Damn, I forgot about this. Thanks for the overview though! I find the subject of sex work fascinating.

"In a classic American-spending pattern, I had just shelled out for attractive goods I didn't especially want and definitely didn't need."

Yes, but they are locally produced goods and the money goes directly to the workers. And people are always going to buy attractive things that they don't really need, that isn't an American tradition, it is a tradition of everyone in the world that lives above starvation, so we might as well make the best of it...

Why didn't they have Paideia classes like this when I was at Reed? Stupid underwater basket-weaving.

Why was this article titled In the Shadows?

- I've never heard of any club in Portland firing a dancer based on hair color.
- The maximum stage fee in Portland is $50.
- Strippers' earnings are hardly the only part of Portland's economy that isn't taxed or recorded. Think: drug sales, prostitution, waiters' and bartenders' tips and under the table nanny/housekeeping pay.
- If you did some research into dancers' attempts to unionize, you would learn that it actually hurts income potential.

Sad little men... What a bitch. I wouldn't be surprised if she left stripping because she wasn't making money. It's fairly easy to tell which ladies are bitter, man-hating rejetcs; they scowl at everyone and their stage is empty. The fun girls, the ones who get it, have full stages, piles of cash and happy men all around. Screw this bitch.

Oh, and as to how sad and little the men are? I see far more successful business men and hard working guys letting off steam and enjoying a post-work beer than I see "sad little men." Yeah, they exist, but aren't the norm, despite what the jaded old hag says.