Today's strippers justify dancing topless as a validation of their bodies and their sexuality, a way to turn the tables on a sexist society and get paid handsomely for it. Such theoretical musings about the motivation of the modern stripper fade quickly in the smoke and dim light of Vision's, the Madison area's only strip club. The dancers stroll around the club in sequined bikinis or lacy dresses so short that the top of their lace stockings peek out under them. It is shockingly politically incorrect to the uninitiated, and yet so routine, it quickly becomes mundane. Downstairs, the dressing room is a teenage male's fantasy movie.
Women lounge in various states of undress, talking, laughing and smoking the occasional cigarette.
The dancers at Visions are healthy, small-town girls. The stereotype of drug-addled, emotionally crippled women making money for their next fix doesn't apply here. I feel this is a million times less exploitative than, say, working at Starbucks, which I used to do. When I was working there, and someone was mean to me, there was nothing I could do. Here, I say one word, I can have them thrown out.