Today we’ll be interviewing several strippers in the pole dance community about the current struggles they’re facing in and out of the clubs.

Why is this important to me?

As a fellow pole dancer, whether you’ve been stripping for years or have never set foot in a strip club in your life, it is all of our responsibilities to stand by sex workers, to learn and understand the challenges they face from societal agendas, and to extend our support in our own individual ways, whether that is actively fighting the issues at hand, or simply in the way we talk to each other.

Not only did stripping help create and shape what we know today as pole dancing (in fact, there would not be any pole dancing without it!) but these are real issues that affect all of us, from raids and arrests to Instagram #shadowbanning.

It’s time we help end the stigma that society has pushed, telling us that every stripper is broken, or needs to be saved, when much of the time, it’s quite the opposite.

Squeak is the owner of Awakenings Pole and Aerial Fitness studio and a stripper in New Orleans, USA.

Brian Wolf is the 2018 Dance Filthy USA Champion and a stripper in New Orleans, USA.

Nicky Ninedoors is a showgirl in Vancouver, Canada, who produces a live music strip event called Retro Strip Show, and runs the photojournalism project Stripper With A Camera.

East London Stripper Collective is a group in East London working to establish sex worker rights and collaborating with the trade union United Voices of the World.