Remember Mimi, the British freelancer I wrote about who was earning a living as a lap dancer in New York? It seems that she has had a minor epiphany.
No TagsI am who I am, I’ve done what I’ve done because I could do it. Not everyone can become a stripper, Not everyone has the tits-and-ass SAT’s, the requisite GPA (34-24-34) and the much needed ability to switch off whilst you’re engaged in the most intimate of acts. But me, I do. I kick ass. I’m clever enough to be a good stripper, But not quite clever enough to be able to separate that from this, my blog, which sad as it may seem, means all the world to me.
I want to write in the way I wrote before, vicious, caustic - like me, not Mimi. I want back what I lost, that time when I was watching, observing, writing furiously, with complete and utter abandon, unnerving precision. I’ve adopted this shell of the stripper now and I flaunt it. I’m sorry for that. I’m grateful you’ve endured this far, ladies and gentlemen, through the tiredness, the disgust, the loneliness, the exhaustion, the sick pleasures of hedonism, the break-ups, the disappointments, the money worries and the bleaching effect this has had upon my only defence against the world - my words. Stick around, accept my apologies, and believe me when I say that I’m getting my voice back. Link . Link here.
I usually find stripping/prostituting a very boring topic to read about. Most people are absolutely intrigued, but I went to art school. And so I have more friends than I can count on my two hands that went into this profession and it’s become about as interesting to me as someone complaining about their day at the bank.
But what’s interesting to me here is Mimi’s work in relationship to her writing goals, something I’m also very familiar with - the artist vs. the sex worker and her experiences in the thick of it as a young person. Despite the freedom the sex industry gives an artist financially, none of my sexworker friends managed to make a real go of it in the art world. Ones identity does indeed change in this field. I have a very good friend who is a career prostitute but was an incredibly brilliant artist in college. She’s stopped doing art, and I find that so sad for someone so talented. But who am I to judge - from her stories she’s quite a brilliant prostitute as well.