Several girls then want to talk to me.
We set up a meeting, after my work, in a neighborhood
park.
The ambiance is grim. One of the
girls starts things off by saying, “The college entrance test
was almost all on things that we never studied.
I just guessed on many of the questions.
I guessed wrong. I failed the
college entrance test really bad. I now
don't even get a high school diploma. I
can't go to college. What kind of a job
can I get?”
I lecture, “You have basically one of three choices. You can get your parents to support you. You can join the thousands of high school
graduates, scuffling for jobs flipping hamburgers, type of thing, when you
don't even have a high school diploma or you can try
to get a job as a bar dancer.” I pause
to let the shock sink in and I look around at faces full of despair.
One of the girls snaps, “The house that was a
part of my parent's retirement plan is now worth less than nothing. My parents now have to relocate, from
Midway. They now have to rent, after they
come up with first and last month's rent, plus security deposit. They might have trouble supporting themselves
and no way can they support me. I have
this recurring nightmare about being trapped in a uniform and serving up
hamburgers, on the midnight shift. Can
we talk about bar dancing?”
One of the other girls snaps, “Well, my parents
can support me, if I work as a maid, mow the lawn, do all of the cooking and
take in washing from the neighbors.”
The rest of the girls nod in defeated agreement.
I lecture, “I talked with the people who want to start up highway bar
operations. They need to attract in
customers who are driving past on the highway.
In order to do that, they need topless dancers. In addition to dancing topless, the topless
dancers also have to work as topless waitresses. Now, it's against the law for the customers
to touch a dancer, on the stage. That's
easy to enforce. It's also against the
law for the customers to touch a waitress, delivering drinks. That's very difficult to enforce, at least at
the level of little quote, 'accidental' unquote touches. That could be a deal breaker for some of you
girls, since you never had a boy put his hands on certain parts of your body,
when you were in the back seat of the boy's car.”
One of the girls smirks and asks, “What planet
are you from?”
“Okay,
the accidental touch thing is a bit more prevalent than I thought. However, if a horn dog goes past the little
accidental touch, the bar has a policy called, 'Our way or the highway.' The bar also has bouncers, whose knuckles
drag on the ground, when they walk. So,
topless doesn't mean unprotected.”
One of the girls asks, “So, we hafta dance and
then also waitress?”
“The
bar people tell me that the dancers make more money in tips, than the
waitresses. However, the dancers have to
do hard, physical work. The waitresses
just sort of sashay around and recover.
Each task has its advantage and its disadvantages.”
One of the girls asks, “Do we get breaks”
I lecture, “Yes, they have to give you breaks, state law. Now, you girls may already dance. However, dancing topless is quite a bit
different. The female breast is not
designed for rapid movement while dancing and you can get into what they call
tit flop, which is not sexy and also physically harmful, if it continues long
term. You need to practice dancing
topless, before you go for a job interview.”
One of the girls asks, “What kind of practice?”
“Well,
you can see strippers perform up in the Internet and you can figure out a
routine, based on the moves that you see.
Basically, you need to move your lower body a lot, your upper body, not
so much.”
One of the girls then asks, “Okay, we pretty much have to become dancers, How much
money can we make?”
I lecture, “Complicated answer. The bar will
pay you well below usual minimum wage, as they're allowed to do, since your
main earnings will come from tips.