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Jacqueline Frances on being a lesbian stripper, stand-up comic and her new book, “The Beaver Show”

This post contains images that are NSFW

Meet Jacqueline Frances, also known as Jacq the Stripper, is an Ontario-born author, world-traveling entertainer, and comedian turning the tables on the stigma of stripping and the double standards imposed on sex workers. Her new book The Beaver Show is a crass yet inspiring saga of learning invaluable life lessons ranging from subjects such as twerking and compassion. It’s funny, feminist, and with your help, coming to a town near you!

I got to talk to Jacq about her upcoming tour, sex positivity, her frustrations with the laws regarding sex work, and TMI questions you’ve always wondered but were to afraid to ask.

AfterEllen.com: Where did your stripper name come from?

Jacqueline Frances: Jacq the Stripper isn’t my stripper stage name. I use generic, non-threatening girl-next-door names at work like Holly, Anna or Heather when I’m hustling. Everyone calls me Jacq, and well, stripping is my job. So Jacq the Stripper just sort of made sense. Plus I have a thing for puns.

AE: Where have you stripped?

JF: Sydney, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Alberta, Las Vegas, New Mexico, South Carolina and New York.

AE: What do you want our readers to know about sex positivity?

JF: Sexuality is very personal. It means different things to different people. Ultimately, if someone’s pursuit of getting off does not infringe on someone else’s pursuit of happiness. Chill. Sometimes being sex-positive means shutting up. You don’t have to have an opinion on everyone else’s kinks.

AE: How do you feel about the laws regarding sex workers?

JF: I think the laws in the US and Canada are awful and they create more problems than they aim to solve. Sex work needs to be legalized so it can be regulated. All of these religious zealots barking about how sex work and human trafficking are one in the same are ignorant. Trafficking is slavery. Sex work is work. Slavery is not work and work is not slavery.

Photo Credit: Jessie Adler

AE: What are the misconceptions about strippers?

JF: That we’re sad. Patriarchy drives this narrative that a woman using her body in a way that benefits from the box that the patriarchal system put us in must make us sad. That a woman doing what she wants with her body is a goddamn travesty. Strippers aren’t sad that men are horny pigs most of the time. We revel in it because it means we can put food on the table. We aren’t sad that we’re enterprise mega-babes. We are, however, furious that we get shat on for being suppliers while the demanders are pardoned with statements like “Boys will be boys.”

AE: Is there a difference between sex workers and strippers?

JF: Stripping is sex work, it’s just not full-service sex work. Every sex worker has different boundaries. Because stripping is legal, the boundaries are clearly defined for us by state laws. Like, “no sex,” “no touching,” “no nipples showing,” etc. But sex workers who offer more services in underground environments have different ones. I can’t speak to their boundaries, specifically. I’ve always worked in a strip club where they set the rules for us. Sex work is consenting adults having fun for a nominal fee.

AE: How has being a stripper built up your self-respect/self-esteem?

JF: Stripping is where I really started to understand pussy power. It’s so fucking real. As a teenager, I was part of that demographic that felt embarrassment and shame because the vagina was rarely depicted as something ‘powerful’ in pop culture. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I heard the word “pussy” preceded with “loose,” “smelly,” “hairy,” “flappy” and all with these really pejorative tones. Never did I hear “beautiful,” “powerful,” “life-giving,” “delicious”… Pussy shame is practically a default setting for teenage girls. I started stripping at 23. On my first day this guy literally just wanted to stare at my vagina. At first I was really uncomfortable, but then I felt immensely empowered! Like, FUCK YEAH MY VAGINA IS DOPE. Weird that an old dude with money was what validated it, but let’s be real: money is validating. So is the look of someone who turns into a drooling invalid when you flash them your gash.

AE: Do you have a stripper role model?

JF: Anna Nicole Smith. Elizabeth Berkley from Showgirls. Lily Burana is a great writer who also strips. All the girls I work with. Every stripper is a super heroine in her own way.

PHOTO CREDIT: JESSIE ADLER

AE: Are you always working out?

