My Story
I was alienated from my labor, unable to control my own work, or granted access to the economic value I produced.
As a college-educated woman who grew up in the Boston area, my fifteen years as a stripper gave me invaluable insight into labor exploitation and the power of owning one’s work.
I entered the strip club world in my twenties—embracing life, exploring the world, and dancing on stage. Years after I had left, a class-action lawsuit revealed the extent of the exploitation I had unknowingly endured. Significant portions of my earnings had been withheld. This revelation awakened me to how cultural forces shape life decisions in ways that enable exploitation under capitalism. I came to understand that I had been alienated from my labor—stripped of agency, denied economic value, and prevented from making decisions about my work. Had I controlled my labor, I could have earned five times more.
That realization launched me into a journey of self-education on labor law, propaganda, and economic autonomy. I learned how oligarchic systems thrive by bending rules, controlling narratives, and exploiting workers at every level.
My experience with exploitation extended beyond the strip club. I briefly worked at a bachelor party agency where, again, I was underpaid and mistreated, despite being fluent in English and having a college degree—a confirmation that labor exploitation is not a rare abuse, but a widespread norm. It's shocking that after 18 years of formal education, most workers still graduate without any real understanding of labor rights or history.
I also observed the varying faces of exploitation across the sex industry. At massage parlors, workers often earned far less than independent sex workers. When I worked in a legal brothel in Sydney, Australia, I watched how technology enabled new forms of coercion. Women were threatened with dismissal if they refused certain sexual acts. The similarities between brothels and strip clubs were unmistakable—middlemen, fast transactions, cheapened labor. What I call the “McMiddle” or “troll toll” phenomenon reflects how sex work culture increasingly mirrors fast-food capitalism: exploitative, transactional, and dehumanizing.
Despite the class-action lawsuit, I never recovered most of my lost wages: I was owed up to $180,000. My former employers, men in their 60s, profited millions off the labor of young women in their 20s. Those profits will never be returned. The system failed to protect us.
I transitioned towards self-employment around four years ago and immediately experienced a significant improvement in working conditions. I valued the freedom to set prices, determine working hours, and select clients—I fully owned my labor. The challenges faced by brothels in retaining workers and resorting to coercion of women from overseas emphasize the importance of data ownership and control to assert dominance in these exploitative environments. The state will not protect people from economic violence. The system is fixed against vulnerable people, women, and workers!
I created this project. I aim to help young people navigate the cosmic onslaught of misinformation perpetrated by the oligarchy and the capitalist forces that profoundly shape our lives. As feminist rapper Tupac Shakur said, "I know you’re fed up, ladies, but keep your head up."
We offer one-on-one peer mentorship for free. For real sex workers who actually have skin in the game. We understand many of the unique challenges that sex workers face. There are no brothel owners or platform owners affiliated in our peer mentorship program. If interested please email us. reginageorge@howorkresearchgroup.org
—Regina George
Sources:
Strippers sue club over tips, wages https://youtu.be/LiImnmMzuuc?si=W8xm5j9itvKZLvSS
They should have to pay us’: More exotic dancers join lawsuit against Tuscola gentleman’s club https://youtu.be/M9vM5sUYq2I?si=-2KOyttZNhmhBxmP
Exotic Dancers https://www.llrlaw.com/exotic-dancers/
Labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan defends the “whole social fabric of employment.” https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/02/labor-litigator#:~:text=Since%20then%2C%20she%20has%20successfully%20sued%20national,under%20state%20law.%20(Both%20cases%20were%20settled.)