Strippers and trashy bars

Today I went to a local bar in Winnipeg to ask them where they hire their girls who do stripteases at the bar from. I also wanted to find out if they know that most of the girls (most likely) don’t enjoy taking their cloths off for strange men in order to get money. I went into the bar with my i-phone and tried to record as much as I could.

I asked a few people who worked at the bar if they knew anything about the girls and found out that they didn’t know much. They only knew the agency who supplied the girls for them. I also got to talk to one of the ladies who strips at the bar. It was very sad to talk to her as the more we talked the more I realized that she doesn’t love what she does either. Before we finished talking she slammed down a shot of tequila (at 12:00 noon) and proceded to the bathroom to get ready for the show.

The RCMP estimates that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually, predominantly for sexual purposes, and that an additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States (taken from World Vision). Recruitment of exotic dancers into Canada is legal, and may be linked to the issues of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Women who enter Canada to work as exotic dancers are vulnerable to sexual and economic exploitation, deprivation of freedom, and can be coerced into criminal activities, whether they have entered legally or illegally. (“Canada’s Paper for EU Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation” 10-11 June 1996)

The following is the recording I did today. Listen as I stumble through my first time doing this and  try to figure out where these girls are coming from and what can be done to stop women who are doing this against their will or because they don’t know another way. I hope to follow up with the agency who hires out the girls, maybe next week.

Dancer interview