★★★★★ "An honest portrayal of what it takes to make it in a tough world." - Customer Review ___________ What is a porn star's typical childhood? What would make me, a small-town Texas girl, move all the way to Los Angeles to become a porn star? Follow me on a provocative journey down the rabbit hole of the agonizing pain, immense shame, and racy secrets. Every twisted decision, every lie is revealed in this book-from birth, to my first step on set, and every step in between.

'I am the Guv'nor's daughter - but what does that mean?' Lenny McLean, better known as The Guv'nor, was a legendary and sometimes terrifying figure: a bare-knuckle fighter, bouncer and, in later life, an actor. He was a formidable force in the East End and across London, but behind his towering demeanour was a loving father who provided a safe haven for his children. For his only daughter, Kelly, his status brought with it a reputation both to live up to, and sometimes escape. Kelly experienced the old East End way of life, often lived just outside the law, first-hand and equally the uncertainty that came with her father's mood swings and the 'black dog' that followed him around, despite their close bond. The connection between father and daughter became even more apparent as Kelly began to battle her own mental health issues that, as a mum to two young children, would threaten to destroy her life. In this incredibly frank and poignant memoir, Kelly McLean provides a unique insight into life growing up as the daughter of one of the last old-school fighters, featuring many previously untold stories. This is the story of East End life from a woman who has seen it, lived it, and sometimes been plagued by it.

Moving from first hand interviews with dancers and others, this book broadens into an accessible examination of the popularity of "striptease culture," with sex-saturated media imagery, and stripper aerobics at your local gym. It aims to scrutinize the truth of a industry whose norms are increasingly at the center of contemporary society.

This book explores the phenomenon of pole dancing as an increasingly popular fitness and leisure activity for women. It moves beyond previous debates surrounding the empowering or degrading nature of pole dancing classes, and instead explores the complexities of these concepts and highlights that women participating in this practice cannot be seen as one dimensional. Femininity, Feminism and Recreational Pole Dancing explores the construction, negotiation and presentation of a gendered and classed identity and self through participation in pole dancing, the meaning of pole dancing as a fitness practice for women, and the concepts of community and friendship as developed through classes. Using empirical research, the book uncovers the stories and experiences of the women who participate in these classes, and examines what the mainstreaming of this type of sexualised dance means for the women who practice it. Pole dancing is shown to be a practice in which female identities are negotiated, performed and enacted and this book positions pole dancing as an activity which both reinforces but also presents some challenge to ideas of feminism and femininity for the women that participate. Women's participation in pole dancing is described in a discourse of choice and control, yet this book argues that the decision to participate is somewhat constructed by the advertising of these classes as enabling women to create a particular desirable self, which is perpetuated throughout our culture as the ‘ideal’. Exploring the ways in which women attempt to manage impressions and present themselves as ‘respectable’, the book examines how women wish to dis-identify with both women who work as strippers and women who are feminist, seeing both identities as contradictory to the feminine image that they pursue. The book explores the capacity of these classes to offer women some feelings of agency but challenges the idea that participating in pole dancing can offer collective empowerment. The book ultimately argues that women’s participation can be viewed both in terms of their active engagement and enjoyment of these classes and in terms of the structures and pressures which continue to shape their lives. This timely publication explores the complexity of the pole dancing phenomenon and highlights a range of questions surrounding this activity as a leisure form. It will be a valuable contribution to those interested in women’s and gender studies, cultural studies, feminism, sociology and leisure studies.

DTF. Support your local girl gang! Me and my dirty, tough female besties were stripping it down at The Steamy Clam! I knew that my side hustle as a stripper would pay my bills, but who would have thought the pole life would lead to a proposal? A fake one anyway … Then again, I knew divine intervention when I saw it. And that fake relationship might be the realest thing I’d ever felt. I was minding my business, slaying my goals, living my best life with my girl gang—on my own terms. Love was the last thing on my mind. Marriage just wasn’t in the cards for me. I never considered myself wifey material. Staying at home, baking cookies and washing laundry? Forget it! Then, Weston, with his big heart and bushy beard, snuck his way into my feelings. His family was prim and perfect, and my edgy attitude and I were not. He needed a fiancée to secure his place in the family business, and I needed cash to pay off my debts from a string of mooching exes. This crazy lie was a win-win for both of us. How could I say no?

Stripper chic is in these days: you can watch celebrities "strippercize" on Oprah or do it yourself at your local gym, but this popular face of stripping hides another side of the industry, one that is far less glamorous. In Strip Club, Kim Price-Glynn takes us behind the scenes at The Lion's Den, a rundown club where women are compelled to strip out of economic need rather than as a means of liberation, and a place where strippers' stories often reflect drudgery and dismay. Strip Club reveals the intimate working lives of not just the women up on stage, but also the patrons and other workers who make the place run: the owner-manager, bartenders, deejays, doormen, bouncers, housewives, and cocktail waitresses. Price-Glynn spent fourteen months at The Lion's Den working as a cocktail waitress. Her uncommonly deep access reveals a conflict-ridden workplace fuelled by competing interests and agendas and stereotypical ideas about women, men, sexuality, race, labour, and economic value. Full of rich insights into the world of a single club, Price-Glynn argues that the club environment reproduces gender inequalities through the everyday interactions of customers and workers as well as the broader organizational structure and culture of the modern day workplace. Taking a novel approach to this controversial and often misunderstood industry, Price-Glynn draws a fascinating portrait of life and work inside the strip club.

Cole’s small town is a trap he’s determined to escape in this fresh and moving debut novel that balances loss with humor. Ever since his mom died, Cole just feels stuck. His dad acts like a stranger, and Lauren, his picture-perfect girlfriend of two years, doesn’t understand him anymore. He can’t ditch his dad, so Cole breaks up with Lauren. She doesn’t take the news very well, and Cole’s best friend won’t get off his case about it. Now more than ever, Cole wants to graduate and leave his small, suffocating town. And everything is going according to plan—until Cole discovers the one secret that could keep him there…forever.

A Glasgow bank heist turns into an unlikely meet-cute for a disgruntled female cop in this hilarious crime novel by the master of tartan noir. Their eyes met across a crowded room. It was a room crowded with hostages and armed bank-robbers, and Zal’s eyes were the only part of him that Angelique could see behind his mask. Officer Angelique de Xavia already had enough to be upset about before she’s taken hostage by the most bizarrely unorthodox crooks ever to set foot in Glasgow. Disillusioned, disaffected and chronically single, she’s starting to take stock of the sacrifices she’s made for a job that’s given her back nothing but grief. So when her erstwhile captor has the chutzpah to phone her at work and ask her out on a date, Angelique finds herself in no great hurry to turn him in. She’s long since learned that the cops will never love her back. But maybe one of the robbers will.

This Is My Real Name is the memoir of Cid V Brunet, who spent ten years (using the name Michelle) working as a dancer at strip clubs. From her very first lapdance in a small-town bar to working at high-end clubs, Michelle learns she must follow the unspoken rules that will allow her to succeed in the competitive industry. Along the way, she and her coworkers encounter compelling clients and unreasonable bosses and navigate their own relationships to drugs and alcohol. Michelle and her friends rely on each other’s camaraderie and strength in an industry that can be both toxic and deeply rewarding. Deeply personal, This Is My Real Name demystifies stripping as a career with great respect and candor, while at the same time exploring the complex, sex-positive reationships (queer and otherwise) that make it meaningful. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.