i have something nice to say!, or, why i stay at the club i work at

I am a rare breed. A lot of dancers don't care about sociology, or reading about experiences of other dancers or the history of our occupation. However, I love, love, love books and documentaries about stripping. In absorbing all of this information I've realized how lucky I am to work at the club I work at. It may sound strange or like a cop-out or a lie as to why I remain in the business, but let me explain myself. In my research, I've heard about insanely high house fees, uncaring club owners and creepy managers and bouncers. Where I work, we are lucky enough to have understanding (as much as they can) owners, an understanding, hilarious manager and bouncers that are on our side as much as humanly possible. At some clubs the owners rarely come to the club let alone take the time to know every girl that spends more than two weeks at the club. Our owners spend time getting to know us and even go as far as to give us advice on how to make money as well as what to do with it. They encourage us to go to school. They talk to us when we're having a bad day. They don't make us pay our house fee at the beginning of the night and even lower it on nights where it seems like most of our money is going to go to the house and not to the dancers. Our manager listens to us cry, bitch, freak out, etc. He makes jokes and in general works with us to make us feel safe and comfortable at the club. The bouncers at the club feel like big brothers or our big brothers friends and are there for us when we need protection. I know I complain a lot, but I rarely feel that the hierarchy of the club has anything to do with the bad things that at times happen there. When I have a bad night, or someone does something nasty to me, I usually chalk it up to the way society and the media decides to portray us dancing ladies. People's minds can only be as open as they allow them to be and sadly most people choose to believe stereotypes.