Revelations: Essays on Striptease and Sexuality [Paperback]

Margaret Dragu (Author), A.S.A. Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1989

Anecdotes, interviews and extensive research. Fuse magazine called it ". . . one of the most provocative and playful feminist texts to have emerged in recent years."

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is difficult to know for whom this book was written. The authors' purpose, to "reveal the unique nature and merits of stripping, and at the same time address the moral and political issues that cling to sexual entertainment," is scarcely an original one and has already been attempted with considerably more success by Lauri Lewin (Naked is the Best Disguise) and others, none of whose names appear in Dragu and Harrison's bibliography. Most of the sources for this work seem to be articles from Miami and Toronto newspapers and interviews with sex-trade workers who have names like Desiree and Jason Eros. Although Dragu herself has worked as a stripper, it is Harrison (author of two porn novels and other publications) who seems to supply the structure and what substance there is. The essays sort through subjects such as the strippers' relation to the police; the role of the manager-, the involvement of organized crime; and why so many men will pay to watch women take off their clothes-all certainly topics worthy of exploration. These discussions, however, are superficial and marred by gratuitous comments about Canadian Catholic politics, uninformed opinions about women's ..need" to be dominated, and quotes from "experts" like Inspector Maigre and Raymond Chandler. The most revealing aspect of this slim work is probably unintentional: Ile strippers refer to the scenes and situations in which they find themselves as "movies," and their accounts of their experiences are clouded by a sense of unreality, as though years of being paraded as objects have leached their lives of any identity or autonomy: an ominous reflection of what happens to a society in which everything is a spectator sport, a product through which participation and vicarious thrills can be purchased. -- From Independent Publisher

The text has a warm, conversational feel, yet the subject matter remains focused and tough. -- ArtViews, Spring 1989

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Bridget usually does stags with a hooker because then her job is clearly defined. Bridget strips and goes home and the hooker stays and hooks. This one time was the only time she ever did a stag alone. She had booked the gig through another stripper, who said that the guys understood that Bridget wasn't a hooker and that she was just going to do her strip and that was all.

It was a big Italian wedding stag in a private residence. There were sixty or seventy Italian males, drinking. "I should have known better," says Bridget. "They showed 'Deep Throat' and then, when I went to do my show, they didn't want me to do a show at all. They didn't even want me to put my costume on. They wanted me to fuck the groom in the middle of the floor."

Bridget was not about to do this. She'd already got her money up front -- a hundred dollars -- so she went upstairs. She was going to get her bag and leave. It was getting nasty and she hoped she would be able to escape.

But the groom followed her upstairs and all the guys cheered. They thought that Bridget didn't want to do it in the middle of the floor, but she would go for it in the privacy of the bedroom.

In the bedroom, the groom offered Bridget thirty dollars to fuck him. She refused, explaining that she wasn't a hooker. She tried playing on his sympathies, saying, "You wouldn't want this to happen to your sister, or your mother, would you?" And she started to cry.

The groom felt sorry for her, but he didn't want to go downstairs and face his friends, who all thought he was getting laid. So he offered her thirty-five, then forty dollars to have sex.

"This is what's supposed to happen at stags," he complained. "I'm supposed to get fucked. Whether or not the other guys get it doesn't matter. I'm the groom. I'm getting married next week. I've gotta get laid."

Then he had an idea. "I'll tell you what. If I give you a hundred dollars, will you stay here for twenty minutes and pretend you fucked me?"

"That's Catholic economics," says Bridget. "To fuck him, he was really gonna haggle. He would probably have gone up to fifty dollars tops. But to pretend I fucked him, he would have given me two hundred."

Bridget agreed to the deal, but says that even though she didn't have to perform for the money, it was the toughtest two-hundred dollars she ever made.

Politics make strange bedfellows.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Nightwood; First edition (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0889711178
• ISBN-13: 978-0889711174
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,750,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars thoughts but not revelations, June 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Revelations: Essays on Striptease and Sexuality (Paperback)

the book is much like the published review here. dragu actually has little to say throughout the book, what she says usually doesn't have too much impact. the part with the cops is a rather scary portrait of the law and the best part of the book, in my opionion. the rest of the book doesn't really answer all the questions one might have about strippers and their work. it takes a view of society as a whole and makes wild statements about society's sexuality/repression of sexuality and how this all relates to stripping. none of the theories are original and not much new is said about them. it also took an overly sympathetic view of the stripper, to the point of condescending the poor little women in the middle of the moral storm. i did read the book quickly as it's short, but i can't say i agreed with the tone or the way it's information was presented. i had no revelations reading this book, it was a lot like someone's college thesis.

1.0 out of 5 stars TOTALLY WORTHLESS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111, April 3, 2001

By 

Angel (North Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revelations: Essays on Striptease and Sexuality (Paperback)

Don't waste your time or money on this one. The book attempts to portray essays on the lives of strippers. The stories are not only dry and boring, but they're repetitive and all the same. I was totally disappointed in this one.