Small towns and big cities.

No better place to start than the present: I'm a big-city girl, but I go to the small town to make some money.

Huh, you say?

It's pretty simple: I live in a city with a lot of strip clubs. People walk into the strip bar for lunch and a beer, they tip a couple bucks at my stage and they walk out; it's nothing truly special to them, it's routine.

In a small town, people have to go a long way to get to the strip club - and there's not another one next door.

On top of that, though, I think repressive sexual mores have something to do with it. It's weird to me to think sexual repression helps my business; I'm very political about trying to open others to new viewpoints - I believe everyone should be in touch with their needs, and open with others. So it does occur to me occasionally, the idea that I'm ultimately influencing these men (and a few women) to become less likely to spend money on strippers.

In my neck of the woods, people can see pussy every day. Why would they go out of their way to see mine? I'm not forbidden fruit.

And when I am, it makes a difference; my earnings go up. In a couple of days I'm going to drive out to the middle of nowhere, stay for a while and take my clothes off, laugh and chat and get not nearly anywhere as drunk as my couple of beers will make me act, and do what I do. I'm going to do so because I make more money there than here. There's something compelling about ministering to the sex-deprived, too; there's a look of reverence in their eyes. The dollars fly.

But it's not just my body they want to see, either; it's a smile and returned interest, willingness to listen. I genuinely love most of my customers, if only for a little while. And that's why I don't, ultimately, see a conflict. Even urban people don't always get the care and attention they need, and part of my job as a dancer is generating a whirlwind of love -- of the feeling of being included, the light at the center of the party, the knowledge that you're not alone.