By David Sherman
Editor’s note: His story is hard to believe, but even harder to dismiss. It’s a tale of exploitation, manipulation, cunning, deceit, sexual perversion, greed and more. And most unbelievable, according to David Sherman, it’s still happening right now in hundreds of communities across the nation.
On January 12, 2000, Sherman, who managed “adult entertainment” outlets for 14 years, testified about the impact of sexually oriented businesses on individuals and communities before the Michigan House Committee on Ethics and Constitutional Law. For a full length, 12-page copy of David Sherman’s expose of the sex entertainment industry, see American Decency Association website at americandecency.org.
May 2000 – As far as female employees in adult entertainment nightclubs, as manager, everyone you hire you treat as a potential dancer. It really doesn’t matter if she’s hired as a waitress, hostess, or even a bartender. First, you must make the girl feel at home in an environment that is so abnormal that most people have to be made comfortable. In fact, you could almost say they have to be hardened to the club life. This is easily accomplished by working there as many hours as possible and by having all of the staff treat them as if they were long lost friends.
Second, after a few weeks, because the girl is now your friend, as a manager, you bring up how short you are on girls that night or how there are not enough amateur contestants. You ask them to please help, that they don’t need to take their clothes off, but the club just needs an extra body. Usually, they happily agree to do this.
But, by this point, you are her friend and can make her feel guilty about not helping out more and ask her to please disrobe, as without her, you’ll not make much money that night. She is needed. People who need her and customers who tell her how beautiful she is surround her. She now experiences a variety of emotions and, being human, needs to be needed. With this emotion fulfilled, she finds herself wanting to be complimented, which she is, and she wants to make money, which she can. You then play on “what more can a girl want?”
At this point, if she still has not disrobed, you let her know you no longer need her for her waitress position, but dancing is open if she wishes to still work at the club. This does not work unless she has incurred debts and needs the money, or she actually enjoyed the experience and doesn’t want to lose her new friends.
If she stays, the manager must start training her to be a professional. This means changing almost everything about her including her personality: she must now be a passive/aggressive if she is to survive. This means that she needs to learn to say whatever it takes to make money. She can never talk about her personal life to anyone, as clients can hear this.
Mandatory meetings are set for all the girls. This time is really used for mostly programming of the girls and getting into their heads. You again let them know what you want and motivate them by whatever it takes.
Right from the start, drug and alcohol use is rampant. The dancers call it partying. They don’t realize that they are medicating themselves in order to do the work they do….Soon the new dancer starts running around with the more hardened and seasoned girls, who realize how much easier their job is being drunk, high or, more often than not, both. By now she’s working until 2 a. m., staying out all night partying after work, and then grabbing breakfast with the girls….
Also, the abortion rate is extremely high due to the fact that most have lost contact with family members due to what they do. They also feel they could never take the chance on flawing the body from carrying a child. Additionally, the dancers believe they have no way to support a baby without dancing, and therefore can’t quit to have one. Basically, they are caught in a very real, painful catch-22.
Once dancing they get used to being objectified. It becomes as important to them to hear how beautiful they are 200 times a day as it is to actually make the money from the dancing.
Between the use of drugs to medicate what they do and hearing how beautiful they are all the time, they soon experience what I call BDA – Basic Dancer Attitude. This is when the dancer thinks that no matter what friends, children, husband and families think about her, it doesn’t matter. They can all be replaced because all of the patrons around her find her attractive, beautiful and idolized. Now, the dancers are truly caught in the adult scene. With friends and family gone from their lives, they exist alone in this dark, subculture of sex, drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. All of this perverse living, to the dancer, is now just part of her normal lifestyle.
After a couple of years at this level, the dancer realizes she is getting older and attempts to fit back into society. She tries boyfriends, school or really anything to cling to what is normal. Realizing that she cannot live in both worlds, she returns to the subculture of the adult business, actually despising the real world. This leads to more dependency on drugs and alcohol, which now makes her 100% lost to this life.
The dancers will continue living like this until they realize they can no longer stay at their current level, and keep making money and getting the compliments. Once they realize this, they begin to master more perverse things to make cash, to make up for fading looks and dancer burnout. 
Hope for the hopeless
Pornography and its evil sibling, sexually oriented businesses (SOBs), are victimless activities. Nobody gets hurt, right? So goes conventional wisdom.
Vicki Burress, Director of AFA of Indiana knows differently. In attempting to rescue strip club dancers from their near sexual slavery, Burress has touched the ruined lives. She has witnessed the physical and emotional abuse these women have endured in attempting to feed the insatiable sexual appetite of adult club patrons and the unending greed of joint owners.
Last October AFA of Indiana launched “Citizens for a Safe Community,” a campaign aimed at raising public awareness of the problems associated with pornography and SOBs.
Forty billboards were donated to the cause. Each carried the message: “Strip bars and pornography victimize women and children.” Local media reported their efforts and soon the whole city learned the sordid story of a dehumanizing industry and its victims.
“They come out of the clubs looking for trust and unconditional love. They are emotionally upset and confused. They want out, but they just don’t know there is a better way to live,” Burress said.
For those who want to minister to former dancers, nothing short of a close mentoring relationship is effective, Burress said. “You have to pour your life into them. And at the same time, Christians must surround them with a supportive community.” Many come out with alcohol and drug problems, no money and children to support, she said.
Only six months into the campaign, attitudes in Ft. Wayne have started to change. The city now bans off-duty police officers from working as bouncers or security cops at strip clubs. Six support groups for sexually addicted men have formed, as well as two groups for wives who are married to sex addicts.
For more information contact AFA of Indiana at P. O. Box 92, Garrett, IN 46738, 219-357-5484. Vickie Burress, E-mail: [email protected].
Other ministries around the country doing similar work include:
Amy’s Friends, P. O. Box 1375, Addison, TX 75001, 972-732-0611, E-mail: [email protected], Amy Dupree. Amy’s Friends has made available an information packet for community activists who want to minister to strip club dancers.
One Way Out Ministries, P. O. Box 6244, Ft. Myers, FL 33911, Pager: 941-930-5962, Jeanie Turner.
Out of Exile, P. O. Box 140422, Orlando, FL 32814-0422, 407-578-3080, Emergencies 407-721-8034, E-mail: [email protected], E-mail: [email protected], Tammy Dahl.
Greenhouse Ministries, 2891 Ashton Drive, Lebanon, OH 45036, 513-934-4468, E-mail: [email protected], Jill Deyo.
Frontline World Ministries, 172 Winding Creek Circle N.W., Cleveland, TN 37312, E-mail: [email protected], 423-559-8968, Lee & Janet Rollins, (literature only for those in the adult entertainment industry).
Citizens for Community Values, P. O. Box 341864, Memphis, TN 38184-1864, 901- 759-7923, E-mail: [email protected], Carolyn McKenzie.
Hosea’s Hope, 1820 Pearl Street, Carrollton, TX 75006, 972-478-7516, E-mail: [email protected], Laurie Hughes.
Whosoever Will Ministries, P. O. Box 395, Euless, TX 76039, 817-354-8547, 817- 540-5239, E-mail: woman@startext. net, Jackie Holland.
Light Dancers, P. O. Box 55136, Phoenix, AZ 85078-5136, 602-482-7292, E-mail: [email protected], Lisanne McMurray
