From Rolling Stone, EJ Dickson discusses the unfortunate situation facing exotic dancers who are classified as independent contractors and are injured at work. Genea Sky, whose 15 foot fall went viral, has a GoFundMe page and has raised almost $40,000 but other injured independent contractors are not not so lucky. EJ writes:
For the most part, exotic dancers are classified as independent contractors, meaning that clubs have no obligation to provide health insurance or workers’ compensation if they are injured on the job. In recent years, dancers have organized to change this business model, and in many cases they have done so successfully. A 2019 California judgment classified dancers as full-time employees rather than freelancers, establishing such basic protections as $12 minimum wage. In states outside California, many dancers are pushing for clubs to revise a business model that means that dancers disproportionately rely on tips as income, and do not receive any full-time benefits such as health care or paid leave.“Clubs in Texas never pay for medical care or time off, since we are contractors and not employees,” says Montoya. “The long term damage that does on our bodies since we are working through injuries is insane.”
In an interview with TMZ, CEO Eric Langan, the head of RCI Hospitality Holdings, which owns XTC Cabaret, said they planned to provide Sky with financial assistance, which Sky confirmed to Rolling Stone. “I’m fortunate enough that my club is actually helping me, which is not the case most of the time,” she says. Langan also said the club had no plans to get rid of the pole where she had her accident, a decision that Sky says she agrees with: “The whole club shouldn’t be changed because of one simple mishap.” (XTC Cabaret did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
But while Sky says her employer will be helping her out with the aftermath of her injuries, she acknowledges that most people in the industry are not as fortunate, and that the fallout from the viral video of her accident has “given me the opportunity to shed light on the circumstances facing other dancers.” “We get dehumanized so often that people don’t think about this kind of stuff,” she says. That’s amply demonstrated by some people’s reactions to the viral video, which has fed into the stigma surrounding stripping. Many replies to Sky’s viral tweet made light of her injuries and her profession, such as one reply that read “If that jaw still working tho I got a task for you hehe.”Sky is largely unfazed by such ignorant responses, and says that for the most part, the online response to her plight has been generous and supportive. While she plans to leave the industry after she recovers from her injuries, saying it was not something she planned to do “long term” and she had wanted to quit prior to her accident, if nothing else she’s happy that it has shone a light on “a conversation that needs to be had” about the issues facing dancers on the job.
“We put our bodies through a lot physically, and we undergo a lot of emotional distress. We have families, we have school, we have people we need to take care of,” she says. “We’re like any other worker at any other desk job, and [my injury] has brought attention to that.”
Read the full story at What’s Next for the Exotic Dancer Whose Fall Off a Pole Went Viral? – Rolling Stone
