Random Play: Alt.Nation: Ask not for whom the fat lady sings . . .
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I once had the 'privilege' of being one of the only males present at a sold out performance of Manpower at the Powerstation.
You're a stripper? Cool.
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I went to Route 66 in Christchurch once. The friend that took me there didn't tell me what the place was all about & it was an hour or so before the "dance competition" began.
http://sunnyo.blogspot.com/2005/02/gather-round-we-have-stories-to-tell.html
And yes, it was surprisingly unsleazy & very, very entertaining. I don't think I named Network Guy in the post, but he posts here occasionally too :)
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I am not going to recount here the occasions, cultural or otherwise, that I have seen people take their clothes off for other people. There have actually been a few, one involved a pregnant woman, a lot of paint and a bucket of water......but I digress.
However, I would not want to be too glib about the objectification of women and how that feeds into power structures. I am thinking of one country of my acquaintance. In this country X amount of the workforce are woman but only X amount of the people in high level positions are woman. People do A LOT of business after hours. Quite a substantial portion of this takes place with women serving them in various ways. For example pouring them drinks, lighting their fags, laughing at their jokes, dancing etc. This boys club mentality is one of the many ways that woman are excluded from positions of influence.In the case over the ditch I really see a storm in a teacup or a d cup. Whatever. But that doesn't mean that the issue of women taking their clothes off for money is a complete non-issue.
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Kowhai
I was trying to allude to the fact that as 'good' as it gets the sex industry (XX/XY XY/XX XY/XY etc) gets it's always bad.Stephen Judd where are you?
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Keeping quiet at my desk.
OK. So Rudd gets a bob each way - he's a red-blooded male who goes to strip clubs, but it's ok if you don't approve, because it's only when he's pissed. (He gets pissed too, like a manly Australian man should!)
Also, the phenomenon of male strippers does not alleviate any problems with women stripping for men, because the power relations are not the same. Male strippers are performing in a carnivalesque mode where power-relations are temporarily inverted. It is understood that after the male stripper has left, women will revert to their normal position in society, while in the female stripping situation, the men, having paid to reinforce their status, will continue to exercise it when they leave. The situations are not inverse or orthogonal.
On a personal note, when I got dragged out to a strip club in Hamilton about 20 years ago, I lost all taste for the enterprise when I recognised one of the strippers as a girl as an old schoolmate who had already been vilified as the school bike. She didn't look very happy.
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Michael, I totally take your point. I happen to agree with what you are saying, just adding my two cents worth.
Stephen thank you saying what I wanted to say, I wrote that in a rush on my way out without previewing (oh the horror).
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I lost all taste for the enterprise when I recognised one of the strippers as a girl as an old schoolmate who had already been vilified as the school bike. She didn't look very happy.
Me too, kinda (but about 10-15 years ago). I happened across 3 old school friends (from different years, ie unrelated) who were all either strippers or prostitutes. Far from being unhappy they were pleased to see me, took me 'backstage' and regaled me with tales of their marvelous lives and their upmarket clientele. Why, some guys were so great it almost seemed wrong to charge. But they did.
Whilst I could see the reality of their lifestyle/workplace and they obviously couldn't; all they wanted at the time was not to be judged and for me to accept the fantasy of their statements. Which I did. One now works in the corporate mainstream, one went down for 3 years for her boyfriends drug dealing, and the other one I never heard from/of again. So she's the one I often worry/wonder about.
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BTW - none of the three I knew were the school 'bike'. All were 'nice' girls from 'nice' middle class backgrounds.
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Whilst I could see the reality of their lifestyle/workplace and they obviously couldn't;
Ouch - patronising
all they wanted at the time was not to be judged and for me to accept the fantasy of their statements.
but I take your point.
One now works in the corporate mainstream, one went down for 3 years for her boyfriends drug dealing, and the other one I never heard from/of again. So she's the one I often worry/wonder about.
And there's the rub. The worker-damage rate in this industry may just be too damned high.
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Ouch - patronising
Your judgement (of me) is wrong. I don't think its patronising to suggest they were wrong in saying they were working in an upmarket brothel servicing Judges, Bankers, and Sports Icons when I could see (they'd invited me in!) they worked in a seedy massage parlour with clients who were so obviously not Judges, Bankers, and Sports Icons.
