The links so far, in semi-alphabetical order:

My Blog.
Very photo-heavy, as I'm an avid live-event photographer, with lots of flashbacks to my strip joint past (yes, with pictures) and musings on my performance-art present.

Alysabeth's Feminist Stripper Site
My absolutely favorite part of working in strip joints was hanging out in the dressing room talking with the other dancers. I would have loved to have had Alysabeth in the dressing room with me! While I'm not of the opinion that sex work is inherently feminist, I know from experience that it can be empowering and rewarding, and I agree with Alysabeth that the radical feminist view of sex work degrades the workers. It really offends me when Andrea Dworkin says we're all irreparably damaged; I don't see how fostering that view of us, as ultimately characterized only by how the worst of our clientele perceive us, and incapable of self-determination because of it, is feminist at all.

The charity of strippers embarrasses church (Article By Ernest Hooper)
"Without Walls leaders must decide whether to distribute toys collected at a Brandon strip club." Hey, what would Jesus do?

What I Didn't Learn in Women's Studies Class by Elizabeth Sy
"Beyond my own personal issues with sex work, I recognized that my experiences as a privileged college student choosing to do sex work (as opposed to the many men, women and children who's experience with sex work is a survival strategy) was drastically different from the other women I worked with...."

Mimi in New York.
Fierce as hell--I have to tell you, you may not be quite ready for this! Me, I love it.
"I miss being raped by a focusless gaze, the anonymity of being the centripetal force in a roomful of dicks, of being the other woman, the faceless other woman we females all fear, that bitch who makes our boyfriend / husband / lover drool and cower and snicker and groan, balls heavy and leaden and loaded with lust for the something more, the something more men always want because monogamy is just not in their sex...."

Just a Stripper By Natasha Forrest
She says, 'This is why I get so upset when feminists criticize the progress that sex workers' organizations are making towards increasing the rights, safety and agency of women working in the sex industry. It';s not because I think that sex work is so fabulously radical or that I'm trying to start the next sexual revolution by twirling round a pole; it's because some of the most vulnerable and oppressed women in the world work in the sex industry, and feminists cannot afford to support these women conditionally.' That's pretty much how I feel, too.

Jack Ruby: Dallas' Original J.R by Josh Alan Friedman
A lively article about Jack Ruby's strip joint. 'But Madame believed Ruby "ruined" women as potential prostitutes. All tease, promise, but no fuck is what Ruby taught them. The reputation as a Ruby Girl was a stigma for those who tried to become hookers.'

Lap Victory by David Steinberg
This is one of the few articles I've read that gives a history of the evolution of the lap dance!

Stripping is an Art, Norway Decides BBC
'"Striptease, in the way it is practised in this case, is a form of dance combined with acting," the judges ruled, according to AFP news agency.'
I've never heard a better description.

Article about Unionizing at the Lusty Lady from 1998 in Mother Jones

a href="http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/member.php?u=22658" target="_blank">My Stripperweb Profile

The Fabulous and Unique Exotic World Burlesque Museum is struggling. Please click to find out more and to support the museum:
Exotic World Support

As We Await the Duke Trial, Tips on Proper Usage By William Safire in the New York Times
In the context of discussing the Duke rape trial, a question was raised about the meaning of the term"exotic dancer": 'Usage has changed the meaning of exotic dancer, erasing such subtypes as belly dancing and acrobatics. There never was a category widely called erotic dancer; that phrase emerged only later as an attempted correction of exotic dancer, but the original phrase subsumed the meaning of the correction and outnumbers it in current usage by more than 40 to 1. In 50 years, the meaning of exotic dancer has merged with stripper as performers using both phrases leave little or nothing to the imagination.'

Annie Sprinkle
If you haven't discovered Annie, you're not having fun yet! I'm so glad she got a little bit of stripping into her career so that I can link her here. Annie Sprinkle's life itself is art. Oh, I can't describe her, just go there!

Backstage Burlesque
My favorite photos of new burlesque by one of my favorite people, Laure Leber.

