tuscl

Dancer or stripper?

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 7:55 AM
I've recently discovered that I don't use those two terms interchangably. To me a dancer is a girl who happens to be dancing for a variety of reasons - money, fun, laughs, curiousity, her friends dared her to, whatever; but money isn't the only reason and may not be the main one. A stripper is a girl for whom money is clearly the main and maybe the only reason; she takes it seriously, hustles, and at least thinks about mazimizing her income. The dancer thinks of it as a temporary lark that also pays well when she tries, while the stripper thinks of it as her best shot at making a lot of money, more than she could doing something else. Generally but not always the dancer is fairly new at it and probably won't last very long, while the stripper has been doing it for awhile. Dancers who continue doing it for more than a year or two tend to become strippers, though not always, and some beginners become strippers almost immediately. Personally I try to find the dancers and avoid the strippers, which is why I think my views here sometimes differ from the rest of you, who may spend more time with strippers than I do.

31 comments

  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    Chandler, I wasn't pulling your leg about that. That's actually how I tend to think of the ladies. It's my first cut in trying to decinde who to spend time with (eg. is she a dancer (good) or a stripper? (bad)) Having a shorthand like that just simplifies thinking, and when surroundeed by naked ladies I need all the help I can get. But I certainly don't expect anyone else to mimic my thought patterns. But I do kinda like "laplady." It has a certain ring to it.
  • chandler
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    19 years ago
    FONDL, were you just pulling our legs with that whole line of thinking about the good girls being dancers and not strippers? I must say, you really had me going there.
  • Yoda
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    19 years ago
    Whew..."laplady" had me a bit worried...
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    Shadowcat, I'm surprised you can remember back that far. And Yoda, aren't I allowed to put tongue in cheek once in awhile? Relax, this one's just for laughs.
  • Yoda
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    19 years ago
    Oh God PLEASE! We don't need any new words to describe a stripper.
  • SuperDude
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    19 years ago
    90% can't dance and don't deserve to be called that. But we call them dancers to spare their feelings.
  • chandler
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    19 years ago
    I've also seen posters use the term "contractor", as in independent contractor, and "provider", which I think is borrowed from brothels or escorts. Really, I don't see anything replacing "stripper". It's been around for decades. It's straighforward and still perfectly descriptive. (FONDL, "strip" means to undress, as well as strip-tease.) Everybody knows what who it means. And besides, it sounds a hell of a lot more fun than the bland, inoffensive-to-a-fault "dancer" or "entertainer".
  • AbbieNormal
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    19 years ago
    A few of the more interesting phrases some of the dancers/strippers I've talked to over the years have used to describe themselves are: Peeler Dirty Girl Pink ladies Crack ho (not drugs, but she said "I sell crack") Ecdysiast (H.L. Mencken's term)
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    Mikey, that's pretty much my definition too, except for the experienced ones dancer who adopt the stripper persona, then I reclassify them. how about "erotic entertainer"? Or "laplady" - hey I like that one.
  • Mikeybush
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    19 years ago
    Mostly, it's a question of semantics. Everyonce in a while, I been friendly with dancers who really consider themself dancers and prefer not to be called strippers. Contrary to other's definitions, I've always considered career dancers to be strippers, and the one's using dancing as a means to an end ie education to be a dancer.
  • travelingthrough
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    19 years ago
    I tend to say dancer, but I can't say many of the women at the club I frequent most even really dance. What would be an appropriate term for "get naked and roll around on the stage in front of customers so that they get a good look at the goods?"
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    Maybe we need a new term, because none of them adequately describe what the girls actually do most of the time. Most girls neither strip nor dance in the traditional sense of both terms.
  • chandler
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    19 years ago
    On the contrary, I think of "dancer" as the trade term more applicable to lifers and hardened pros. To the general public and newer strippers, "dancer" means like Fred Astaire, and "stripper" means a dancer who strips. For those whose lives revolve around strip clubs - managers, DJs, longtime strippers, regulars - "dancer" is assumed to refer to their specialized meaning. It's the same as with any specialized trade. "Exotic dancer" refers to eastern ritual dance. The term was appropriated as a euphemism for strippers. I doubt if it still fools anybody.
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    It's actually more of a mental thing for me. When I meet a high-hustle pro with an attitude I think "stripper," when I meet a sweet shy college girl or a happy-go-lucky party girl I think "dancer." I've noticed that the college girls usually use the "dancer" term but often the party girls seem to enjoy referring to themselves as "strippers," they think it's funny. I'm not sure that I use either term aloud very much although I'm probably more likely to say "dancer" to avoid hurting anyone's feelings.
