Diary of an Angry Stripper [Paperback]

Sarah Tressler (Author), All Ivy Writing services (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2012

A collection of blogs from the infamous Diary of an Angry Stripper, detailing the inner workings of Sarah Tressler (the Angry Stripper) throughout her life as a dancer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Highly entertaining no-pants rants." --Maxim

About the Author

Sarah Tressler, a high society reporter for the Houston Chronicle was outed by a rival newspaper for being an exotic dancer. Sarah has a Masters in Journalism from NYU and has worked as a journalist for some of the world's top media outlets. Sarah was fired from the Houston Chronicle the day after the story broke. On Thursday May 11th, Sarah along with attorney Gloria Allred announced that they were filing with the EEOC for wrongful termination on the basis of gender discrimination. There was a great deal of media coverage over this matter. While Tressler entertained as an exotic dancer, she kept a blog titled Diary of an Angry Stripper; hence, the inspiration for the book containing a collection of her blog posts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Di Angelo Publications (July 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0985085320
• ISBN-13: 978-0985085322
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarah Tressler was born in Houston, Texas, and earned a B.A. from the University of Houston and an M.A. in journalism from New York University. She has also worked as a topless dancer, and chronicled her experiences in a blog called "Diary of an Angry Stripper." In March 2012, she was fired from the Houston Chronicle, where she worked as a reporter, when a rival newspaper outed her as a stripper. She subsequently published her blog as a book by the same name.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Selling Sexual Arousal: A Stripper's Inside Account July 8, 2012

By Pat

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Guys, if you've never been to a strip club and want to keep it that way, read this book. If you go to strip clubs and are trying to quit, read this book. If you want to keep going to strip clubs, you may quit anyway if you read this book.

As for the rest of you, don't read the book (or the rest of this review) if you're squeamish.

This is the firsthand account of a stripper out to take (her word) customers for as much dough as possible. Her "target demographic," as she puts it, is white, middle-age American men -- not because she's prejudiced but because that's where she can make the most money. It's the story of finding a used condom in one lap-dance booth, a bloody tampon in another. And there's the guy who wanted her to pee in a bottle so he could drink it, just to mention one of the requests she rejects with horror.

If you're a would-be stripper, think of what happens after you've lap-danced some psycho for 12 songs at $20 a song. When you try to collect, he swears you only did five. You call the manager who takes the guy's side, reams you out, puts a note in your file and suspends you for two months. The club doesn't care because it's the stripper's loss. In these Houston employers' utopias, the strippers actually pay the club to work there! The strippers have to get tens of dollars in tips just to break even.

The upside is they can still clear hundreds of dollars on a typical night. (Let's hope oil prices don't fall.)

If you can stomach the descriptions and coarse language, you'll get an exposé (though the author probably wouldn't call it that) of the stripping sector of the sex industry.... In a limited way, you might even say it's a strip-club version of The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's early 20th Century exposé of the meatpacking industry.

In the spring of 2012 the author, Sarah Tressler, was fired from her job as a high-society reporter at the Houston Chronicle after the rival Houston Press revealed her double life as a stripper. Tressler, who boasts (repeatedly) that she has a master's degree in journalism from New York University, has said the Chronicle was happy with her performance as a reporter.

Her book is mostly a series of posts to her blog, Diary of an Angry Stripper. So rather than a coherent narrative, it's a mishmash of rants, reviews, advice for strippers (makeup is a must; she's big on fake eyelashes and has a 14- step guide on how to apply them), advice for customers, tips for anyone who wants to date a stripper and, of course, stories from her own experiences in the business. She even includes a short glossary of industry vocabulary (including "OTC," or Offshore Technology Conference, a huge annual event that draws global oil and gas personnel to Houston.) The whole mess is a mile wide and an inch deep, and it doesn't flow.

Nonetheless, the book shines a light on day-to-day life in a place that seldom sees the light of day, figuratively or literally.

Stripping could probably be described as low-end or entry-level prostitution without the usual sex acts or orgasm. The customer's goal is to maximize his sexual arousal; the stripper's aim is to make as much money as possible.

Tressler isn't exactly a sophisticated observer. It's kind of pathetic that someone whose only training is in the lowly craft of journalism looks down her nose at a long list of people ranging from short Mexican men in bad suits to pregnant strippers to "rittle" (her deliberate spelling) Asian men to country bumpkins to a Texas stripper who thinks New England is in Europe.

Warts notwithstanding, this is still reporting, I think -- even if much of the book is a disjointed rant against customers, other strippers club managers, club DJs and anyone who thinks strippers are stupid. She is livid at one customer from Argentina for asking if she knew where Argentina is, and at another who asked if she knew what "aloof" meant.

Her naiveté, shallowness and utter lack of political correctness aside, Tressler is a born wordsmith and I'm guessing she's nothing if not honest. And while the book as a whole needs more structure and depth, Tressler is at her best in the parts where she's in storytelling mode. For example, read about her brief hookup with Entourage star Jeremy Piven and numerous but very brief vignettes from the strip clubs.

Some parts are hilariously funny. While reading her chapter on customers to avoid, I was laughing so hard there were tears running down my face.