Le Scandal (Gallery)
Contemporary Burlesque and Performance Art in New York City. A tribute to 50's Burlesque, a Female Sword Swallower, a Chicken Lady, and a Rubber Girl are just part of the fun.

Burlesque on the Beach (Gallery)
Coney Island event featuring carnival burlesque. A combination freak show/girlie show. I can't really describe it, but it's the place to go if you want to see a goldfish-geeking mermaid.

The Burlesque Portraits of Raoul Gradvohl
Gradvohl shot promotional pictures of burlesque performers from the 1930s-1970s. The California Museum of Photography has kindly set up an online exhibit so we can all enjoy them. So enjoy them already!

Candye Cane
She plays piano with her breasts, I've seen her do it! But as if her visual appeal wasn't enough, she's also one of the House of Blues' "30 Essential Women of the Blues" and the 2001 San Diego Blues Artist of the Year. Yes, she's that good. Not just good for a stripper, but one of the very very best, and I'm not alone in my opinion. I'd like to kiss her all over, but she's too far away, so I guess I'll just buy some Tupperware from her site.

The Stripper as Resisting Reader: Stripper Iconography and Sex Worker Feminism on The Sopranos (Article By Lisa Johnson)
"A film about sexism is, in other words, often misread as a sexist film. This illiteracy may be behind readings of Tracee's death as misogynist rather than as a critical comment on the misogynist representations of violence against sexual women." Read it, it's different.

The Cheetah
I worked at this mainstream titty bar on and off for fifteen years; it was my homestead. Click here to read a short story I wrote about dancing there. The club has gone through many incarnations; some years it's a dive and some years it's truly spectacular. I'm listing it here because you can see the last set of girls I worked with in the Cheetah's 1996 Calendar Photos. Oh, I loved them! I was Miss October in the 1994 Cheetah Calendar, but those photos are not archived on the site.

Child of Nude Dancer is Expelled from Religious School (Article by Erika Chavez)
"The Capital Christian School in Sacramento has expelled a 5-year-old kindergarten student, claiming her mother's work as a nude dancer clashes with the school's Christian philosophy...." The philosophy of what, making sure that the children of "inappropriate parents" don't get a Christian education? Boo on you, Capital. I hope every time someone types your name into a search engine, this site comes up, Reverend Rick Cole.

Adult clubs file claims accusing Pomona of harassing dancers (Article by MONICA RODRIGUEZ)
"The operators of adult-oriented clubs are perplexed at why police and city officials are giving their employees and entertainers so much attention. That attention includes visits from an investigator to dancers' homes to verify their addresses as part of the process of applying for adult-oriented business employee permits." How is this not discrimination and harrassment???

Bead Queen
This has absolutely nothing to do with stripping, but my friend Marie made anatomically correct bead figures of myself and my boyfriend. You gotta see her work.

The Clermont Lounge
Located on Ponce De Leon Avenue in Atlanta, GA, it's hardly the fountain of youth, but everyone who's ever gone there (including Marilyn Manson) will tell you, "You've got to check out this place!" Notorious poet and performance artist Blondie will be happy to crush a beer can between her tits for you, but be prepared to tip or pay in blood. Most upscale strippers would rather die than go on their stage, but I think it's a great place. One day I will go back to Atlanta specifically to work at the Clermont, even if only for a week.

An exotic dancer is being stripped of her legal support by the state of Nebraska.
"Greenwood is a dancer at the Bottoms Up exotic dance club in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Greenwood said a woman at The Vanderbilt told her that her credit and rental history were fine, but the complex would not offer her a lease. Complainants in housing discrimination cases also have civil recourse, which Greenwood is pursuing. 'She said it was against The Vanderbilt policy to allow anyone to live on their premises who was a dancer at a gentlemen's club,' Greenwood said. 'I thought, "You've got to be kidding me."' " Hey, if her credit and rental history were fine...

Dancer Dolls
An interactive site with message boards for dancers to share info, merchandise, and comics! A fun site!

