Platform heels, dollar bills, Scantrons and study sessions are all a normal part of life for Jasmine, an international trade and finance sophomore who asked to be identified by her first name only.
While most students spend their Saturday nights working on their buzz, Jasmine trades in her nights to work on her pole dancing technique.
Jasmine began working at the Bourbon Street-based Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club two years ago.
During her freshman year, Jasmine struggled to maintain her grades, causing her relationship with her mother to be strained. She decided to move out of her parents’ house and take a break from school.
It was the need to be financially independent that drew Jasmine to exotic dancing.
“I started working there because I needed a good financial job, and because me and my mom never got along and my mom kicked me out,” Jasmine said. “And so I was all by myself. I actually had to drop out of school so I could get everything together.”
She’s now living in her own apartment, enrolled at the University and saving money to renovate her room. However, she was quick to dispel the myth that strippers are always flush with cash.
“[People think] strippers make a lot of money all day, every day,” she said. “They never, ever run out of money. That’s totally not true because if it’s a bad night and you didn’t make any money, you didn’t make any money.”
Unlike other service industry workers, Jasmine said dancers don’t make any kind of consistent salary. All of their income is tip-based.
Tips can be unpredictable, according to Jasmine. The average weekend can pull in about $1,300 but a slow weekend may only yield about half of that.
She explained October through St. Patrick’s Day is the “on-season” for the club, with Mardi Gras being the peak of business. During Mardi Gras, Hustler may hire up to 100 dancers for the season and patrons have spent as much as $35,000 on Carnival debauchery.
However, during a typical weekend shift, Jasmine said there are usually only about 20 dancers. She said her shift begins with an hour’s commute to New Orleans. Hair and makeup are the next steps as dancers don full-face makeup, fake eyelashes and tanner.
Then she checks in with a club manager and DJ to let them know she’s arrived for her shift. She then gets added to the rotation and waits to be called on stage.
While waiting for their turn to perform, many dancers offer lap dances and champagne room rentals. Champagne rooms are private areas where customers can have one-on-one time with the dancers. But Jasmine emphasized there is no sex in the Champagne rooms.
Champagne rooms and classrooms intertwine sometimes when Jasmine has to work late with homework due the next morning. She recalled studying for a 7:30 a.m. economics test during downtime at the club.
But because she has free time during the week, Jasmine tries to finish up any assignments before the weekend arrives.
While she said only working on weekends is one of the biggest perks of her job, it comes with some social drawbacks.
“The worst part for me isn’t the creepy customers, because I have a no B.S. rule,” Jasmine said, explaining dancers are able to deny customers service. “But the worst part for me is that I’m completely isolated from college society. Like on weekends instead of going out to Bogie’s, I’m going to work and my party environment is my job.”
Jasmine said she sometimes regrets her job choice because it hinders her from having a normal social life.
Judgment is commonplace from both genders, according to Jasmine. She said women often project their insecurities on strippers by becoming possessive of their boyfriends or husbands.
“We don’t want your man,” she said. “We want his and your money.”
She said men often think dancers are easy and will look at her differently after finding out how she pays the bills.
“Strippers are not whores,” she said emphatically.
Overall, Jasmine said she believes no one has the right to judge another person until they’ve been through the same experiences.
“You don’t know what it’s really like to be a dancer unless you’ve put the shoes on,” she said.
“Strippers are not whores.”