While growing mutual aid and labor organization efforts among Portland, Oregon, sex workers have had some success in improving working conditions in the area, multiple dancers told Insider they still have a long way to go.
Making a living in the sex industry comes with a lot of painful and dangerous experiences and little support from people outside the industry to manage them.
A stripper named Mercedes told Insider that most of us bond on the fact that every dancer has trauma. You have to have a strong mental and thick skin to be able to do this job, that's why dancers have traumatic experiences.
Mercedes has worked at multiple clubs in the Portland area in the past two and a half years. A single mother of one, she relies on her income from both stripping and selling pictures and videos online to make ends meet.
She witnessed or experienced multiple instances of drugging, stalking, and sexual assaults while working as a stripper.
People get attacked in clubs because security can't do their job. Mercedes said that he was getting assaults because management wouldn't keep creeps out. I have to hide in the dressing room most of the time because I don't want to have a fight with them.
Mercedes said that it depends on each individual owner, as there are no set standards for clubs handling violent customers. Problems for strippers working with unclear expectations can be caused by the inconsistencies between clubs.
Mercedes said that she had not seen a single club in Portland that didn't have prostitution going on there. There wasn't a single one. It's always something.
Mercedes said that dancers who don't engage in full service sex work are less safe. When told no, customers may think they'll be able to purchase sex from strippers.
Don't misunderstand me." I don't want to judge because a woman's body is hers. Mercedes said that what she does with that isn't her business. I do not want to compete with prostitutes. Don't do that at the club.
One of the most common issues they see in clubs is drug use, according to Bunny, a stripper and content creator who has been a sex worker for less than a year. The prevalence of drugs makes the club a more dangerous place to work, despite the fact that they are frequently misgendered at work.
Bunny doesn't like the drug dealing crowd because they try to push it up on you.
Bunny said they have seen dancers who were dangerously intoxicated at work. At one club, they worked with a dancer who was fired for being too intoxicated and causing a scene in a dressing room, while at other clubs drinking and drug use is ignored.
The risk of clients being under the influence of drugs can affect dancers in dangerous ways. Bunny told Insider that a client high on cocaine had saliva come in contact with their nipples.
Bunny said that it was so violating to him that he didn't eat it.
Bunny told Insider that they've heard of manipulation from management to get dancers to perform sexual favors in order to get preferential shifts or more relaxed rules when it comes to drugs and prostitution.
If you want to actually get good shifts, you have to perform for the owners or the managers, and a lot of people take advantage of that," Bunny said. It should be based on merit or some other fair system. They said they were playing ball.
"Well, if you don't, you just can't hang."
Dancers under the age of 21 are often subjected to harassment by their managers.
Sarah, a dancer for about two years, told Insider that management may use the excuse of helping younger strippers to take advantage of them, ask for sexual favors, or put them in uncomfortable situations.
One of our daytime managers asked if he knew what happened in a high-roller's room. Sarah described an instance of sexual harassment at her job. He pulled me into the office and said that he was worried about pleasing his customers so that he could keep them coming back.
In Portland, dancers under the age of 21 are not allowed to roam the floor or perform on the main stage. Younger dancers are a target for clients who are only interested in their experience.
The girls in the cage are all under the age of 21. Sarah said that they want someone who just got out of high school, as young as possible, and there are people who would only hang around the minor stage area. Some of the people that liked me when I was younger have stopped liking me now.
After several interactions with unsupportive management, a former firefighter named "Vinnie" feels the need for organization among strippers and other sex workers.
"One night, I had a couple of drinks before I went to work so I was a little tipsy while dancing, but one guy sneaked a kiss in on my mouth." The one who got in trouble was me. The manager thought he was the one who did it.
At 34 years old, a stripper and private lingerie model, she has a protective impulse at the venues she works at, taking younger dancers under her wing even if they have more sex work experience than she does. She makes sure they don't drink too much or end up in dangerous situations. Those in charge don't like a caretaking demeanor.
The managers have told me to stop trying to be a house mom.
"House moms" are usually experienced strippers or part of the management team who help take care of dancers in the club and, while she isn't trying to fill the role, she doesn't want other dancers to feel like they did.
Management has discouraged attempts to get close to other strippers instead of encouraging dancers to stick together.
She's been inspired by what she's seen in the short time she's been in sex work. She started stripping because she wanted to change the public perception of sex work and promote positive vibes among dancers.
Sex workers are real people and it's important for people to know that. "They have real families, they're daughters, they're mothers, they're sisters, they're aunts, they're maids on the side, they're watching your kids."
There are other people who are trying to improve the quality of their work life. The Haymarket Pole Collective created funds to provide strippers with basic necessities and mental health support in order to help them start their own club with stripper-friendly policies.
Multiple dancers told Insider that the attitudes surrounding sex work need to change to ensure the safety of strippers and other sex workers.
I don't care if I don't have clothes on. You can't touch me. I don't care if you're spending money on me. You're paying me for my entertainment. A lot of customers get that twisted. No dancer is anyone's property.
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