Diablo Cody, before the big time.
By MEGAN SCOTT
Brook Busey-Hunt seemed to have it all. A college degree. Two loving parents. A job at an advertising agency and a supportive boyfriend.
So how in the world did she end up on the stripping pole?
In her words, boredom. Lol...yeah, isn't that why we all turn to stripping? She was 24. With her Catholic upbringing, she had never been on a motorcycle, gotten pregnant or thrown a drink in someone's face.
She was a drag.
So on a whim, Busey-Hunt decided to sign up for amateur night at a strip joint in Minneapolis. While she didn't win, she was seduced by an adrenaline rush she had never felt before. She continued to strip, eventually giving up her day job at an advertising agency to strip full-time.
"I think that for some people just doing the amateur night was enough to fill their curiosity," says Busey-Hunt, who writes under the name Diablo Cody. She grew up in Chicago and moved to Minneapolis for a man she met on the Internet and later married. "I became addicted. It was liberating for me."
Busey-Hunt, now 27 and a TV critic at an alternative weekly in Minneapolis, recounts her year dancing on the pole in "Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper" (Gotham, $24).
The book chronicles her adventures in the sex industry, with such intimate details as why clubs are kept cold (customers like it when strippers huddle together)I feel it's because sweaty guys are stinky and hard nipples look good. But yeah, WTF? Always SO COLD! I think it is because we were all half naked. and why strippers who wear white make more money (good girls wear white).
"There are a lot of books that go into the melancholy of stripping," says Busey-Hunt. "I wanted to write almost a traveling guide, where people could read it and almost have fun in the adventure."
Still, in the end, she thought stripping devalued women. She answered a few questions to explain how her walk on the wild side turned into its own kind of drag.
Q: Sounds like this was more about rebellion than needing the money.
A: It was definitely rebellion. It was a huge adrenalie rush because I wasn't accustomed to it. I think more people tend to get addicted to the money and freedom as opposed to the sheer rebellion of the act. I feel it was both for me. I never did well with the white-collar, 9-to-5 profession. I was in a career downward spiral when I was at an age I should (have been) advancing. I was able to ... do something fun.
A: It was definitely rebellion. It was a huge adrenalie rush because I wasn't accustomed to it. I think more people tend to get addicted to the money and freedom as opposed to the sheer rebellion of the act. I feel it was both for me. I never did well with the white-collar, 9-to-5 profession. I was in a career downward spiral when I was at an age I should (have been) advancing. I was able to ... do something fun.
Q: I have always wanted to know this. Do women really become strippers to put themselves through medical school?
A: No, I think that's a common misconception. It's a fantasy perpetuated by a lot of strippers. I met very few girls who were actually using the money to further their education. They were using it to survive. Sad, but true.
Q: Were any of them hoping this would help them launch a singing, dancing or acting career?
A: Most of the girls were pretty jaded and not that starry-eyed. I think they knew that kind of dream was impossible. The biggest dream was to meet a rich guy and get out of the business. That happened once in a blue moon. True. I think you live in the moment there, I don't remember thinking about the future a lot. That was probably my biggest problem.
Q: Do strippers sleep with the customers?
A: It's not terribly common, but it does happen at every club. You might want to convince men it may happen to lure them into the VIP room. I only know a handful of girls who were actually prostitutes inside the club. Yep, just make them think that juuuuuussst maybe you will.
Q: You say you failed as a stripper. How do you measure success?
A: I was always a pretty low earner. I was never able to propel myself into the upper echelon. I am not a natural-born stripper. I am a geek. I think there are women who have this amazing innate geisha, where they can talk to men and make them feel like pampered creatures. I think a lot of times my personality was challenging to men.
Q: What happened on the day you decided to stop stripping?