Just Managing--The Truth About Danni's Hard Drive
"Ashe has made the rare leap from owning one wildly successful product (herself), to growing her enterprise into a $7 million annual operation with more than 40 employees and a range of offerings. She owns 100 percent of her company and runs the show, with help from her husband, who left Landmark Theaters to help her with the company several years ago...."

Debra DeSalvo, Electric Goddess
Deb's not a stripper, she's a great musician. However, she wrote a song called "Take It Off" based on Jill Morley's documentary, "Stripped." Jill, a talented writer and performer, also directed the video, in which I am featured along with Lily and Deb. You can download the song at her site--you'll want to use it in your shows!

Ducky Doolittle
The adorable Dr. Ducky, Crackpot Sexologist, teaches burlesque, among other things!

Ecdysiastic Tendencies: Home of the PoleCats
An Ex-Stripper after my own heart, who teaches pole-dancing in Los Angeles. The site rocks and since the site owner and I share so many influences, we're sisters in the skin!

ExoticDanceLessons.com
One of this site's sponsors, and I'm proud to be affiliated with her. I love what she's doing! Fitness model Fawnia has made videos which teach techniques for pole dancing and lap dancing. I always sucked at pole dancing (eye contact was my primary skill), and even though I may never hit a strip-joint stage again, I can't wait to see the pole dancing video. It wows me to see the entrepreneurial things today's strippers are doing on the web. Hot damn!

Exotic Dancer's Alliance
The real deal. These women are labor activists and have an excellent support network to meet strippers' needs for personal, legal, business, and financial advice. If you're a stripper and you're not sure whether you should be filing taxes as an employee or as an independent contractor, this is the place to find out. They can also hook you up with a stripper-friendly female lawyer. I love their T-shirts, and I especially love the poster that says, "United we stand. Divided we bend over."

Exotic Dancer Forum
A message board that's part of Stripper Web, a fantastic site where strippers can network and chat.

For the Love of Opera Gloves
On this site you can see everyone, from porn stars to royalty, in opera gloves. I've linked to the page which features Gypsy Rose Lee, Lili St. Cyr, and Tempest Storm. I'm not going to tell you how many pair of opera gloves I own.

Gio Talks
I saw Gio perform when Atlanta's Gold Club opened, and I loved watching her. Her costumes are outrageous, her dancing is striptease at its finest, and she does a great balancing stunt with a beer glass on her head! I first saw her in the documentary Stripper, which came out in 1986, and she was featured in Lynn Snowden's book Nine Lives, one of the best books I've ever read about jobs (but shame on you, Lynn, for that article about porn in George). Gio's funny, smart, and has an excellent historical perspective on the strip industry. You can buy her video "How to Strip for Your Man" at her site.

G-String Divas
The HBO special about strippers. Just because it doesn't remind me of any place I ever worked doesn't mean it's not real...

Hollywood Hangover
Fucking awesome site by a woman who was a stripper in Hollywood in the 1960s.

The Goddess Miss Kitty
Babelicious performer with Porn Rock, Burlesque Star, A Truly Dirty Girl, and a Goddess with her own TV show!

Island of Misfit Toys
Former stripper Gina Gold presents her autobiography. Includes hilarious excerpts from her email from misguided fans.

Jasmine Raff--Hemp Honey
Stripper and hemp activist Jasmine Raff has a web site with more information about hemp than you can read in one sitting, and she's anti-war-on-drugs. (If you're pro-war-on-drugs, you're naive.) On top of that, she's so cute I can't stand it.

Jill Morley--True Confessions of a Go-Go Dancer
One of the things I love about strippers is how they manage to be so jaunty and cute while going through hell. Not that they're always going through hell, but sometimes they are, even while grinning and gyrating. How many people can be seductive while suffering? Talented writer, performer, and director Jill Morley has a gift for vividly conveying the situation in her live show, "True Confessions of a Go-Go Dancer," and in her documentary, "Stripped." I've never recommended to anyone that they get into stripping, and I'm sure Jill wouldn't either. But we love what we love.

