From student to stripper. During a personal crisis Jessica sought out the sex districts of Copenhagen. What was first meant to be a temporary solution resulted in four years of spilt champagne and postponed dreams. What exactly happened?
Most tourists choose the same route when the train arrives at Hovedbanegården. If you go up the escalators and exit to your right you will have Ströget around the corner and Tivoli right in front of you. And then there are those who choose the back way, the underground passage towards Vesterbro.
Copenhagen has its sex districts just like Hamburg has its Reeperbahn and London has its Soho. Outcasts and addicts live here, but young couples with kids also leave their mark on an area with beautiful houses that is constantly going through gentrification. As the population of Vesterbo has become increasingly wealthy the area has been cleaned up and the problems are now mostly found on one infamous street: Istengade.
The street is lined with strip clubs and sex shops. Women roam the street corners while on the opposite sidesheavily built men are keeping a watchful eye.
Jessica has worked here for four years. On her CV she could call herself a dancer if she would want to write down what she has been doing since 2009 when she last finished a course at Lund University. Back then she was a civil engineer student who had got straight A’s at upper secondary school. How did she end up here?
We’re at Tempo bar in Malmö and we’ve just ordered some wine. Jessica is neatly dressed and doesn’t stand out among the other guests. Even though she’s trying to keep a low profile when it comes to her occupation she seems relaxed when she starts telling us about her first years in Lund.
“I started at the University straight after upper secondary school. But I didn’t fit in among my classmates and became an outsider. And the people who lived in the corridor I moved into had already become really close friends. So unfortunately I neither fit at school nor in my corridor and I became very lonely.
To her, student life in Lund seemed snobby and excluding. She didn’t find the initiation period amusing at all. Being an outsider in an environment where she was expected to fit in only made things worse.
She struggled through the fall semester, and the spring semester began. But after a rough start the feeling of loneliness came back during a visit to her hometown. It all fell apart. Tears came streaming down. She became so depressed that she had to be hospitalized and continuing with her studies was out of the question. Despite this, Jessica tried to take a few courses at a time hoping the antidepressants would keep her going.
“But things just got worse. The medication made me very tired and didn’t help at all. I got fat, gained 20 kilos. You have to produce some results, but I only finished one fourth of the course I needed in order to get financial support from CSN the following semester.”
In the summer she felt better and was looking forward to giving her studies another go. Being rejected by CSN hit her hard. She now had no financial support or income. Jessica, who didn’t have the best relationship with her parents, did not receive any financial help from home.
“In the fall of 2009 I was in a state of panic. I even started borrowing money from people in my corridor, it was awful. I was in such a financial crisis.”
Then the day came when someone from the corridor was flipping through the pages of Metro Student Magazine and stopped at an ad that promised easy money. Jessica saw it. “Copenhagen’s best gentlemen’s club is looking for more Swedish girls – IS IT YOU?”
Dancing had been a hobby of Jessica’s and she had done some poledancing at home. The thought of continuing on to become a stripper had never occurred to her before but now she couldn’t shake it.
“A month went by before I applied. I was like ʻam I really going to show my breasts? ʼ. To me that was a big deal. But my financial situation just got worse and worse and in the end I was like: whatever.”
She was terrified. Showing herself naked was not something she had any special liking for. Moreover she had gained weight, and didn’t think she had the technical skills for the job. But the answer came quickly, “Come here and we’ll show you how it works”. No interviews, no auditions – some pictures was all it took.
She caught the train across the border and was soon in the heart of Copenhagen’s striptease world. Pretty soon it became obvious that the dancing was not the most important part of the job. Poledancing skills and outer beauty was not as important as other things.
Tempo bar is quiet. Jessica looks around the bar and says that it’s about the same size as most strip clubs she has worked in. The strip clubs are small, with one bar and a pole in one corner. In the red light the place can seem glamorous, but it’s very different from the shabby changing rooms and their fluorescent lights, not to mention the run down corridors on the top floor where many of the strippers live.
“When I started I was blue-eyed and naive. The first two weeks I often went into the bathroom and cried after being tricked by customers who didn’t want to pay. Girls would come in and comfort me and say ʻsweetie you are too young for thisʼ, ʻI remember in the beginning I was just like youʼ. After a while you toughen up.
