Stormy Daniels Is a Patriot

Stormy bringing the thunder to a Fort Lauderdale strip club in March. Joe Raedle / Getty

This was probably the most important performance this city has seen in years.

Last night, at promptly 11 p.m., Stormy Daniels took to the stage of Seattle's Dream Girls at SoDo and gave a historic, patriotic, vagina-forward, wax-driven erotic dance for me, my boyfriend, and the troops (they got in for free) on Veterans Day. At one point, Stormy kicked so high I thought her heel was going to bend behind her head like Gumby and skewer the face of the man whom she had just walloped with her bare boob. A boob, I might add, that has allegedly walloped the President of the United States. It was electrifying. I felt like I was watching Tonya Harding do the triple axel at the 1991 Nationals.

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Daniels was sweeping through Seattle as a part of a nationwide tour of America's strip clubs. The tour—frequently called the "Make America Horny Again" tour, even though Daniels has said she's repeatedly asked promoters not to use that title (good on Dream Girls for going with "Support the Troops" tour)—features Stormy dancing to a set of three songs. She started the performance wearing what looked like a fancy witch cloak and ended up covered in wax and rolling around naked on a furry blanket to what sounded like a Phil Collins song. I imagine, for most front-row viewers, that Stormy's performance will be the only time they will ever get motorboated by a woman who presumably motorboated the Commander-in-Chief. But Daniels is far more than Trump, she is, first off, a newly anointed Saint (👇), and arguably the most famous person working in the world's oldest profession.

Earlier this year, there was some infuriating press around Saint Stormy's tour. Vice's Eve Peyser notably published a piece that focused on the lack of clapping at one of Stormy's shows:

"If you're ready for Stormy Daniels, make some noise," the announcer commanded. Gossip, the aptly named Long Island strip club hosting the event, was crawling with just as many journalists as regular patrons, and the audience did not, actually, make much noise. [...] Out of guilt, I gave a half-hearted clap for Daniels, born Stephanie Gregory Clifford, the porn star who Donald Trump's lawyer reportedly paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Trump. She has kept quiet about it, but in 2011 she talked to InTouch in rather too much detail about the tryst—according to that interview, Trump loves Shark Week and hates sharks, and she was worried that he would try to pay her for sex.

This early focus on her crowds' noise levels has plagued the tour, with other media outlets using the piece as evidence to attack Daniels. (Peyser's use of "out of guilt" is telling.) At her Seattle show, Stormy repeatedly made a clapping motion at the audience, which I can only attribute to the media's early framing of her tour because the audience was plenty loud. But, it must be noted, people make "noise" at strip clubs with their wallets. Why does it fucking matter if people are woo-girling while Stormy takes off her top? If a dollar equals a round of applause in a strip club, then last night Seattle gave the longest standing ovation I've ever seen in this town. There were so many dollars thrown onstage that men had to come with brooms to sweep mountains of $20 bills out from under her feet—while she high-kicked! With her pussy out!

Speaking of pussy...

Here's the promo flyer. Let's look closer. CB

I didn’t know you spelled pusssy with three S’s. CB

This country owes Stormy Daniels for her service, and she's still out here giving it for the troops on Veterans Day. And yet conservative media and naysayers—ahem, like Meghan McCain (👇)—are using their giant platforms to say this porn star being sued by the president is just "trying to get attention" and that this all "seems like a publicity stunt." But don't just listen to me defend Stormy. She can defend herself:

Some great points from Saint Stormy about her tour:

"Yes, I've gotten more bookings than usual but I'm doing the job that I've been doing for the last—almost—twenty years."

If Stormy goes on a "publicity tour" people accuse her of attention-grabbing for money, but if she does her literal fucking job (if not her fucking-job) then she's also attention-grabbing for money!? Fuck off Meghan McCain! Get that coin, Stormy!

"I'm making more money, but I'm spending so much more. Like, my daughter, we have to hire a tutor now, and I have like bodygaurds, and you don't even wanna know their food bill, because I have to feed them three times a day and they are big. And I have to take like special cars, and all these court costs."

Catching the motherfucking president in a lie isn't easy work, and, as Joy Behar says after this Stormy quote concludes, "You should never apologize for making a living."

"I worked very, very hard the last ten years or so to really be known as a female director in the adult business. I was in the process of moving on to some mainstream things. I've directed some music videos. I had a passion project of mine in the works for the last several years to direct a horror movie, and those people that were my investers have ghosted me. Like they've completely abandoned me." Support The Stranger More than ever, we depend on your support to help fund our coverage. Support local, independent media with a one-time or recurring donation. Thank you!

I'll wager that it'll be harder for Stormy to make money in the future because of her recent media attention. This sort of stigma doesn't go away.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were right when they anointed Stormy Daniels as Saint Tempestuous, Eye of the Hurricane of Truth and Stormer of the Barricades of Intolerance. Daniels is a woman putting a brave, intelligent face on an American industry that is constantly used and never thanked. She is a woman who is giving this nation free lessons on how to combat trolls with style and grace. She is a woman who pours hot wax across her vagina* and wipes it up with dollar bills. We could all learn something from Stormy Daniels's feminism. She is a patriot, and I, for one, will forever be grateful for her service.

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*I know, I know, it's the labia but AP says to use vagina.