lariya I was not an original dancer, but I joined the movement ready to unleash all hell. In 2021, I left the strip club industry completely devastated. It wasn’t just the late nights and demanding customers that drained me. My reason for leaving was the perception that I was losing money as a club stripper. Managers could punish me for missing work by withholding my pay without a valid reason or not assigning me to shifts that I showed up for. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a $200 fine because I had a PTSD attack and deemed myself unfit to work that day – a decision I Despite having endured exploitation from managers, I still love the strip club industry. I don’t believe this industry is inherently exploitative. Surely it’s possible to run a strip club without bullying, exploiting, or punishing the strippers, right? Fired up Stilettos wanted to prove this by hosting our strip club takeover event called Kick up a FUS! Tidy up. The premise of these events is simple: for one night, we turn a local venue into a strip club run by, for, and with pornmatica sex escorts. We’ve successfully hosted three Kick-Up FUS events so far, and strippers can attest that they are more than capable of managing themselves. The event coordinator for FUS, I organize these events. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into planning each of these events, but once the doors open, my job is easy. They are more than capable of managing themselves by following the guidelines we’ve established and agreed upon.
These events were very healing for me because they concretely proved what I’ve always known: that you don’t have to bully, belittle, or yell at strippers to get them to go to Pornmatica sexual escorts. Those who have never worked in a strip club may be confused by this term, but in the clubs I’ve worked in, I have wondered if hating strippers is a real requirement to be hired as a manager. Almost every stripper I know has a story of being mistreated by a manager. Don’t just believe me. You can read it all here to support our petition.
We held a Strippers Picnic on the Capitol lawn to celebrate this handover and invited the strippers who attended to give speeches about their experiences. One stripper powerfully spoke about how the managers laughed at us when we started FUS. But a few months after we started, their nonchalant attitude turned to fear. According to the speech, strip club owners told strippers that if they were found to support FUS in any way, they would be fired and barred from the strip club industry in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nothing confirmed the impact of FUS more than this speech.
The fight is not over yet. Slowly but surely, strippers are coming into their own and starting to say “Enough is enough”. We are tired of being exploited by people who can’t even pay their bills if we don’t have the skills to benefit them. If you are a stripper, remember that no matter what your manager says, you are not expendable. If the people you manage can’t treat you with the courtesy you deserve, it’s a reflection of their whorephobia, not a reflection on strippers being fully capable of handling their shit. Come with me…
