Weaving her way through the crowd of men, Sophie Oh is scanning for anyone sitting alone. She knows that her paleness stands out under the black light and she opts to wear red lingerie to contrast against her pearly skin. She slows her movements and approaches a young man in the dark corner hiding under a hat. She greets him with a warm smile and a flip of her hair. She bends over him slightly, allowing his eyes to gaze over her buxom figure. She takes a seat next to him and crosses her legs. Protracting a smile, she laughs at his jokes while touching the delicate skin on her neck, while running long fingers over her legs and licking her pouty lips. Oh has only been a dancer for four weeks, but she’s perfected her seduction, averaging $500 each night of work.

Oh’s decision to be a stripper is the best job she’s ever had. She also isn’t alone. She is part of the growing number of young women banking on their sexuality by stripping to help pay their way through school.

“I’m really committed to school. I don’t fuck around when it comes to school. I also don’t fuck around when it comes to any job I have,” she says.

Her Korean heritage has bestowed her with porcelain skin and almond shaped eyes that she accentuates with thick black liner. Her petite frame often labels her cute, but she doesn’t mind it because she knows that’s the reason why some men pay for her time and attention. She likes to wear black underwear with pink lace when she’s working – it’s almost a perfect representation of her personality: sexy but perky.

With a full load of classes at SF State and two jobs, it’s important for Oh to have a schedule. Her life is strictly organized in the pages of her decrepit planner, filled with pink and yellow highlighted events and scratched out notes.

“My big goal is to buy a house, graduate and start my career in the next six years or so…this job is not a career choice for me,” says Oh.

When Lisa Pidgeon was a little girl, she didn’t think she would ever be a stripper and love it. Her Catholic upbringing only fueled her rebellion, getting herself kicked out of several Catholic schools and moving into her first apartment when she was only 17 years old.

Her decision to audition to be a dancer at the Pink Poodle in San Jose came when she needed to pay her bills and no one was willing to hire her. She’s been a dancer for two and a half years now and can’t imagine earning her income another way. Her managers at the club have placed her as one of the top three “hustlers” of the 26 strippers.

“I’m just a normal person. This is just what I choose to do to get money and that’s how I hustle. When you’re hustling, you have more control of your money,” says Pidgeon.

Pidgeon works four nights a week and balances going to school at West Valley College. Despite the almost 30 hour work week, she’s prioritizing school, maintaining a B average.

“I have to study – it needs to get done or else I’m going to be a stripper for the rest of my life,” she says.

Day manager at Centerfolds, Rick Levine, is protective of his girls and understands that this is just a job to help them pay the bills. Of the 100 girls working at Centerfolds, Levine assesses that 87.9 percent of them are all going to school.

“It’s a little frustrating when I don’t have the girl count because the girls are at school in the daytime and I‘m not making the money I should be making,” says Levine, who understands that school is the girls’ main concern.

“As long as they show up and do their job, that’s what’s important. They take care of us and we take care of them,” he says.

Princess, a committee member of the Lusty Lady, the first and only unionized sex business in the United States, believes that college girls become involved with stripping for the money and the flexible schedule.

“At least half of the girls at the Lusty Lady are students. When you go to the dressing rooms you’ll see that the tables are covered with books because some of the girls are studying during their breaks,” says Princess.

Pidgeon’s spunky and edgy personality has made it easy for her to ignore anyone who doesn’t approve of what she does for a living. She just doesn’t have time in her busy schedule to occupy herself with what other people think.

“I always say, walk a mile in my shoes and maybe you’ll understand what it is I do.”

Contact Velarde at evelarde@sfsu.edu