What is it like to make money by stripping for strangers? I talked to Tia, Lucy and April, three women who have made a living out of lap-dancing.
Lucy is 23 and has been dancing for four years. She lives on the South Coast.
Tia is 22 and danced for a year when she was 18 before quitting. She recently moved to Australia to study.
April is 25 and a dancer in the East End of London.
These are not their real names. They were interviewed separately, and have very different stories to tell.
LUCY: We're self-employed, we have to pay the club to work. We rent the space. You pay a starter fee every night, for me its £30, then on a £10 or £20 dance you pay £5 on each, up to a certain number. Then the money is your own.
TIA: What they charge depends on how busy the night is. Busier nights I'd pay £40. Every nude dance you did they'd take £5. The thing is, a topless dance on the floor means all the other customers are getting an eyeful and not paying for it. From a business point of view it's not very sensible, when you could be doing a nude dance in private.
Most clubs work on topless dances "on the floor" of the club, while the fully nude dances take place in security observed private booths.
TIA: The most I ever made in a night was £600. That wasn't normal for me, a normal weekend would make me £200 or £300. It really did vary. Sometimes I'd break even. Or it would be shit and I'd come home and actually be down.
APRIL: You can walk out with nothing. It’s just about how you act, how you put yourself across. You’re shifting a product just like anything else. Some girls in the big clubs can make thousands of pounds in one night. It’s all about the competition.
LUCY: Sometimes it does pay shit money. Sometimes I go home with ten quid. Sometimes I go home with nothing. But I've walked out of there with £1,200 before. It depends how busy it is, and if you get sit-downs.
A sit-down involves a customer paying a set fee, usually around £400-£600, to have a girl stay with them at their table for a certain amount of time. Dances are extra.
TIA: Guys would be grabbing you and touching you, being really rude to you. I definitely felt threatened at times. I had one guy trying to kiss me, leaning right over me, and when you're there and you're not wearing a lot of clothes, it's very intimidating. Luckily he wasn't too forceful, but I did hear of girls doing nude dances and a guy has actually put his hand between her legs. Some people don't seem to understand the difference between lap-dancing clubs and whorehouses.
LUCY: Some of the guys just start getting really filthy. I get propositioned all the time. I can deal with it because I'm quite thick skinned. But there's been a few times when security could have been more on their toes. But always, if a guy touches a girl or is rude to a girl, they're immediately spoken to or thrown out. Although if the guys are big spenders and they offend the girls, the club is very cautious about what they say to them, because they're giving the club a lot of money. Some people can get away with more if they're regulars.
Licensed clubs must legally enforce a strict “no touching” rule. Customers must not proposition the girls. At most clubs, the door staff will explain the rules to anyone upon entry.
APRIL: I’ve seen guys masturbating, pretty blatantly, in the booths. If they get drunk or something. They get thrown out straight away, but it’s pretty gross. People really don't seem to care.
TIA: The industry is changing. When I started, guys who came in would really look up to you, because you're being paid to dance, you're the centre of attention. They actually did treat girls with respect, they saw them as a fantasy they couldn't get. But the reason I left was because I got sick of being asked if I would have sex for money. Which happened all the time.