A: There were 10 or 15 girls working, and they were going around asking, "Do you want to dance? Do you want to dance?" It seemed so sad. It was a miserable scene. I thought to myself, "I don't want to be a part of this, where we're almost robotic." I saw the power struggle right there in front of my eyes. It's really my essential problem with the entire sex indutry. Women are not appreciated as much as they should be. Women are really treated like meat. Wow. Yep.
A: No, I think that's a common misconception. It's a fantasy perpetuated by a lot of strippers. I met very few girls who were actually using the money to further their education. They were using it to survive. Sad, but true.
Q: Were any of them hoping this would help them launch a singing, dancing or acting career?
A: Most of the girls were pretty jaded and not that starry-eyed. I think they knew that kind of dream was impossible. The biggest dream was to meet a rich guy and get out of the business. That happened once in a blue moon. True. I think you live in the moment there, I don't remember thinking about the future a lot. That was probably my biggest problem.
Q: Do strippers sleep with the customers?
A: It's not terribly common, but it does happen at every club. You might want to convince men it may happen to lure them into the VIP room. I only know a handful of girls who were actually prostitutes inside the club. Yep, just make them think that juuuuuussst maybe you will.
Q: You say you failed as a stripper. How do you measure success?
A: I was always a pretty low earner. I was never able to propel myself into the upper echelon. I am not a natural-born stripper. I am a geek. I think there are women who have this amazing innate geisha, where they can talk to men and make them feel like pampered creatures. I think a lot of times my personality was challenging to men.
Q: What happened on the day you decided to stop stripping?
A: There were 10 or 15 girls working, and they were going around asking, "Do you want to dance? Do you want to dance?" It seemed so sad. It was a miserable scene. I thought to myself, "I don't want to be a part of this, where we're almost robotic." I saw the power struggle right there in front of my eyes. It's really my essential problem with the entire sex indutry. Women are not appreciated as much as they should be. Women are really treated like meat. Wow. Yep.
BUSEY-HUNT ON ...
HER CUSTOMERS:"Most of them were married or total loners who had a lot of difficulty getting dates. I think they were there because they were disempowered in regular life. Going to a strip club enables them to get some of that power back." Yep.
MOST SHE EVER MADE: $800 in a night, which was low, considering some women brought in $3,000 to $4,000. I don't remember the most I ever made, but it was never over 2k.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: "I think stripping often gets portrayed as a glamourous profession. People look at strippers as being pampered and making thousands of dollars. When you get to see it from an insider's angle, it becomes apparent it's hard work. It was some of the hardest work I have ever done." Amen!
HER CUSTOMERS:"Most of them were married or total loners who had a lot of difficulty getting dates. I think they were there because they were disempowered in regular life. Going to a strip club enables them to get some of that power back." Yep.
MOST SHE EVER MADE: $800 in a night, which was low, considering some women brought in $3,000 to $4,000. I don't remember the most I ever made, but it was never over 2k.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: "I think stripping often gets portrayed as a glamourous profession. People look at strippers as being pampered and making thousands of dollars. When you get to see it from an insider's angle, it becomes apparent it's hard work. It was some of the hardest work I have ever done." Amen!
4 comments:
I read the book several years ago when it came out. Every artist is entitled to their interpretation of an experience. I have a completely different experience from my 10 years of stripping. Thus, I didn't care for the book.
I understand. I feel that most strippers, once they have retired and stepped away, can look back and say they had the same experience. I feel sometimes we get blinded by the cash and fail to see what it does to our spirits until we get some distance from it. But then again everyone is different. There are girls who only dance for a year or less, girls who have experience in nothing but sleazy clubs or only high roller clubs. And there are those girls who seriously make it a career, they tour, have websites, promo materials, do films, etc. There are those who only work once a month and those that pull 6 nights a week. That wasn't me...it was just a job... to get from point A to point B, and like so many girls I worked with and know we got stuck in the journey.
Ok, so how am I not right? What is PM? Should I know what that means?
Would love to have a few of you ladies on our radio show that have the experience of stripping. Contaact us at relationshipparty@yahoo.com
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