“What I got a problem with is the stripper myth […] I’m stripping to pay my tuition.
No you’re not. There’s no strippers in college. There’s no clear heels in biology […] And if they got so many strippers in college how come I never got a smart lap dance?
I never got a girl that sat on my lap and said, ‘If I was you I would diversify my portfolio. You know, ever since the end of the cold war I find NATO obsolete.’”
- Chris Rock

The words from Chris Rock’s standup ring true to the stereotypes society has placed upon exotic dancers. Due to the stigma attached to strip clubs people tend to hold the women who work there at a certain status. This status is one that does not deserve the respect one would get from say going to college and getting a degree.

As Stephanie Sweetman put it in her article titled Strippers in College: Just Plain Skanky, “Leave the stripper jobs for high school dropouts and drug addicts.”

Though it appears that many may feel this way about the exotic dancing industry it is a whole other story when you actually talk to some of the girls who are dancing to pay their way through school.

“It’s just a stepping stone for me right now,” explained Nikita, an exotic dancer at Pure Pleasure in Richmond who danced her way through the last year and half of school at Virginia Commonwealth University.

While one may not think of a future dental hygienist or writer for the New York Times in pasties and a thong with nine-inch stilettos on stage seductively hypnotizing the crowd for money, some may be surprised to find what degrees these women are seeking or surprisingly already have.