Stripping the Illusion Lap Dancing: Exposing the Reality of ... - Object

Object: Challenging Objectification
“Waitresses were still given nightly „inspections‟ by the (male) management to ensure
the correct uniform (stockings, suspenders, corset, French knickers) was being worn
in an appropriate style. The male waiters, however, who did EXACTLY the same job as
the females, were required to wear trousers, a waistcoat and a bow-tie. They were
generally never „inspected‟ and enjoyed far more perks than any of the girls could
hope to grab...”
Ex-Waitress in Lap Dancing Club 26
“The thing about lap dancing – what you don‟t realise until you‟re finished with it and
you‟re looking back – is that it‟s so weird. There are these men you‟ve never met
before in your life and they come in, give you some money, and you take your clothes
off for them. It‟s bizarre. You have these conversations with people that you would
never have in a normal situation – I remember this one guy who started going on
about the size of my nipples, and I had to just carry on dancing and chatting to him.
And when you‟re working in an environment which is that abnormal, it‟s very hard not
to let it affect your life outside work.”
„Jackie‟ 27
“Men, male managers and male bouncers operated the club. It was blatant that they
did not respect us... On the large part, the bouncers served their purpose in terms of
warding off any unwanted customers, but they were never stood right next to us. If a
customer tried to grope us or verbally attack us during a lap dance, which they quite
often did, we would have to diffuse the situation ourselves. Despite the lack of
security during these situations, the manager was still happy to take expensive house
fees from us and issue hefty fines for nonsensical reasons.
25 Banyard, K., 2010. The Equality Illusion. London; Faber and Faber Limited. p.163.
26 From the forthcoming book Stripped: The Reality of Lap Dancing. Jennifer Hayashi Danns with Sandrine Leveque.
27 Ibid.
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