Sugar Frosted Flakes

I always enjoy reading comments about the blog posts. Some are really funny, others point out things I never considered. I never would have guessed the comments that were put up on the Darkness blog post. The post was mostly me reflecting on bad night at the club. From my point of view the dancer’s behavior, while reprehensible, was not unique. I was more upset that I let myself get caught up in my own drama, that ultimately it was my own expectations that were the source of my grief. I didn’t think the dancer’s conduct was really worth spending much more time on. The comments proved otherwise. I not going to specifically reference who wrote what, you can go read them yourself, but I will comment on them.

Does dancing requires zero accountability? I agree with that. (Bare with me Natalia, and put down the knife) Dancers have zero accountability because the fundamental way Dancers get paid is much different than more traditional jobs. The basic agreement I have with my employer is that if I show up for work at an agreed upon time, do my job well, I will get paid. When a dancer shows up for work, on time or not, she owes money. She has to pay stage fees, tip out the bouncers, and tip out the DJ and pay what ever other club fees she might accrue. Just showing up at the club does not guarantee making money. It’s a bit a peculiar situation. The dancer is both a customer and employee of the club at the same time. In practice, she receives a set of services for her money (music, security, access to stages and dressing rooms, etc). She pays the club more money to the club per night that then typical male clientele, yet she gets treated like an employee.

The ultimate threat to a dancer is the same threat to that of a customer, being 86’d. It’s being told to take their money and go else where. The accountability a dancer has to a club is the same as the customer. It’s much different than a typical job, where the accountability is enforced by the threat of loss of all income. Since she receives no money from the club the dancer has zero accountability to club, as compared to traditional employee. Some times dancers are flakes, because customers are flakes. Much like a customer who goes to only one place to eat, dancers can't really evaluate whether they are being treated good or bad until they go work somewhere else.

Because dancers are customers too, there are some less restrictions. There are very few jobs where employees can drink to excess on a regular basis, with little or minimal ramification. How many dancers would be surprised to walk into a dressing room and find the girl sitting next to her drunk off her ass? I’ve seen dancers get sent home for being unable to work, but they have to be hammered to the point of being unable to function. The next day they are back at work. Dancers are also given leeway with scheduling that far exceeds most other jobs. Most guys only see the lack of restrictions, and not the fact the dancer is paying to be there.

What the club sells to a dancer is access to an environment where they can make money. It’s sort of like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. He can be obnoxious, because he has a product that is desirable. No soup for you, go work somewhere else. Unfortunately dancers will apply this soup Nazi mentality to their customers. The customer is paying the dancer to be there. The customer can turn off the income. I think some dancers lose track of that fact. If they expect customers to continue to come in and spend money on them they have some accountability of being there.