Does she or doesn't she, only the CDC knows for sure

Ethic’s isn’t usually a subject you associate with strip club. Yet, I found myself in an ethical dilemma a while ago. I’m going to be really vague about a lot of specific details about this situation. I cannot verify a lot of the major details, to avoid damaging somebody’s reputation through innuendo I’m going be vague, but I can get my point across without them. You generally don't think about health issues when you go to a strip club, but sometimes you have to.

There are some diseases that aren’t curable but not fatal either. Once you have it, you have it until you die. Most of the time the virus lays dormant, but occasionally flairs up and causes problem. There diseases usually require some sort of intimate contact or the exchange of bodily fluids to contract. Not really an issue for a customer at a strip club.

Sometime ago a dancer (Stripper X) at my favorite club had supposedly contracted one of these diseases. I didn’t find out about this until after she had left. I’m not sure if she was fired, quit or just decided to not show up any more. Dancers come and go at a club on a regular basis. I never really talked to her, but I heard later about Stripper X’s condition from a couple of different dancers I trust. Granted a lot of dancers are major league gossips, but I trusted these dancers to be pretty down to earth and factual about their stuff. However, I had no real confirmation, just trusted sources. Stripper X also lead a life style that was at risk for this type of disease.

Stripper X disappeared and I quickly forgot about her. It was a couple years later when I stopped by a different club to see a long time favorite dancer when I saw Stripper X working there. She was still using the same stage name, she even recognized me.

When my dancer friend sat down next to me Stripper X was the topic of conversation. After a few minutes of catching up I realized my friend know nothing of Stripper X's health risk. This left me with a little bit of a quandary. Do I tell my friend? The easy thing to do would be gossip, “Did you hear that Stripper X had gotten suspended for having...”. The problem with this is that I’m leveling a serious accusation without any real proof.

There are consequences to my actions. Customers talk crap all the time about dancers, but there is more to this allegation than the usual “I think she does more outside the club" type of comments. There are legal implications to this situation for the club. If a club knows that a contractor presents a potential health risk to customers, the club could be sued. One of the riders on the contracts I have to sign with trade show companies is an acknowledgement of health. Basically I have to state that nobody working our booth knowingly has a communicable disease. I’m not sure how much legal protection this really provides, but if somebody works a trade show with the bubonic plague and makes somebody really sick, the trade show company will basically say the company renting the booth space lied and they are liable.

The parallels between a renting space at a trade show and a dancer contracting are striking. I’ll blog about that later. Besides the potential legal aspects I don’t think a club would want to be known as the place a customer caught a serious disease from. This would be bad for business. The upshot of all this is that there is a fairly decent chance a new dancer could get fired over a rumor this. Getting somebody fired because you think that something might be true is completely unethical to me. A lot of dancers tend to live week to week financially. Getting fired at the end of the month could result in them losing their place to live. Oops I’m sorry about getting you fired and evicted, doesn’t really cut it if it’s a false claim.

Another really nasty thing about an allegation like that is it’s almost impossible to prove a negative. Even if you don’t have the disease, people may think it’s just in remission and you’re lying about it. The strip club industry isn’t that big. Even if you walk around with a copy of the results of your latest blood work, people can still think the document is fake or,” that was last week, what about now?” You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

I was not going to mention the health issue to my friend initially. The only way to spread this disease is by sharing bodily fluids and wouldn’t be spread at a club under even normal conditions. Then my dancer friend, who is into alternate life styles. mentions that she is hanging out with Stripper X outside the club. This presented a direct risk to my friend’s health. Sorry, I should have told you about the land mines are not acceptable. I told her about Stripper X.

There is a broader issue of health when it comes to strip clubs. at what point are you too sick to go into a strip club? It’s an ideal environment for spreading illness. Even if you don’t get any dances, the dancer will usually sit right next to you, most of the time you are drinking something too. You have the trifecta of possible vectors: physical contact, airborne transmission, and ingestion.

Dancers are more at risk than the customers. I’ll probably only meet and talk to one or two dancers during a visit. The dancer we’ll probably meet a dozen or more people every shift. One thing I always hated about working big trade shows like CES or Comdex (when Comdex was big) was you were guaranteed to meet and shake hands at least one sick person. I’d say 30% of the time I worked large trade shows I came home sick.

The dancer also has the added problem of not being able to take sick time off. If she has to make rent she doesn’t have to a choice. She has to load up on decongestants and cold medicines and fake a smile. That is one of the most miserable part of sales Feeling like absolute shit, yet having to paint on smile and pretend you like dealing with a customer. That is longest conversation ever. 

Naked Ethics

I recently read a blog post by the AngryStripper about selling dances to “sweetards”. Is she taking advantage of somebody that may not be able to make good decisions for them? It depends on the situation. I find the name sweetard a little offensive. I know there was no malice behind the name and there are a lot worse names customers get called by dancers but I have a niece with Down’s syndrome. It can be unintentionally dehumanizing to label people.

Regardless of their SAT scores, I believe that most guys are going into the club for exactly the same reasons. If they can afford it, why not? The issue is when the person cannot realize that they are making a mistake or control the impulse at the time. Should the dancer make the decision to not accept his money or to go further and get him sent home? There is no easy answer, each situation is different.

Customer qualification is critical to most sales job. A strip club is probably one of the toughest environments I can think of. The job is 100% commission so there is no safety net if you screw up. You have a very limited time to evaluate the customer. There is immediate competition for the customer. The customer is most likely willing to lie to get an advantage. You have to evaluate the revenue potential and time vs. money with only minimal information. On top of all that you have to consider personal safety.

So on top of trying to sort out if he’s a deadbeat sex offender or good customer should a dancer also decided if a customer is competent enough to actually be there? Yes. It’s not easy to sort out if somebody is really able to afford something but there is a responsibility of the person making the sale. This is nothing unique to strip club industry. This pretty much goes for everybody else selling a product or service. There are a lot of banks that put on blinders when qualifying some home loans.

Practically speaking, you can’t really exhaustively interview customers on the floor of the strip club. In my opinion the dividing line between a competent customer and on that be should be turned away is if he understands the cost of the dance or he is causing himself fiscal harm. If you ask for twenty bucks and the guys has no idea what that is then he needs to be turned away. If you know he’s spending his rent money then he should be turned away as well. Trying to determine that is much easier said than done.

If he can afford it and understands the cost then he has every right to be there. When I or any other customer walks out the door I’m walking out empty handed. What you pay for at a strip club is the experience. My experience will be different from everybody else’s. If they feel like money they paid for the experience was worth it then it’s a win-win situation. A lot of guys will look at the money I spend at a strip club and think I’m mentally deficient, but I’m happy with the experience I get for the money.

A person’s cognitive skills aren’t the only thing that can be judged, blood alcohol level is another thing. At what point does a customer become too drunk to be turned away? From what I’ve seen at clubs anything less than fatal alcohol poisoning is fair game. Since being drunk is temporary situation it’s socially more acceptable to take advantage of him. He made the choice to be in that situation, therefore he should be held accountable for consequences. I always like the story attributed to Winston Churchill. He was rather drunk at a dinner party when he was confronted by a lady from the English Aristocracy “You sir are drunk” she snarled. Churchill replied “And you madam are ugly, but at least I’ll be sober in the morning”.