How many strippers do you think are on the spectrum?
I’ve noticed a huge uptick in the last couple of years of strippers claiming to be neurodivergent or even just flat out autistic. Or also, having AudHD is common (autism+adhd simultaneously).I read some post the other day with somebody even claiming something to the effect of “the club is where I have connected with a bunch of strippers just like me.”
Idk, maybe I’m unobservant but I haven’t noticed many autistic traits in other dancers. Adhd maybe, but that’s about it. I do however suspect most club regulars I’ve had were autistic, though part of that may be me appreciating them having a straightforward and habitual MO when it came to how they behaved.
But here are some symptoms I copied/pasted from health line. Are there any dancers you guys know who fit a lot of these traits?
inability to look at or listen to people
no response to their name
resistance to touching
a preference for being alone
inappropriate or no facial gestures
inability to start a conversation or keep one going
excessive talk about a favorite subject without giving attention to the reactions of others
speech problems or unusual speech patterns
inability to express emotions or recognize them in others
trouble recognizing simple social cues
difficulty following simple directions
inability to predict someone’s response or reaction
inappropriate social interactions
inability to recognize nonverbal forms of communication
performing repetitive movements, such as rocking back and forth
developing routines or rituals that can’t be disrupted
self-harming, including biting and head-banging
repeating words and phrases
becoming extremely fascinated with a particular subject matter, fact, or detail
experiencing sensations of light and sound more or less strongly than others
fixating on particular objects or activities
having particular food preferences or aversions to food textures
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I don't know a ton about asperger's/autism, but just based on the symptoms you posted, I'm highly skeptical that this is common. Like "resistance to touching", "inability to keep conversation going" or "inability to look or listen". Could one really hack it as a stripper with these impediments? Color me doubtful. I don't think I've ever met a dancer that had those type of impediments.
My guess would be that ADHD and BPD (both types I & II) are much more common amongst dancers.
I don’t think I’ve noticed an autistic dancer - but definitely some with ADHD
I'm with @skibum, everyone is on the spectrum nowadays.
And I think that's happening because for some people it's easier to claim autism (which allows you to abdicate responsibility for your behavior) versus saying "I'm weird and a little broken."
And that's unfortunate, because autism is a real thing and a real struggle for a lot of people. It doesn't do them any favors when a population of people start waving the "autism" flag as an excuse for being sometimes a dick.
On another note, I'd like to commend nicespice on starting a topic about autism when the last time she did that it ballooned into a multi-year post that got bumped over 500 times.
I feel like we're saying Beetlejuice's name three times...
We're discovering a lot more genetic causes of autism that we didn't have the science to discover before.
Of topics. This autism thing is the low hanging fruit where media has spotlighted a big nothing burger. An a similar note, people who use drugs tend to reveal autistic like symptoms!
It's a fucking shame, because I don't feel like the whole idea of neurodivergence is a sham and there are certainly people who legitimately suffer, for many of them a with little accommodation they could be more productive members of society than those without those afflictions. But the victim mentality of many distracts from their plight and perpetuates the discrimination and unwillingness to accommodate.
On the other hand, some of it seems to fit. I've learned a great deal about ADHD because I've been, at various times, diagnosed with it, though I think (at least, at this juncture) it's inaccurate, and at various other times I've been diagnosed as absolutely not having it. As with many things psychological, most of the diagnosis hinges on self-assessment questionnaires and "inventories" of behavior, so the subjective element can't ever really be eliminated. For dancers, some of it fits -- generally, I think, they're stimulus-seekers, they're probably impulsive, they're uninterested in regular or routine or reliable activities, they can report that their day consists of being in surroundings with bright twinkly lights and loud banging music more often than most people, they don't complete long-term educational projects or fulfill other typical young-adult life-goals as much as many other segments of the population, they're oriented to kinaesthetic (rather than auditory or visual) stimuli, they're impulsive, generally they appear to lack adequate executive function.
