Bruno

Discussion (5) ¬

1. 
   Kona

   September 13, 2016 at 12:29 pm | #

   I’ve come to think of Bruno as a friend; bright, witty, perceptive, but also sometimes troubled and fragile. I want to be there for her, but I know I can’t protect her from herself; she has to make her own mistakes.

   I’ve heard lots of rationales for women doing this – and worse – but in most cases the bottom line is they just never bothered to develop any better uses for their lives. If it were me, no matter what other compelling reasons I’d have, I’d always wonder if they weren’t just excuses for settling for the easiest and cheapest way.

   I also want to add that I grew up in a nudist family, back when it was fashionable among the bohemian intelligentsia, and I’ve always made a distinction in my mind between being naked and being naked for money. It’s not the nudity itself; I think Bruno has a nice figure and it was fine when she was posing for artists. It’s the prostitution of her self, of her sexuality, which disappoints me so much.
2. 
   Christopher

   September 13, 2016 at 12:42 pm | #

   “in most cases the bottom line is they just never bothered to develop any better uses for their lives.”

   Which is fair, it’s what you’ve heard, and no doubt there are many case that fit that, maybe even the majority, i don’t know.

   For me, my friends who stripped were mostly trying to financially make it through college, or had drug issues at the time and it was a way to fund that. They came from poor families, and so it was the easiest way to make ends meet. And a lot of the research I did was with the burlesque, which is often done with some love of the performance, and the club in Seattle, closed now i think and I’ve forgotten the name, but which was worker owned.

   I think the only fair thing to say about stripping is: there are all different types, people go in it for all different reasons, and if some of the reasons seem unfavorable it is often connected and influenced by the upbringing and class position, and that people have different opinions on the value of making their sexuality exclusive, and that there are MANY ways to prostitute your sexuality if you’re a woman and this is perhaps just the most blunt.

   Especially, as a man, I do not feel it’s my role at ALL to judge such choices, as we all make our own choices, and I will NEVER know what it’s like to be sexually objectified since puberty.
3. 
   Lau

   September 13, 2016 at 7:05 pm | #

   “I’ve heard lots of rationales for women doing this – and worse – but in most cases the bottom line is they just never bothered to develop any better uses for their lives”

   That is honestly a pretty repulsive attitude. What is wrong with doing sex work? Not a damn thing. It’s not your place to judge how people make their way in life, it’s not your place to judge what is easiest and cheapest, and it’s not your place to judge which jobs are better or worse. You think stripping is easy and cheap? How much stripping have you done yourself?

   With the exact amount of respect that your comment is due: Take your condescending, sex worker exclusionary, judgemental and privileged prejudices and put them where the sun doesn’t shine.
4. 
   Pete Rogan

   September 13, 2016 at 9:32 pm | #

   I take objection to Kona’s dismissal of strippers. Not just for its flippancy, but for its smug moral tone. YOU would never stoop to such a thing, you’re saying. And so you abuse the girl you don’t even get to see. I agree with Chris that, having known girls who worked the pole, it’s not our place to judge them their choice. In many cases it was the easiest way to make money, which, being universally worshipped, is above such petty considerations.

   But I will also note that the choice involves using the very special power women have over men — the ability to command their eyeballs and, directly or indirectly, voluntarily or just as a side-effect. And monetizing it. To some people, that’s nothing more than prostitution. They don’t care for the power women have over them, and resent it deeply without having any moral compunction to control THEMSELVES; they always externalize the threat and blame and shame the women who produced it. Not too different from Kona’s dismissal, really. A failure to appreciate the other side.

   Compassion FAIL.
5. 
   Kona

   September 14, 2016 at 12:30 pm | #

   Criticism received and probably deserved. Albeit, feeling a little judged and dismissed myself. I didn’t know my tone would come across that way.

   I get the impression that Bruno is doing this more for the experience than the money, which I get. I’ve done a lot of things just to be able to say — to myself more than anything — been there, done that. I know what it feels like to be on that side of the street.

   I have known a few nude dancers (not “strippers”) personally in my wanderings, so I think I come by my assessment (not judgment) honestly. And I have done a few things worse than that, so I’m not speaking from any moral high ground, thank you.

   I just wish we didn’t live in a society where prostitution in any form, including the self-delusion of “marrying well”, didn’t exist. I wish there were no such things as strippers, pornography or call girls. I wish that sex, love and beauty were appreciated and enjoyed for themselves, and not commodities to be sold to the highest bidder.

   I know, I wish for a perfect world.