College towns and strip clubs
Electronman
Too much of a good thing is never enough
If you look at a list of best college towns, I'm surprised that many of these towns have either zero or only one strip club (for example, Ann Arbor, MI; Tallahassee, FL; Bloomington, IN; Gaineville, FL; Madison, WI). Many of these towns are mid-sized cities and certainly large enough to support a strip club or two. In addition, the college town population swells when athletic events attract throngs of alumni back to town for football, basketball, etc. Furthermore, these towns usually have a pool of attractive coeds who could use some extra cash for tuition.
So--- is this observation valid? College towns tend to be under served by strip clubs (this applies only to small to medium sized cities, where the university student population is a major component of the overall population).
If so, what are your theories as to why it occurs?
Some potential theories: Plenty of "free sex" so that the market for strip clubs is suppressed? Parents pressure local officials to shut down the strip clubs so that their daughters are not tempted to supplement the allowance she receives from home by working as a dancer? The male college students are too broke to go to a strip club? Others??
So--- is this observation valid? College towns tend to be under served by strip clubs (this applies only to small to medium sized cities, where the university student population is a major component of the overall population).
If so, what are your theories as to why it occurs?
Some potential theories: Plenty of "free sex" so that the market for strip clubs is suppressed? Parents pressure local officials to shut down the strip clubs so that their daughters are not tempted to supplement the allowance she receives from home by working as a dancer? The male college students are too broke to go to a strip club? Others??
30 comments
Like Shadowcat said though, it's mostly local regulations, along with probably a bit of religious pressure. The town I live in has both a university and an Air Force Base, but we don't have a strip joint, largely because of the overly conservative (and somewhat religious) city council.
I'm frankly shocked Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, has 4 clubs (although I believe only one is actually within city limits). I don't think, at least within Lawrence, that college students being broke stops college kids from showing up at the strip clubs, or at least the Out House or the Flamingo Club (the 2 places I go to whenever I make the trip to Lawrence).
Hell, closer to home, whenever I make the trip down to Shakers in Waverly, Nebraska (not far from Lincoln), the majority of the people there most of the time are college kids from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I even witnessed members of the football team there once. One of the dancers there said the football team loves to come out the night before football games.
The other factor that might be in play to some extent is that the girls don't want to dance in their small to midsize college town. In my experience, most true college girls travel some distance to strip at a club where they're much less likely to encounter their classmates.
I'm really skeptical of the "liberalism run amok" hypothesis. Even in college towns the influence of professors in the women's studies depts are largely limited to other professors in women's studies departments. Hell, the average college can't keep frat boys many of whom live ON CAMPUS from doing creepy shit like chanting "no means yes, yes means anal" outside the women's dorms.
I'm sure the proximate cause is local regulations and the potential for clubs to make money. But electronman seems to be asking about the ultimate cause. In principle, that could be women's studies professors, but I doubt it.
If the phenomenon exists it probably is much simpler. College dudes are shitty strip club customers. Most are unmarried so they can hook up rather than spend time and money looking and getting a lapper (and maybe more).
I've heard strippers complain that college dudes are obnoxious and don't tip well. Nor are college dudes likely to go very regularly -- maybe an occasional foray for a bunch of guys but the clubs surely beckon. Free hook-ups there.
That said, I wonder if there is really a phenomenon at all -- if you looked at a graph of permanent population vs # of strip clubs would "college towns" really be outliers? I'm not sure, but I doubt it.
WV seems really strange to me. Last time I was there it was great -- a few years ago I had something in Pittsburg followed by something in NOVA and I decided to drive rather than fly to IAD. It was a beautiful drive.
I actually stopped in Morgantown along the way...the SCs there definitely did not have many sexy WVU students. More of a "I strip and my brother cooks meth" vibe. As long as they still have teeth I guess it is OK.
Back to the OP, I think there is way too much variation to generalize, but I do think Dougster has a point. UM, FSU, IU, UF, and UW are all fairly selective (FSU probably the least selective). Many girls there are coming from educated family backgrounds that have enough money. I'm not saying they are uber rich and there are always exceptions, but making money by stripping probably doesn't appeal. Limited supply.
I also think there is limited demand. I hardly ever clubbed in college. If there is a phenomenon that is the reason.
It's just small town thinkng people in control fighting to keep things small town. They think everyone should follow their beliefs and fight to keep away certain businesses. Almost half or more of the people with college degrees here either live somewhere else or keep traveling to the bigger cities. coincidence? I think not. Too much small town restrictions here.
Then you have over the hill liberals like Hillary who said the other day that businesses and corporations do not create jobs. Duhh, how stupid can you sound? When you hire someone, it's for a business to make money. Maybe she believes we should be communist with everyone working for the government. You'd have no extra funds for drinking or strip clubs. She needs it to run everything.
Your idea would hold if it were only the professor's of women's studies departments who were liberal, but the fact is, most professors at most colleges, or at least state colleges, are liberal. And if colleges are the main employer in town, they do get influence over a town's affairs.
