This:
When your value goes down as you become more experienced, you are not providing a service, you are the product.
And this:
Being complicit in your own exploitation does create the illusion of power, but never produces the thing itself.
To turn to your follow-up post OP,
I am a licensed cosmetologist by trade but still work in the club since I'm new in the beauty industry (recent graduate) and don't have many clients.
Congrats on the license. What would you like to do in the long run? When you're updating your employment profile a decade from now, which job skills from exotic dancing do you think you will be putting down?
I should have added in that I work in Las Vegas and we have both male and female dancers, as well as I have both female and male clients (more males than females obviously), however I know that's not the case for most cities.
That's not the case for most establishments, let alone cities. Can you give me an estimate as to the male:female ratio of clients?
I have absolutely no issue serving men at either job, but I was curious as to why one is viewed differently than the other. In both instances I'm providing a service for money.
In one, maybe. In the other, you're getting naked/simulating a sexual act.
I know many view stripping as demeaning but I find it empowering, the ultimate expression of freedom.
What freedom & empowerment?
To be naked in a place that profits off your body being exposed?
To have men get inebriated and feel aroused?
Does this club empower you to freely walk around fully clothed and in sensible footwear on some days, if that's what you want to do?
When I started dancing at 19 to help get myself through school, maybe I did compromise my values because I felt uncomfortable saying "no", but since then I realized I hold the power.
This to me sounds like you've had some negative experiences that would suggest you're the vulnerable one in this situation, for which I'm sorry. But for some reason, you're now wanting to convince strangers on the internet that nope you're the one with agency.
I'm afraid that simply isn't the case.
Even if you look at it from an age/economic perspective.
You're young. You may have had few options. You've maybe been coerced before into doing things you actually didn't want to.
And the men?
Paint me a picture of how old the punters are and what their economic power is.
Let's say there's a punter who isn't drunk, or even behaving untoward, but something about him gives you a really bad vibe. Or maybe he reminds you too much of a relative. Maybe he is someone you know. Whatever it is, you really don't like the idea of being naked on top of his lap. Would you be allowed to say no?
What are the club regulations for dancers? Have women gotten kicked out for refusing to do certain things? Some places actually make dancers pay a fee to work there, which then means they're subtly pressured into doing more in order to earn back what their money... do you have to do this?
Nothing I don't want will ever occur in my place of work and that has carried over into my personal life as well.
I've listened to enough stories of women who survived the sex industry. I have zero confidence in this statement, though I hope for your sake that you're the extremely rare exception to the rule.