Jumbo's Clown Room
When I read Adventure Girl's description of this strip joint, I felt very deprived not to be there. As with the Blue Angel, it would be tough for me to decide whether I'd want to work there or just be a customer and run up my Visa bill. With the Blue Angel I do both, but Jumbo's Clown Room is in LA and I'm in NY.

Glam Kitty
Makeup that's stripper tested, mother approved! Get your Glamkitty tails now!

Kate Frank
Gorgeous, leggy Professor Frank, one of my personal muses. She's a true sexual intellectual! She's doing some incredible work in the field of anthropology, using her experiences in strip joints to explore desire, power, and gender.

Kelly Webb
Fabulous, multi-talented, lovable Kelly Webb!

Land Use Law (Effective Regulation of Adult Businesses)
Ahem. This is not a fun site. It is a deadly dull, infuriating site. However, it's a good idea to visit it and read what they say about strip joints. They want to take your jobs, girls. Write letters. Click here to read a paper I wrote about zoning regulations.

Lily Burana
Lily is the author of Strip City. I can't believe how closely her experiences parallel my own, but even they didn't, it would still be an excellent book. Lots of reality checks for everybody, including me. It's also terrifically fun. I was a Lily fan before the book came out, and this just confirms my self-defined good taste.

Live Nude Girls Unite!
The true story of strippers who formed a labor union (Local 790) in San Francisco. You can buy a video documentary of their incredible story at this site, made by the principal organizer. And you should. Click here to read a paper I wrote about how difficult it can be to organize strippers, and you may appreciate their accomplishment even more.

My Pole
A site dedicated to mastering the pole, with information on how to get your own pole! Very entertaining site!

The naked truth
Next-wave strippers activists in Canada, where some of the best strippers originate.

The World Famous Pontani Sisters
My favorite sisters (except for the ones I'm related to)! They're not actually strippers, but if you are a stripper who would like to do a Carmen Miranda number (and why wouldn't you?), this is the place to buy your custom-made fruity hat--check out the "merchandise" link. I want the one with the pears.

Private Dancer Magazine Online
A magazine about exotic dancers. Check here for lists of upcoming competitions and events for exotic dancers, plus great interviews.

Pole Katz
Very clever site about pole dancers, with cute t-shirts for the pole-dancing aficianado!

Professor Paid to Study Strippers (Article in the BBC News)
"The Canadian government is giving Becki Ross a $50,000 grant - about £22,000 - for the three-year study." Good for Becki, and good for the Canadian government! I approve. Maybe I should start applying for some grants. That's tax-free, right?

Porcelain Twinz
You think you've seen it all, do you? Ha!

Xploited
New Stripper Blog!

River City Kitty
The site of Susan Wayward, a peeler with politics on the brain.
Burlesque the Vote in the New York Times

Carol Queen
You've got to read Carol's book Real Live Nude Girl. After I read it, I was able to actually alter my perspective in order to enjoy stripping more. I still didn't feel the way she felt about it, but I didn't feel bad about it any more. Plus she's a supercute genius, and you just can't have enough of those!

Satan's Angel
"I traveled the world; North and South America, Europe, the Orient and most all points in between. I starred in movies, " Bullet", T. V. talk shows "Johnny Carson", magazine interviews,"Time"and lest we forget Bob Hope's USO Tour. I could go on and on about my escapades and adventures, but this would turn into a book...." I'd read that book!

Sexual Healing in a Strip Town (Article)
I used to write for this paper, I used to work with these dancers at these clubs. Of course this article is interesting to me.

Sluts Against Rape
Their Mission
If their name alone doesn't make you want to check them out, I don't see how anything I can say can convince you. And check out the main site, Emi is a pistol! I love Emi!

Jennifer Steele
A porn star with two university degrees, and the adult industry's premier fire dancer, coming soon to a strip joint near you. Wanna see a girl breathe fire? NO? What's wrong with you??? I love it that she reviews her own porn movies on her site, and finds some of them unworthy. This is my kinda woman.

