No Tocas La Papaya (You Can't Touch the Pussy)

​Last night I worked at a small nude club called Scarletts in Ybor City. This is a metropolitan area located in Tampa, Florida.  The club was slapped with a six million dollar lawsuit and it is causing business to slow down. As a dancer, Florida is one of the worst states to dance at because it's a tourist state and the money is seasonal versus being steady. Men have their pick of topless bars with alcohol, or fully nude, full friction, VIP lap dances. The fully nude clubs do not serve alcohol in Hillsborough County. The industry is over saturated; while the price increases on food, shelter, and gas, the price of pussy decreases and girls whether inside the club or outside the club are willing to do more tricks for less money. 

Dancing is life!

What I noticed last night was the management hiring new dancers on a weekend when the ratio of men were less than the dancers for several hours. I'm noticing how certain days there are more dancers than customers and this is probably due to the cut back on marketing expense because of a six million dollar lawsuit the club endured. All entertainers are considered independent contractors and have to pay a lease fee, the way a hairstylist pays for a booth rent. Depending upon what time the dancer arrives to work and the later she works the more expensive the lease fee becomes. However, I find it interesting that a lot of dancers don't even pay attention to the politics of the club or the business aspect of how strip clubs actually operate. The club is hiring more new girls so they can charge more lease fees because their clientele has decreased a significant amount due to the lawsuit they suffered.

Scarletts has a lot of regulars and the majority of them are married and they normally come to this particular club to fuck the dancers in the VIP and champagne rooms. Their marriages and boring conservative lives lead these men to secretly seek the companionship of thirsty women seeking to make a quick buck. Normally their wives are not giving them sex at home and the emotional connection in the marriage was lost years ago. It is interesting to note that we are humanly designed to become creatures of habit who become comfortable with routine. Most people will continue to stay in marriages even after they out grow their spouses simply because they are use to their miserable comfortable routine and they are afraid to test boundaries and step out into the unknown.  I see some of the same married men go into the same club,  and will sit in the same seat looking for the next cheap harlot to take care of what his wife isn't giving him at home.  This routine I witnessed to be repetitive and will go on for years and years with the same regular customers. Some of these men have no personal life and will even post on websites what certain girls will and won't do in the back rooms. I have never been to a town where this much exposure was emphasized on private matters. I honestly don't judge what another person does because we all have our own morals and standards. 

Personally speaking I probably am one of the cleaner entertainers at this club and throughout Tampa all together. I don't fuck, suck, or even let the gentleman touch my whoo ha! "No tocas la papaya!" This is Spanish  meaning: "You can't touch the pussy!" I dance and I am a very sensual dancer. I am figuring out as far as my niche in this business, my style of dancing is more belly dance and burlesque. There are ways to be risque versus raunchy.  I have never sold my body in exchange for money or performed any sexual activities for money because it's just not my style (I have nothing against prostitutes) but I'm weird about having people I don't know touch me. I am an exotic entertainer and some of us look at our work as an art or craft with real artistic meaning; while others use the business as an outlet for prostitution.  So when the gentlemen ask me what are my rules in the back rooms I simply respond "No tocas la papaya!" (You can't touch the pussy!)

Scarletts is what I would consider an urban club compared to the predominately white clubs I have worked at in the past. What makes this club so unique are the diversity in dancers who work there. It has a flair of New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, and white girls seem to be the minority here. I find it interesting that they will allow hip hop and rap;  some clubs will not promote rap music at all. Variety is what makes this club stand out and most of the women are not surgically enhanced and "thick" women are often desired.  The girls here are exotic and beautiful but some of them seem a little hard and rough around the edges. Here you will find very attractive girls  with an air of wretchedness and very few of the girls seem fresh or wholesome. I also find it interesting that attractive black women seem to be a magnet to this place. Compared to other clubs I have worked at, I am noticing that it is a lot easier for ethnic women and black women  to make money here. While there are girls who do turn tricks in the back rooms, the higher moral girls still manage to make money with integrity. However, it is a challenge at times. Especially when the ratio of dancers are more than customers and a lot of the girls are willing to sell sex at a low cost. But the overall average of bad days are not very often, and whether a dancer turns tricks or not , the money seems to flow to you here when the seasons are not stagnant. However, the trick with Scarletts is to always seem new. Most of the new girls make money even off the regulars because the regulars like to see new  girls. Most of the regular customers  will go in the back rooms and try to see how far they can go with each dancer; they normally will not continue to purchase dances if any sexual favors are not involved. The best way to make money in places like this is not to work often and to always seem new and the money tends to be more steady every time you go back. There is a difference between hustling and hoeing. This is not a judgmental statement: only fact. There are many women who succumb to their environmental influences and the stripping industry turns them into prostitutes and drug addicts. You have to have a strong soul and be a warrior to survive this wild rodeo.

I have noticed a decline in the money not only because Florida is stagnate all together, but every since the lawsuit, the typical  dancers that tend to make money off hoeing and not hustling are complaining. I'm certain that the lawsuit has had an impact on this decline. However, I have worked three years in Florida on a part time basis, and overall Florida is slow and while seasons do pick up, it does not last very long here. I will be fluttering my wings to another state and city soon.  Some of us are warriors who fight to keep our souls while we dodge ungodly temptations. While this erotic world can be entertaining, sexy and fun, there is the flip side of this business that exposes the ugly truth about stripping. Most of these women have endured some kind of abuse or trauma growing up and they come to the strip club and repeat the abuse psychologically. Some drink and do drugs to numb their pains so they can't feel the sexual acts they perform because not feeling makes the job easy.

Not all women have been abused but most that strap on their stilettos and round up their garters have witnessed some type of abuse or trauma. Even though prostitution saturates this business I have not succumb to it or the drugs because I have a father who loves me. You will find that most of these women have "daddy issues" and they tend to recreate the traumas they experienced with their customers to either ego trip, or use their sex as control, or simply because they fed off narcissistic attention because they were not nurtured correctly  as a child.  A lot of the dancers have "pimps" who they refer to as their "boyfriend." Normally these women are repeating some dysfunctional relationship they were taught as normal in their childhood. Regardless, there was an imbalance in the way they were raised. Not many realize their insanity of repeating old patterns until later in life. However, there are higher integrity dancers who play the game a different way and they use it as a stepping stone and don't fall victim to the lifestyle.  

I do  not judge these women, I understand that some of their pain runs even deeper and their stories are more tragic than my own. This is where I see them as my  equal because most of us have been the misfit or pariah of our own blood at one point in our life. We are all unconsciously recreating  traumas and pain through a miraculous dance and turning our wounds into art on the stage. We all have to see our flaws and conquer them to be naked in front of a crowd. We are all unique and beautifully strong in our own broken way. It takes a certain kind of women to dance naked in the dark with strangers watching your bare skin. It takes a beautifully broken woman of strength and courage to do what we do and transform our broken sexuality and abuse into erotic art. While I do get aggravated with the prostitution, I still have respect for the business and the women I dance with. While some women choose to sell a piece of their soul for money, I still respect their hustle. We all share a common ground and dance naked in the darkness. Even though the harlots sell their body parts and pieces of their soul; some of us are priceless with morals and rules. You can watch me dance naked in the darkness but when the men ask me what are my rules for dances, I will continue to respond "Perro, no tocas mi papaya!"  (But you can't touch my pussy!)