Tressler is justifiably proud of her education (even if she has obviously missed a few bits), but I think her best training came from the school of hard knocks. She very briefly mentions having held a long string of lowly jobs, including cleaning toilets.

The Houston native repeatedly argues that stripping is just a job like any other. But she repeatedly describes guys offering her money to have sex with them, and then treating her like dirt when she invariably refuses. Not to mention the endless string of gropers, fetish freaks and cheapskates. But at the end of a typical day, she puts a fat wad of banknotes in her purse, which (apart from the attire) is what distinguishes the job from waitressing.

Referring to another stripper, Tressler blogged that 30 is stripper middle age (which was probably posted when the author was in her mid twenties). Now that she's reached the ripe old age of 30 herself, I hope she pursues a writing career. Despite its failings, I think her book shows that she has what it takes to write stuff that people will read, and she sounds honest. She was probably wasted on whatever drivel she'd been doing for the Houston Chronicle. Getting ejected from that sunset industry may be a good career move in the long run.

I have to confess to the same sentiment as fellow reviewer JennyJ, who gave the book one star and wrote: "You're horrified and cringing, yet can't pull yourself away because it's like seeing a car accident on the freeway."

For the reasons mentioned above, I didn't want to give it four stars, but 3.5 doesn't seem to be an option. Given that it's readable (albeit without a coherent narrative thread) and given that it's the kind of firsthand reporting you won't find in newspapers, I'm going to bite the bullet and give the book four stars.Diary of an Angry Stripper Read more ›

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Totally moronic July 6, 2012

By JennyJ

Format:Kindle Edition

I was tempted because this book has gotten a lot of media coverage lately after the author was fired from her job at a newspaper, presumably when they found out about her moonlighting. I totally expected it to be, I don't know, insightful? Clever? Way too much to expect I guess... Instead it's like getting stuck next to an obnoxious teenager at a coffee shop where you can't help but overhear a totally narcissistic and wacky conversation, and you're horrified and cringing, yet can't pull yourself away because it's like seeing a car accident on the freeway.

I mean, calling people "'tards" every chapter? REALLY? Making super awkward racist jokes (its a running theme)? She has nothing but disdain for her customers, sometimes because they are "short little Mexicans" or "short 'writtle' Asians" (no really, she actually does the totally offensive ridiculous Asian accent thing that most of society realized wasn't funny in, oh, I don't know, 1990?) but mostly because she views all patrons as rednecks that don't see her as the intelligent, educated woman she actually believes herself to be. Oh, the irony.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars She's Definitely An Angry Ex-Stripper September 4, 2012

By James R. Holland TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This former stripper is very angry and it shows in her book. What is surprising is the reasons for her anger. She discovered that most men who visit strip clubs are pigs. My, my, what an awakening that must have been for her? Just imagine, lonely, troubled guys who go to strip bars and are encouraged to get falling down drunk are often obnoxious. Many of the sixteen sections and chapters of this book are devoted to "Baffling Questions, Stupid Remarks, or Mind-Boggling Behavior" or "The Weird Ones and Their Bizarre Fetishes," etc., etc.

The author got into dancing and stripping because it paid her an average of $100 per hour and that was a bit more than the $7.25 per hour she earned working at Starbucks. She needed the money to finish college and grad school. In this memoir, she helpfully provides a portfolio of pictures of her at work and elsewhere.

"I wrote these entries for several reasons: to suggest appropriate strip club etiquette to those who might visit or work there; to get troublesome encounters off my chest; and to give anyone who cared to stop by my little corner of the world something to read, in the hopes that they would find this writing--the scribbling of an exotic dancer at the end of her pole, as it were--entertaining somehow."

It was obvious that the author was very much upset when she was working as a feature reporter for Houston Chronicle and her outing as an exotic dancer led to her termination at that media outlet. Although from her other stories about working as a celebrity reporter the latter proved not much different from her strip club patrons.

The author does give a lot of tips to people who might be considering taking a job as a stripper/exotic dancer. She explains the pros, cons and the dangers.... Her advice is probably invaluable to those folks--it covers everything from exercises, make-up, costumes, secrecy to avoiding pimps and why.

The reason for the anger of this particular person is that people, especially men don't have any respect for current or former strip tease dancers. They sometimes consider them sub-human. The nightly news provides regular stories about teachers being fired when it came out they were formerly working their way through college by taking their clothes off. This reviewer personally knows a very personable and successful former exotic dancer who was able to build an excellent career as a real estate agent in LA, but it wasn't easy. However, she said her background not only provided her a world of experience with people and selling, but her so-called checkered career proved a curiosity to many potential customers and eventually worked in her favor because she was a very good real estate match-maker.

The author of this tome will no doubt find the same is true if and when she gets over her anger at the drunks who frequent strip clubs. Bar flies are bar flees and troubled drunks haunt bars with their naked entertainers. Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting! January 20, 2013

By ROYALTY

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Funny, and true! Makes you enjoy the strip club more. Also, very true home-cooking, lol! Well-written, easy to read and enjoy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Raw and Brilliant! July 8, 2012

By MikeM

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Had soo much fun reading this book! It was raunchy and real, just like I wanted it to be. Sarah's style of blunt honesty and intelligent humor is addictive and educational. I loved it and learned a thing or two about this often misunderstood profession.