College women are not likely to want to dance in SC. If they do, they won't go for high mileage. No reason for them to, as it is just a temporary thing.
Also, when we talk about college towns, I would think that means about 100k population max. So a large portion of the population tie to the university.
And then some will be against SC's. Students who go to those kind of schools tend to have well off parents. Not like commuter colleges like say San Jose State, San Francisco State, Sacramento State, or Fresno State.
Also sometimes there is going to be a drinking age issue.
They say one of the Tuscon clubs does draw college girls for dancers. They are young and nice looking. But mileage? Don't know.
Then there is SR in Santa Barbara. I'm not aware that it draws college girls, or that there is much "mileage".
There is also one SC in Eureka, near Humbolt State. Then also a DV in Chico, at Chico State.
In Oregon, Eugene is the main UO campus. But the most SC's are of course in Portland.
SJG
Untold History of United States - Bush & Obama: Age of Terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TGkpi_v…
Gainesville...there's a place right outside Gainesville where some girld from UF and the neighboring community college dance. I've never been there - the price point is ridiculous for the area - but it's listed on TUSCL. More UF students tend to come from money, though (and there isn't as much non-student money in Gainesville); so I wouldn't be surprised if their underground scene isn't as strong as Tallahassee's. Gainesville is also relatively close to Jacksonvile and Tampa.
The majority of the college kids in my town don't even work, mom and dad are paying for it or they just use students loans, those girls don't need to strip. If they're clever like the crazy fucks I knew in college, mom and dad paid for tuition and expenses, and these kids still took out students loans so they'd have more money to burn! lol
I'm not sure about the hypotheses involving college towns being liberal and that liberals (or women's studies feminists? who are presumably liberal) would be opposed to strip clubs. I could make the case that a "liberal" should be interested in protecting and enhancing individual freedom. That philosophy would seem to be compatible with the position that women should be allowed to do whatever they want to make a living or "have fun" as long as they are not coerced. Those rights should extend to working at a strip club and to patrons having the right to seek out entertainment at a strip club. Maybe I'm confused as to where liberals and conservatives fall on specific political issues.
The problem with liberal/conservative is that it means different things to different people. Of course there are two major axes -- social and economic. In principle, those axes could (and arguably should) be decoupled. In America, they are largely coupled.
Beyond that there are different emphases. If we take liberals you can have arguments like the recent one on Islam by Bill Maher and Ben Affleck (on Maher's show). All four people involved probably self-identify as liberal (Maher explicitly did so in that program) but two (Maher and Sam Harris) were saying real liberals should speak out against Islam as regressive, with Harris calling Islam something like "the mother lode of bad ideas", whereas the other two (Affleck and Nicholas Kristoff) characterized Maher and Harris.
Big point -- Maher/Harris exemplify one strain of liberalism emphasizes free speech whereas Affleck/Kristoff exemplify another that emphasizes inclusion ("political correctness").
This is where I just don't buy DandyDan's argument. True, academics in all fields tend to be more liberal than the population as a whole. But only those that emphasize political correctness over free speech would strongly oppose strip clubs. I just don't buy that those liberals always run things.
And if we go to conservative areas many religious folks are not friends of strip clubs. Even some pro-business but socially liberal conservatives may oppose strip clubs, if they fear that the clubs will harm other businesses. I remember a time in Abq NM (probably early '80s) when the city was threatening the porn shops. The compromise was that the porn shops toned down the "Girls Girl Girls!" and "Dildo 'R Us!" signs and put planters with flowers along the street. As long as the shops didn't look sleazy the businessmen were happy (hell, many of those businessmen probably jacked it in the booths of those places...and a few probably enjoyed the glory holes).
Although I glibly designated the "PC strain" of liberalism as "women's studies profs" I obviously don't think it is that simple. I'm just very skeptical that liberalism vs conservativism explains the dearth of strip clubs in college towns. Indeed, I'm not even convinced there is a dearth...
Micanopy, Cafe Risque. Stopped there once, years ago, heading north. They wanted $10 to go in. Well, OK, but in the day time and I wanted to check it out. A cup of coffee, $5? Call me stupid, but I had my coffee and left, never to return.
For those who are interested, Jonathan Haidt has written about this issue in the Righteous Mind and talked about it in a TED talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_…). Just Google Haidt if this link does not work.
Enough of the academic stuff, now back to strip clubs, naked women and sex.......
I understand what you're saying. It's my personal belief, based on my time in college at Northern Illinois in the 90's, that most of the liberals on campus back then favored political correctness and that nothing much has probably changed since then. I probably assumed most colleges are like this, but since I don't go to a college environment much, it's hard to know for sure.
I actually stopped at that Cafe Risque in Micanopy once With all those signs advertising the place - how could I not?
It was Thanksgiving Day and not many restaurants were open. I stopped in. The girls were not attractive but surprisingly I had a pretty tasty hamburger.
Steve-- proximity to a nursing school? --- maybe if the nursing students want some extra credit for hands on experience in male anatomy?? Better indicator might be proximity to an education program-- some of those aspiring teachers might need to supplement their income.