Cari on Towards Freedom

The Truth About Stripping

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:37:03 -0800

As the strip club business is becoming more widely accepted around the world, this industry is also proving to have harmful effects on our population. The laws set for strip clubs are too lenient. My concern regarding these establishments can be mocked by those claiming that bars offering stripteases are entertaining and that it is our choice to attend or work at them or not. However, for the sake of our future - entertainment for the human race should be beneficial, not superficial.

A man or woman who chooses to apply for a position at a club where they will be expected to dance in the nude has done exactly that - made the choice. Our decisions in life are influenced by one thing or another and in the case of which career we choose, money is usually a major influence. People have been lured into this career perhaps because of their social status in some countries, or because of their will to survive in this greed infested world. Whatever their reason is for making that decision, they do not deserve to be objectified simply for the entertainment of others.

Since the majority of strip clubs worldwide cater to straight men, most strippers are women. Women are not forced to dance in the nude for money; however, they’re often forced to raise their children alone, which can leave them desperately searching for a supportive career. While women are still fighting to gain the equality of men’s righton in the workforce around the world, it’s clear to see why so many would choose stripping as an attempt to rise above poverty. In the U.S. for example, businesses are not required to pay women while on leave due to pregnancy. If there were more laws that protected working women, many women would not choose stripping as a means of survival. By allowing strip clubs to flourish, we are allowing women’s righton to become less important.

To lure individuals to strip for a living, club owners advertise the job as being easy and high paying; requiring no education and with the only stipulation that your appearance should be pleasing to others. This sounds enticing for a man or woman who has little educational background and is in need of “easy money”. The promises made by strip club owners are far from the truth. In the U.S., the majority of strip bar owners hire strippers to work as independent contractors without any benefits or federal employment protection. Strippers work only for tips and they must pay the club owners a large percentage of those tips. If the club does not bring in a large amount of high paying customers, there is no guarantee that the dancers will bring home any money. While there are some talented dancers that do bring home a generous amount of money, there are more that don’t. People are attracted to this line of work by the deceitful club owners who are not required to financially protect their workers.

Adding to the demands from club owners, strippers are subjected to abuse in both upscale and lower-class nude clubs. The protection that bouncers are said to provide is minimal due to the fact that bouncers are essentially paid by the customers; so the best interest of the stripper is not always in mind. Strippers are propositioned for prostitution often and harassed when they don’t do what is demanded of them. The lack of having government-paid law enforcement inside these clubs makes it easier for abusers to go unpunished. When someone commits a crime without getting caught or having consequences, they are more likely to perpetrate again. Individuals who endure physical, verbal, or sexual abuse most commonly feel worthless and used. Once a stripper has been lured into this depreciating means of making a living, many of them turn to alcohol and drugs to escape reality. The faÃ§ade of the wealthy life of stripping is causing many of the world’s youth to enter what in reality is a vicious trap.

There is no question as to the importance of entertainment for the human race. As far as history shows, we have never existed without some form of it. It is sadistic when we allow one’s idea of entertainment to humiliate and degrade the life of another. Strippers are not just exotically dancing on poles a good distance from others – as some might say. To keep the acts fresh, club owners have invented many different ways to entice their customers. Lap dances are customary to most nude bars and depending on the bar, the dances are either monitored by a bouncer, or they aren’t. Behind the walls of the V.I.P. rooms or even out in open areas, strippers are pressured to do so much more than dance. Some states in the U.S. regulate how many feet away a stripper must be to perform a lap dance, while some don’t. This leaves a large window of opportunity for club owners to encourage illegal behavior in order to satisfy the paying customer. Due to the safety issues within the walls of these erotic environments, there is no justification for there existence.

While some may argue that it is our human right to be sexually enticed or to be the sexual enticer as a form of enjoyment, there is no place for these acts in the career world. The laws are too negligent, and the effects are too drastic on individuals turning to this career. People that defend the importance of strip clubs are only defending their right to sit back and watch as another human being is degraded.

Anger Is One Letter Short of Danger

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:36:55 -0800

The weight of anger is far heavier than the weight of joy. In it’s most vicious form, anger can lead to murder; joy easily distributes love, even in it’s simplest form. While both are natural emotions to our genetic make-up, we can choose to possess more of the one which we desire to encompass most often, but often times it seems we are displaying the less desired one. There are many ways to prevent and manage anger, which if obtained, consequently leads to more joy. A most basic technique in preventing anger is by providing your body with the proper chemicals. Dealing with anger once it arises is a matter of acknowledgement and understanding.

