Lapdancer

By: Beasley, Juliana

Beasley, who spent eight years as a professional lapdancer, regularly brought a camera to the clubs and began recording testimoneis from managers, dancers and patrons. The result is this inside look at the world of professional nude dancers, culled from thousands of photographs and endless hours of interviews. This is an unsentimental look at an oft-caricatured but rarely understood universe, which uncovers a treasure-trove of fin-de-siecle metaphors...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576871398
• ISBN13: 9781576871393
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: powerHouse Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.9" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

medium rare

when I first saw this book, it captured my attention right away. Finally, a real life account of a woman with a plan who "chooses" the darker side of employment to find finacial security. Not only that, but it included short stories from the woman she worked with AND the customers they served. How could this get better? PICTURES! very real pictures of real people displaying the Grit, the Glamore, and sometimes the "I don't want to see that". I love artsy coffee table type books and this is now a permanent fixture in my living room. I've spent many a night in the loud, dark, smokey clubs filled with naked woman shaking their ass-ettes in my face. I never truly understood the truth behind their job or life style untill I picked up this book. This book is real, its raw, and it sheds a dim light on the subject of stripping. I recomend this book to anyone who has ever been to aa strip club, or entertained the idea of working at one.

Insightful Interpretation of Strip World

Great book, the photo's are an insightful look into a world most of us never see.Beasely captures natural and spontaneous moments that at times were shocking and sensitive towards the subject matter. As a veteran stripper, she looks wisely at her own experience working as a lapdancer. The book is also interspersed with sincere interviews with customers and dancers. throughout the book. Unlike other readers in the review section, I was particuliarly moved by the humanization of the subjects instead of what one normally sees--sensationalized male fantasies. No Barbie dolls here! Most impressive are the customers' honest dire need for closeness and the dancers sincere ambivalence about their relationships and simultaneous cunning to make a good salary.I found this book a contradictory pleasure and at the same time a bolt disturbing reality of a world in which the lonely buy affection and attention. I'm thankful there are some artists out there who are not afraid of showing the truth without imbedding their own feminist agendas into the framework of a documetary book which is complete with photos and text.A must read!

A recommended book for documentary photography lovers

I was shocked and disappointed to see the copy of Lapdancer placed high up above everyone's heads in the Barns and Noble in Philadelphia. Are they afraid someone might get lost in their fantasies and daydreams of Lapdancing in the pages? The photos are not porn, they are real, honest and though sometime awkward to look at, they represent a world which is rarely revealed or shared. The beauty of the book are the photographs and the moments spent paging through and look at the vivid and intimate images of the dancers are what makes this so incredibly powerful.Regardless of where the book was placed, I bought a copy and have been sharing it with friends ever since.

Superbly intelligent

I was bowled over by this book--incredible insight by the author. While the pictures are fascinating, it's really the text that grabbed me. I was astonished by the complexity and depth and honesty of Beasley's text. I would give this book the highest recommendation.

a realistic look

When I first got my copy of Lapdancer, I looked at every picture without reading the text. The pictures are certainly gritty, depressing and both the men and women appear hard, ugly and sometimes pathetic. I must also note at this point that to take pictures of dancers and customers in a working strip club (and enough pictures to make a book), is extremely rare and should be commended right from the start.Then I read the accompanying text. Beasley herself was a realistic dancer who did not fool herself into any mind games. She worked for her money and worked hard. Most of the other strippers that she knew seemed to have the same pragmatic attitude. There is little posturing in this book about control, feminist politics, society at large, her personal relationships or how her life was changed, other than the fact that she made this book. She also collected numerous stories from both dancers and customers and these stories accompany the majority of the pictures, making up the main text of the book. The men always seem to end up heartbroken, or at least with a bruised ego. The women, if not talking about a personal relationship, are simply working. To make money they know they have to play a certain game and they do. Sometimes they recount things that happened on the job that were shocking or hurtful to them. If you want sweeping social generalizations, then you could see this as the War Between the Sexes stripped down to the bare bones. But those are my words, Beasley does not make these claims. She simply presents what she has experienced. Overall, this is a very honest look at the strip club dynamic. While most clubs in America are topless clubs, not nude lapdance clubs, the words of this book ring true. The pictures are extreme, to me, since this was not my reality while I danced. I can appreciate the honesty which comes through, however. I would give it 10 stars if they had that many, so for now, five will have to do.