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but then again ...
"it might be raining non-stop here at The Island Paradise Resort now, but bit you shoulda been here last week. It was so hot and sunny we just laid the prawns out on the plate and they cooked themselves ..."
So maybe the Judges, Bankers, and Sports Icons had all been in the night before ...
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Oh, read the whole post, I/O. The very next thing I said was, 'But I take your point."
And I really do take your point. It seems so sad to comfort yourself with the thought that the johns are up-market types, as if that might make the whole job okay. And maybe it is okay for some people. But based on your sample, as I said, too many people get too badly hurt for the sex industry to be anything other than exploitative.
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am i totally missing the joke / point?
If you have to ask why it's funny, then you are missing the point.
Humour never works after it's been explained.
And if you analyze it, that's going to kill all the fun.Make the joke, offend people (optional), audience laughs.
Simple as that!Here's a thought:
Australians are much funnier than we are.
Why do we take ourselves so seriously?
Life's more fun if you laugh at everything you possibly can. -
eh?
Aussies funny??????
But on a happy joy joy note, I like posting here.
I like it when people wade in delicately, I like it when people are pugnacious. It really is all good when it feels like a conversation. Favourite phrase of the week;
"screeching to the converted"
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Sure, Aussies are hilarious. You probably haven't spent much time there.
They have all those crazy metaphors like 'drier than a dead dingo's donger'. People on the street are much readier to have a laugh than here in NZ.Their movies and TV shows are funnier than ours.
I don't think a Kiwi could host Rove.And our politicians would never say something like
Alexander Downer was asked this morning by Sean Plunket what he thought about the handful of protesters outside the Gnat’s conference.
“Well they are from the Socialist Alliance. These people are losers, you know. They lost the Soviet Union and they lost the Cold war. Yes I thought about them. It was raining and I thought the harder it rains the wetter they’ll get.”
Read this and note the Aussie reaction at the bottom compared to all the serious NZ ones:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/organisation/story.cfm?o_id=219&objectid=10427045Convinced yet?
I'm not saying that makes NZ a worse country to live in though.
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Meh.
I like my humor Black Books style.
Each to their own. -
hell yeah, Black Books, Father Ted, IT Crowd, Green Wing (BTW can anyone tell me where I can find Green Wing on DVD?).
Kath & Keeem is OK, but it doesn't have a disheveled Irishman in it.
Sense of humor test. If you can read the headline on this article without snickering, your inner 4th former has flat-lined. -
Does listening to Paul Potts on YouTube count as going to the opera? Is it passable to admit to watching it, as long as I had a little nap during proceedings? Strangely, it did get through the internet filter at work.... shouldn't netnanny be blocking that sort of filth?
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It was raining and I thought the harder it rains the wetter they’ll get.
Now, that's funny. As long as you consider it to be an intellectual breakthrough on Downer's part. "Hey! You know what I just realised?"...
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Each to their own
I really liked Freddy got fingered. Is that okay?
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Chockasundy you are pretty much right.
Generally, I'd say the average Aussie is readier to have a laugh, come up with a quick quip and not worry too much about inane niceties. (Example: we witnessed a police officer admonishing a jay walker in Sydney. She asked him "Are you going to give me ticket?" He replied no. She said "Well piss off then!" and walked away).
BUT.... the witty replies posted in the discussion forum (of those who got the satirical piece) shows me that there are loads of clever wags here too. Whe need people like that scripting locally made plays, TV dramas and comedies - or writing our politicians' speeches.
Megan (G's wife)
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joanna - i think you might be right there. robyn IS a much nicer person than you.
it was clear to me that it was a satirical piece - i just didn't really think the (ignored) social sub-text was very funny.
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We don't all have to find the same things funny - gad, what a boring place the world would be, etc. I'm not much for satirical pieces, either, Rebecca.
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I always feel the need to hit Tom Green but love his stuff if I watch it with my little sister she adds so much more to it.
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Despite what I have been saying over the way, or perhaps because of it, I snickered all the way through this piece.
And at your headline, Jeremy Andrew. Guess I'm still a 4th former at heart.
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