“What would you do if the strip club you worked in turned into a brothel?”
This is a question that “License to Pimp” intends to answer. Hima B is a filmmaker and former stripper who is making a documentary about the lives of sex workers in San Francisco, California. Here is a link to the project. From the description:
“License to Pimp is a feature documentary about the choices that three San Francisco strippers make as their workplaces engage in illegal labor practices. Strip clubs refuse to pay strippers even minimum wages & actually charge them for the privilege to work. I worked in half of San Francisco’s strip clubs during the 1990s and witnessed their transformation into brothels as a result of these fees. Now as a filmmaker, I uncover current working conditions & try to find out how strip clubs are able to operate outside the law.
…This documentary shows how each of the featured women approach various labor violations. The irony is that strippers are in fact entitled to the same labor protections as the average American worker—the laws just aren’t enforced. This documentary isn’t about the morality of doing sex work, but follows the paths of women trying to remain within the sex industry on their own terms. Through each worker’s situation, License to Pimp offers tangible ways that sex workers try to better this industry so it’s safer, fair, legal, & less violent.”
Why I’m recommending this project: Even reading the description and watching the fundraiser video was an eye-opening experience for me. I didn’t think strippers or other sex workers had an easy time, but I didn’t realize it was so bad that clubs charge strippers to work there. I like that the film is going to explore the perspectives of three different people within the industry and see how they each take a different approach to their work.
I really want to see this documentary succeed. I think it has the potential to influence many people and change people’s mindsets about sex work. The film has a $30,000 goal and has currently reached $3,921 of its goal. It has 17 days left to reach the goal. If you can donate money, please do – and if you don’t have the means, please consider recommending it to someone you know.
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I didn’t think strippers or other sex workers had an easy time, but I didn’t realize it was so bad that clubs charge strippers to work there.
This may not be true of all strip clubs, but in many places, the club considers dancers to be independent contractors, so the dancers have to pay to use the facilities, and the club takes a cut of all income generated. Money is also leeched from the performers by the other employees; dancers have to pay the DJ (or he’ll play music they don’t like to dance to), the bartender (to not put too much alcohol in their drinks), and the waitress (who will encourage patrons to buy them drinks). Essentially all the money made on stage goes back to the club in one way or another, and it’s only by selling lap/table dances, or getting patrons to buy them drinks, that dancers are able to make any money.
The workers who are able to pull in enough cash to survive have to turn it into a business very different than most people realize. They have to cultivate regular customers–people who will come back to see them specifically, and whom the dancer can call when it’s slow to make sure they’re earning some money that night (and woe betide the new dancer who attracts the attention of another performer’s regular customer). This requires keeping personal details of the customers’ lives on file to refer to in order to make sure they feel special. It also requires a tremendous amount of emotional work, and the falsehood of it is frequently damaging to outside relationships.
Again, this is not necessarily true of all strip clubs, but it is the reality that many performers live with.
I was unaware of so much of this. Thank you for sharing. It’s eye-opening and disturbing, but I’m glad I know.