Since when is stripping news?

I haven't been paying a lot of attention the news lately.  Yesterday, a story on CNN's website caught my attention.  "Stripping for College Credit" trumpeted the headline.  Intruiged but wary, I clicked the link.  I was rewarded with Jenny Heineman's story.

The short version is that she was abroad and discovered the "underground world of sex workers."  To legitimize her interest in this world, upon her return to the US, she decided to become a stripper and write her thesis on her experience, which you can read part of in the above link.

Ms Heineman is getting a lot of airplay for this "daring" and "revolutionary" exercise in academic justification of a personal interest.

Yawn.

As an academic, the first thing that caught my eye is that she only got a "B" on the thesis.  For the unintiated, a B is a perfectly respectable grade, yes?  Not at all.  If you're going to apply to grad school, you'd better have an "A."  The "B" grade is a consolation prize-a weak effort. 

Reading the text I was able find online, I have to say that I don't think she had any new questions or brought anything new to the table when it comes to the gender/sex equation.

So why all the fuss?  Well, she's a slightly nerdy looking girl with her glasses on (who works at a coffee shop by day) and a fairly attractive stripper by night (and you can see all her tatoos--shocking!).  This makes good airplay.  That she was able to write her thesis on the topic also makes good airplay, especially in the more repressed Midwest.

Personally, if you want an interesting take on stripping, I'd suggest Diablo Cody's book, Candy Girl.

In some ways this piggy backs on last week's article about Media Exploitation of Sex Worker Pasts.  The media likes to take a relatively boring story and sexy it up.

The title of "Stripping for College Credit" while arguably accurate is ridiculously sensational.  I was hoping that some school had added stripping as a gym credit (now there's a class in which I could've gotten an "A" in my sleep with both arms tied behind my back). 

On the other hand, maybe I'm just too jaded.

I suppose it's good that a college could support this as a topic.  Sex work first needs to be mainstreamed and de-mystified before it can be widely accepted as a legitimate career path.  Perhaps it is work like that will help us get there.

Returning to the first hand, it's difficult to see that happening when the media coverage is so shocked and sensationalistic.  All you have to do is watch the clip and listen to the anchor's tone of voice as she narrates the piece.  The clips they chose of the girl and her professor are perhaps not the best or most articulate clips and ending with the girl saying "get to know your local stripper" like a demented cheerleader demeans the whole piece.

One step forward, two steps back, I suppose.

Comments

[Amanda]

You might like this then:
http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/college-stripper-writes-paper/

XX

[Deliciously Naughty]

Amanda, that was a great link.

Thanks

[Richard]

Salacious sells.

Don't look to the mass news media for anything other than titillation, when it comes to an examination of sexual topics and themes.