Lawyer Turned Stripper in Recession

Written by CMNY Admin Tuesday, 13 September 2011 11:35

 

When the recession turn real. Carla, a law school  graduate just realized that all her years in school does not pay off during a recession. The Former lawyer had no choice but to change her job description to stripper in the wack of this recession. After student loans, debt, a layoff and unemployment battered her bank account, she now found herself having no choice.

"Did I ever think I’d be taking my top off for rent money? No. I was in my mid-30s and had never danced before," said Carla, "As a little girl, I never thought to myself, 'I just want to grow up and be a stripper,’ or, ‘All I ever wanted to do in life is climb in the lap of sweaty stranger and take my top off.'

"But, with our economy the way it is, especially in smaller cities ... you strip or you starve," she said.

 

"At first, I worked as a waitress, and a cashier in gas station," she said.

Carla currently holds a Masters Degree but feel that this is the only job that she can get but has hopes she'll be finished with dancing in about six months.

"While I am proud of making a living by any legal means available to me, I realize that some will think of me as just a glorified legal prostitute and I would very much like to move on with my life and career at the earliest available opportunity," she said.

Despite these precautions, Carla said she has had her share of ugly moments.  Not all men follow the rules; some have tried to overpower her and “grab her, bite her, kiss her, or get their hands under the bottoms (I) wear.” Bouncers come to her aid, but they can't be everywhere all the time.

"I've had men overcome me," she said. "Luckily help has arrived and nothing has happened. But I have been scared."

Carla agreed to talk about her experience in part because she said it has been profound –  in one sense, the job is less hostile than any law office she’s worked in, she said. Coming from the cutthroat legal profession, she has been stunned by the camaraderie among the women she works with.

"I thought the other women I worked with would be competitive and not supportive. We are 'fighting' over the same dollars," she said.  "But my female coworkers are the best coworkers I've ever had."

Many are in the same situation she is, she said: forced by their economic situation to perform work they would have never considered in the past.

Unfortunatly our future may be bleaker then first noted when lawyers with degrees have to turn into strippers. God help our future.