You are what you eat. We’ve heard it a million times, us Americans at least; yet most of us think it nothing more than a funny little saying with little to no meaning. Moods, feelings, emotions, and thoughts come from the brain which heavily relies on us to provide it with nutritious and well-balanced meals that the body can convert to energy. Without the proper ingredients, our bodies cannot formulate the proper fuel. It’s as simple, yet seemingly to our culture, as complicated as that. When people choose to fuel their bodies with ‘junk,’ unnatural chemicals, and an overwhelming amount of certain chemicals which in actuality our bodies need very little of, the results are nothing short of devastating. Our moods and thoughts dictate our behavior, so if we art to eat essentially poisonous ‘foods,’ we have little choice but to act in poisonous ways. Fueling our bodies with chemicals that clog our system lead to unwanted feelings as our brain simply is not capable of producing the ‘happy’ chemicals that bestow positive moods. The most appalling part in all of this is that we have been led to believe that anger, stress, anxiety, and depression are a normal part of daily life. We’ve been lead to believe that we are stressed out due to other circumstances; lead to believe that by taking more chemicals (pharmaceuticals), that they will ease our tension and ‘cure’ our ailments. Truth be told, you are what you eat. If you eat foods abundant in essential vitamins, your body will be abundant in essential vitamins. Likewise, if you eat foods high in fat, processed to have a long-lasting shelf life, and coming from antibiotic and growth hormone-pumped animals, then your body will be full of those disturbing substances and your mood and behavior will adapt accordingly. While eating the wrong foods does not directly cause anger, it certainly plays a major role in one’s ability to avoid feelings of aggression. Eating foods that have been proven to promote the health of our bodies, will also promote a healthy mind-set much more readily suited to cope with any outside stressors.

When we are in a state of anger or are desiring to act aggressively, it is usually because we are feeling pain that we have not yet dealt with. We become angry either because we don’t understand why someone or something would cause us such pain, or because we are impatient and don’t understand why something is not getting done fast enough. Whatever the initial cause of the anger is, lies the answer in subduing and ridding ourselves of feeling as though we must resort to other negative emotions such as jealousy, spite, hate, and vengeance. It is easier and in society, more accepted, to display aggression than to display pain. Oddly enough, to the trained eye, anyone who knows this bit of information can easily see pain through aggressive behavior and can also see that the pain is quite deeply rooted and is not being dealt with. It is akin to pushing a dog into a corner until finally, at one impulsive moment, the dog fights back. We must learn to acknowledge, accept, and handle our pain if we are to manage our anger in positive ways.

Some handle their anger by taking short walks, screaming into pillows, breathing exercises, and a vast number of other remedies which usually allow our adrenaline to become more diluted and channel out of our bodies. Personally, I eat healthily, exercise regularly, and manage my pain in order to prevent mood swings and promote happiness in my fundamental temperament. When stressful situations do arise, I am then less likely to resort to anger and instead am usually the mediator in having the ability to see the underlying issues of the circumstance. Of course anger is a natural emotion which all emotional beings experience at times throughout life. When these times arise for me, the best I can offer is an apology and honest explanation which ensures that both myself and other witnessing individuals are given the opportunity to understand, forgive, and move on from the moment rather than allowing it to linger and cause more pain. I was not always so understanding of anger management as you can tell by this poem I wrote in January of 2000:

My Hatred Grows

Everyday my hatred grows,
My veins are tunnels for burning blood,
And every second the fire flows,
My soul’s been drowned into this flood.
The world around me spinning fast,
Beautiful people who love their lives,
An evil spell upon me has been cast,
Happiness and love are sullied lies.
Every minute this hatred builds,
And every hour it grows stronger,
My heart racing, it wants to die,
If I could just hold off a little longer

As you can tell by the poem, the key line is ‘happiness and love are sullied lies,’ which references to why I’m angry in the first place. I can attest today that I’ve evolved and come to know where pain arises and now have the understanding to deal with it without feeling the way I must have felt in writing this poem. It is my understanding through experience that I’ve come to realize that anger is merely a side-effect of pain and I believe that if everyone knew and recognized this within themselves, our world would be a far less aggressive place.

Astrology There's More Than Meets the Eye

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:36:55 -0800

Astrology has more substance than what you can find in the entertainment section of your daily newspaper. It’s history is like a road, stretching back to Babylonian times, that has since branched into as many different directions as there are human traits. In respect to it’s history, we owe it to ourselves to give astrology a closer look in order to understand why it has been around for so long and what we could possibly gain from it, other than a laugh. Taking astrology seriously, instead of ridiculing it, could provide a more thorough understanding of the field and may even prove to be beneficial.

