I used to be a stripper. AMA

[soph7777]

Just that really. Fire away with your questions if you have any?

[Berrylove]

What made you stop? And did you enjoy it or was it simply just work?

[nmc99]

Did it leave you with a distrust of men

[MissLadyM]

There was one of these recently...it didn't end well.

[soph7777]

What made you stop? And did you enjoy it or was it simply just work?

I reached an age where I felt like I grew up (24). It started to repulse me and I started to feel like it was setting a bad example for women by being a part of it.

I did actually enjoy perhaps fifty percent of it / most nights felt like going clubbing but ending up with £1000 at the end of it. In your early twenties that was quite fun, or at least it was for me. There were other days where I really didn't want to be there and it felt like work. It was a mixed bag

[soph7777]

Did it leave you with a distrust of men

Absolutely. I always had a distrust anyway, my dad used to beat up my mom and I never had any adult role models in my life that were male. So I had a distrust for men to start with which is partly why I got into it. It made me feel empowered to take money from men and see them still wanting more but I had the power to take the money and show them the door. Sounds twisted now I look back on it but true.

[soph7777]

What made you stop?

Also I met my now husband and lying to him in the early stages killed me. I was giving up anyway but there was a few months cross over. A year or two into our relationship I told him all about it and he didn't actually see the big deal but I thought he would end the relationship if he knew. Luckily he's quite forgiving like that and realised a lot of people have a past and it shouldn't shape their future which I'm grateful for as I didn't want to lose him

[soph7777]

@MissLadyM what's your point? I don't mean that rudely but curious as to what you mean?

[Viviene]

Is it tiring? Are you a good dancer? Did you have 'special' shoes or just standard highstreet? Is it difficult to keep up the level of fitness necessary to do the routines? How many nights a week did you work? What time did you finish work?

[soph7777]

Is it tiring?

I've always been fairly fit and the adrenaline used to keep me going so generally tiredness was never too bad, perhaps the last hour of a shift might be but I don't look back and remember it as massively tiring

Are you a good dancer?

Yes I've always loved dance from being a small child and even now

Did you have 'special' shoes or just standard highstreet?

Special shoes, I always wanted to look as 'sexy' as possible in the job so I'd invest. Special shoes would cost somewhere around £100

Is it difficult to keep up the level of fitness necessary to do the routines?

Not at all but I've always been a gym goer and into sports anyway

How many nights a week did you work?

It was always partime for me so mainly fridays and saturdays. I also had a call centre job saturdays as it was all to find university

What time did you finish work?

Usually around 5am

[Redyellowpink]

How did you learn to trust and like men again afterwards? Has your marriage been hard because of your old job? Looking back, do you still think you were empowered by it?

[soph7777]

How did you learn to trust and like men again afterwards?

It honestly hasn't changed the way I feel about men, I've never trusted them and still don't including my husband. I trust him 99percent and as much as I could trust a man; however I'd never trust a man 100 percent. I think I'd be naive to after everything I've seen not just in strip clubs, but life in general

Has your marriage been hard because of your old job?

I don't think my marriage has been any harder due to my job. If anything easier as I learnt some really useful skills being a stripper believe it or not!! Resilience, and thick skinned are things being a stripper really helped me with and I think help me with my marriage rather than hinder. My husband also doesn't judge me at all for my past so all good in that respect.

Looking back, do you still think you were empowered by it?

I do think it empowered me at the time yes, it gave me a lot of confidence that I still feel I owe to the job today. I'd have never had my career now (post stripper that has nothing to do with it lol) if it weren't for the skills learned back then weirdly enough. If I could turn back time, I'd do it again. It made me who I am and I don't think I'd have the sales skills and confidence to have the career now without that as a grounding. It really made me thick skinned as hell. Walking up to a group of guys on a stag do in bra and panties really makes you not give a shit. Perhaps I could have learned those skills some other way but for me, it worked at the time.

[LittleMe23]

Did you sleep with any off them?

What happens in the back room/ private rooms?

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

If a 19YO young woman asked you for advice about going into stripping would would you say?

[catandadogandababy]

Did you have regulars and if so did you/do you ever bump into them - say in the supermarket? If so, do you just pretend you don't know each other?

[MrsFoxPlus4Again]

Razor bumps. Iv heard strippers have the best tricks to prevent them 👀👀

[AgeLikeWine]

Would you recommend stripping to a student who was looking to earn money to fund her way through uni?

[soph7777]

Did you sleep with any off them?

Lol, no. There were two guys I really fancied that cake into the club in the whole five years of working there. They became regulars and we kissed but I still never had sex with them. I just felt there was no point as I would never be taken seriously by either of them and it would just be 'sex', which at the time was not what I was looking for.

What happens in the back room/ private rooms?

It depends on the dancer and the club. Some clubs are more laid back than others. The one I worked at, nothing more than kissing I ever saw personally. I worried in New York for a period and left after a week as they allow touching and sexual stuff in the back rooms which once again, I didn't agree with. To me it was a job to make money - never did I want to become a prostitute. Some say Theres a fine line but I think there's a big difference. To me anyway

[soph7777]

If a 19YO young woman asked you for advice about going into stripping would would you say?

Interesting one. I would say, you can probably do better (at the time I didn't realise this but I would never go back to doing it now even if I ended up broke) but if you really need some easy cash then go for it. I would also say don't get caught in the trap as some were and carried on doing it in their 40s, make sure it's a temporary thing to get you from A to B (for me it funded university for example).

I would say it will always be a part of your past which some people can't handle.

Also, if you are not a fairly confident and resilient person don't bother it's not the job for you.

[soph7777]

Did you have regulars and if so did you/do you ever bump into them - say in the supermarket? If so, do you just pretend you don't know each other?

Lol no I would only work in clubs that were 50 miles plus from home so never bumped into anyone except one time a guy I went to school with came in but I just left early that day!!

Regulars would come to the club yes but I would always be elusive and never work close to home. In the ten years since I left I've never seen anyone from there.

[soph7777]

Razor bumps. Iv heard strippers have the best tricks to prevent them 👀👀

😂 sorry no I was the worst stripper in that respect. I figured once my pants were off they'd already paid me, I also purposefully didn't always shave my legs so that if the guys ever dared touch them they wouldn't want to touch again. Worked as a good deterrent!!

[soph7777]

Would you recommend stripping to a student who was looking to earn money to fund her way through uni?

Hmmm yes and no. It's hard to say no (because it's exactly what I did so would be hypocritical) but on the other hand I wouldn't change it even if I could turn back time as it really has made me the person I am today, but I also had a 'Normal' part time job alongside uni so that my CV didn't have gaps.

The career I am in now is a very serious one nothing to do with the sex industry but I feel I learnt a lot of skills that made it possible for me to do the job I do today. Without stripping I wouldn't have been anywhere near as successful m, so I feel I owe something to it. Which makes me feel that I can't really knock it!

I would also say if you are funding uni don't make the stripping a 'career' after. The money can get addictive and it takes a strong person to walk away from it.

I'd also say stay away from the drugs. Never took it once, some girls would make £400 in a night and then be broke the next day as they'd blow it all on drugs, not good.

Some people let stripping get the better of them and that's when it becomes a slippery slope.