For 17 years (and counting), Romana Van Lissum has been a cocktail waitress in a popular Vancouver strip club. In between slinging brews and burgers, Romana decided to get some answers to the questions we all want to know about exotic dancers. As a fixture in the industry, Van Lissum has the unique position to capture the stories of three generations of strippers both working and retired in a candid, confessional style. The stories range from drug addiction, sexual abuse, psycho boyfriends, crooked clubs, and prostitution to homelessness, porn and hustling. Van Lissum has collected 50 true stories from BC's top feature entertainers, from the heartbreaking to the glamorous; from the legendary to the comedic. "The Life of a Stripper" gives a vivid glimpse into the mystery of exotic dancers. Welcome to the inside view of the world of exotic dancing. Get ready to find out the secrets, mechanics and drive behind the beautiful women that take their clothes off for a living.

‘As educational as it is enlightening ... Read this’ SARA PASCOE ‘Passionately argued, meticulously researched and angry as hell ... leads the reader beyond the strip club and on to the battlefield where sex workers fight for their rights’ KATE LISTER ‘Deeply impressive ... An important book, sorely needed’ CAROL LEIGH 'An unflinching takedown of inadequate working conditions ... A must read’ JUNO MAC, co-author of Revolting Prostitutes Forget everything you think you know about strippers In this powerful book, Stacey Clare, a stripper with over a decade of experience, takes a detailed look at the sex industry – the reality of the work as well as the history of licensing and regulation, feminist themes surrounding sex work, and stigma. Bringing her personal knowledge of the industry to bear, she offers an unapologetic critique and searing indictment of exploitation, and raises the rights of sex workers to the top of the agenda. The Ethical Stripper rejects notions of victimhood, challenges stigma and shame, and unpacks decades of confusion and contradictions. It’s about the sex-work community’s fight for safety and self-determination, and it challenges you to think twice about every newspaper article, documentary and film you have seen about stripping and sex work.

Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV’s The Late Show to be the pick of “Dave’s Book Club 2006,” Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill. This is Diablo’s captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband.

As a former stripper, Erika Lyremark has seen it all: disrespectful club managers, cutthroat dancers, and a never-ending supply of sleazeballs. Don't even mention the long hours in six-inch stilettos. Yet beneath the stigma of this enigmatic industry, Erika uncovered the secrets of success: Remove the safety net and embrace risk victory will be yours. Ask for the dance, and an influx of new business will follow. Say yes to yourself, and you'll inspire those around you to help your business grow. Whether your goal is to build your business, increase your sales, or carry out your Red Carpet Dreams, "Think Like a Stripper" delivers the lessons you need to thrive as an entrepreneur, and the advice you'd never (ever, ever) learn in business school.

Lily Burana had given up on stripping years before she accepted a marriage proposal-but decided to strip her way from Florida to Alaska before settling down. Lily, now a successful journalist, looks back at stripping with a writer's perspective. Her humorous yet hard-edged memoir deftly describes funky clubs and offbeat characters, the exhilaration that overtakes a dancer on stage-and the darker realities that assail her heart when she's out of the spotlight. Strip City is both a hugely entertaining insider's account of a hidden world and a moving voyage of self-discovery. Lily Burana has written for The New York Times Book Review, GQ, New York magazine, The Village Voice, Spin, and Salon. She lives in New York State. This is her rst book.

Discover the complex work and personal experiences of women in the exotic dancing industry What kind of woman dances naked for money? Bernadette Barton takes us inside countless strip bars and clubs, from upscale to back road as well as those that specialize in lapdancing, table dancing, topless only, or peep shows, to reveal the startling lives of exotic dancers. Based on over five years of research and from visiting clubs around the country, particularly in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Kentucky, Stripped offers a rare portrait of not just how dancers get into the business but what it's like for those who choose to strip year after year. Through captivating interviews and first-hand observation, Barton recounts why these women began stripping, the initial excitement and financial rewards from the work, the dangers of the life—namely, drugs and prostitution—and, inevitably, the difficulties in staying in the business over time, especially for their sexuality and self-esteem. Stripped provides fresh insight into the complex work and personal experiences of exotic dancers, one that goes beyond the “sex wars” debate to offer an important new understanding of sex work.

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.

For more than eight years, I lived and worked in the dark underworld of Las Vegas as an exotic dancer. Some things are worth repeating--others you try to forget. Unfortunately, you never forget. I decided it was time that somebody told the truth about what really happens in Las Vegas strip clubs and their VIP rooms. Is there "sex in the champagne room?" With the right dancer and for right price, there is anything you want in the champagne room! This book gives a lot of insight into what really happens when men are turned loose on the Las Vegas scene. I think men and women alike will be interested in reading about what really happens in Vegas. See what the dark twenty-four-hour world of Vegas is really like. See what an insider has to say about the life of an exotic dancer.

Living as a university student by day and a stripper by night, this is a memoir written in a fun style with an insight into the world of stripping, pole dancing and wearing nothing high hells. Beneath the glittery eye shadow and girly charm is a savvy business woman at the head of a successful business empire while she lives a double life and becoming one of the most sought after strippers in Australia. While Emma dreams of living a simple life and being a wholesome person she builds her empire and gets a degree at university while having many funny moments living a double life.

Heidi Mattson successfully united sex and scholarship to realize a '90s version of the American Dream by becoming a smart, sassy, self-confident stripper while attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Intelligent and ambitious, she grew up