Stripped Daily
A stripper's news blog, about stripping of course! Includes lots of news articles related to the industry.

Stripper Degradation: Fact or Fiction? (Article by Susan Edmunds)
She asks the question, "Is it singularly degrading to women, forcing them to become objectified purely as sexual objects in the eyes of their (largely) male beholders, or is it a display of feminist feminine power that dancers wield such control over their audience?" In my opinion, neither, but it's not a bad question, and she does a better job than most of addressing both sides of an argument that's been going on and on and on. And, as you can see by these links, strippers can speak for themselves.

Stripper FAQ
It's a stripper FAQ, written by a stripper, the lovely and entrepreneurial Kiko Wu. Lots of excellent information about how to succeed in the biz. I'd like to add my own tip, though: Do not strip if it will only work for you as long as certain people don't find out, because they will find out. Yes indeed.

Stripper Success Secrets
Another example of something I wish had been around when I was dancing. I used motivational books for salespeople ("How to Win Friends and Influence People" helped me work with management) while I was dancing and my income increased dramatically. I can only imagine how much help it would be to have such a book created specifically for dancers. The owner of this site is also creating hypnosis CDs for dancers, and since I used hypnosis tapes for salespeople with excellent results while I was dancing, I think this is a great idea.

StripperWeb
"StripperWeb.com is THE online exotic dancer community - a positive, safe, and friendly environment where strippers and exotic dancers can learn from each other. There are club reviews, chat, guides, more." A site worth supporting! I love the idea and I hope the site gets plenty of participation. I don't mind sites where the clientele review clubs they've visited, but I've seen enough of them.

Stripping: Empowerment or Objectification? (Article by Raina Lenney)
This is "An Examination of the Literature on Stripping as an Occupation & Life-style Choice." It suggests that sweeping statements about stripping may not be valid. I'll back that. I was interested to see what various academics found worthy of examination in regard to the industry. I have to say that any account of stripping which doesn't take into account the enormous differences among strip joints and dancers is a sweeping statement--I always find it annoying when someone tries to sum up the entire experience of stripping after spending time at only one or two clubs in one city, so it's well worth taking the time that Raina has to compare various accounts of the scene. Ah, ethnography!

Taiwan Funeral Strippers
Excerpts from a discussion board on Asian studies. Do people in Asia have discussion boards about Western studies? And if so, do they discuss the peculiar rituals Americans engage in at bachelor parties?

Tease-o-Rama!
This is the website for the Tease-o-Rama Convention in New Orleans, which features my favorite kinds of strippers--burlesque revivalists and performance artists. I'm not a burlesque purist--I'm willing to do a cooch dance to "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" if it'll amuse people--but I love a good fan dance as much as the next aficianado.

Strippers Unionizing in Vegas?
"Think Capitol Hill is swarmed with lobbyists? Or that L.A. is gridlocked by would-be starlets? Get this: There are at least 15,000 dancers working full-time in the gentlemen's clubs, cabarets and revues crammed around the fabled Vegas strip. And they are ticked...."

Tonya Dee
Okay, I'm able to talk alot about how much fun I had stripping because I goofed off so much (and I'm leaving a lot of stuff out--that's my prerogative, I got over being poignant about stripping a decade before I quit). Tonya is a former stripper who obviously worked while she was at work. She's written "The Definitive Manual for Topless Dancers," but what gets me is the subtitle: "What is My Money Doing in Your Wallet?" I really enjoyed reading her entire site. I say buy the book; that sounds like the right attitude to me.

Twirling Tassels
I love this article: "From the viewer's perspective the one on the left went clockwise. The horizontal oscillation was matching, while the vertical was in counterpoint. That is, the pasties were a constant horizontal distance apart, but varied radically in the vertical...."
If you'd like to learn to twirl tassels, click here for my class shedule and intructional kits.

