Ohio- At Rachel’s Showbar in Canal Winchester, an exotic pole dancer dances onstage to upbeat music, occasionally pausing as onlookers put dollar bills in her garter.
In just a couple of months, this will be illegal.
Ohio Senate passed a law May 16 imposing new restrictions on strip clubs that includes a rule that dancers must be at least six feet away from patrons at all times. The law will take effect in late August.
The law has many industry professionals concerned that the boundaries will hurt business.
“It’s really scary,” said Jasmine Manista, an Ohio University sophomore and professional dancer. “How am I supposed to pay for college now?”
Manista, a nursing student who also plays rugby, said she got into the industry to delect the cost of going to school.
Since beginning work as a dancer, Manista has become familiar with the profession’s culture, which includes stringent rules about attire and customer interaction.
Dancers usually are not permitted to wear body glitter or perfume that would transfer onto married men, Manista said. Most clubs have a house mom or bouncer who examines the girls’ make-up, nails and toes before they go on.
Dancers can spend hundreds of dollars on just one outfit, she said.
The pressures to stay thin are immense as well. “You have to watch every little thing that goes into your body and wonder if it’s worth it,” she said.
Clubs also are strict about the relationship between dancers and patrons: Manista was fired from her first job for a brief conversation with a customer outside of the club. Girls do not give their real names and usually lie about their ages, she said.
Despite the pressure, Manista stands by her profession. “It’s great because I can go to school and have a little extra money to go places with friends,” she said.
However, most dancers make the majority of their money on private dances and shared drinks with patrons and not on the stage, she said, adding that she makes several hundred dollars on a typical night.
“A very small percentage of that is from the stage — you don’t make your money (there),” Manista said. “This (law) would eliminate those opportunities to make money. So what, I can’t have a drink with a customer?”
Customers pay between $30 and $300 to share a drink with a dancer, who keeps a percentage of the profit, Manista said.
The new legislation will shut down strip clubs or force them to turn into regular bars, said Anthony Mede, manager of Rachel’s Showbar.
“I don’t agree with it. A lot of the girls here are just trying to go to college, and the hours are convenient,” he said. “This job pays for people to go to college, and there are other things that the state should be worried about.”
Club owners would be forced to eliminate private dances and probably would have to resort to putting girls behind glass windows to dance, Mede said.
The biggest concern to the industry is the constitutional issue, but the law also is troublesome for business, said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the National Association of Club Executives.
ACE is a trade association composed of people in the adult entertainment industry that seeks to dispel myths about the business, Spencer said.
This legislation is an attempt to put a “scarlet letter” on girls in the business, she said.
“There will be an infusion of fear in the club when you slap a fourth-degree misdemeanor on the entertainer,” she said. “It takes the element of camaraderie out of the club and could be biased by the beliefs of the law enforcement official.”
ACE almost certainly will file a lawsuit, Spencer said, adding that they also were exploring other options that she couldn’t discuss.
Meanwhile, dancers such as Manista dread when the law takes effect.
“I don’t think that I can pay for college on a Burger King salary,” she said. “This is really, really awful.”