Some of what I like about strip clubs fulfills my ADHD diagnoses -- the bright lights and the loud music, the short-term and hyper-focused accomplishment of goals (pussy!) rather than the more usual longer-term care-driven and intermittent approach, the extremely shallow and disposable but highly stimulating human interaction, the major sensory impact, the fact that the behavior somehow "feels wrong" but also "feels good" in a way that my own mental executive department cannot override (see recent TUSCL thread on subject of whether or not strip-clubbing might be an addiction). Strip clubbing is a high-stimulus endeavor which gives immediate sensory feedback and does not generally attach an accomplishment-type reward (promotion, recognition, higher grades, peer esteem) to planning or goal-setting. There's not much of a way to upgrade your status or improve your experience by having a three-point plan of action and a set of goals which you divide into sub-goals; rather, the experience is likely to be positive (or negative) on the basis of a one-tier approach without goal or sub-goal setting.
I think for me the part where an ADHD diagnosis does fit, is with my disappointment in having a regular job. Observers who are unfamiliar with neurodivergence (or simply scoff at the idea) would say that I, and people like me, simply fail to buckle down and put our big-boy pants on for the purposes of the workplace. But people with my type of neurodivergence (if indeed I do have it) would counter, that although we do know that neurotypical people are also applying a great deal of effort to their own workplace experiences, the effort required of us to have the same level of compliance and accomplishment is actually much greater, to an insurmountable degree. It's just impossible. I have overcome (some) typical workplace challenges through a variety of work-arounds, many of which would be addressing issues similar to what workplace accommodations would address. But mostly, what I've done is live outside conventional norms. I apply a good support system, with family to fall back on, and my own natural talent for schoolwork to the act of getting more and more education (and yes, my procrastination is a major impediment, but by hook and crook and innate recall I have gotten higher degrees even though I delayed many major projects), something which many dancers may be unable to do. I was born male, but my interest in physical fitness when I was younger probably would have put me in the physical category able to be a stripper if I had been female; my parents, not a broken home, directed my energies elsewhere; the girls I meet at strip clubs have neither of those life circumstances.
For anyone who thinks ADHDers need to simply try harder, here's a metaphor. It's not like telling Steph Curry to practice jumping more and more and some day, if he puts in the proper effort, he too will be able to dunk a basketball without help. Rather, it's like telling Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pinkay, or Peter Dinklage, that they just aren't trying hard enough and that's why they can't dunk a basketball without using a trampoline.
Children need to be told what to do. Innately they WANT to be told what to do. The childrearing system fails when parents want their kids to like them. My Mom always had the greatest speech when she was accused of not being loved or liked: "I don't care if you like me or hate me. I'm not one of your little friends. I will tell you what to do and you will do it. You do it not because you love me, not because you like me and not because you want to. You do it because I am your goddamn Mother, and you will do as I tell you for as long as you want to live here. Don't like it? Get your own place and tell me what to do."
One is a matter of a less than ideal mental state, while another is a true physical impossibility. Threaten those short people with their life, and they still could not jump very high. Threaten a kid who can't concentrate on something with his life (or, no video games for a week), and I suspect he might be able to come around to it. Both are handicaps. One is more limiting physically than the other is mentally.
Only once was I the regular of a dancer who was reserved or introverted with me. She did seem to have autistic tendencies. She was studying to be a surgical assistant, which requires becoming familiar with hundreds of pieces of equipment, and it came very easy to her. Her 5-year-old daughter was in pee wee soccer, and she was very concerned that her daughter thought kicking the ball was the same as scoring a goal. She was obsessive and pushed herself when it came to poll work, even though she had back problems. When she got hired as a surgical assistant, and was dancing her last shifts, I was trying to convince her to go easy on the poll, so she wouldn't throw out her back, and miss her first day at the new job. She didn't seem concerned.
With the other introverted strippers I've come in contact with, they either got comfortable with me, or I didn't interact with them enough to know more about what their deal was.
How do you know if a stripper has ADHD? I guess it would be hard to be a long-game manipulative stripper if you have ADHD. But it seems to be a minority of people who are interested in being that manipulative, ADHD or not.
