Rant on.

 

I had a good time Friday night.  I went to a strip club.  Now, I know somebody is going to read that and say, “Shame on you!”  To which I would reply, “Shame on you for shaming me!”  What is so bad about a single, heterosexual man going to a place where women make him feel good?  Some may also think about the women there and think disrespectful things about the women.  Again, I ask why.  What is wrong with a woman putting herself on display and making money from it?  Going a step further, people see these women as whores, even if they don’t do more than put on a sensuous dance.  I’ll take it to the next level, too, asking what’s wrong with being a prostitute.

 

In simple terms, we all sell our bodies.  The salesman who calls big companies and sell them vast quantities of whatever it is they sell is at the very least selling their voice.  If they go to the potential client company and sell their product in person, they are selling their whole body with a song and dance not unlike the girls at the strip club, but without the music or the undressing.  A CEO running a company sells use of his brain, his ability to think up solutions to problems or to think of new strategies for doing business or whatever else it is they do.

 

I see nothing shameful in sex work.  The women (and men!) who work in this field are still hard workers.  A couple of the women at the club on Friday got very up close and personal with me.  They wanted to do a lap dance for me, and I wish I had the money for it.  At forty-eight with too many inches at my waist, not enough hair on top of my head and long, stringy hair otherwise (I am a contradiction; I am a long-haired bald man), I am not as attractive as I might have once been and I was never exactly the model type anyway.  But these lovely ladies put on a show, acting like I had movie star looks and they wanted nothing more than to make love with me.  That can be tough to do, especially night after night after night.

 

Most women–and more than a few men–don’t care to be ogled, but these ladies encourage it and make a decent amount of money, as I understand it.  With what I was told Friday about how much they charge, they could easily top my salary.  This is where we find a contradiction in our society:  It’s okay to be sexy or have sex with somebody for free, but if you do it for money it becomes naughty and in most places illegal.  Where’s the sense in that?  What other profession is there where it’s legal to perform the actions of that profession for free, but breaking the law to charge for it?

 

This is where the shame is.  Our police departments have better things to do than chase down folks just trying to earn a living in a way which doesn’t harm anyone.  Some will tell you the women are harmed because it hurts their self-image, but if that’s the case it’s because other people tell them what they do is bad.  Some may tell you it’s bad for both, as STDs get transmitted too easily.  This is actually a reason to make it legal, so it can be regulated and the participants can be certified disease-free and thus made safer.

 

In the end, we are all whores.  Let’s stop harassing those who happen to fit the literal definition of the term.

 

Rant off.