Strip Club Mean Girls

Have you ever watched the teen movie, Mean Girls?

For those of you who haven’t, basically, it’s about a clique of popular high school girls called The Plastics; the 80’s had Heathers, the 90’s Clueless, and the 00’s, Mean Girls.

Since it’s a piece of fiction, of course, there is a happy ending to the movie; in real life, however, you’re not always guaranteed that happy ending.

The strip club I worked at was similar to the movie Mean Girls; there was a clique, and the Queen Bee and her court reigned supreme.

Everyone working inside of a strip club is a Plastic if you stop and think about it for a moment; from the obvious Plastic reference of fake boobs to acting the part to get money from guys all the way to the drama and backstabbing. It was very hard to find a real and honest person inside that environment.

When I worked with Queen Bee, I was in her court for quite a while and served time as one of  the privileged strip club Plastics.

The character from Mean Girls whom I identified with while working at the club was Janis.

Janis was the rebel artist with a beef against the leader of The Plastics, Regina; Queen Bee was our Regina. I identified with Janis only because she was a brazen and bold rebel, set apart from all the rest; I had no beef with Queen Bee, as I was a favored member of her court.

It was a running joke between the girls on the day shift that we were all “mean girls”; when the movie was on TV, whoever saw it was on would text the other girls so we could all watch it. I admit I fell right in with the clique and became a terrible mean girl for quite a while at the club; the false sense of security fit me well. That feeling didn’t last long as I started to see and feel the error of my ways. In retrospect, my character was actually the new girl at the high school, Cady.

Janis convinces Cady to infiltrate The Plastics in hopes of sabotaging their clique. Unfortunately, Cady forgets the main reason she originally entered The Plastics and ends up falling right into all of their wicked and arrogant habits.

Cady becomes even worse than Regina thereby rejecting her true nature and friends; I was no different, as I started to become a person I no longer recognized as a result of hanging out with Queen Bee.

I quickly found myself drinking, partying, and spending money like crazy, obsessed with the material world, just as Queen Bee was. I started a downward spiral consisted of almost all the seven deadly sins: vanity, pride, greed, lust, and gluttony – as if working at a strip club wasn’t bad enough.

The Queen Bee’s favorite type of honey was the white powdery kind and I soon found a taste for it myself. I didn’t become addicted to it, but I enjoyed the times that Queen Bee and I shared while partaking; I felt like part of the “in crowd”.

I can see how Cady fell into The Plastics’ behaviors – the feelings were very alluring and powerful and start to consume you. The good times never last though.

Tensions escalate between Cady and Regina, causing a huge blow-up. Cady soon realizes her crimes and attempts to repair the damage done, making amends to those she wronged, including Regina. At the end of Mean Girls, Cady and Regina wind up being friends, so it was “happily ever after”, as Hollywood would have it.

My story doesn’t have a friendship restoring happy ending, although it did end up very happy on my end with my departure from the club and a major life change.

I’d love to see the scattered few remnants of that clique find their own path to redemption and ultimately, freedom from the Queen Bee. There is life outside the hive, I’m living proof.

Every time I see Mean Girls on TV I still watch it, and I smile. It is so refreshing to know that I’ve grown up from identifying with characters in a teen movie and working in a strip club to staring in my own real-life story without the added drama and corruption of the plastic environment and people.

Redemption is sweeter than revenge.