Tura Satana
Cult hero Tura was a superstar of 60s burlesque! She played a stripper who killed with her bare hands in Russ Meyers' Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, she was engaged to Elvis Presley, and she could twirl her pastie tassels like nobody else. This is Tura's own web site, not a fan site, and you can email her here.

Vanna Lace
Vanna Lace is a really good dancer. She's beautiful and sweet. She's a Penthouse Pet. She walks on her hands. She's also the only dancer I've ever worked with who has moved on to starring in a Las Vegas revue, just like Gina Gershon in "Showgirls."

Violence Against Strippers Survey
There's some genuine information in the article part of this, but the survey chart is worthless--18 interviewees isn't enough to qualify as worth breaking down into such an ostentatious graphic. If I know anything about the women who posted this article (and I do), this is intended to prove why all strip joints should be closed, rather than look for solutions to the immediate problems. Long-term goals are important, but they focus too narrowly on their desired end result, which is the elimination of the sex industry. I assume that the researcher is working to get a grant (that's "money," to us civilians--grants are to academics as tips are to strippers) to interview more. Also, she doesn't compare stripping to other service jobs, so the information is totally out of context. Click here to read about my experiences with the organization which posted this so-called research--this is what happens to you when you dare to disagree with their solutions (such as making patronage of adult businesses illegal) to your problems. I wish these women would concentrate on what the workers actually need rather than on how evil the men are. Radical feminists seem to understand some people's problems, but maybe not yours, and certainly not enough to be advising legislators, which is what they actually do. And I'm in a position to know that they have a bit of a "recidivism" problem with the people they supposedly "cure." It drives me bananas, because these women also do a lot of amazing valuable work with domestic violence and coerced women, and I want to applaud that and put this other stuff aside, but they won't allow it. If you really want to know why some strippers are willing to put up with crap on the job, read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, which is available at amazon.com.
Strippers outside of a lab respond to this article

Vulgaras
Shock rockers Vulgaras are fronted by performance-art stripper Velocity Chyalld, with Sister Ammo the Stripping Nun on bass. The drummer is gender-bent and the guitar-player...I think the guitar player's just really good!

WebDive
Photographs of strippers defying the laws of physics.

On this site:

Burlesque Revival
Learn more about today's burlesque performers.

Snappy Comebacks
The "He Said, She Said" of strip joints.

Me On Stage.
I'm a classy broad.

Table Dance at the Cheetah, Atlanta, 1993
A short story I wrote about a particular night in a particular club.

On Zoning Regulations in New York City
A paper I wrote and presented at the New School.

Love the One You're With
A paper I presented at the Socialist Scholar's Conference, about why it took so long for the first stripper's union to be created.

Shut Up, I Can't Hear You
That's what some "feminists" said to me. I'm not anti-feminist. I just don't see anything feminist about shutting up certain women--even women like me.

Secret Stars (Under Construction)
Venus DeLight, Vanna Lace, and Melissa Wolf, to name a few, are some of the feature dancers who have delighted me. They may only be in it for the money, but I doubt it--they each have a unique genius. Also, if you don't know what a feature dancer is, you might find this interesting--burlesque is not dead, and it doesn't even smell funny! This page includes links to interviews I've done with some of the feature dancers I've enjoyed.

I was also a feature dancer traveling around the country, and I've published a bunch of articles about stripping, but I'll get to all that stuff later. Maybe.

Send Me Your Links!

You pick the category(ies) in which you'd like to see the site listed.

These are the categories I intend to build:

Contemporary Strippers
Feature Dancers
Exotic Dancers
REALLY Exotic Dancers
Contemporary Burlesque
Vintage Burlesque
Related Books, Articles, Movies
Sex Workers' Rights

I will include a synopsis of the site, so if it's just a bunch of banner and affiliate ads, that's exactly how I'll describe it, if I list it at all. If there's anything I can't stand, it's opening a page that's got a huge collection of frigging banners. I select the sites linked here based on whether or not I have something to say about them, not on the amount of traffic they'll generate to my site.