Ask A Pro: Immunity Boosters

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October 11, 2012

Ask A Pro is a our column focusing on work and health, intended to share straightforward information about what you can do to keep yourself as safe as possible while on the job. Questions will be answered by sexual health expert Sarah Patterson, M.Ed. (See full bio below.) Questions you’d like to have answered can be sent to our info (at) titsandsass address. Full anonymity is guaranteed.

Dear Ask A Pro,

My question is: what are the best ways to avoid getting sick when working? I find that when I am seeing multiple clients in a night it is emotionally and physically exhausting and I seem to be more susceptible to picking up colds or the flu. I’m sure this is a combination of a lowered immune system from the stress and pace of working mixed with swapping fluids and germs with unknown men.

Thanks,
Juliet

Dear Juliet,

Great question! You are correct in thinking that stress and exposure to infection can increase your chances of getting sick, but there are many things that can be done to deal with both stress and boosting your immune system.

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NBA Enters Into Agreement To License Stripper Heels

By

Bubbles

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June 13, 2012

Instead of Pleaser or Ellie, the NBA went with a sports clothing company called HerStar to make these stripperific platform pumps. While civilians have been wearing 6″ platforms for a few years now, these blingy things will show up on the pole soon enough.

These are perfect for dancers, but for female sports fans? Jerseys that fit would be a nice gesture, too, for those times you don’t feel like wearing 6″ pumps to a game. We strippers are always capable of cutting up and altering shirts to wear as hootchie halter tops in the club.

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Pay Your Damn Taxes: Happy Tax Day!

By

Bubbles

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April 17, 2012

just file

Happy Tax Day! I don’t know why we got an extra day after Sunday to file, but it’s not like it made a difference for me, because I thankfully have an accountant handling my mess. If you are a sex worker who is maybe confused about how to handle filing, how to determine if you’re an employee or self-employed, or why you should file at all if you’re paid entirely in cash, please look at our post from last year, “Five Reasons Sex Workers File Their Damn Taxes.”

Melissa Gira Grant spoke to Buzzfeed about sex workers and taxes.

We’ve had a series of posts about how strip club owners have been tripped up by failing to pay their damn taxes.

Here’s a post by Story about her helpful accountant.

And here’s one I wrote about my own tax issues.

You might like to check out the Tax Domme, who is very knowledgeable about the industry.

Strip and Grow Rich also provides helpful tax advice for strippers.

If you’re on the fence about filing or nervous because you haven’t filed in the past, it’s really not as scary as you think. And it’s definitely better to deal with it yourself than to be made to deal with it down the road. Please feel free to post any tax-related questions in the comments and we’ll be happy to give you our (totally not professional and completely informal because we are not tax professionals et cetera) thoughts.

Kat’s Paycation Guide

By

Kat

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July 25, 2012

Strip tripping can be fun and lucrative, or you can come back with less money and an ego so bruised that you’ll change the subject whenever anyone asks about that trip that you wouldn’t shut up about before you left. There was the time that I went to Indianapolis during the Indy 500 because a lonely juggalette stripper on the Internet told me I’d make like ten thousand dollars, minimum. And then there was the time that I just showed up in Hawaii and had to eat Burger King and Subway for a week. I would like to think that I know what I’m doing by now, and since I’m not nice enough to tell you where the money’s good, I’ll at least share tips that have made my life easier. This list is inspired by badass seasoned road stripper Story’s advice, so please look at it first.

Through Being Cool: If Vegas is on your stripper bucket list, or you can’t stop looking at everyone’s Guam Facebook pics, then I won’t stop you from going to the popular stripping destinations. But I think you’re going to have more luck at the club in the middle of nowhere that you’ve never heard of. You know why you’ve never heard of it? Because strippers keep the best places to themselves. Get rustic. Is the customer riding a horse around the parking lot not a big deal? Do the dancers pee in the dressing room trashcan? Go there.

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The Name Game: Privacy in the Cyber Age

Tools of the Trade

By

Tizzy Wall

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June 21, 2012

The pseudonym is perhaps one of the most titillating aspects of sex work. Non-sex workers are intrigued by the names we choose to define our personas; there are a million little devices to help them even create their own hypothetical sex worker name. Names can seem insignificant or interchangeable, but over time they become such an intensely personal, integral part of a worker’s identity. Sex work is already taboo, so picking a name has limitless bounds—we can come up with the most absurd, unconventional, socially unacceptable creation. No wonder civilians are so captivated; we get the opportunity to let our freak flag fly high and call it whatever the fuck we want.

It’s a common misconception that sex workers operate under different names because we’re ashamed of our work. The issue comes up even more as sex workers have carved out a space in the world of social media. Since many types of sex work are illegal, sex work (hell, even sex blogging) carries a huge stigma, and most of us would like to create a space where our clients can’t track down our parents or partners. Creating a fantasy is part of our job description; we may be a client’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl in the workplace, but that doesn’t mean we stop having private lives.

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