ABSTRACT
Jay Bildstein, a founder of the famous Manhattan sports and strip bar Scores, presented a workshop at the exclusive St Moritz Hotel in New York City entitled, “How to Own, Manage, Run or Even Dance in a Topless Bar.”1 His presentation was sponsored and advertised by the Learning Annex, a traditional adult education center that also featured seminars on real estate licensing, color co-ordinating one’s wardrobe, and telemarketing. Early on in the session, Bildstein told his rapt and overflowing audience that female strippers can earn anywhere from $200 to $2,000 in tips a night. One of the workshop members raised his hand and blurted out that he could not understand why topless bar patrons would spend that much money “just to look at naked women.” “What really goes on in those clubs?” he asked. Bildstein immediately reassured his audience that prostitution was a rare occurrence in middle-class and upscale strip establishments, specifically because most dancers earn far more than hookers and under much safer conditions. He admitted he wasn’t exactly sure why his customers were willing to empty their wallets for what seemed to be relatively little in terms of traditional ideas about sexual satisfaction. “But, whatever the reason,” Bildstein smiled, “it makes for good business.” He and his audience then shook their heads in wonder over the mystery of the striptease industry-and the questions remained hanging in the air: What exactly are patrons buying-or buying into? What is going on between the spectators and the performers?
