I like strip clubs and hot punk girls, but the sheer number of these places really seems to drive the point home that the coolest job a hip girl in Portland can have is stripper, and honestly, that kind of depresses me.

I got my start as a dancer at Mary's. They were reasonable and the girls were nice. Definitely my favorite club in Portland.

You didn't do a decent "dancer's" dive in Pornland! The Acropolis? Really? Did you get any pubic hair with your slop? Try Starz, Doc's or Dancin'Bare next trip!

I went to Mary's once for the birthday of my trailcrew boss. After buying him a dance, I decided to get one for myself. $350 of private lap dances later my friends were gone and the dancer STILL refused to marry me. I took a cell phone picture of myself drunk in a bus shelter to remind myself never ever to do it again. It was great.

It would be interesting to read an interview with these strippers. As an outsider, I can't think of a grodier job than grinding on the laps of strangers, many of whom are just nasty. In other cities, you assume the strippers do it purely for the money. But the Portland girls seem too much like your average, middle class, educated girls with options, so I always wonder what the hell motivates them. I've never really been comfortable enjoying these places because I assume the girls must have issues. I'd love to hear otherwise, if that's the case.

#32, Since you state there are jobs you consider "worse and more degrading," obviously you hold your own judgments about certain types of work.

I'm not anti-stripper, and if I weren't curious about them, I wouldn't want to read an interview with them.

You included the caveat, "It's not like people always strip for life," as if doing so would make a woman less worthy of respect than those who move on to obtain non-sex work jobs. I wonder whether you are really any less judgmental than those of us simply asking blunt questions.

@33: "You included the caveat, "It's not like people always strip for life," as if doing so would make a woman less worthy of respect than those who move on to obtain non-sex work jobs. I wonder whether you are really any less judgmental than those of us simply asking blunt questions."

I indicated that it's often a transitional job, not a career. You're judging their entire life and attitudes on something with a ton of turnover.

@34: "@undead ayn rand - this city has the beterosexual energy of a dead, rotting corpse. sorry, but true. if portland is 'pornlandia' then seattle is 'nerdlandia'"

Eh, I've never had any issues, YMMV.

@35: "the city is prudish and ant-sex, in particular, anti-man"

The state's anti-sex policies are anti-woman, they're not anti-man just because you can't get a good titty bar.

#36: "You're judging their entire lives and attitudes..." Huh? Where the hell did you get that from? I neither said nor implied that.

I read an interview this weekend with Portland young adult writer Blake Nelson (Paranoid Park, Girl) where he said the 90s were a great time to be young woman, when they took themselves seriously as a group and as a gender and everyone wanted to know what girls were thinking and were interested in. He said things have swung back around and that our culture is once again very male, with women in their 20s focusing on being attractive and appealing and not being as forthcoming with their opinions.

I agree with him and think all the hipster strip clubs, burlesque troops, and suicide girls-type porn is pretty indicative of this.

#43, What would be the point of providing you with any kind of analysis when you haven't paid any attention to anything I've actually said? I didn't claim to understand strippers. I used the term "baffled," in fact.

However, as a woman in my 30s who has been obsessed with female musicians since I saw Blondie on The Muppet Show, grew up reading Sassy and Bust back when in was still printed on newsprint and before it devolved into a fashion magazine, has been in all girl bands for ten years and DJ'd an international girl pop night for four, and has been seeking out and going to see girl bands regularly since the 90s, I think I'm more than qualified to speak to the change in audience and interest in girl culture. I could easily provide you with dozens of examples of this, such as how a friend's band was turned down by a huge indie label because "They'd already signed a lot of girl bands that year," because what was a selling point in the 90s is now back to having a quota. But you'd just dismiss them all, based on how dismissive you've been of everything else I've said.

Jesus, all you have to do is look at a line up of popular indie musicians from the 90s (Kim and Kelly Deal, Juliana Hatfield, Kristen Hersh, Tanya Donnelly, Sinead O'Conner, L7, Concrete Blonde, The Lunachicks, Mia Zappata) versus the popular indie musicians now to see that sex appeal and appearance has become a huge factor in whether a female musician gets written about. In the 90s, the girls dressed the same as the guys. Now the guys still get to dress like schlubs, but the girls who make it have to either be pretty or dress interestingly. My band is attractive and we got our picture in The Stranger without them writing a single word about our music. Of course, there are exceptions in both decades, but as a whole, that's how things are.