So what’s it all about then? How much can stripping be politicized? And what is up with the women who choose to make more than 70 cents on a man’s dollar?

For pure enlightenment, it pays to know a stripper. It’s eye opening and challenging, like all learning experiences should be. And that’s what Mary Taylor, former stripper and current professor of strip, is doing with her company, Live Girl Productions. In just two years, Mary has enjoyed huge
word-of-mouth success and a large clientele – except, unlike her 21 years of stripping, her clientele is now composed of women, not men.

From feature girl to professor of strip

Mary is warm, articulate, and fascinating, which is why she has become such a media darling. Local TV stations and papers have run stories on the woman who heads classes and workshops (“Peel and Play”) which teach “regular” women to strip, or dance exotically, or whatever you want to call it.

The first thing I ask Mary is whether the terms “stripper” and “exotic dancer” make a difference to her. “To me, it doesn’t,” she answers. “I think that the word ‘stripper’ is a compliment. I don’t know what it says in the dictionary, but to me it means to remove your clothing in a sexy fashion. But exotic dancer is, I guess, what the girls are now - they’re not really strippers. When I think of stripper, I think of a show, a performance. They don’t do a performance. A lot of it is like foreplay in public.”

Which is largely, she explains, what led to her eventual departure from her former life’s work. After all her glory years of traveling the continent as a feature girl (the headliner stripper who gets the stage for much longer than the average girl, with more attention to costumes, music, and of course, more money), in the last few bitter years, she became disenchanted with the virtual absence of worker rights within the industry.

“[Stripping is] treated like it’s not legal, when it’s totally legal.” Plus, lap dancing changed it all. “Everbody has their line they’ve gotta draw,” she says. “I didn’t like it in the end and I would only go to work out of desperation when I needed to pay bills. And I don’t care if you’re a secretary or librarian or stripper, but if you don’t love what you do, you
should get out.”

And Mary did get out, but not completely. She just took her sensual, expert movement out of dark clubs and brought it into the bridal showers and living rooms of your friends and neighbours.

One satisfied customer

Melissa Boyce, an executive assistant at a Toronto-area radio station, says that her experience with Mary’s Peel and Play workshop changed her entire perspective on strippers.

“I used to be so against it. I hated the idea of it,” admitted Melissa, “But I’m the one who organized [my friend’s] bridal shower, and I got Mary to come in, and it was great. It changed my whole outlook. Plus, it really gives you confidence. I strut all day at work now.”

Melissa’s enthusiasm is catchy and intriguing. And what’s interesting is that for as long as she raves on about Mary’s workshop, she barely ever mentions her husband. He may be her audience, but all she can talk about is how much she loves what she’s learned and how the experience has
changed her own lifelong views.

When I tell Mary what the newly sex-ified Melissa has to say, she laughs but she doesn’t laugh it off. I suggest that her work with the Exotic Dancers’ Alliance and her work as a teacher must share a common element. “The similarity is that I empower women,” asserts Mary.

“Regardless of whether they want to dance for their husband at home or for a client at work, it takes the same characteristics in both women to be able to do something like that and do it successfully. Whether you’re doing it for money or whether you’re doing it for fun, you feel confident, you know you’re sexy and beautiful and you’re going to accomplish your mission whatever that may be.”


Taking charge

I prod Mary about her work with the Exotic Dancers’ Alliance. I ask her whether a stripper really is in charge of the situation when she’s up on stage. Her answer is unequivocal, “Dancers are definitely in charge. There’s always the exception, but for the most part I think that a dancer is in total control of what she will tolerate from the customer.”

While clients aren’t a problem, shady club owners are a different story. Here, clearly, there are power issues. “Because of the stigma attached to the exotic entertainment industry, [strippers] are very afraid of getting
fired from a club. They’re afraid of being blacklisted,” Mary explains.

“They have a customer base built up, and they could take their entire customer base with them and leave but they’re just so afraid of talking back to an owner. Until now, they’ve had no one stand up for them and say that it’s a legitimate industry. My job with the Exotic Dancers Alliance is to help them take control.”

She tells me about a club owner she once worked for in Scarborough, who walked in to the club, turned to the DJ to say, “Get that fat pig off the stage” in reference a dancer, before spinning on his heel and walking back out.

“I was standing there, and I just said ‘You’ve gotta be kidding’. This was a girl who had been there a long time. It was just horrible. And this girl had more clients than the average girl. She was bubbly, fun, cute and had a lot of customers. This same owner would not allow black girls to work in his club, or never more than one.”

This club owner, though, helped spur Mary’s change of career. “I got nine dancers to walk out of the club once. That was my first taste of activism. When the manager saw a whole herd of girls standing outside his office door, he started screaming and said ‘Ok, big mouth, what’s going on?’” Mary laughs. “And we got what we wanted. That is, for a few months, until I left.”

Help for all

The stigma attached to stripping is the handle of how little real life power a stripper has. The shame involved in public disclosure can stop women from being honest with their doctors, for example, which is why the Exotic Dancers’ Alliance is working with the Peel Regional Health Department to immunize dancers for Hepatitis B (for which they may be at higher risk) free of charge (usually there’s a $100 fee).

Most importantly, the EDA does outreach: resumé workshops for women who want to quit and financial planning workshops for women who want to stay in. Mary actually goes into the clubs, talks with the girls and imparts
a bit of learned wisdom. “My work with the Alliance, I love it. I jump out of bed in the morning. I don’t dread getting up and I don’t feel like I have to do this, I feel like I want to do this.”

Still, she says she wouldn’t recommend stripping for money to anyone. The important part is, though, that she would readily help anyone who did choose to strip, simply because she’s been through it all already. And stripping for fun is another thing. Hell, she has a school for it. How cool
is it to say that you’ve taken lessons in stripping? I ask her what she can confidently say a person coming out of her workshop has learned.

“You’ll know how to stir the pot,” she laughs. Stir the pot. Hmm, Melissa spoke about stirring the pot. “And you’ll know how to do the front slide and to put your boobs on Bob (Bob is a six foot dummy I use),” Mary adds.

If you have a posse of 8 to 10 friends, you can have Mary at your house for a two and a half hour workshop at $50 a person. Otherwise, you can go to her regularly scheduled classes at Colony Hotel (Dundas and Chestnut) and Good For Her bookshop on College St. She also has a
distribution deal in the works for her video and CD on “The Art Of Seduction.” Check her out at the Everything To Do With Sex Show, October 26-29 at the Automotive Building or hit www.peelandplay.com. So if you have to get naked, and everyone does, at least learn to do it with a bit of style.

Order Books, Videos and CDs Right Here