History of Strip Clubs by Dominique Cotton

[3]

I think majority of the people in America know what a strip club or stripper are. If you do not know what a strip club, stripper or the purpose behind them are here is a brief lesson. A strip club is basically a club for strippers to strip. You have regular clubs where teenagers and adults go and party with their friends. Then you have strip clubs where adults and teenagers go to watch strippers. There are Male strippers ideally for women and female strippers ideally for men. Now a day there is a mixture of everybody at these strip clubs. Men and women go to these clubs for enjoyment or other activities that are done behind closed doors and if you do not know what “other” activities I’m talking about I think you are to young to be reading this and should go watch some cartoons J. Once you arrive there you will see a stage, pole, bar and women walking around half or fully naked. Their job is to get you to tip them.

The real question is do the people in American know the history of strip clubs? Do they know that modern day strippers were called ballerinas back in the day? Striptease now known as a strip show was known to be romantic and passionate. Y’all are probably asking how in the world is a strip show romantic? Well because they had class back in the day, they made the people in the audience go into a dazed admiring them. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that now these strippers don’t have class but at a modern day strip club there is nothing classy about a naked girl sliding down the pole with her legs wide open or participating in extra activities in a private room in the back of the club. [1]

As we get closer to the 1840s we establish what we know as clubs called concert saloons. These were geared more toward the women who like to undress in front of men.  Plus, it was a better way to distinguish itself from the regular saloons, so like a regular club vs. a strip club. They had the light up silhouettes of women hanging over the doors and on the inside it was nasty which is typical. They had bars and women walking about serving drinks and they sold food. There was a stage where women would put on a show. I guess the major difference is they had a revolving stage and of course the waiters wore knee length skirts, very sexy right?[2]

---

[1] Rachel Shteir. Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)

[2] Rachel Shteir. Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)

 [3] Anton. “Strip club”. antonemdin.com. March 31, 2014.