Beautiful pole: How I worked as a bar lady in a strip club
Text: Elena Ovsyannikova
Recently, much has been said about the objectification of the body - an iceberg, on top of which lies a striptease. Many of us never come into contact with this world, but at the same time have a clear opinion of both those who earn a living and those who pay for it. I myself could not have imagined that my new profession could lead me to a strip club, and not a one-off experimental party with friends: I then decided to radically change jobs and looked for a school of bartenders in Moscow. Immediately after the exam and getting a diploma, I received a business proposal from a new "elite" club in the very center of Moscow and with a talking name. I was guaranteed that the bartenders were absolutely protected and, for example, I wouldn’t have to work topless - so, after consulting with my husband and a couple of friends, I decided that since I decided to change my profession and run from the office and business meetings to a bar, then why not start with the most uncompromising option. Moreover, if you believe the movies, in such places should be fun.
I admit, I very vaguely imagined what a real adult strip club in the center of Moscow is. Now I understand Johanna Sigurdardottir, who together with her colleagues in 2010 achieved an official ban on striptease in Iceland. Looking ahead, I will say that the problem is not in the profession itself or even in its consumers (both are rather victims of stereotypes), but in the organization of the process — the entire kitchen that is hidden behind the pole dancing.
Despite the fact that the institution officially opens its doors for guests at 22:00, the working day of all the female staff of the club - dancers, hostesses, waitresses and bar lady (yes, that's right, not a bartender, not a bartender, but a bar lady ) - starts at 18:00. By six in the evening you need to be at the club so that? To stylist and make-up artist you combed and made up. And if in other bars where I had to train, you decide for yourself whether to dye your eyes today or not and how to style your hair, and whether to style it at all, then there are rules here, and on the first evening these rules stumbled over my mohawk. No, my temples are not shaved and I am not a punk, but I have a short haircut and in everyday life my hair is styled in a kind of mohawk. But the dancers can't do that - only long-haired nymphs should dwell in the club. So I was the only exception with a short haircut. But after almost an hour and a half and two stylists, I was built, as I call it, deputy styling and eye-catching makeup. Fortunately, as promised, no one asked me to change into leopard thongs.
Bar-lady can be "released from work" "at the request of the girl", but there is a doubt that the girl's desire is taken into account
Later I found out that in the so-called "menu of pleasures" there is an option "freeing the bar-lady from work" - in the hour of "liberation" the guest should pay 6,000 rubles. There is, however, a reservation "at the request of the girl," but everything that I saw gives reason to doubt that the desire of the girl is so taken into account. If the guest pays, then dance, sing karaoke with him, sit-talk, dance again, part him into a private dance, and even better into two private dances - anything. The main thing is not to stick around the bar!
Dancers languidly sit at the bar is also not allowed: at the expense of the club they are allowed to drink two mix drinks for the night - rum or whiskey with juice, there is one bar in the hall, 30-40 girls usually dance in the hall, but more than two girls are at the bar should not. Rotators and several strip managers are keenly watching the movements of the girls - special very strict young people who always need to know, know and locate the girls and follow them.
There are a lot of rules governing the work of girls, and either fines or dismissal are imposed for their violation. In their code there are both quite reasonable and bureaucratic altogether totalitarian ones: for example, you cannot go to work without manicure and pedicure, and you can only smoke in the right place (they, however, are stairs). The ban on drug use is adjacent to the ban on putting your feet on the table and dancing in high heels on the couch. You can not stay on stage during the dance longer than three minutes - and during this time you need to have time to undress to the underwear. To eat, pee or smoke you need permission of the rotator. All requirements of the manager are obligatory for execution, a penalty is issued for refusal "A private dance is performed without panties. If a guest refuses to pay for a private dance, since you did not take off your panties, you will pay for it yourself."
Why exactly Russian men go to a strip club, I, frankly, did not understand. Joy voyeurist rests on the breadth of the range: cool naked boobs and asses are presented here in such quantity that at some point become the boring norm, and sexuality - a routine. Directly sex in high-level strip clubs is really forbidden; moreover, the guard will immediately expose the visitor for masturbation. Nevertheless, men walk, watch, order privates and with might and main use services from the “pleasure menu”.
Visitors to the club often behave like in a normal bar: talking here is still more valued than watching.
The visitors, as far as I understood, are completely different - but they all get drunk equally quickly, order a private dance, another one, and then, if they don’t leave, they usually end the night in a karaoke room. Some dancers also sing quite well, which, however, is not their responsibility, but they love this thing - so in the morning a range of hits in the spirit of “And though I’m not too young, still mighty my hammer” comes from the karaoke .
Paradoxically, club visitors often behave like in a regular bar: perhaps these are peculiarities of the national mentality, but talking here is still appreciated more than seeing. Maybe some kind of unexpected modesty or nobility is to blame, but I got the impression that the visitors tacitly agreed with each other that it’s not like a strip club and they’ll just have fun talking to girls. In fairness it should be said that in the most advantageous position of all the working girls there really is a bar lady. During the three nights that I worked, I did not see a single case with which I would have to deal with security. The only precedent in my practice was the perseverance of one of the guests who promptly offered me to marry him. Well, the fact that communication ends with a private dance on your knees right in the hall ... in ordinary bars this also happens, however, here it has a fixed price.
Of course, three days is hardly a serious indicator, but even during this time I managed to deal with a couple of stereotypes. Firstly, the visitors, with rare exceptions, turned out to be quite polite and sensitive uncles, and among the dancers there are no terrible conflicts and machinations in the spirit of Shougelz. But there is something that we all suspect: yes, this is a very conservative and phallocentric system with a rigidly built hierarchy, where the dancer stands somewhere a step above the cleaner. Guests need to "unwind," the girls reprimand, the rules are not discussed, and the idea of creating a trade union of striptease dancers sounded only a couple of months ago from dubious sources. And this initiative, as it is still accepted in the Russian striptease industry, does not come from the dancers themselves.
Photo: 1, 2 via Shutterstock