Today the Houston Press published a blog post by Richard Connelly about stripper blogger/tweeter @AngryStripper (Sarahtress), with what they seem to think is the bombshell revelation that a stripper is also a journalist working for the local daily. But really. How closeted is a stripper who posts face photos and whose Twitter profile lists something close to her real full name?
Sarah is kind of snobby in her stripper posts and tweets, but her bluntness is part of her charm (except for the occasional racism). Reading that she writes society coverage for the Houston Chronicle is unsurprising to readers familiar with her sweetly bitchy tone. Plus, what better background could there possibly be for covering Houston socialites? Anna Nicole Smith was far from the only woman to go from stripping at Rick’s to marrying a millionaire, y’all. There are undoubtedly a good number of former dancers and escorts among the women throwing charity balls and volunteering at (probably) MD Anderson.
Nothing could be more Houston than stripping at Treasures and writing about ladies who lunch. The condescending tone of the Press writer—”It sounds like a bad rom-com book and movie, which no doubt its author hopes it will be — society reporter for a big-city newspaper by day, stripper by night”—is what’s actually corny here. Is a reporter for a Village Voice Media property really looking down his nose at a stripper? VVM is, of course, the owner of Backpage, a well-known venue for escort advertising. As a corporate entity, VVM has stood up for the rights of sex workers to market themselves. Another of their properties, the Miami New Times, has such regular stripper coverage that it may as well be its own beat. Being stripper-negative or stripper-mocking is actually a departure for these weeklies.
If the Press had really gone out of its way to uncover the Angry Stripper’s identity, it would be cause for concern, but something about Sarah’s conduct online says she wasn’t concealing her job to begin with. Which makes the story what, exactly? Unless the Houston Chronicle has a morals clause, there’s nothing here except a male reporter who seems to be really invested in making public a stripper’s real name and day job. If he was a customer, he’d be 86d. Here’s his response in the (heavily pro-Sarah) comments:
I don’t get the “slut shaming” charge. If you want to be a stripper, fine.
If you want to write for a very conservative, uptight paper — covering the very powerful, very conservative and straitlaced people the paper so desperately works to keep happy and unruffled — fine.
If you want to combine the two, it’s interesting, to say the least.
Oh, really? It’s “interesting”? Is that because strippers shouldn’t write for a general audience, or because writers shouldn’t have other jobs? What is so “interesting” from where you sit, Richard?
It never ceases to amaze me how unabashedly creepy some men are. “I e-stalked a stripper and wrote a story about it!”
Oh it’s not really “interesting” is it? I think the word he’s looking for is unsettling, or maybe confusing. Perhaps threatening. It would be much better/more normal/not interesting at all if we sex workers would know our place and stay where we belong, right? Because having a straight job in addition to our sex work might just make it harder to marginalize us or invalidate us as human beings deserving of equal human rights. “Interesting” indeed.
@Tonya – Not at all! You can’t be both smart AND attractive. YOU GOTTA PICK JUST ONE!!!!
I hate that dichotomy, that women are supposed to be either good for looking at, or work horses that are part of “normal” functioning society.
Ridiculous. Everyone knows strippers cannot write.
MD Anderson is so not stripper volunteer friendly.
[…] Angry Stripper got (sort of) outed today. Outed isn’t actually the right word since she has part of her real name on her twitter, but I doubt she expected anyone to go to the lengths this guy went to to publicise a fact that really didn’t need publicizing. This article is my favourite: […]
Oh, the outrage! Please. A job is a job, and besides, the paper caters to conservatives, and most likely many of her clientele are ‘conservatives’ as well.
yeah, this guy sucks. but sarah also made her blog private so maybe she was outted? either way i hope she comes back to public view.
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