Dating back to around 1000 B.C., when things such as telescopes and the Gregorian calendar had not yet been invented, the mathematically inclined Maya civilization flourished. They were among the first to create an incredibly accurate calendar; calculating that the length of the tropical year was 365.2422 days. There’s just 0.0002 days difference between their measurement and the current one! They also calculated, that the average full revolution of Venus is 584 days, whereas its actual cycle is 583.92 days (Gallenkamp, C., 1985). Needless to say, the Mayas did a lot of studying of the visible planets and kept a close eye on their behavioral and environmental changes. The Mayas could accurately predict lunar eclipses and believed that the planets not only affected our behavior, but also gave insight to the future. It was here, before mankind became overwhelmed with new discoveries, where humans established that there is a connection between ourselves and the planets. These beliefs are what set the foundation for astrology, and have been analyzed and expanded upon ever since.

Perhaps the most intriguing concept in astrology, and also a reason why it has neither been proven or disproved, is that it deals with the human psyche. We know much about the way our minds operate, but certainly not everything! Astrology has been around for so long probably because it makes an attempt to give reason to our mysterious behaviors. Like the many personality tests created to give awareness to one’s own doings and reasoning, astrology attempts to point out difficulties and clear up confusions in life. Reading into only the information deriving from your Sun sign, is like answering one question from a personality test, and expecting it to interpret into something personal. It just isn’t that simple. In order to get a detailed and more personal reading of the planets’ affects on you, talking with a professional in the field would provide far more insight than reading “your” horoscope from your favorite magazine. Each of the planets pertain to different aspects in our lives; for example, your Venus sign is said to deal with the way you both give and receive love, as well as how you handle your finances. The many relationships we become a part of in life can be better understood by looking into the influences the planets are said to have on us. While interpretations of the planets’ effects vary to some degree, the bottom line that many astrologers have attempted to prove, is that we are influenced by the planets in some way.

For quite some time we have known that the regular cycles of the Moon are what regulate the oceans’ tides, but some have had doubts in relating this planets’ cycles to human temperament. At the University of Miami, Dr. Arnold Lieber tested the “full Moon” theory that during this phase of the Moon there is a higher rate of violent behavior in humans, resulting in homicide. When data was collected from 1,887 murder cases from Dade County (Miami), it showed that the phase of the Moon and the number of homicides reported rose and fell together for an entire 15 year span (Townley, J. 1997). Dr. Lieber and his team of researchers decided to test it again to make sure the results weren’t coincidence. Again, when the theory was tested using data from Cuyahoga County in Cleveland, OH, the results showed that the amount of murders increased as the full Moon approached, and the number decreased when it was in the first and last quarter of its cycle. While this doesn’t prove that it was the Moon that lead these individuals to kill, it does show that there may be a relationship between us and the Moon. Not only have we studied erratic behavior in humans in relation to our Moon, but also in relation to the other planets, such as Mars.

A French psychologist and statistician, Michel Gauquelin, conducted an extensive study, now known as the “Mars Effect,” in order to see if he could find similarities in famous French figures’ birth charts, relating to their professions (Gauquelin, M., 1983). In his initial study, he gathered over 6,000 birth dates to compare. He found that the planet Mars was commonly passing through a certain sector of space at the time of birth for many sports champions; significantly more often than chance would allow. The numbers were in agreement with what astrologers have claimed for years – that when certain planets are rising over the horizon at the time of an individuals’ birth, they can influence which career the person can excel at. Since 1955, when Gauquelin first published his findings, multiple studies have been conducted to disprove his data; and the ones that did, proved later to have inaccurate records of birth times. Unfortunately, no matter how many studies have presented us with evidence supporting the significance of astrology, it may be a difficult belief to respect without having an open-mind.

Changing the way you perceive astrology may be the first step in gaining an appreciation for it. To view it only in its commercialized format, is merely skimming the surface of this complex belief. I ask you to do an investigation of your own; then decide if it stands on solid ground or not.

References

Gallenkamp, C. (1985). Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization (3rd ed.). New York: Viking Penguin Inc.

Gauquelin, M. (1983). Birth-Times: A Scientific Investigation of the Secrets of Astrology. New York: Hill and Wang.

Townley, J. (1997). Dynamic Astrology: Using Planetary Cycles to Make Personal and Career Choices. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.