Comments on: Diablo Cody’s Candy Girl (2005)

By: The Week in Links: January 27

The Week in Links: January 27 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:00:44 +0000

[…] Cody spoke with the Guardian about her days as a stripper, which eventually inspired the memoir Candy Girl: ”I had a safety net that I think a lot of the women I was working with didn’t […]

By: E. Ellis

E. Ellis — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:00:45 +0000

I have to say I found the whole book in bad taste, if not totally offensive, and that last chapter really just put it out in the open. It feels like 200 pages of Cody proving that she is a good little white middle class girl despite doing dirty work for a year, aka rubbing her privilege in the face of every “less fortunate” sex worker.

From her audition scene where she expects to have to fuck the manager? (“I’d seen a lot of audition scenes and I knew how this shit went down, and I wasn’t about to mount Lil’ Grizzly in some cloistered storeroom” p13 ) to her attitude on career dancers (“I was desperate for her to know that I wasn’t a dead end dolly, a subsistence stripper. I had a future.” p43 ) to her conclusion (“Most girls get into stripping because they’ve discovered a fast crowd…or have lived with dysfunction for so long that they’re naturally drawn to the fucked-up family dynamic in the strip club” p210) Cody’s book is one long “anthropological” bash at girls who arn’t doing it “just for kicks”

I am planning on writing an article on what I like to call “StripLit” which, like ChickLit, dumbs down discussion of sex work and markets it to white middle class housewives. “Strip City” is another one of these books…and god there just seem to keep being more and more published. Moral: Stripping is only OK if you are a rich white girl doing it for fun and you totally repent once your done with your year or two “slumming it”

By: Cheriphim

Cheriphim — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:33:07 +0000

About the only unlikely stripper I can think of would be a willing, cloistered nun. I was actually expecting something along those lines; but…”i was in college and needed to pay some bills” does seem the most…likely…choice. I guess I’m not puritan enough to be shocked by that.

(Sadly, I have to state “willing” as there was at least one Catholic Pope who actually pimped the nuns out to nobility, and there is some debate about the nuns’ amount of choice in that matter, which most likely makes it human trafficking and thus rather evil and icky and a separate comparison altogether.)

By: Sasha

Sasha — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:56:23 +0000

Oh, and I would also like to add that I have the audiobook version of this book. The woman who narrates it is freaking hilarious. I’ve listened to it several times because she makes it so darn funny. I recommend it, fo’ sho’.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:54:27 +0000

I also don’t get how such an intelligent woman like Diablo Cody could write that part about the sexual abuse. WTF?! I found it not only insulting to sex workers, but to any victim of abuse. I was surprised she could make such an insensitive remark about it.

I thought the book was very funny and entertaining, and I sort of understood where she was coming from. It came across to me that she felt like a geeky outcast in a world full of cool kids. So I appreciated how she told some of the anecdotes. But at the same time, she did come across as condescending to many of her co-workers.

I was also disappointed at the end when she said she only did sex work for a year. In my mind, it seemed like her journey of sex work and burnout should have taken longer than that.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:47:42 +0000

FYI, I came across her blog just the other day. It’s called Pussy Ranch, and I think it’s in some kind of web archive now. *wishes I would have bookmarked it*

By: Elle

Elle — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:37:27 +0000

I perused it once, and found it was missing some…soul?

Maybe it didn’t affect her as deeply as stripping has me, but I can understand what you guys mean when you say that it’s a fun read, but not likable.

By: Flora

Flora — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:58:07 +0000

I too was disappointed in her distant, condescending narrative voice. The only part I enjoyed was the end when she gets the couples dance from a dancer who exudes love and warmth. She realizes she’d been a cold bitch of a stripper all along, and THAT’S why she didn’t enjoy dancing. So then she starts loving her job and making more money than ever. But I felt cheated: I had to read this whole book of whining and dissatisfaction for this?! That one little amazing realization that’s hardly even explored? I’d rather read a story about a stripper who likes her job rather than a woman who trudges through it like she’s trying to prove a point. Meh. I certainly wouldn’t read it again but I’m glad I did once.

And I’m with you, story. Those lines are fuuuuuuuuucked up. She’s a good writer but so what? Lots of people put pretty words together and make semi-elaborate metaphors with obscure references. I am really repelled by her language. It’s so… exclusive.

By: Vanna

Vanna — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:57:42 +0000

I have always hated Diablo Cody. I feel like she is not only a terrible writer (honest to blog anyone?) but also spent very little time in the sex industry. I think she quits around the 1 year point? I just feel like the book isn’t very nuanced and does not delve very deeply at all into the complexities of the industry. I just personally feel like there are much much better books out there about stripping and I wish that those were more widely read as opposed to this book

By: Sex Mahoney

Sex Mahoney — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:44:02 +0000

I picture an unlikely stripper as someone who has significant scaring on a majority of their body. Or missing limbs. Anything that would impair attractiveness or mobility. Although, I’d kind of like to see a breast cancer survivor event featuring strippers with mastectomies raising money for awareness and research. Is that a thing yet? It would be way better than a walk.