A Life Skills Program for Strippers

by Amber Cooke

En 1984, plusieurs strip-teaseuses ont demandé au YWCA d'organiser un groupe d'auto-soutien à leur intention. Ces femmes se voyaient comme marginalisées par la société, fondamentalement ignorées du système de services sociaux. En 1985, le YWCA a donc offert un programme-pilote mené par une ancienne strip-teaseuse, dans le but de sensibiliser davantage ces femmes à leur situation dans la société, de les aider à mieux connaître et à revendiquer leurs droits, d'accroître leur confiance en elles-mêmes et de leur faire découvrir d'autres possibilités de travail.

La responsable du programme s'est mise en rapport avec les stripteaseuses qui travaillaient dans les bars de la ville. Parallèlement à des rencontres de soutien mutuel, elle a organisé des projets spéciaux pour encourager ces femmes à partager leurs idées et leurs ressources. S'occuper de ce groupe n'a pas été chose facile. Néanmoins, le programme est parvenu à toucher beaucoup d'entre elles et a même permis à quelques-unes de changer de métier ou de reprendre leurs études. Beaucoup ont gagné confiance en elles-mêmes. Le programme est maintenant terminé, mais les connaissances acquises durant toute cette période pourraient permettre de planifier d'autres services à l'intention de ce groupe.

In our Fall 1985 issue, Rita Mifflin prepared an article on the newly initiated Strippers' Life Skills Group, sponsored by the Toronto YWCA. This article summarizes the final report on the activities of this Group.

BACKGROUND

In 1984, a group of Toronto women from the burlesque/striptease field requested a meeting with YWCA staff to discuss the development of a self-help support group. They saw themselves as a group marginalized by society and largely ignored by the existing social service system.

In February, 1985, the Toronto YWCA received funding to implement a pilot program. I was hired as a leader. Group meetings were planned as the focal point of this program, with intensive outreach to the burlesque dancers at their workplaces.

I received a ten-week evening course and a six-week full-time intensive course in Life Skills Coaching. I was also partnered with a Life Skills staff member for six months training and supervision. The following goals were worked out and shared with the women who came to the group meetings:

GOALS / OBJECTIVES

1. Consciousness Raising: To enable this group of women to move beyond their individual concerns to develop a critical analysis of their role in society as women and strippers.
   
   
2. Advocacy: To begin to empower the women to recognize their rights and to take action through advocacy for themselves and other women.
   
   
3. Lifeskills: To increase self confidence and self awareness. To teach about services in the community and career alternatives. To encourage positive, rather than destructive, coping techniques and choices.
   
   
4. Community Education: To educate other groups/women about the realities of a stripper's life and to challenge stereotypes.

Individual participants had a variety of expectations, some more realistic than others. Some women wanted assistance in exploring options to leave the burlesque field, or help to stay in the field with a better understanding of themselves; advocacy skills and knowledge of their rights in the workplace; or help in developing back-up skills. Other women saw the group merely as a social event, and some had unrealistic hopes that the Toronto YWCA would financially support them in developing careers such as singing or dancing.