I'm in touch with a former fav, who says she's on the spectrum and has ADHD. But she does a lot of sophisticated artwork/handcrafts, could you do that with ADHD? She's not super sociable, but I think that's mostly because she's hot tempered and opinionated, and she wears people out fast. She had a horrendous childhood. She seems more comfortable with thinking that some sort of syndrome causes her negative emotions, rather than just plain terrible memories.
People label themselves and their kids way too freely these days. “There’s nothing wrong with your kid. You just want to label him so he has an excuse for his shortcomings.”
I do agree Nicespice and Muddy are probably autistic.
The dance began and she kept repeating a couple of movements which became very annoying. I mentioned that I would like her to turn around and dance. She seemed to ignore or not be concerned that I found her dancing uncomfortable. I asked again and she briefly turned around and said something like, "all my customers like my dancing." And made a cryptic remark. "What you want to look at me?" I had about a 20 second respite and she then went right back doing what I didn't like. At the end of the dance I felt like telling her fuck you, but in my better judgment I bit my tongue.
But in all honesty I think a lot of Gen Z girls just like to "identify as" neurodivergent or queer or whatever just to spice up their boring ass middle class upbringing 😂
Occasionally when a dance just isn't doing it for me, no connection, not the right grind, or whatever, in the middle of the song I'll just tap her indicating she should dismount, and I say "thank you baby" and pull out what I owe her. Nothing personal, not mad, just not a good fit for me, have a good day.
I feel like we're saying Beetlejuice's name three times...'
^
Lol!!! I don't think I posted in that thread, I do recall that I stopped reading it after a couple days because of that creepy fuck taking it over but i just now took a quick look at it.
I just skimmed through a few of the last posts that I never saw before and in hindsight it's actually funny how that creep was so obsessed with posting in it.
Having said that, although it's funny in small doses as a look back at what we dealt with when he and icey were around I'm thankful to the internet gods that they have both vanished.
For anyone that needs a reminder or never dealt with those two fools...
https://tuscl.net/discussion/76813
That does seem like ADHD more than ASD. I can see where stripping is a good job for ADHD women. It's not boring, and you don't normally get fired for not showing up, and can use substances on the job.
By CDC statistics, 1 out of 45 adults are estimated to have autism. Males are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed than females, so roughly speaking that’s about 1 out of 180 women in general. And idk about gender breakdowns, but when it comes to high school graduation stats, about 20% will graduate with a certificate instead of a diploma. Certificate tracks usually indicates a more severe type of disability that may prevent them from following the basic expectations of the club, especially when clubs aren’t exactly ADA friendly. And then of course, it gets even rarer because you have to eliminate the adult women who don’t fit the aesthetic standards any club has. I’m not sure what % that would be.
Even if diagnosis are being underreported, it’s still probably safe that the chances are less than 1%. I was personally screened for autism when I was a child, and came up negative for it. But I do have a family history with it and have met many autistic people before. And the vibes are just off. (I do have an ADHD diagnosis though, so I’m plenty neurodivergent 😁)
I could see certain clubs having appeal for those on the spectrum, but they probably wouldn’t be for clubs that have the glamorous 4 figure rooms. So those strippers would probably be at the laid back smaller clubs. But @rightfield made a good point that full service sex work would be something more likely.
Ilbai’s description with the Clint Eastwood imagery is hilarious. I hope the like button comes back. 😂
As far as SJG…I don’t think that individual is returning. Not even the Testosterone Lifeboat forum has been posted on. I remember the very last PM I received from him had nice phrasing but it was to the effect of “get over it if I keep posting on your thread about neurodivergence”. The disappearance is probably for a sad reason though 🙁
But it sounds like the consensus is that autistic strippers are probably not that prevalent, even if it may be slightly (but only slightly) more likely for those below a certain age. That’s good, because I was seriously wondering “am I missing something” lol
I do find the comments convincing, that Autism may be unlikely because the sales maneuvers on the floor for strippers require a lot of interpersonal subtlety, in reading and in performing for the customer. You have to know small social cues and not get them particularly wrong or you won't ever get started making money. As I understand it, Autistic people are likely to lack exactly those skills.