An Imgur user going by the handle LittleQueenTrashMouth (probably not their real name) posted a two-part FAQ (part 1, part 2) about the actual business and experience of stripping, and it actually shed light on a job that people tend to either mythologize or severely denigrate. It offers one person’s perspective, but from a viewpoint rarely seen in most media. It focuses exclusively on female strippers serving male clientele, which I suppose constitutes most people’s image of how stripping works. Here are a few highlights (it gets pretty PG-13 from here on, plus a trigger warning for mention of rape and sexual harassment):

How often do the strip poles get cleaned?

There is no set guideline for pole cleaning. Strip clubs are not OSHA regulated! The health inspector doesn’t do random checks on the pole. Typically, clubs will provide a disinfectant and a rag on/near every stage and it’s up to the girl to clean the pole for her own use. At some (not most) clubs, a floorman/bouncer will clean the pole for the dancers between sets, which I prefer, because the dancer doesn’t have to publicly perform a gross task immediately before trying to put on a sexy routine. Some clubs require you to clean the pole AFTER you use it for your set, as well, but that’s not the norm. I promise you, the rag is dirty and the pole is still gross, even after a spritz of disinfectant. You should never, ever, ever work somewhere that allows nude pole dancing because that thing will be a petri dish. G-strings on the pole should be required.

The bigger issue is – strip clubs are filthy. Forget the pole, look where you’re sitting and putting your hands. I’ve worked at clubs where girls had to wear sarong wraps because some girl with a staph infection on her ass sat bare-butt everywhere and spread her ass zit plague. I’ve never worked ANYWHERE that regularly wipes down everything (the seats, the stage surface) outside of what the health code requires.

Even worse, there are tons of sick people in clubs. Girls who come in sick usually don’t get sent home. The typical customer is middle aged and likely a father of school-age children (the ultimate germ vectors!). Everyone is touching and breathing close. Work there long enough, and you’ll have an amazing set of immunities… that is, after you’ve gotten sick about once a month for a year.

How many strippers are actually paying their way through college?

I think that depends more on your location than anything. Near a college town or in a big city, a sizable percentage will be students.

I would say the majority of dancers are sustenance strippers (just stripping to get by), career strippers (like this IS their job, there is no college) who save and invest lots, OR single mothers. I think the stripper-student stereotype prevails so much because people like college girls/co-eds for boner material. There’s something less-pathetic and more noble to them about a girl stripping to better herself with an education than a girl who just likes being a stripper.

I did put myself through college stripping – and it took me a long time afterwards to actually get an entry level job in my actual career because I was making such great money. It’s hard to go from making hundreds (or a couple thousand) a night to party and be glamorous and then become the lowest bitch on the corporate ladder.

What do you think about when you’re doing it? Are you feeling sexy or really just thinking about your shopping or

I was usually spaced out and on auto-pilot, either scoping the room for my next mark or counting down the seconds until it was over! I was never thinking anything sexy, ever. I wasn’t having a BAD time, but after you do it often enough, it loses its magic.

This one was interesting: Are there a lot of queer women working as strippers?

Something very scary and disturbing about the US adult industry is the glorification of lesbian acts for the amusement of men, and the demonization of actual lesbians for “not liking men.” Most lesbian strippers learn to quickly hide this fact or spin it in a way that appeases men. Have you heard of the rape of lesbians in Africa in order to “turn them straight”? There’s a less-violent version of that sentiment going on here. Honest, men have very nasty reactions to finding out the woman they are paying to arouse them would 100% never be aroused by him.