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Girl, Undressed: On Stripping In New York City (2009)

by Ruth Fowler(Favorite Author)
2.69 of 5 Votes: 2
ISBN
0143115650 (ISBN13: 9780143115656)
languge
English
publisher
Penguin Books
review 1: This wasn't a bad book, and I'd like to give it another 1/2 star. But I can't really place my finger on the exact reason I didn't particularly care for it. Fowler seems schizophrenic at times rather than living two lives, which she says is what occurred even though both lives seem rather blended. She jumps back and forth between tales of the stripping life and past experiences that don't really connect in any way most of the time. I think I would have liked it better had it been more organized in that respect. I wasn't there, so I can't say how much is actually true and how much is poetic license. However, the way she writes leaves one wondering is it's more of the latter than the former. She also discusses writing articles on immigration, etc., but never really giv... morees us any of it. Given the context, she might have come of as more truthful if she had.
review 2: I was a man who worked at a strip club and the ‘insight’ that is offered by Ruth ‘Mimi’ Fowler is nothing surprising to anyone on the inside or to anyone who has spent any length of time around sex workers.Her view is the prototypical narcissistic one that is expected of individuals in the sex industry. It is a cliché look at an industry that is ripe to be viewed through a much less narrow lens. While she does briefly touch upon the others that are not the banal, vapid, self-loathing, materialistic, hedonistic individuals that she portrays herself to be it is in too narrow a focus. It is truly unfortunate that her view was one of hedonistic excess that could have been easily avoided. She tries to draw sympathy to her plight (and that of her duality [trying to pull upon the Jungian duality of ‘man’ and falling far short:]) and it is pathetic in its attempt. The dichotomy of sex as power and submission has merit, but she falls flat in her ability to actually portray this in any sympathetic or realistic fashion.This book falls far short of the mark it tried to hit. It is neither truly informative to the non-initiated and it doesn’t titillate enough to be engaging. It is a sophomoric effort by an author who is barely adequate to pound the keys she types upon. less
Reviews (see all)
lulu
Amazingly well written. Slightly more vulgar than I would have liked, but that goes with the topic.
Mikee
What a hack. Entertaining just for the bad writing.
demple
Recommended by Courtney B.
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