JF: Stripping is a definitely a work out. But we fail to credit the most important ass-firming tools of all: heels and lighting. Strippers look like normals when we’re offstage and under fluorescent lighting. But slip into a pair of plastic platforms and bathe us in red lights and suddenly we got abs, shelf-butts and legs like Tina Turner. We’d be nothing without our smoke and mirrors.

AE: How do you deal with jealousy from other girls?

JF: This is a weird question for me because I never think of anyone as jealous of me.

AE: How do you deal with the H8rs?

JF: I mean, Andy Warhol was a total dick but he said some brilliant stuff about the future of internet trolls: “Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.”

AE: Have you ever had conflict from women who claim to be “feminists” but then slut shame you?

JF: Yes. It’s boring. It’s dated. I don’t really engage with them. Unless it’s someone at work, and they’re like “you can’t be a feminist.” I’m like, “I am standing here, being my unabashed self, proud of my work and supportive of the women around me. This is feminism.” Like Kathleen Hanna said, “Feminism is something you do, not something you call yourself.”

AE: Do you have off nights or nights when you make shit money?

JF: Oh yeah. We all do. I had a miserable night just last week! The Mets were playing the world series so every man in New York was sitting around watching the most boring sport in the world, completely ignoring all these beautiful women who were practically begging them to let us give them a twenty dollar dry-hump during a commercial break. It was awful! None of us made any money. Stripping is inconsistent, even for the most seasoned hustlers. It keeps us humble and hungry. No one’s a stripper for the job security.

AE: What even happens when your on your period? TMI, but do you wear a diva cup? I’ve always wondered. Sorry if it seems weird or crass, but is it like, “Yeah, I’m on my fucking period. Deal with this tamp string, asshole.”

JF: There was a time when I wore a Diva Cup. I still have it, but I found it poked me in weird places. Is that TMI? Anyway, I totally work through the bleeding. I just cut off the string or tuck it up inside, and carry on. If anything, we just change our tampons more often to assure we don’t start leaking on some dude’s khakis. I just got a text the other day from one of my favorite colleagues, Jameson: “I’m in a cab thinking of last night when I got period blood all over this guy’s light colored jeans. lol.” The number one character trait required for this job is to have a sense of humor.

AE: What was it like for the first time stripping for female clients? Was there a difference vs. stripping for men?

JF: Men have boners. It’s way easier to dance for dudes because you just need to act like his boner is the most exciting thing you’ve ever witnessed in your entire life. Women are much harder to dance for because it’s about the all-around experience. It’s about the dance moves, the timing, the pressure, the chemistry. Women are so much harder to impress! If a guy gets a boner he’s going to give you everything. But if a woman gets wet she’s still going to be like, “I have bills to pay, I still need cab fare to get home and that is way too much money for a tease.” It’s so ironic that women are pegged as emotional and illogical when making serious decisions. I’ve never met a woman at work who’s like, “TAKE ALL MY MONEY, YOU GODDESS.” But men say this to me at least five times a night. Hillary 2016, amirite?

AE: How long have you been doing stand up?

JF: One year.

Photo Credit: Ryan Kobane/BFA

AE: What can people expect on your tour?

JF: Oh man I don’t even know what to expect. There’s going to be books and stand-up for sure. Comedy clubs, bookstores, galleries, gay bars, but also strip clubs and any sort of alternative venue that will have me. I’m pretty DIY, so if you have a venue that would be down for my vibe, holler this way. Let’s make magic and tell stories.

AE: Do you plan on stripping/ doing comedy in the cities where you are going on tour?

JF: I am a seriously unserious writer, but not at all a reader. I’m too much of a ham to read aloud, so instead I’m doing stand-up. Most of my material is drawn from my memoir.

I would love to also strip along the way, but it’s a lot of work that might really just detract from putting on a good comedy show. Stripping is a career that I love, but it’s hard to do it half-assed. If I’m on the road, doing comedy, book signings, readings and press appearances, shaking my tits til the wee hours of the morning might not be possible. It’s a bit of a bummer, but I can’t have it all.

AE: You have a Kickstarter! What is the coolest thing that donors can get?