She soon got used to the job, after a couple of weeks the nervousness was gone. Moreover, the business offered something neither going to university nor living in a corridor had given her: friends.
“I was lucky because I soon had a friend and there were some other Swedish girls there. I became part of a great crowd.”
You might think stripping on the big stage generates the most money but this is not the case. The main show pays a set salary of a couple of hundred Danish kronor per evening. But the real money is in meeting the customers. If a customer wants the full experience and the company of a sexy girl he has to buy champagne. And the girls get commission for the champagne.
“The champagne costs a couple of thousand kronor. If the customer buys cheap champagne we don’t get undressed, we just sit and chat with him. But if he buys more expensive champagne, let’s say a guy spends 4000 kronor,we take him to a booth and give him a lapdance. We don’t get undressed just anywhere. When you walk into the club you don’t see any naked girls except for the ones on stage.”
Are there boundaries for what the customer is allowed to do as well?
“Yea, well. Many clubs don’t allow removing panties on stage. They come off in the lap dance room, but the customers are not allowed to touch us down there. And no kissing and things like that.”
So who are the customers?
“It’s all kinds of people. Students sometimes, but mostly businessmen from large companies. I haven’t travelled a lot so instead of saying I’ve been to countries I say the countries have come to me. They’re from all over the world. Australia, Africa, USA. But most of them are Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish. All kinds of ages.”
Is it possible to enjoy working as a stripper? Jessica says the dancing and interacting with the customers is exciting and fun. But at the same time:
“I really want to point out that I don’t encourage anyone to start doing this, I say this to everyone. If my daughter worked as a stripper I would be pissed off. Your brain cells die, you drink heaps of alcohol, you never see daylight, and you do stupid things.”
According to Jessica, the biggest trap is the large amounts of money to be made. For a person who has never had a lot of money the transition can be difficult. As the money started rolling in the extravagance escalated: expensive clothes, cab rides everywhere, and an apartment with a 12 000 kronor rent.
“I’ve most likely thrown away somewhere between half a million and a million kronor. People probably think I’m really stupid now, but you become brainwashed. I’d never had money before and became addicted. You start thinking ʻoh well, I can just go to work again tomorrow and I’ll have more moneyʼ. Out of all the girls I’ve met, somewhere around fifty, there are probably only two who have managed not to spend all their money.”
The drugs are another risk. There’s a heavy flow of cocaine and amphetamine on the streets among the addicts who live in the area. And having self-confidence is an advantage in Jessica’s line of work.
“You often get turned down when trying to sell champagne, since it’s so expensive. On a good night you get at least five nos per yes. Let’s say you get seven nos in one day, in order to get the eighth customer to pay your rent you’d need a couple of shots or a line.”
Jessica used amphetamine for about a year. She says most of the strippers use drugs. A lot of their money pays for their cocaine addiction. Many are alcoholics. Having mental issues is a rule rather than an exception according to her.
“A lot of the girls have borderline personality disorder. Many have bipolar disorder or anxiety. The best stripper in Copenhagen is the one with the lowest self-esteem, but with the most borderline symptoms and the highest need for attention from men. The ones who make the most money are the ones who won’t take no for an answer.”
And being destructive towards others is just as bad as being self-destructive. Jessica tells us about customers’ credit cards being hacked, colleagues who put laxatives in guys’ drinks, and about the ridiculously high prices on all the champagne. She feels that she is a pawn in a game that she fears has made her a worse person.
“If a student walked in back when I was new here and younger I would feel bad and recommend a cheap champagne or give him an extra long lap dance. Nowadays I try to sell the customers the most expensive champagne without considering whether they can afford it or not. I’ve learned how the world works.”
It took Jessica a while to realize that some of her colleagues went with the customers to their hotel room to add a zero to the night’s income. Her guess is that about one fourth of those who work as strippers choose to become prostitutes. But that’s where the safety precautions end; after they leave the strip club no guards will keep an eye on things. Jessica tells us about friends who have been locked in and forced to use a knife to threaten their way out, but she thinks this kind of abuse is rare. She has had sex with customers on a few occasions herself, but for other reasons than to make money.
