important work), how much I would want to do that job, and how well it pays. I feel sorry for the people who do jobs that have no redeeming social value, which are crappy jobs, and which don't pay well, because either they made unwise choices or unpleasant things happened in their lives that forced them in that direction. I don't feel nearly as sorry for the people who do jobs that are crappy and have no redeeming social value but which pay a lot, because I can see that those people are making a tradeoff for good money.
I think what's frustrating with sex work is that some people see it as pure labor, whereas others see it as an interpersonal sexual interaction or a surrogate for one---with all of the human complexities that accompany it.
People are abused, exploited, poorly paid, stigmatized, etc in a variety of jobs. People are abused, exploited and taken advantage of within relationships as well.
It seems like the lower rungs of sex work combine the worst of both scenarios. Is that something we really want sit back and allow a market for?
I hope these women are successful in at least getting legal help in regards to their complaints.
@ Alara -
You're missing the point of the "beaucoup" cash; it's not $40 an hour, for 8 hours. You could go 8 hours and not make any money, or go 8 hours and make negative money. A stripper is an "independent contractor" who does not get paid from the club she is working, only from the money people (men) give for performing for them. And that's performing in skin, with the presumption being that with enough of a "tip" you'll perform off-the-menu services. Yeah, that's totally "good money".