JF: I do! For 10 bucks you can get the paperless Beaver Show experience on your kindle. If you’re feeling like a baller, you can pledge $200 for the “Beyond the Velvet Rope” package where you get a signed copy of The Beaver Show, an Off Duty Stripper T-shirt, and a one-of-a-kind custom illustration. If you want you and your cat depicted as brilliant pole dancers, I’m open to requests.

And finally, if you want The Beaver Show to come to your city, the top reward will get you just that. I will bring my one-woman circus to your town and we will have the most hilarious, slutty punk rock Beaver Show comedy spectacle that you will be revered in your community till the end of time.

AE: What is your dream book tour?

JF: I ride into town on a motorcycle. My wife is driving; I’m in a sidecar with a pink sparkly helmet. We pull up to a dank titty bar where Kid Rock greets us with his band, who are playing “So Hott.” A crowd lines a red carpet. They are screaming, chanting, looking slutty and beautiful and endlessly stoked.

Women are begging me to sign their tits with Sharpies all the while making it rain hundreds on me as I make my way down the carpet, and into the club.

Before I climb on stage, a hot 45-year-old bartender with a wry smile and brassy highlights pours us a lemon drop shot. We down them in seconds. It’s cold, sweet, tart and invigorating. I slam the shot glass down on the bar, and the bartender smacks my ass encouragingly as I climb the stage. I walk through a cloud of dry ice and glitter to the microphone. I tell jokes, and every time I get a laugh I do a pole trick. My shoes light up like LA Gears as I bust out a perfect fan-kick. My wife is side-stage, and even though she’s heard all my jokes five hundred times already, she’s laughing her ass off. I perform a tight 45-minute set.

My books sell out, women and men tell me they’re inspired to become strippers themselves. A total fox of a cougar comes up to me to tell me about how she bought six houses from being a stripper in the ’80s. She winks, slides me her card and says if I’m ever in Aspen I should give her a call.

A hot chick who looks just like Eva Green brings Danielle and I burritos, telling us that if we need a place to stay, she lives just around the corner with a swimming pool, personal masseuse and puppies. We oblige.

The next morning we wake up, hit the road, and do it all over again.

AE: Do you really have a Russian literary degree? WTF does that even mean?

JF: It means that I read a bunch of Russian novels in translation and now I’m smarter and more depressed than someone who hasn’t.

AE: I love your drawings, what inspired those? Do you sell those as prints?

JF: Thank you! They started with this project I found on Instagram called #The100DayProject. It’s about creating something every day. Something small, something manageable–something that doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s about starting a habit. So I started doodling about things said to me at work. Then it really blossomed into comics which is such a fun way to tell stories. I did a limited run of prints which you can get as rewards for pledging my Kickstarter!

AE: Where can our readers find your book?

JF: On Kickstarter! If you pledge $10 you can get an e-copy for Kindle, or, for the same price as a lap dance ($20!), you can get a signed paperback copy.

AE: How long have you been married?

JF: A year and a half.

AE: How did you meet your wife?

JF: We were set up by a friend here in Brooklyn. We met at a bar. I was afraid to talk to her but thought she was really cute. So I stole her phone number from my friend and asked her out. I’m so scared of hot girls; I have no tact. But somehow she said yes to my lame advances and four years later we are married!

AE: What do you say to da haters who are like “How can you be married to a woman, but strip for men?”

JF: I don’t think there is a single hater out there who says that. At least I haven’t encountered any. Most people are like “Fuck yeah! You’ve struck gold!” The straight women I know who strip have a really tough time finding men who are ok with what they do for a living. The jealousy and the insecurity of strippers’ boyfriends can be brutal. In my experience, men are possessive in a way that women aren’t. This women-as-property under patriarchy is still a very real problem. Some men are secure enough with themselves to be cool with their partners being strippers, but I know it’s not the majority. Women are more compassionate in this department. They have experience being treated as objects of desire, so if anything they’re like, “Fuck yeah! Get paid, girlfriend.”

Follow Jaq on Twitter and Instagram or visit her website.

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