Baby Strippers

The headline leapt off the computer screen like a recently shocked lizard: "Canadian Strip Clubs Set To Recruit From High Schools Due To Visa Ban" it screaled, and while I do not consider myself a prude of any description, it was a little troubling. The crux of the story was that the government has stopped issuing or extending visas for foreign strippers. Immigration minister Jason Kenney said, "the government cannot in good conscience continue to admit temporary foreign workers to work in businesses in sectors where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a risk of sexual exploitation." At this time the estimate is that of the 38,000 strippers working an Canada, almost 2000 are foreign. Now granted, for some the surprising thing about this particular statistic is that it means that 0.1% of the Canadian population is employed as strippers (and I would bet a shiny new loonie that this is only the female stripping population), and that is a little higher than I would have guessed. Now while the grammar may be a little sloppy, the math is sound, but for me she most disturbing part is the "RECRUIT FROM HIGH SCHOOLS" part, sorry for shouting.

The deal is that since the supply of foreign girls is going to dry up the industry has got to find something else to satisfy the appetites of sad little men who go to these places, these places being escort services, massage parlours as well as strip clubs. Timothy Lambrinos, director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada points out that these places need foreign workers to survive. Without the foreign talent businesses may die, so the association is, "already doing some outreach work in some areas," Lambrinos says. "We will be taking a stippers' dance pole to the schools." Yep, they will be putting up job fairs at high schools, tell young girls that stripping is a great way to make some money to pay for tuition for further education. Young girls, you know, kids, with no real life experience, and these "people" will be trying to get them to take off their clothes for money, plus whatever else goes on in massage parlours or at escort agencies.

Far be it from me to tell someone how to earn an honest dollar. I do not have a particular interest one way or the other in the stripping industry, or the massage parlour industry or the escort agency industry. Any industry that exploits people, no matter where they were born, should be stomped on, hard. But seriously the thought that young girls would be actively encouraged to take their clothes off for money is, to quote myself, "seriously fucked up." I don't have the right to judge anyone who earns their living this way, and I don't judge them. Everybody has their own action to deal with, and good luck to them. But if I had a young daughter in high school and someone showed up trying to recruit them into this particular industry, I think I would show up with a bat to show them the error of their ways, and to completely bend the crap out of their poles, if you know what I mean. Maybe that's just me though.

Anyway... Humouroceros