It's a simple question: is stripping pro-feminist or does it reinforce negative and suppressive gender stereotypes? However, this question is more complicated that one may think. Sarah Katherine Lewis, a writer and adult entertainer (a.k.a. stripper), argues in her article posted on AlterNet, that stripping offers good pay for many working-class women. Lewis's mother is a 1970s feminist, who was strongly opposed to Katherine's occupation as a stripper, so Katherine quit. She went back to working minimum wage jobs, such as waitressing, working long hours and feeling objectified by her menial work. Katherine could barely make rent each month when she wasn't stripping. Finally, she went back to it. She says that stripping in itself does not give her a feeling of empowerment, but the ability to pay her bills and the freedom that comes along with that does make her feel empowered. She believes that her stripping does not affect the way society already views women, so while she doesn't necessarily believe her stripping makes her a better feminist, she feels that it doesn't make her a worse feminist either.
Read Katherine's article in the link provided. What do you think about stripping? Is it pro-feminist or anti-feminist? Does strippping reinforce negative female stereotypes and set back other women in our society? If a woman can pay to provide shelter and food for herself or pay for college tuition by means of stripping, is it okay? Is it then empowering?
http://www.alternet.org/sex/51408
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