Image of Laura Jackson by Romy Suskin.
Over at The Rumpus, there’s a great interview series that just started about sex work and the recession: Recession Strippers 1: The Laura Jackson Experience. In it, Jackson talks about why she can’t quit dancing and the effects of the recession on her job. It’s a very unexpected take on why a woman would not want to quit stripping — she even had one client pay her $12K to get her to quit, but she still wouldn’t. And it’s interesting to hear first person what the recession is doing to sex work (rather than media pundits opining). It doesn’t hurt that Jackson is stunningly beautiful — there are more photos of her here on Romy Suskin’s blog. Here’s a snip from the interview:
Rumpus: Tell me about the customer who paid you to stop dancing.
Jackson: He gave me a thousand at a time, not all at once. Sometimes I had to remind him, which irritated me. We met for lunch once per week. But he started to control me. He called me and asked what I was doing and who I was with all the time. I had to stop meeting with him. I don’t even think 50K would be enough to stop dancing, but at the time it sounded good enough and it was something to get by on for a while.
Rumpus: Why did you want to stop dancing?
Jackson: I stopped dancing because it became boring. When I was younger, between the ages of 21-25, I enjoyed the attention and the money. I thought I could be a career stripper forever. When I realized that I needed something more, it became a chore, like any desk job. And even though there was still money to be made, I couldn’t go through the motions anymore. The plan was to become an esthetician so I got my license, moved to San Diego and got a few gigs before I realized that I wasn’t really interested in waxing assholes and popping pimples the rest of my life. So, I found a job as an assistant to the executive producer for an Internet porn company [Naughty America]. Three weeks into my job, I was put in charge of producing an alt website for them which eventually led to a position as the Assistant Producer for the company.
Rumps: But then you went back to dancing?
Jackson: I took off to Greece then returned alone and jobless. I felt disconnected from people. Dancing was the only answer. Why would I do anything else? I enjoy being a stripper. I bitch about it, but at the end of the day, I’d rather strip. I’ve had a taste of corporate America and it’s gross. Dancing has much more integrity. In corporate America people are getting fucked in the ass with no lube because they have no principles.
Rumpus: How is the current recession affecting the sex industry? (…read more, therumpus.net)
This is a refreshing article. Even though I’m in the industry (I dance in New York) I have yet to meet another woman who began stripping for the very first time only after she was laid off her white-collar job or found herself suddenly shut out of the current employment market. In Manhattan, the industry is dominated by Russian and Brazilian women who are, for the most part, illegal immigrants who came to the US fully expecting to work in the sex industry…