“I’ve done it for free twice when I’ve become interested in a customer, but that was love. I’ve also had relationships with customers. But I’ve never charged them for sex.”
According to Jessica it’s not unusual for strippers to have relationships with their customers; the problem is getting them to last. She had a long term relationship herself once.
“He was a little different that guy, open-minded. We agreed that I wouldn’t kiss customers on the lips or remove my panties. Just dance, not too much touching. He thought having a girlfriend who was a stripper was cool. I thought I was going to marry him, we continued being best friends long after we had ended our relationship.”
Once Jessica has started talking it’s like she can’t stop, she lets the words flow. When she works she often has to listen. Listen to men who have problems at home, with their love life, and at work.
“The customers think I worship them. I’m really an interviewer. I’ve had customers who didn’t ask me one single question. I’ve noticed that it’s much more fun to talk about yourselfthan listen to someone else.”
Many of Jessica’s colleagues keep their job a secret. Even though Jessica isn’t ashamed of what she does she is afraid society might judge her. Celebrating Christmas in her apartment, with her sister as her only company, was partly because she had chosen to be honest with her family about her job.
“My family was frantic after I’d told them. Many of the girls say they are bartenders. I told my parents the truth. For many years I didn’t even talk to them, but things are better between us now. I’ve told them I will stop working and start studying again. A stripper ad can really ruin a girl’s life.”
A red house with white corners.An evergreen forest. Silence. This is home to Caroline Jensen, author of the novel Champagneflickan that came out in 2008 where she tells the story of her year as a stripper in Copenhagen. Following a fire in her apartment that had devastating effects on her economy, she chose to put her studies in Lund on hold and earn some easy money in the Danish capital.
Today she’s an author, a journalist, and a mother. Through the window in her kitchen you can see the garden and the pine trees. She makes a cup of instant coffee and puts it on the table. Caroline Jensen is probably the only one in her neighborhood who owns a wardrobe full of Chanel dresses. Thirteen years have passed since she worked as a stripper in Denmark. She has achieved three university degrees and has had several books published, but it’s still her time as a stripper that people mostly want to talk about when they contact her.
“This job is like a tattoo. Once it becomes public it never goes away. I’m ok with being the voice of this, but I think it’s quite comic. For instance, I’ve worked as a berry picker for much longer, but no one writes articles about the berry picker who became an author.”
Just like Jessica, Caroline Jensen thinks working as a stripper suited her.
“Dancing turned me on. That made it fun and exciting. Sure you can look at the big picture and see the structures and the objectification, but once the situation becomes sexual those things aren’t as prominent. It’s like having sex with someone, you don’t think about the fact that you’re being objectified, you’re in the moment and your moral has gone out the window.”
She would like to strike a blow for not making such a big deal of sex work. In her book she says stripping is just like any other job. Strippers have good days and bad days, same goes for police officers and nurses. She opposes the view that sex workers are unhappier or less talented than the average person, a view that according to her is prejudice. She doesn’t share Jessica’s experience of an environment that attracts people with mental issues. She even thinks the business can be easier compared to many others.
“You basically just have to walk around and look good, talk to people, and sell your stuff. Then you have to get up on stage four times per evening and put on a show that lasts eight minutes. Compared to other jobs, wearing high heels, drinking champagne and getting a shitload of money is pretty good.”
Turning people on while dancing on stage strengthened Caroline Jensen’s self-esteem. At the same time she wants to emphasize the importance of not letting this become your only source of acknowledgement.
“It’s an adventure. But you shouldn’t stay too long, because with alcohol clouding your judgment and the money right in front of you, you easily put other things lower on your list of priorities and I think that’s something you’ll regret. Stripping isn’t a lifelong career.”
The risk of getting stuck is the biggest danger according to Caroline Jensen, and the easy money plays a big part in this. Caroline Jensen recognizes Jessica’s story of buying luxury products on impulse. She also confirms the threat posed by the enormous amounts of alcohol “champagne-girls” drink.
“If you drink four bottles of champagne six nights a week you definitely become an alcoholic sooner or later. And then a lot of problems follow and maybe you become that fragile person people expect you to be.”
