Texas lawmakers are cracking down on strip clubs. State Rep. Bill Zedler has authored a bill requiring exotic dancers to get a license – and wear the document while performing. Asking strippers to get licensed is nothing new. Several cities in America already have that requirement. But Zedler is getting attention for his suggestion that the dancers “conspicuously display” the license – with their real names on it – while working. Zedler, a conservative Republican, thinks it might deter women from choosing the profession. “They won’t want to get a license as a stripper from the state of Texas,” he said, according to the Star-Telegram. “I think it would keep a lot of girls from getting involved in that lifestyle and basically wrecking their lives.” In order to get the license, strippers would need to be at least 18 years old and take a class about human trafficking awareness and reporting.
You need a license to be a stripper? Seems like this would create barriers to entry and entrench old strippers…
Also, where would they wear the license…?
Edit: Ok. I read the article: “Zedler has an answer for that one as well, saying that the dancer could wear a license around the neck, or on shoes, or attached to a head band.” I think at some point, I am wondering how much time this guy spends thinking about the details of strippers…
I’ve known a few women who have become strippers/escorts/pornstars, by the time they make that choice, they and their lives are already fucked. Making someone wear an ID is not going to stop them from doing what they are doing, its usually a choice made after a string of preceeding bad choices.
So why not require actors to wear a license with their real names when they film movies in TX? Maybe ban the sale of books published under a nom de plume as well unless the author puts a sticker on the front with his/her real name.
We’ve had a president with former acting roles, several actor governors, and actors/actresses on the whole lead excedingly healthy lifestyles? And what about authors? That was your other example.
Former stippers/porn stars have also gone on to be politicians, just not in the US.
The list of famous actors who have died of drug overdoses, spent significant time in rehab, been sent to prison, etc. is far too long to post here, but how about just a few of drug overdoses: River Phoenix, Heath Ledger, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Brittany Murphy, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, the list goes on and on.
Some well know alcoholic authors, several of whom died of their addiction: Poe, Hemmingway, Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Kerouac, and Capote.
Seems like a pretty sissy un-Texan thing to beat about the bush this way and try to stop strippers by forcing them to wear their real names somewhere on their bodies at all times. I thought Texans were straight-up, say-what-you-mean kind of people. If you don’t like strippers, then suggest a bill to ban stripping, and make sure your name is on the bill, not the girl.
This is obviously a gross generalization, but I think any career that requires you to constantly seek the attention and approval of other people (stripping, acting, writing, singing, dancing) is potentially unhealthy. For actors, writers, and singers, we get to see those who handle it and those who don’t. Do we ever hear about the thousands of strippers who lead perfectly happy, productive lives? Of course not. The only time strippers make the news is when they are involved in something seedy. I personally know, or have known, 3 women who were strippers when they were in their 20s and none of them was drug addict or prostitute. 1 of them is basically a loser without much going for her, but the other 2 have happy, “normal” lives and the loser is not a loser because she used to strip, she’s a loser just because she’s a loser same as millions of other losers out there.
Yes, but we are in the US. It says something about hte profession that I can find multiple examples including POTUS here, but to find a stripper “politician” you have to go international.
And without statistical data, you’re just offering anecdotes. How is what you just said any different from any other field? Is drug overdose singular to actors? Is it really more pronounced or just more publicized? So lawyers, bankers, politicians and bus drivers don’t have overdoses?
