The short answer is, “No more than anyone else.”  Everyone on the planet has “Daddy Issues” to some degree.  But both the scientific evidence and my more than 30 years experience of being close friends with many strippers says the stereotype that strippers have daddy issues is wrong.

STRIPPERS DANCE FOR MONEY NOT ATTENTION

Shocking I know.  The stereotype says that strippers were molested, abandoned or mistreated by their fathers at a young age and that is what causes them to take their clothes off and spin around on a pole/phallic symbol and grind on stranger’s laps in search of validation.  That may be true of a few strippers.  But the truth for most strippers is they make more money working fewer hours as an exotic dancer than they could at some minimum wage or even mid level job. Dancers in Las Vegas, net $60,000 to well over $150,000 a year.  Many only work 3-4 nights a week.  That gives them lots free time to spend with their children or finishing college, which 1 in 3 actually are according to research.  That gives them disposable income to pay off their student loans faster and enjoy their lives.  Most of you would gladly take a job that required you to walk around topless if it paid you 6 figures for less than 40 hours of work. And you get to drink on the job!  You’d probably even act sexy for that job.  Does that mean you were abused as a child and have daddy issues?  No, it means just like strippers, you like money!

READY TO GO GIVE STRIPPERS A FEW BUCKS? 

COMMON SENSE SUGGESTS STRIPPERS DON’T HAVE DADDY ISSUES

Think about it.  It takes huge confidence to be naked in front of strangers. Even more confidence to get up on a stage and do pole tricks and dance while acting sexy for strangers.  Then walk around 6 or 8 hours a night getting rejected hundreds of times when you ask a customer to buy a lap dance or for VIP time.  For some reason customers in strip clubs are hyper-critical of women they could never attract in the real world.  They criticize everything. I actually once heard a customer reject an absolutely gorgeous stripper’s lap dance offer because he thought the mole on the back of her right shoulder was hideous.  I hear normal guys talk about “freezing up” “fear of rejection” and “approach anxiety” when they want to meet women. Strippers approach hundreds of times each night and get rejected hundreds of times each night.  Without high self-esteem, they couldn’t do it.  

You cannot imagine the huge levels of self-confidence it takes to be a successful stripper.  I suggest to you that a timid, afraid, abused, person who is desperately seeking the approval of strangers to satisfy some sick need for daddy’s approval doesn’t have the self-confidence required to be a stripper and take the constant criticism and rejection.

THE AVERAGE STRIPPER LIKELY HAS A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER PARENTS THAN YOU DO

And there is scientific research to prove it.  A study by pediatricians and published at Healthychildren.org documented that

• 66% of strippers were raised by both parents–about the same as the rest of us.   
• 91% of strippers are “close with both parents”–better than the rest of us.
• 78% of strippers had no exposure at all to nudity or pornography as children–can 22% of you say that?

IF DADDY ISSUES AND ABUSE CAUSED YOU TO BECOME A STRIPPER, THE WORLD WOULD BE FILLED WITH STRIP CLUBS AND STRIPPERS

Statistics show

• 1 in every 6 American women has been raped or the victim of attempted rape
• Child Service Protection Agencies identify over 200,000 children a year who are sexually abused
• Most of the sexual assault against children comes from family members 34.2% or close acquaintances 58.7%

Let’s face it.  None of us had perfect fathers or families, which means we all have some “daddy issues.”  We have a huge sexual abuse problem in this country and we need to face that and fix it rather than stripper bashing.

Read those numbers above again…If the whole “daddy issues” myth were true half the women in America would be strippers.

Perpetuating this myth ignores the deeper issue of child sexual abuse…probably because it makes us uncomfortable to face the fact that so many children are abused and assaulted in their own homes.  Rather than deal with a true problem our society chooses to make stripper jokes.  Sounds like strippers are normal and the rest of us making jokes and continuing stereotypes are the ones who have issues.

WANT TO GO SEE SOME OF LAS VEGAS BEST EDUCATED WELL ADJUSTED WOMEN WHO JUST HAPPEN TO TAKE THEIR CLOTHES OFF FOR A LIVING?