Valentina the Catholic stripper
By the look of her, you wouldn’t know her profession. She wears a hat pulled down and gym clothes, and saunters into the restaurant.
She shyly smiles and greets me, and I am hit with a scent of perfume.
As she is known on the stage, Valentina became a dancer at Scarlett’s Cabaret when she was 18. Now that she’s 21, she’s learned the tricks of the trade.
She knows how to make the most amount of money, what days are best to work and the right things to say to customers. She knows how to pole dance, as well as how to disrobe with style and grace.
She was also raised Catholic.
Valentina was born in Ohio, to a Mexican Catholic family. For those who don’t know, Mexican Catholicism can be very strict, and children are usually raised with lots of supervision. In Valentina’s case,
Her family doesn’t know what she does for a living. In fact, she hasn’t spoke to her father since she moved.
“(My parents) are Catholic, and from Mexico,” Valentina said. “They’re close-minded people. The way I was raised was OK, but being close-minded doesn’t help.”
Valentina’s childhood may have been strict and a little old-school, but Valentina said that’s how Mexican families normally raise their children.
‘When you go to a strip club, you don’t really see many Mexican girls working there,” Valentina said. “All the Latina girls are all Cuban or something. (Mexicans) are very conservative people, and they’re very, like, not out there at all.
“If you get married you can’t divorce,” Valentina said. “If you have any mental issues, you have to box that up, because it’s like a sin. It’s fucking psycho.”
The pressures from her family caused Valentina to skip town with two suitcases and about $500, and had to quickly find a source of income.
“I left my apartment and my car, and came here,” Valentina said. “I started serving, but I didn’t have money for anything, like, it was bullshit.”
Before Valentina moved to Florida, she moved into a friend’s place while she finished high school. There would be days when she couldn’t eat because she didn’t have money for lunch, and she considered dancing.
“My parents owned Mexican restaurants in town, and they knew just about every Mexican person in town,” Valentina said. “I also have an arrow tattoo, so they would definitely find out. I was broke as fuck back then.”
After she moved to Florida, her roommate at the time introduced her to a friend who was a dancer, and that’s what kicked things off. She began dancing at Scarlett’s Cabaret in Fort Myers, where she has been since.
Many dancers join the industry because they grew up dancing and love it. In Valentina’s case, she is just in it for the money.
“I didn’t even grow up wearing heels or partying, ever,” Valentina said. “So I didn’t know how to dance or do anything at all.”
While dancing wasn’t in her background growing up, it was something she was able to pick up in no time.
“I used to work during the days, so you have all this time to practice before anyone walks through the door,” Valentina said. “You just watch and observe, then try it out. It’s a lot of practice, like everything.”
‘They automatically assume stuff because I’m a stripper.’
While many people from the outside see the profession as all fun and games, Valentina has to deal with the common misconceptions people have of dancers, as well as separating her personal life from her professional life.
Valentina has been a dancer for over three years, and it is still something that she feels she has to hide from the world outside of Scarlett’s.
“I’ll sometimes be at stores, and I’ll whip out a bunch of ones, and the cashier will be like ‘what do you do?’” Valentina said. “Then I’ll be like, “oh, I’m a server.’ I haven’t told anybody yet, because it’s usually old ladies, and I don’t want to be like, ‘yeah, I’m a stripper.’
“I don’t tell people what I do, because of that reason. I don’t want to be at a bar or a party, and they automatically assume stuff because I’m a stripper. I don’t like the disrespect like that.”
‘You make a lot of money by actually sitting down and talking to people.’
At the end of the day, Valentina says there is a formula to stripping, although it might not contain numbers. It involves having bad-ass moves on the stage and pole, but also is about getting to know your customers.
“You can be a hottie and the baddest bitch in the club, and you will definitely make your stage money,” Valentina said. “But you make a lot of money by actually sitting down and talking to people, and hearing what they have to say. They’re there because they don’t get attention at home, so they come to pay for it here.”
Talking with customers and finding out their interests can be a lot more comfortable than disrobing, all while being more profitable.
