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rebecca_isreading's review
4.0
Thanks to Harper Perennial for an advance copy for honest review.
This memoir is fascinating, about the author's time working at San Francisco's Lusty Lady and her experiences with organizing the dancers into a union to negotiate for better and more equitable working conditions, and eventually leading the charge to become a worker-owned club. As salacious as this sounds like it could be, the subtitle of "a stripper's education in protest and power" is much more accurate- it shows the author growing and learning throughout her years at the club and becoming an organizer while vividly capturing a time and place.
This memoir is fascinating, about the author's time working at San Francisco's Lusty Lady and her experiences with organizing the dancers into a union to negotiate for better and more equitable working conditions, and eventually leading the charge to become a worker-owned club. As salacious as this sounds like it could be, the subtitle of "a stripper's education in protest and power" is much more accurate- it shows the author growing and learning throughout her years at the club and becoming an organizer while vividly capturing a time and place.
booktrovertgirl's review
4.0
This was a fascinating book to read. I went into the book not expecting much, thinking it would just be a behind-the-scenes of the stripping industry. What I didn't expect was how well the topics of feminism plus the labor rights were explored. I think that the book was a good mixture of the author's emotions and the matter-of-fact activities of a strip club. The tug of war in the author's mind about being a stripper while being a feminist and how that intersected was interesting to read. Though I think I would have enjoyed more emotional exploration, that's just a personal preference and not a slight against the book.
readwithkay's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
celesteo's review
4.0
Sex work is real work. This is a really entertaining and informative read. It follows the author in her work at a peep show in San Francisco while getting her master's degree, and her fellow strippers work to become one of the first sex worker's unions in the US. It's also a fun dive into the queer drama of an early 2000s SF before it got taken over the tech-bro's.
amanda_readingnwritinglife's review
4.0
Well, this was another one of those books that I might have skipped over had it not been part of a challenge I'm doing (reading the NPR book concierge). Instead, I'm really glad I picked it up. It was really more entertaining that I thought it would be.
We follow Jennifer Worley as she makes her way through college and graduate school in San Francisco working in a strip club. First of all, it was nothing like what I expected strip clubs to be like. I mean, my only reference point is TV shows, and this was nothing like that. Anyway, the cool part about it is that the dancers came together and formed their own union when they wanted to negotiate with their bosses, and then later, when the place was going to be shut down, they worked together to run the place by themselves.
Jennifer also did some research into the history of stripper's unions, and had some fascinating data on all of that. I just found this book to be really enjoyable and educational and not at all like I was expecting.
We follow Jennifer Worley as she makes her way through college and graduate school in San Francisco working in a strip club. First of all, it was nothing like what I expected strip clubs to be like. I mean, my only reference point is TV shows, and this was nothing like that. Anyway, the cool part about it is that the dancers came together and formed their own union when they wanted to negotiate with their bosses, and then later, when the place was going to be shut down, they worked together to run the place by themselves.
Jennifer also did some research into the history of stripper's unions, and had some fascinating data on all of that. I just found this book to be really enjoyable and educational and not at all like I was expecting.
librarysays's review
4.0
Not me listening to the audiobook in my car, cheering out loud from the sheer force of girl power happening here.
Not me getting all emotional and literally tearing up at the thought of former strippers coming together, years after the fact, for a final reunion dance before their club is closed for good.
This is freaking fantastic.
Everything I "knew" about strippers clearly came from movies and, um, is wrong. Loved learning about experiences completely new to me, from someone who lived it.
4 stars
Not me getting all emotional and literally tearing up at the thought of former strippers coming together, years after the fact, for a final reunion dance before their club is closed for good.
This is freaking fantastic.
Everything I "knew" about strippers clearly came from movies and, um, is wrong. Loved learning about experiences completely new to me, from someone who lived it.
4 stars
bswanntastic's review against another edition
5.0
Great book for the baby feminist who is learning about sex positive and body positive movements. Good introduction into decolonizing purity culture and women in the sex work in industry.