For one it was the only choice. For another it’s a lucrative money making opportunity, while another sees it as a good time that pays good money.
Serenity, Exotica and Lilith are three strippers with different feelings on the work that they do to pay for school. All three see it as a way to pay for college, but with a price higher than any Stafford Loan.
Serenity has been stripping since she was 15, when her father was arrested and she was left homeless and broke in California. To her, stripping is “an acquired taste, kind of like caviar.” She does not openly advocate the profession, for her it was a matter of circumstance, and not choice.
With no one to turn to, Serenity felt she had no option. She started working as an escort but found that it was not worth the money. To her dancing is “more bullshit than being a whore.” She spent $15,000 a year to attend The College of St. Rose, where she graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice, paid for by stripping.
Serenity spends her days as a juvenile councilor, but still needs the extra $950 a week she earns dancing so that she can afford to go back to school and study law. The extra money she earns has allowed her to pay off a very large mortgage for her family in less than two years. Although she is now divorced, Serenity cares for her three daughters and hopes they never will have to follow in her footsteps.
Exotica, currently paying about $12,000 to attend the Chubb Institute, like Serenity will never tell her daughter how she paid her way through college. Exotica, however, needs to worry that her parents will find out — which is her greatest fear about dancing.
Exotica began dancing when she was 18 “by hanging out with the wrong people.” For her, it pays the bills and gets her through college. She feels it brings her and her daughter good money, but with a price.
“Aside from the drunken assholes, it completely changes your life,” she said. “Suddenly you have to face being treated like a piece of meat on display for a bunch of men you don’t know.”
Exotica, as Serenity does, believes that dancing is not a path that one should have to follow and does not recommend it to any girl.
Lilith, 19, has only been dancing for six months, and feels the exact opposite. For her it is okay so long as you are comfortable. Describing herself as “a very open person,” she doesn’t see her lifestyle as something that she will need to hide when she has children.
Her parents are an entirely different story, however. They believe she is a professional piercer on South Street.
“It was the only way to explain how I get paid under the table, and it gave me a good excuse to be in South Philly all the time,” she explains with a sly smile on her face.
Lilith knows this is not a lifestyle she will maintain for much longer. She is currently studying Musical Therapy at Immaculata College and owns a recording studio in Neshaminy, Pa. Lilith plans to continue dancing until her studio begins to bring in enough money to pay her $14,000 in tuition every year.
The main attraction to dancing for her was the flexible hours and good pay. It does, however, have a downside.
“I have to come into work and lie all day,” Lilith said. “I always have to be happy and perfect no matter how my day has been. The men have to believe we all live in a happy lesbian world.”
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