Uncover your Breasts, We cover your tuition

September 17, 2003 12:38 PM

Forget scholarships and pell grants, there's a new way to pay for college.For all the nubile college co-eds out there wondering how they are going to pay for their schooling with student aid being under-funded and costs increasing, strip clubs in Windsor, Ontario and in Detroit, Michigan are paying the way. The clubs will pay $1,500 to $2,000 in educational expenses per year to women or men who work three or four seven-hour shifts in their clubs. The money is on top of the $10 an hour that dancers are paid; in addition to cash they get from tips and private dances.

There's a catch though. In addition to jiggling more than their required class work, the dancers must also maintain a healthy, robust and voluptuous B average to receive the financial aid. Obviously this program is sexist in more ways than one, but Robert Katzman, owner of the clubs offering the program feels that "A girl who wants to better herself, who wants to progress, makes for a higher level entertainer."
posted by DragonBoy (39 comments total)

Obviously this program is sexist in more ways than one

Why is it sexist to enjoy ogling naked women? It seems healthy to me. The species wouldn't exist if not for sexual desire.

Anyway, lots of dancers are college students.
posted by Holden at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2003

I can't see where these women are being discriminated against. How is this sexist? Or, do you just find the fact that some women know how to use their sexuality to their advantage sexist?

Oh... oh... wait! If Katzman didn't offer this incentive, then he wouldn't be such a contemptible sexist. Right?
posted by jon_kill at 1:02 PM on September 17, 2003

if it's objectifying both men and women, is it still sexist? It's a good idea--lots of people have worked their way thru college this way (or worse).
posted by amberglow at 1:06 PM on September 17, 2003

Oddly enough Windsor ON strip clubs paid for a lot of my education too. I was a bouncer though.
posted by substrate at 1:06 PM on September 17, 2003

Cool. I can support higher education, now, as well as the arts.

*waves dollar*

Now shake that thang over here and show me what you learned in Anatomy 101, honey. :)
posted by jonmc at 1:08 PM on September 17, 2003

I dated a girl who had been a stripped a few years before, you know, to "pay for school and stuff."

Well, she fell off the stage and broke her knee after a year on the job, and never managed to secure much more than high school.

Ah, memories. Anyway, that has naught to do with aught but grief.
posted by jon_kill at 1:09 PM on September 17, 2003

Actually, a friend of mine worked her way through law school this way, and is now a lawyer with no student loans to pay off. If you've got the balls to do it (well, figuratively, of course), I don't see what the big deal is. At least someone is still doing tuition reimbursement, as my company no longer provides it...
posted by greengrl at 1:10 PM on September 17, 2003

interesting. in my opinion, it's a hell of a lot better than the people who are paying their way thru school with amateur porn. it's also a lot better than the strip clubs who do not offer this extra incentive. girls (and i suppose boys to a lesser extent) have been paying their way thru school and other things with money from strip clubs for years. at least this way they have more incentive to get their grades up. $2k is a nice bonus.

though i don't understand this: Katzman said his company will pay $1,500 to $2,000 in educational expenses per year to women or men who work three or four seven-hour shifts in his clubs. per what? year?
posted by dobbs at 1:13 PM on September 17, 2003

I don't see how this is a bad thing. Yay, club owner. If I owned a strip joint, I would probably offer the same sort of program. Nothing wrong with getting your degree debt free.
posted by dejah420 at 1:20 PM on September 17, 2003

i bet it's per week, dobbs..the cnn story mentions a woman who works each weekend
posted by amberglow at 1:20 PM on September 17, 2003

I don't see how this is a bad thing.

Nobody so far does, but the anti-porn killoy squad should be along anytime now.
posted by jonmc at 1:23 PM on September 17, 2003

There is no way two people who read Metafilter have friends who are strippers.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 1:25 PM on September 17, 2003

I for one welcome our smart sexy overlords.
posted by PrinceValium at 1:40 PM on September 17, 2003

i bet it's per week, dobbs..the cnn story mentions a woman who works each weekend

but it says she flies in friday night and leaves saturday morning. weird.
posted by dobbs at 1:44 PM on September 17, 2003

but it says she flies in friday night and leaves saturday morning.
A friend who lives in Vegas says hookers fly in Friday afternoon and leave Sunday night. He says you would notice it if you sat and people-watched in the airport on a Friday evening -- planeloads of beautiful, unaccompanied women.
posted by Holden at 2:07 PM on September 17, 2003

