Ivy League Stripper [Hardcover]

Heidi Mattson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 1995

Revealing her double life as an Ivy League college student by day and a stripper by night, a young woman tells how she worked her way through college without compromising herself and describes the world of strip joints. 30,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From a working-class family, Mattson was seriously in debt after two years at Brown University, where she wanted to remain to achieve her dream?an Ivy League education. Having tried her hand at a series of jobs that still left her unable to make ends meet, she took a shot at stripping, which, she quickly discovered, generated enough income to finance her education and then some. Moreover, she asserts, this career, which she embarked on with some trepidation, proved to be immensely empowering: drawing on the work of Camille Paglia, Mattson argues that men's desire for the female body empowers women who exploit this. While not all readers may agree with her version of gender politics, Mattson's account of how she negotiated an often bizarrely disjunctive double life during her remaining time at Brown is interesting and inspirational, and her commentary on the worlds between which she moved is clear-eyed and astute. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Heidi Mattson was determined to go to Brown University. But the $22,000 per year to attend was a trip to the moon for her struggling, blue-collar family. Yet nothing could stop Bucksport High's spitfire valedictorian from claiming her dream and her Brown diploma. After two tough years cramming odd jobs between classes, three years on leave cleaning houses, and a terrifying brush with breast cancer, the fresh-faced coed entered the sex industry as a topless stripper -- and discovered a hidden power that turned her into a "top girl" overnight. Facing the ridicule of her wealthy Brown peers and their strident political correctness with dignity and courage, Heidi's ultimate hurdle was yet to come: could she reveal her double life to her loving parents after years of deception? Ivy League Stripper is the compelling, poignant, outrageous, and true story of one woman's extraordinary education and adventure in the rarefied worlds of the Ivy League college coed and the topless dancer. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; 1st edition (May 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559702907
• ISBN-13: 978-1559702904
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,013,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Dancers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars why all the hateful reviews?, March 17, 2004

By 

Jon Norris (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ivy League Stripper (Hardcover)

I find the incredibly negative reviews of Ivy League Stripper interesting. I almost wonder if I read a different book than some of these people. Perhaps they were written by some of her rivals. Who knows?

Heidi does not "advocate" stripping anywhere in the book that I can tell, nor did she when I saw her on Real Personal with Bob Berkowitz. In fact, she made a point of saying she did not recommend it as a way of earning money. On TV and in the book she made it quite clear that it is not an easy or safe way to make money, however addictive that money might be. My sense of the book was that she came across as just about the only undamaged person in the business. She did discuss topics like drug use, prostitution, money addiction, and self-esteem, but since the book was about her personal journey, she didn't dwell on the problems of others. Perhaps it didn't appeal to people who wanted a more dramatic, negative, and victimized approach. She never said anything to give even the slightest impression that she was attempting a tour de force of sex work in the US. (I recommend Susie Bright or Carol Queen for that sort of thing.) This was a book about her personal journey, not yours. If your experience was different, then write your own book so we can read it, too.

I'll admit that my experience with "exotic dancers" is somewhat limited. I have only been to the clubs a half dozen or so times, and I don't know any dancers personally. I do hear by second and third hand stories that the scene does have a high rate of drug (including alcohol - it is a drug) use, prostitution, and other unsavory activities. There would probably be far less of such things if sex work were not forced into marginal areas of towns and the people involved treated like garbage by so-called "good citizens." The clubs I visited had full nudity.

The question of whether showing off one's body for money is degrading is largely a matter of semantics and personality. People who have an exhibitionistic bent are *not* degraded by such exposure, but exhilarated and empowered by it. Realize that there are different types of people in the world! Is it any less degrading for a coal miner to trade the health of his lungs for money, or a stock broker his/her ethics? Women in this society face degrading behavior all the time in every location and setting you care to name. (For that matter so do men.) If one looks beneath the thin veneer of common society here in the US, there is far more unsavory behavior going on than most will admit, and it happens in churches, boardrooms, and on Wall Street. This is a sick, sex-negative, anti-nature, and basically maladjusted society, and we all pay a price for that.

The discussion of nudity and appreciation of the human body and sexuality is a far too long and complex one to settle here. Read some history - When God Was A Woman, Ishtar Rising, or other material on how and why our current religious-based views of sex were created. Shame over nudity and sexual behavior is not universal, natural, "moral," or healthy by a long shot. Read Betty Dodson, Carol Queen, Susie Bright, Annie Sprinkle, Laura Kipnis, or some other of the intelligent, sex-positive writers.

My experience in strip clubs was transformative. I felt liberated and freed from centuries of lies. I experienced more spiritual release in those few short hours than in decades of Christian beliefs. I literally felt transported back to a time when women were proud of being sexual beings who owned, celebrated, and were masters of, their own sexual energy. I felt a deep sense of gratitude, wonder, awe, respect, devotion, and something so deeply spiritual that it sent me researching the goddess religions for understanding. Few women comprehend the tremendous power their body holds for men. (And there are forces in this society who don't want you to learn that, either.)

The complaints that she didn't seek "honest" work are humorous - maybe something honest like politics or working at Enron or pushing denatured foodlike toxins at a fast-food restaurant? I consider the no-strings, cash-for-a-look-at-my-body transaction in the strip clubs to be one of the most honest transactions in this society!

Of course, I realize that Heidi's real error was in writing what she really experienced and how she really felt, not what was expected or "politically correct." I find it interesting when women who respond to being sexually assualted/harassed by ramping up their self-esteem, owning and wielding their sexual power instead of becoming whimpering little victims who need someone to protect them, are attacked for it. Interesting how little is said in the reviews of the behavior of the people at Brown.

But then again, maybe some of the reviews are from folks at Brown............

I feel it is really a three star, but I gave it four in an attempt to create some balance. Her writing is okay, but not as insightful or powerful as Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Betty Dodson, or Laura Kipnis. Read them if you are looking for deep discussions of sexual issues. Read this book if you want to read one person's story.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book was a very sugar coated view on dancing, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ivy League Stripper (Mass Market Paperback)

I am an exotic dancer and have been for 4 years. I thought that this book was a very good documentary on heidi's life, but the overall content on dancing is very sugar coated. I have worked in very classy upscale strip bars and hole in the wall bars also. Every bar that i have worked in dancers have issues w/ prostution, drugs, gambling and much more and none of this was included in her book. She made dancing out to be a very ligit job w/ no problems. That is just not true i have not met many dancers like heidi they are like 1 in a millon. Im not saying this wasnt a good book im just saying that i think she left a lot facts on dancing out.In fact i am writing a book now about the hard core reality of an exotic dancer. Look for it in the spring of 2000.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good story...but far from reality, July 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Ivy League Stripper (Hardcover)

I read this book when I was 23 and thought, "Wow! Even I could be a stripper!" Heidi makes this profession seem easy, fun and extremely profitable. I worked part-time as a stripper for three years after that and it was nothing like her book. She shows the fantasy side of stripping but doesn't touch on the realistic side. Now that I have survived through that experience, I realize how misleading the book was. If you want a true-to-life account of stripping, read STRIP CITY. I would, however, enjoy reading about how Heidi's life turned out after college.