I recently worked in a strip club. Granted, I was not a dancer, I was a floor guy, but after having worked there for the better part of a full year I feel somewhat certain that I've got a bead on a few things. This was one of the first things I noticed when I started working there: straight girls who, under normal circumstances wouldn't be interested in women, enjoying themselves immensely in our establishment.
I have asked many different dancers on their views in regards to this. No single answer has been the same; there is no "pat" answer to this perplexing paradox, it seems. But here some of the answers that have come my way over the months (in no particular order):
- "They're just trying to identify with their boyfriends or husbands or lovers or whatever. They're trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Most of 'em don't get it."
- "Some of them have latent bi- or homosexual tendencies. This is their outlet, their way of sort of peeking out of the closet instead of jumping out. Controlled environment, y'know?"
- "One girl told me that her mother died recently. When she was a teenager, she'd had a few experiences with her mother- nothing emotionally scarring or anything, but definitely intimate. She said she wanted me to 'mother her' while I danced for her. Fucking weird, but she offered a hell of a tip. So I mothered her."
- "Some boyfriends have the strangest fantasies. And some girls have even stranger fantasies. And that's what I get paid to do: create fantasies. Beyond that, who gives a shit?"
- "The girl kept pestering her boyfriend about what his deepest, darkest fantasy was. The standard- two girls, one guy. She wasn't about to do that. But she saw this as an acceptable compromise. They were nice. Minded their manners."
- "To get drunk for free. I mean, do you realize how easy it is for these girls to walk in here, bat their lashes and get a shot of whiskey just for looking pretty? And they don't even have to dance for it. Fucking lushes."
- "Are you kidding me? Haven't you been watching MTV lately? It's, like, the only way that guys their age can show off, short of shooting somebody or dealing drugs. If the guys are here, the girls aren't gonna be far behind. Especially if the guys are flagging hundreds all over the place."
- "They like the fact that we aren't gonna try to fuck 'em. All we want is their money and all they want is some soft skin. Fair trade. Girls get turned on by different things from men. Fucking, to be honest, isn't half the turn-on to a girl that gentle rubbing can be. And we do that pretty damn good. And we won't ask for their number when the song is over. Usually."
- "It's hard to get an STD from a lap dance."
These are all pulled from the dregs of my memory, not all verbatim but close to it. Like I said: there are all kinds of different reasons, and no single one of them may apply to all girls.
I guess it's a bit like asking why someone who isn't at all a Star Trek fan would go see a Trek movie in the theater.