Many babes choose to turn tricks while in college to pay tutition...this has been going on for some time now. Brown, with one of the strictest Sex codes (protecting woemn from unwanted moves by guys) had some number of students (girls) who were caught in Providence (where school located) a few years back. I met a guy at a coffee shope one morning who told me he had paid for sex with a nice bobabe from the school where I was teaching--though I never told him I taught or where I worked. I ran into a former student (she was still in college) at a hotel/bar who was turning tricks--she blushed. So cute. I laughed...beats meeting requirements for maintaining grades etc...free enterprise.
posted by Postroad at 2:10 PM on September 17, 2003

I flow for chicks wishin, they ain't have to strip to pay tuition
I see you vision mama, I put my money on the longshots
posted by jcruelty at 2:21 PM on September 17, 2003

What's wrong with being sexy?
posted by condour75 at 2:29 PM on September 17, 2003

Obviously this program is sexist in more ways than one

1. It's a bit misogynistic, you know... nubile college co-eds strutting their stuff over to my lap. My $20 bill ready in my hand... oh, wait.

2. Men don't get the same offer.
posted by DragonBoy at 2:29 PM on September 17, 2003

Actually, a friend of mine worked her way through law school this way, and is now a lawyer with no student loans to pay off.

...and let's hope the judge never caught her "act":

Attorney: Permission to approach the bench.

Judge: You betcha... but where do I stick the dollar bill?
posted by kgasmart at 2:37 PM on September 17, 2003

hey beats the old style union the girls and gents had.

but i say a C average and 3000$ if the dancer is willing to match these funds.
posted by clavdivs at 2:44 PM on September 17, 2003

Any dancer worth her g-string can make at least as much in tips in a week as he's offering to give them in a year. I think it's just a ploy to get more college coeds to strip in his club.
posted by Orb at 2:49 PM on September 17, 2003

funny how this is something we can all "get behind" for 18 year olds, but if it were pitched to high school kids we'd be foaming at the mouth. with anger.

and the sad part is, think of how many of those young women will end up majoring in english lit or art or something.

also, $10/hr Canadian? you've gotta be kidding.

but that guy is totally right. the strip club where all the meats get passing grades would be very stylish. if the sleazy dj could talk about their majors and stuff, and what sports they go out for and when to go visit them on the campus open house days, my god, the crowd would eat that up.

in fact, they really should pitch the ads to the foreign exchange students, who often have trouble affording a car.

I think it's just a ploy to get more college coeds to strip in his club.

more like, a ploy to convince his paying clientele that his girls are high class; he was gonna run a full page ad anyway, and figured this was a clever hook.
posted by mitchel at 2:54 PM on September 17, 2003

We have a saying in Atlanta: You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a stripper. I have known many strippers by way of my exwife who went into clubs to do their nails, and my best friend still strips. Many, many young women strip their way through school.

What I did find interesting is that the Windsor clubs pay their girls $10 an hour. It's not like that in Atlanta. Here, girls work strictly for tips and with the economy the way it is, dancers are taking it hard as customer bases dwindle. On many days, some girls can't even make tip-out. Clubs that once boasted dozens of girls at any particular time are hard-pressed to get even 10 on the floor at times.

I blame Bush for Atlanta's lack of bush. ;-P
posted by mischief at 3:23 PM on September 17, 2003

funny how this is something we can all "get behind" for 18 year olds, but if it were pitched to high school kids we'd be foaming at the mouth. with anger.

We probably wouldn't be all that supportive of a Rock-the-Vote-style program for high-schoolers either.

I'm sure this works out fine for the women involved, but it's just disingenuous to gloss over the fact that it might have the effect of portraying college women (or "girls," as the owner calls them) as not to be taken seriously as students. On the other hand, the existence of college-student strippers could have the opposite effect, making it clear how much they're willing to work for a college education. But I don't think you have to be an anti-porn Nazi to consider these questions.