In spite of everything, Caroline Jensen made an easy transition back to student life both economically and socially. Talking openly about what she had done was a winning strategy for her. Her friends and family already knew what she was doing during her years in Copenhagen.
“I’m not the kind of person who leads a double life the way many others do. I don’t find things embarrassing. Of course people ask me questions, but they are very seldom rude to me. If you try to keep things secret they often get blown out of proportion.”
Caroline Jensen believes the stigma surrounding sex work is something you need to be prepared for, but depending on how you deal with it the burden can weigh very different on different people. She doesn’t think there is a clear line between what is considered prostitution and what is not, especially in Denmark where it’s legal.
“The decision to take it one step further is easier after three or four bottles of champagne and when someone is waving a bunch of money in your face. But taking that step means even more stigma. I know a few people who have worked as prostitutes and they say the toughest thing they had to deal with was the people around them and not their own morals. Once you’ve worked as a prostitute you become the job, as a person and for ever so to speak.”
Jessica and Caroline are only two voices among many others. Their stories don’t give an objective view on what it’s like to work as a stripper in Copenhagen. Some of Caroline Jensen’s experiences are positive while Jessica has experienced a world that ruins lives.
Niclas Olsson, development officer at the department for sexual health in Malmö, has surveyed sex workers in Skåneas well as the whole country. In his work he has met sex workers, mostly prostitutes, and asked them their opinions on their job.
He sees the differences between Jessica’s and Caroline’s stories as a confirmation that it is difficult to make generalizations regarding the experiences of sex workers.
“One should be aware of the fact that this is a complicated world. My interviews have yielded subjective views of people who tell their side of the story. Overall, there is not much statistical research made in the area.”
Niclas Olsson believes going through an economic crisis is a common reason to start working as a stripper. Quite often you get the job through someone you know who has connections in the business.
One common misconception is that sex work is the only source of income for people in the business. Interestingly enough, Niclas Olsson’s survey of prostitutes across the country, Handlar det om val, suggests the opposite. Only 11 per cent of the participants said that selling sex is their sole source of income. In addition, 22 per cent got financial support from CSN. The numbers don’t show how many of the participants only do striptease, but this could imply that for many this is just a job they have on the side. But what decides whether or not you stay in the business for a long time?
“It probably depends a lot on what it is that attracts you to the job. In one investigation a sex worker said that students often came in during holidays to save up enough money to not need financial support for the rest of the semester. But of course if you don’t have a job or studies to attend it’s easier to stay in a situation where you earn more money than you would doing a regular job.”
The luxurious lifestyle that Jessica and Caroline both have fallen for is something that Niclas Olsson recognizes, but he has also met people who save the money or use it to pay off loans. He believes being addicted to money is very much a cultural phenomenon. The longer you stay the more you change and the harder it gets to go back to living a normal life.
“You live inside a bubble and your view of money might not be a normal one. I think you’re shaped by the world you’re in and get shut off from the values of society.”
Niclas Olsson emphasizes that people who start working in the sex industry easily end up in a downward spiral, especially if they haven’t decided beforehand how long they intend to stay and how far they are willing to go. He talks of a sliding scale where striptease often times becomes prostitution without it being planned for.
Whether or not mental instability is as common as Jessica claims Niclas Olsson cannot say.
“Of course there are cases of mental instability, but I don’t know how common it is. However, if you are mentally unstable when you enter the business you will have problems because you won’t be as well prepared for what might happen.”
According to Niclas Olsson the shame that strippers experience is common among Swedish sex workers. The fear of people pointing fingers at you and not being seen as trustworthy is big.
Jessica is relatively anonymous in Sweden. There have been times when people have lowered their voices behind her back and wondered if it really is true, if “she is that stripper?”. But to most people she is just a regular girl, and that’s the way she wants it to be.
After a psychosis almost a year ago she stopped taking drugs. Jessica has started sorting out her economy and is going back to school. She has already taken the first step: this Christmas she worked her last shift at the strip club. The last four years make out a gap in her CV, but have filled her life with experiences that few other people have. Now she’s looking forward to doing something else.
“I’ve gone through a strange stage in my life and I long to become normal again.”
*Jessica really goes by a different name.
Text: Kenneth Carlsson & Karin Furenhed
Translation: Karin Briheim
