3 naked ladies talk about their view from the stages and laps of the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s and today.
For as a long as there’s been music, women have danced for the entertainment and titillation of men. Scheherazade. Minsky’s Burlesque. Cage dancing go-go girls in the psychedelic 60′s. Times Square strippers, pole dancers and lap dancers. Women dance….Men watch.
This entry was originally written and posted on ???? at 9:00 am on the now defunct dirtygirldiaries.com
Jessica Pauline helps answer the question–
What’s a nice Jewish girl like you, doing in a place like this??
Happy Hannukkah!
Lauri Shaw: Female sexuality is practically non-existent in mainstream Jewish culture. We were invisible in the strip clubs when I worked. Yet, I know we were there… also that there are plenty of Jews in porn. So how does growing up Jewish prepare you / or not for a career in the sex industry?
Jessica Pauline: Well, it definitely prepared me to have a healthy dose of guilt both during and after my career in the sex industry. I didn’t grow up with any explicit values surrounding sex or sexuality, but I always knew that nice Jewish girls value their minds way before their bodies. Obviously, that’s a totally respectable value system, but because of it I always felt terrified that if anyone from my hometown (or home synagogue, God forbid) found out that I was stripping they’d think that I was doing something stupid, which is the cardinal sin for suburban middle-class Jews. You can have just about any flaw, but being or acting stupid brings the utmost of shame upon your family.
Jodi Sh. Doff: I don’t agree at all about the sexuality — it’s not like Catholics are all,Go ahead kids, screw around, it’s fun! I grew in Levittown, surrounded by Italian & Irish retired cops and fireman. We were one of the few Jewish families, although culturally only, with no religious practices. I’d hear “The only way to stop a Jewish woman from fucking is marry her,” but I heard it from my own father. I felt like that was permission to screw around, although I’m sure that wasn’t his intention! Still, my house was the opposite of what you experienced. My parents were political activists, very open, free your mind kind of liberal Long Island Jews. My mother wanted me to enjoy my body and my sexuality. She was light years ahead of the curve on that one and while she hated the topless bars, Judaism was never the issue.
LS: I grew up in a fundamentalist Conservative Jewish home. In terms of ritualism and repression we had more in common with Catholics — or Jehovah’s Witnesses — than with the Reform Jews I knew in Great Neck. My father conducted Shabbat dinner every Friday night, made us go to synagogue every Saturday, and Hebrew school on Sundays. We kept kosher. I hated it ALL. At the age of six, I was already an atheist — I’d been told that women were second class citizens.
When I was 13, I had a Bat Mitzvah, after which I announced, “The rabbi says I’m an adult now; you can’t make me go to services anymore.” The only time I ever entered a synagogue after that, I was 15, sneaking in with my (recovering-Catholic) boyfriend. The ladies’ room on the main floor had this amazing lounge with sofas, mirrors on the ceiling. An ideal place for wayward teenagers to have sex. Come to think of it, it looked a lot like a champagne room!
JP: I think this issue is largely about how we see ourselves, and how much of that self-image is rooted in Judaism and/or Jewish culture. For instance, the first month of stripping for me was a complete revelation, because I was suddenly someone I’d never been before. I’ve always been kind of goofy — I love to laugh, I’m really friendly, I’m always the one who kills the joke by repeating it for hours. In short, I’m noseductress. So to see myself as objectively sexy — to the point that someone wouldpay me for it — was so shocking and awesome that I would say it was moderately addictive. But it did break from the values with which I was raised, values that — while not expressly religious — are very much associated with Jewish culture. By drawing lines between my value system and my culture’s value system, I was deviating from expectations, and that made me feel like I was somehow letting down the tribe.
JshD: When I was a kid I was hot for the JDL, so sexy in their paramilitary garb. And I conveniently identified when I’d hear there were no Jewish alcoholics, because we only drank on happy occasions. I was one happy Jew for a long, long, long time, but in-between, when I was working, Judaism never really influenced my actions or decisions that I’m aware of.
LS: It definitely had a big impact on my sexuality. I got pushed so hard in one direction, I exploded in the other. I reveled in being an outlaw slut. At the same time, I never admitted to anyone in the clubs that I was Jewish.
If you’ve been around Jews, you can tell I have Ashkenazi features. But when customers asked, I said I was Irish-American. This is a direct result of the completely schizophrenic way I was raised. My father’s religiosity reigned supreme in our household — I got my ass beat when I broke those rules. But then he’d take us on Navy bases — or anywhere outside of NY — and warn, “Don’t tell anyone you’re Jewish.” He saw anti-Semites hiding behind every bush.
I didn’t know if people would treat me differently if they knew, and in any case I’d left the flock. I had serious issues with my ethnicity-that-was-a-religion-that-was-an-ethnicity.
JshD: I’ve never denied being a Jew. I mean you get those idiots that have that “nice Jewish girl” image, but from what I’ve found, it’s mostly the Jewish men that have that. I worked for two different Jewish bar owners. Myron was harder on me than on the other girls — he had an element of hypocritical disdain towards me, a Jewish girl doing that work. Paul, however, treated me like an uncle — albeit an incestuous uncle — giving me extra privileges so I didn’t have to do what the “goyim” did for money. The Gentiles on the other hand, they’re all hot to get a Jewish girl. Wiseguys and mobsters were turned on by the fact that I was a Jewess, and so it was a big turn on for me. Why not, it’s where my curves came from!