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    And come to think of it, very few girls actually strip anymore in the traditional sense, they just take off their clothes and dance naked or nearly so. Stripping has become a lost art. So "exotic dancer" is probably a more accurate term for what most girls do today.
  • AbbieNormal
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    19 years ago
    To expand, I use the terms interchangable here. In the club I do usually use dancer, although I sometimes slip in stripper depending on the girl I'm talking to.
  • DandyDan
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    19 years ago
    I don't see a difference in the two terms. On the other hand, I've never met a stripper who said she was a stripper, they were always dancers.
  • InDenial
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    19 years ago
    i dont really decipher between the two terms differently. i generally classify and categorize strippers and dancers as either being dirty or not dirty.
  • casualguy
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    19 years ago
    I don't really see any difference between the 2 words except perhaps how the dancer or stripper feels about it. My opinion is that the word stripper is considered more negative or derogatory towards them. Therefore I may like a dancer but sometimes get upset at the stripper. I think it's similiar to the difference between calling a guy a garbage man versus sanitation worker. One word is considered more politically correct by those in the profession.
  • davids
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    19 years ago
    Just about the only concession I will make to strippers is to call them "dancers". I guess even dancers are entitled to a little bit of fantasy.
  • davids
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    19 years ago
    Just about the only concession I will make to strippers is to call them "dancers". I guess even dancers are entitled to a little bit of fantasy.
  • chandler
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    19 years ago
    There's always "sex worker". I use that sometimes as in, "You, my dear, are one hot little sex worker."
  • Yoda
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    19 years ago
    Quote from a dancer friend of mine: "It's not what you call me, it's what I answer to".
  • chandler
    •
    19 years ago
    Once, a really cute girl came and sat on my knee. I put on my "drooling newbie" act, saying, "Wow, are you one of the strippers here? But you're so pretty, I can't believe you'd be doing this. I though only worn out old skanks stripped." She said, "Actually, I prefer to be called an exotic dancer." And I said, "Well, in that case can you send over a stripper, please?" And she said, "Hey, whatever you want to call me is fine."
  • JC2003
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    19 years ago
    I call them strippers, though even stripper is a mislabel since many strippers make their living dry humping guys for tips, sometimes without taking off their clothes in some clubs.
  • chandler
    •
    19 years ago
    Chitown: When I'm in a club, i find myself saying "dancer" a lot, and the girls do, too, just because it's the term the club and the DJ always use (if not, ugh, "entertainer"), so it's "in the air". And, when somebody says "dancer" in a strip club, there's no ambiguity over what kind of dancer they're talking about. Outside the club, I almost always say "stripper" and girls are much more likely to say it. FONDL: The only place I've seen a stripper make the distinction you do is on internet message boards, when pinkie-types try to say how superior they are to common strippers, or condescend to the plight of poor "fallen women" for whom stripping supposedly defines their lives. It strikes me as self-congratulatory but meaningless.
  • chitownlawyer
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    19 years ago
    I find that the practitioners of the profession are more comfortable with "dancer," and I'm willing to go along with that, both because I think that people should get to pick the name they are called, and because I think that there may be some small, residual mileage benefit.
  • FONDL
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    19 years ago
    I think it's fair to say that the reason my ATF quit after only 18 months is that she had enjoyed being a dancer but didn't want to be a stripper. My definitions, not hers. She always called herself a stripper and to her it's become a very derogatory term. Again, going with my quirky definitions, one of the big reasons I prefer getting to know new girls is that once you get to know them as a dancer they will almost always behave that way with you, even when they get to the point that they're strippers with almost everyone else. It takes much longer to get an experienced girl to act that way with you, if ever. In fact I think that's what being a club buddy is all about, she acts like a dancer with you even though she acts like a stripper around most everyone else. That's clearly where Shadowcat is, although he may not agree with my terminology.
  • AbbieNormal
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    19 years ago
    I pretty much use them interchangably.
  • chandler
    •
    19 years ago
    I use them interchangeably, although I prefer "stripper" and find that the girls I like best are more comfortable with that. Girls who insist that they are dancers and not strippers are in some kind of denial. This ain't no ballet. The fact that they strip is what distinguishes them, not the fact that they dance. "Dancer" sounds like a shortened form of the corny eupehemism "exotic dancer".
  • baddy
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    19 years ago
    If your getting naked for money, you are a stripper. I don't think any strippers are "dancers" by your definition -- they aren't there because they think its fun, they are all there for one reason and one reason only... our money.
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