Seven years working in a Wellington strip club has not only given Eve* a thick skin, it's also taught her how to stand up for herself and others.
She is one of 19 women taking political action against unfair working conditions at their former workplace Calendar Girls and other adult entertainment venues around Aotearoa.
"The work itself, I don't think there's anything exploitative about it … But with management, we get bullied into walking on eggshells and just being silenced," she tells Kim Hill.
Wellington stripper's advocacy group Fired Up Stilettos at a protest for better employment conditions on 18 February 2023 Photo: @19firedupstilettos
Eve and the 18 other Calendar Girls dancers who refused the terms of their 2023 contracts were subsequently fired by Courtenay Place club late last year.
To campaign for improved industry standards and independent contractor protection in the adult entertainment industry, they've formed an activist group called Fired Up Stilettos.
Strong boundaries are the biggest determinant of your safety as a stripper, Eve says, and although you become good at asserting your own with customers this hasn't been possible with club managers.
The 19 women fired by Calendar Girls were the most experienced, highest-earning dancers at the club, she says.
"That sent across a message of no matter how much money you make, you are disposable, you will be replaced, you are not valued."
In her time at Calendar Girls, Eve says she saw the level of security provided by the management drop.
She worries newcomers to the industry – often "fresh-faced people straight out of high school" – won't know how to advocate for themselves the way experienced strippers have learnt to.
"It's quite well known that dancing is lucrative and damn near anyone will be willing to fill the gaps, I suppose. They just don't know any better ... I'm not saying it's a bad job but you need to have a thick skin. You really need to know how to stick up for yourself."
Eve says there's nothing wrong with stripping itself but "everything wrong" with what those who manage clubs can currently get away with.
"If we stick up for ourselves we risk being disciplined, we risk being fired, we risk being blacklisted. That's what's so exploitative."
A performer at the 18 February 2023 protest by New Zealand stripper's advocacy group Fired Up Stilettos. Photo: @firedupstiletto / Twitter
Sex work involves "transactional consent", Eve says, and she doesn't see it as incompatible with feminism.
"If it's between me and a customer, I have total control, I have complete agency."
She and the other women of Fired Up Stilettos hope to continue working in the industry they're passionate about.
"We like it, we consent to it, we do it because we want to.
"Technically we're the ones exploiting these men who are forking out crazy amounts of money to hang out with us, you know?"
After obtaining a university degree in Public Health, Eve has learnt how loneliness can be a killer and she sees nothing wrong with people engaging ex-workers as a means of overcoming that.
While Eve provides a service for the "touch-starved", she does not have sex with clients and doesn't allow them to touch her between the legs or any mouth contact.
While dancers – who strip nude over the course of two songs – get tips after their performance, the real money to be made in strip clubs is in lap dances, VIP bookings and spa bookings, Eve says.
"I have a lot of experience in how to not let people waste your time and how to be strategic about it, I do quite well."
Outside of the strip club, she's "not hyperfeminine" and once inhabiting her performance persona is "completely unrecognisable".
On her CV though, the two come together – Eve has included dancing on her CV and scored interviews for jobs with government agencies and councils.
People are now starting to recognise adult entertainment is "real" work, she says.
"There is certainly a stigma that remains. I think [the Fired Up Stilettos] movement is going to be instrumental in pushing out the last of it."
* Eve is not her real name.
Fired Up Stilettoes has received support from Green MP Jan Logie, visiting English musician Billy Bragg and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. You can follow their cause on Twitter and Instagram.
Green MP Jan Logie lends her support to the dancers and their right to employment protections. Photo: Supplied