The crowd during the day at Scarlett’s includes a majority of older men, many of whom are married.
Valentina prefers the night shift.
At Scarlett’s on a recent Monday night, there were about 20 people in the audience. While this number may not be eye-popping, it is usual for a Monday.
As soon as you walk through the door at Scarlett’s, all your senses are activated. The bass coming from the speakers is near-deafening, and the sights of half-naked girls dancing on the stage is, well, intriguing.
The tastes you get from the club rely on the what you order from the bar; but the overpowering clash of smells, featuring cigarettes and perfume, can make you taste those scents.
As for the fifth sense: well, there was plenty of touching going on.
But on any given night, the crowd is usually young and more fast-paced.
“You just bounce around,” Valentina said. “You sit with someone for like 10 minutes, get a dance or two, and it’s on to the next.”
Valentina’s day usually begins at 11 a.m. She gets out of bed and gets ready for the day, which typically requires a few hits from a bong, which helps her relax.
After eating and relaxing, it comes time to make some decisions. Picking out what to wear and how to do makeup are pretty big decisions when that will determine how much money she’ll be bringing home.
She’ll go to work around 7 p.m. and will usually be there until after 2 a.m. Once she gets home and has some dinner, she’ll usually fall asleep around 4 a.m., before waking up to do it all again.
The busiest days for strip clubs are obviously the weekends. When the demand is increased, the supply is increased, as more girls will be working.
The difference for income isn’t all that different throughout the week.
“Sometimes on a Monday, I’ll make $600, and on a Friday I’ll make $400,” Valentina said. “There’s definitely more people on Friday and Saturday, but that doesn’t always mean more money, because they don’t always spend.”
‘I stood up on the stage and kicked him with my shoe.’
It’s no secret that things happen at a strip club that don’t happen at any other establishment in America. Some of the craziest shit I’ve ever seen has either been in a strip club or the adjacent parking lot.
At a strip club in Port Charlotte, Florida, I saw an argument that led to a gun being pulled out in the parking lot. At the same club, I saw someone that was too drunk just get thrown out onto the pavement, where he stayed for a while.
That being said, things can get a little wild at Scarlett’s.
“There would be this guy who would come in, and he’d want you to put your fist in his mouth,” Valentina said. “He’d also like girls to wear the eight-inch heels rather than six-inches, then put the heel down his throat. He wanted you to be mean to him, like smack him and spit on him.”
Being mean isn’t one of Valentina’s specialties. Kristy, who goes by Marilyn at Looker’s Strip Club in Fort Myers, met Valentina three years ago when Valentina first began dancing. Kristy picked up dancing right around the same time.
“When I first met her, I thought she was such a sweet girl,” Kristy said. “She seemed so chill.”
So when that same customer was getting a dance from Valentina, she had a difficult time doing the things he wanted.
“One time this guy was so fucking aggressive to me in the back, I was seriously such a bitch to him,” Valentina said. “When I was dancing on him, I was clawing him, and he enjoyed it. I was getting even more mad because he was enjoying it.”
On occasion, as Valentina has seen, there was a person with a briefcase and a new car, and asked a girl to marry him.
According to Valentina, the dancer said yes.
Sometimes, the customers become too much for her. It’s not easy when you’re right around 5 feet tall and a much bigger man might be able to physically overpower you.
“Yesterday, I was on stage, and this guy tried to touch me,” Valentina said. “I could’ve just smacked him, but I was being extra. I stood up on the stage and kicked him with my shoe.”
Having friends while being a member of this industry is vital. It can make a huge difference with mental health in a profession that relies on being stone-faced.
“She is just as great as I thought her out to be and has an even better personality,” said Dominika Kennedy, a friend of Valentina’s and a regular at Scarlett’s. “We’ve grown closer because of (her dancing) and I know her better. I can get a dance for me and my friends without being weird, because it’s just a thing.”
Perhaps one of the most important parts of being a dancer is surrounding yourself with good people. You have people who understand what you do, and that is a valuable thing in the industry.
People could learn a thing or two from strippers.
