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A review by asinglebird
The Ethical Stripper: Sex, Work and Labour Rights in the Night-time Economy by Stacey Clare
4.0
A passionate, thoroughly researched deep dive into the economics and labour rights of strippers, with a focus on stripping in the UK. I'd say this book is required reading for pole dancers and sex worker (SWer) allies who want to understand the history, rights and laws around all forms of sex work, and in particular stripping and strip clubs.
Positives:
- I can't emphasise enough how incredibly researched this was! I was blown away by the sheer amount of facts in this book around sex work, I can't imagine how hard it was to find a lot of this especially considering the stigma and marginalisation SWers face.
- I really enjoyed Clare's writing style, particularly in the personal anecdotes. Although the passion in her writing voice could sometimes overshadow the facts in more informational sections, overall I really liked her dry wit and sarcasm/humour and would definitely read more non-fiction from her.
- I feel infinitely more well read into the laws around full service sex work (FSSW), stripping and sex work overall (in particular the UK). As a recreational poler this is important to me to be able to support SWers from which pole originated from, and ensure I am not misappropriating their culture wrongly.
- I loved how intersectional this book was, referencing accounts from strippers across a range of identities. The author was very respectful and identified her own relative privilege within the space, which was really nice to read.
- Loved the amount of charities, locations and places that were mentioned for the reader to DTOR further! And further donate/support charities and causes etc.
Negatives:
- not really a negative because of the INCREDIBLE amount of information about sex work this book contains, but this book is t h i c c
- the book could sometimes feel repetitive in the content and arguments, even though they were well evidenced and researched
- sometimes the flow/core point of each section was lost and the arguments fell into the trap of being scattershot. Whilst interesting, I think the book would have been an easier read for me with a more linear flow within each section. Overall however, I think the book had good flow, and I loved the personal anecdotes sprinkled in throughout the factual sections.
- despite fully agreeing and empathising with the passion and anger the author has towards some topics, sometimes this made statements hard to engage with/treat objectively.
Tldr; this book is c h o n k y and definitely a longer read. However if you are a pole dancer and/or want to learn more about how strip clubs operate and the challenges strippers face, read this book!
Positives:
- I can't emphasise enough how incredibly researched this was! I was blown away by the sheer amount of facts in this book around sex work, I can't imagine how hard it was to find a lot of this especially considering the stigma and marginalisation SWers face.
- I really enjoyed Clare's writing style, particularly in the personal anecdotes. Although the passion in her writing voice could sometimes overshadow the facts in more informational sections, overall I really liked her dry wit and sarcasm/humour and would definitely read more non-fiction from her.
- I feel infinitely more well read into the laws around full service sex work (FSSW), stripping and sex work overall (in particular the UK). As a recreational poler this is important to me to be able to support SWers from which pole originated from, and ensure I am not misappropriating their culture wrongly.
- I loved how intersectional this book was, referencing accounts from strippers across a range of identities. The author was very respectful and identified her own relative privilege within the space, which was really nice to read.
- Loved the amount of charities, locations and places that were mentioned for the reader to DTOR further! And further donate/support charities and causes etc.
Negatives:
- not really a negative because of the INCREDIBLE amount of information about sex work this book contains, but this book is t h i c c
- the book could sometimes feel repetitive in the content and arguments, even though they were well evidenced and researched
- sometimes the flow/core point of each section was lost and the arguments fell into the trap of being scattershot. Whilst interesting, I think the book would have been an easier read for me with a more linear flow within each section. Overall however, I think the book had good flow, and I loved the personal anecdotes sprinkled in throughout the factual sections.
- despite fully agreeing and empathising with the passion and anger the author has towards some topics, sometimes this made statements hard to engage with/treat objectively.
Tldr; this book is c h o n k y and definitely a longer read. However if you are a pole dancer and/or want to learn more about how strip clubs operate and the challenges strippers face, read this book!