A student at the University of Michigan who worked as a stripper was killed recently by a client she had a relationship with who accused her, not all that credibly, of having killed his daughter a year ago. The media coverage of it was just appalling - the Detroit Free Press printed the killer's lengthy suicide note in which he smeared his victim's character, but there was almost no coverage of remembrances of her by friends and family. I wonder if the fact that she was a stripper influenced their coverage (which is not to say that strip clubs or women who work there are responsible for this kind of journalism.)
posted by transona5 at 3:44 PM on September 17, 2003

2. Men don't get the same offer.
posted by DragonBoy at 2:29 PM PST on September 17

Ahem: "Katzman said his company will pay $1,500 to $2,000 in educational expenses per year to women or men who work three or four seven-hour shifts in his clubs."
posted by pmurray63 at 4:30 PM on September 17, 2003

I don't know if this is a good thing. Most strippers have drug & alcohol abuse problems or mental illnesses. Granted there are a lot who are normal healthy individuals but the majority definitely have problems. If all these nubile young college girls start horning in on their business then I can easily see silicone implanted ex-strippers wandering the streets panhandling for food and offer blowjobs behind the quickmart.

My stripper friends tell me these things. I take them at their word...someday remind me to tell you the story about my stripper wife...
posted by filchyboy at 4:32 PM on September 17, 2003

and the sad part is, think of how many of those young women will end up majoring in english lit or art or something.

And what exactly is so sad about that?
posted by Orb at 6:24 PM on September 17, 2003

pmurray (or ne1 else) , please do tell what would the men get paid for in a stripclub? I just don't buy it
posted by gregb1007 at 7:36 PM on September 17, 2003

bouncers ... bartenders ... door people ... DJs ... management
posted by Orb at 7:40 PM on September 17, 2003

I dunno, this is pretty cheap if those figures are in Canadian $$$...
posted by Zurishaddai at 8:13 PM on September 17, 2003

gregb1007, men can make a lot at a strip club in tips. An aquaintance of mine dropped out of engineering in 3rd year to become a stripper. He did very well. Another guy I used to work out with also did very well. He got a jeep as a "tip", though I think more than gyrating was involved.
posted by substrate at 8:22 PM on September 17, 2003

Err... I should add that Windsor has at least 2 male strip clubs. Very popular for bachelorette parties.
posted by substrate at 8:23 PM on September 17, 2003

Any dancer worth her g-string can make at least as much in tips in a week as he's offering to give them in a year. I think it's just a ploy to get more college coeds to strip in his club.

Are you sure? mitchel may be on to something though.

more like, a ploy to convince his paying clientele that his girls are high class; he was gonna run a full page ad anyway, and figured this was a clever hook.

What's wrong with being sexy?
Nice one.
posted by Witty at 8:41 PM on September 17, 2003

girls, don't do it. Taking your clothes off for money does damage to your soul. You'll never look at men the same way, you'll never look at sex the same way.
posted by pejamo at 9:04 PM on September 17, 2003

Much better to get a job in an office, since those types of jobs are never humiliating and they never corrupt your vision of other people.
posted by fuzz at 6:29 AM on September 18, 2003

Most strippers have drug & alcohol abuse problems or mental illnesses. Granted there are a lot who are normal healthy individuals but the majority definitely have problems.

yeah, but what's the cause/effect relationship? A lot of strippers are people who are kinda fucked up in some way and can't get a regular job, so they turn to the sex industry, and tend to feel stuck and unhappy. But if you're a well-adjusted person with other skills who just wants to make some extra money, it's not problematic. It really does depend on who you are, and what other options you have.
posted by mdn at 6:58 AM on September 18, 2003

...majoring in english lit or art or something.

And what exactly is so sad about that?

dunno, maybe cos soft majors like that are a sort of intellectual porn - mimicry of creative acts - semblance of meaning - personality window dressing rather than useful skills: making yourself more attractive rather than more effective.

[hopefully no need to mention my majer.]
posted by mitchel at 9:44 AM on September 18, 2003

Then I'll be sure to pass along your words of wisdom to such "attractive" notables as Joe Paterno, Clarence Thomas, Mario Cuomo, Michael Eisner, Pete Wilson, Barbara Walters, Carol Browner, Harold Varmus (to name only a few), not to mention all the famous authors (Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Douglas Adams, David Henry Hwang, Author Miller, etc.), actors (Alan Alda, Jodi Foster, Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, etc.), as well as many famous journalists, film-makers, lawyers, and what have you that started their careers with a major in lowly, "soft" English. They could have been much more "effective" had someone only informed them NOT to major in English when they first arrived on campus.

And don't forget that every English teacher you ever had ALSO majored in English of some sort, or at least I would hope so.
posted by Orb at 6:31 PM on September 18, 2003