Do hard economic times mean more women become dancers?

13 comments

• quimby

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  16 years ago

  I don't know - you hear it both ways... In my area of NW Penna and NE Ohio, I see a lot of clubs filled with too many dancers; only the ones with regular customers make any money. The number of men who sit away from the stage and nurse a beer all night seems to be rising.
• shadowcat

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  16 years ago

  I am not an economist so I don't understand this whole recession thing. Nothing has changed in my world. I still turn down overtime at work. A close friend is a home builder. He is not hurting. The only bad thing that I see is the high cost of oil. This is being driven by the futures market guys on Wall Street. They seem to have the tiger by the tail and won't let go. I don't see more dancers at my favorite clubs but I do see an increase in mileage. Competition is working.
• wondergrl5

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  16 years ago

  I think David9999 posed the same question a while back.
• Book Guy

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  16 years ago

  My experience (no economics background here) is that weak economy means more ugly dancers. More "non-dancer" girls have to take up dancing as a "last resort." Strong economy means more "real" dancers -- girls who have chosen (vaguely) to do it, and put in the infrastructure and training necessary.
• MisterGuy

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  16 years ago

  There are some dancers that I've heard of not being able to make it "legit" that have had to come back to dancing because of the economy...even in Canada. Yea, the price of oil has all to do with Wall Street...the fact that we're in an endless war and most likely past "Peak Oil" has nothing to do with it...lol...
• DandyDan

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  16 years ago

  I find it hard to say, only because I know one currently who is a dancer only because she couldn't find a job in the field she was in. I would think that if a woman had a non-dancing job and suddenly lost it, she would go looking for another non-dancing job and would only take up dancing as a last resort. The only reason the previous dancer went to dancing is that she was a dancer in college, then quit upon graduation, only to come back to it upon losing her job. I guess this goes along with what MisterGuy was saying. But it is hard to say without knowing every single dancer's motives for going into the strip club business. I think it might be true for the youngest dancers, but the older they get, the less likely it is they are using dancing as a last resort job.
• motorhead

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  16 years ago

  I don't know the answer to that one, but I do see a higher number of questionable girls who have chosen to start dancing. Could be that I am just jaded after 20 years of going to strip clubs, but at my regular club, there are a handful of girls that are borderline ugly. Overall, most dancers seem to be complaining more about not making any money. This is Michigan where the unemployment is among the highest in the nation. I would say there is a correlation, but can't be sure.
• Book Guy

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  16 years ago

  More dancers should (according to Econ 101 and all that supply-demand bullshit, which never actually works out to HAPPEN in my real life, but they still teach it) mean that we customers have greater choice, and perhaps also that prices drop as the ladies (or clubs) compete for our business. This could be a good thing. In fact, more services for the same price -- or just, more services available -- would please me no end. However, I'm seeing that I have to spend more of my time fending off the Fugglies. Especially the dumb-fuggs, women from lower-class circumstances who would likely be flipping burgers have decided they're hot enough to be dancers. There they are yammering about how great Jay-Jay or some other latest rapper is, when they're supposed to be gracefully sidling across the stage; then they demand a tip through their chewing gum and waggle their pussy lips at me. Nice. :(
• FONDL

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  16 years ago

  I don't think the economy has had any adverse effect on the low end of the job market where most of these girls would be working if they weren't dancing. My guess is that employment at WalMart and McDonalds is as strong as ever. In fact in my neck of the woods they all have "help wanted" signs in the window. I know there are girls with college degrees dancing but I bet it's a pretty tiny percentage of the total. I don't think the strip club industry is very cyclical.
• snowtime

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  16 years ago

  Book Guy: I would respectfully disagree with you and argue that Econ.101 does work when it comes to supply and demand. In the case of dancers I think you are missing one very important distinction. The supply/demand equation must be looked at in terms of equivalent commodities. You fail to distinguish between attractive dancers and fuglies. For example, lets take a club that used to have 20 dancers with 10 being A's and 10 being F's. Now that club may have 30 dancers with the same 10 A's and 20 F's. Sure the supply of dancers went up by 50%, but the supply of desirable(at least to most of us) dancers remained unchanged. Since the supply of cute dancers did not change there would not be any perceptable change in price assuming the demand remained the same. And I suspect that if the supply of "A" dancers does increase you will see some pressure on price.
• looker123

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  16 years ago

  I have seen a greater turnover in dancers lately, not a whole lot more, or uglier, just different faces. I know my ATF is having a hard time of it and she is the #1 dancer in her club. That just tells me that there are less guys out and they are spending less. So even if there are more girls dancing, they won't be making money, which means more turnover etc. In my opinion that means more inexperienced girls which is a bad thing.
• MisterGuy

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  16 years ago

  One example that I've heard of is a dancer that I know that switched from stripping to legit massage (no extras) after she got trained in such matters. Well, apparently the amount of people that have the money to go and get massages has dropped some recently, and now she's back to stripping until the massage thing starts getting better again. I'd have to think more on whether I've seen or heard of the price of LDs going up as the supply of "hot" dancers goes up. From what I can recall right now, I've only seen clubs that get into trouble financially raise LD prices or tip outs from the dancers to better try and make their ends meet. This just tends to cause the smarter, more savy dancers to move around a bit.
• Dudester

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  16 years ago

  I'm going to go with Book Guy that more fuglys think they are hot enough to be strippers. I started going to going to Houston strip clubs in the mid 90's. Back then there was only about one fugly per club, with lots of either cuties or hotties. On a recent tour of the 290 freeway strip clubs, I think I saw one 7 in the four clubs I went to. The rest of the gals that night were sixes and below. Of course, the upscale clubs (St. James, Treasures etc.) are more selective, but there are a great deal of dancers with questionable abilities and looks out there.