Classic Corner: Stripped Glory

By Jason Albert

As a young adult, the one place that I dreamed of going to was none other than, you guessed it....the Strip Club! Oh the debauchery and indignities that took place in that dark establishment of sin.   There I was, 18 years old with money to burn and raging hormones!  Naturally, I put that green, wad of cash, that burning a hole in my pocket, to good use by paying it forward.  My eager young fingers slipped those thin green pieces of currency into the G-strings of girls, with names like Cinnamon and Luscious, as they suggestively gyrated and seduced me with their hypnotic hips  while maneuvering on their stationary silver accomplice!  Some of these women were beautiful and had the magnetism of Goddesses.  Others had bodies like J. Lo with faces like Medusa. But I digress...

Back then, and maybe even now, strippers were like forbidden fruit; great to look at and dream about but you never wanted to take one home to Mom and Pops.  For most, they were a getaway from the normal everyday hustle and bustle of life.  After all, someone had to entertain old men and horny adolescents.  Strippers were not glorified and they were often looked down upon.  Now, granted male or female, we have all been in a strip club at some point ,tossed our dollars and enjoyed the show, but we lived in reality and realized many of these women didn't have a choice in their profession.

Fast forward a few years. Being a stripper nowadays is a glorified profession. In times where women fight for equal pay and other rights in society, you have a new demographic ready to go back to Brothel like days by selling their bodies for fame.  Now, don't get me wrong! This is not an attack on strippers at all.  In fact, I am quite fond of you if you are one, but the message being sent to the younger generation is all out of whack.  

We live in an era where technology rules all, and with sites like Twitter, Instagram and Vine; pictures and videos of women being half or fully nude shaking their asses and covered in dollar bills is sending a certain message…and it’s the wrong one! 

For these young women, they see this as a means to get money quickly. "Oh if I have have a big butt and big breasts people will give me money." Some of these women are hustlers and extremely smart, but the majority are dumber than the silicone that permeates their bodies.  Children see these women on reality shows and in clubs with famous people and think that it is the life to live. We have more Nya Lee's on TV shows like Love and Hip Hop instead of girls aiming to be the next Clair Huxtable's (Lawyer) from The Cosby Show. 

As for the young men, they see all these women striving to be strippers or sex objects by twerking and being fast in school and it's all they know.  Their mentality is so twisted that they don't know how to approach a woman because they only know stripper or derogatory lingo.  I hear young men nowadays talking about women in the most degrading ways because the majority of women they deal with are cool with it, allowing themselves to be called whatever as long as someone’s making it rain in their direction.  

Men don't know how to treat women anymore because women have become fascinated with fast money and allow themselves to be treated any kinda way. Stripping is the female version of the Crack game (minus the police) unless you’re using The Boom Boom room too much.  Until there is a mentality change towards our ideals you can't knock the hustle.